Travel to the Maasai Mara

Tuesday we had a long drive ahead of us, so Stephen said we must depart earlier than usual.  He suggested 7:30. We hit the road and travelled only a short distance until he mentioned that he was going to stop for breakfast because his hotel had not served any.  This was of course conveniently by a gift shop and a coffee (and liquor) shop. I grabbed some coffee and Aimee walked around the giftshop for a bit. 

Coffee Break

While we were there, another large safari group arrived in 4 vehicles.  As they disembarked we recognized American accents for the first time in Kenya.  I called out to one of them, and we talked for a bit.  They were from California and were touring several countries throughout the African continent. 

Driving across SW Kenya

Driving across SW Kenya

Driving across SW Kenya

We got back in our van, and I was struck once again as we went through some rural villages that there was almost no litter anywhere along the side of the road. It was at least as clean as Nashville, if not even less trash.  I asked Stephen about how trash is managed.  In my travels to India, Cambodia, Nicaragua, Thailand, almost uniformly in populated areas of "developing" the roadside is covered in trash.  Culverts are full of it, and open fields will often have cesspools full of it.  Even when we went through Kibera, Africa’s largest slum in Nairobi, there was not much trash along the alleyways except for what appeared to be a designated area at the edge of the slum.

Umbrella Acacia Tree in SW Kenya

Driving across SW Kenya

Stephen explained that the government collects the trash throughout the country and residents and businesses have bins to hold it until collected.  He said there are stiff penalties and you can be subject to arrest for littering. He also referenced the single use bag ban which was enacted in 2017, and said before that law was passed a few years ago, trees and bushes everywhere had plastic bags stuck in them from the wind, but no longer.  He said even cigarette smoking in public is not allowed to prevent the butts from being discarded.  I said that is amazing, because Nashville intersections are covered in cigarette butts. 

Souvenir Shop Somewhere in SW Kenya

Driving across SW Kenya

Three or four hours into our drive, we could begin to see the clear indications that we were entering into an area populated by the Maasai.  Men everywhere, even if wearing modern clothing, could be seen also wearing the brightly colored blankets characteristic of the Maasai, usually mostly red in color with plaid patterns. 

As we got into the smaller villages just outside the Maasai Mara we began to notice there were many areas with small children walking near or gathered by the main road.  Without fail, every time we passed any they would all look at our van and wave to us.  This happened at least 3 times in the several miles between the village and the edge of the Mara.

At the final stretch approaching our camp, the Mara Leisure Camp, we came to a river that we needed to cross.  There is a bridge being built, but it is not finished yet, and vehicles have to drive through the river.  Stephen descended the steep bank of the river right up to the water, and called to someone on the other side of the river.  That individual came over to the opposite bank, and gave Stephen pointers on where to drive across.  Stephen proceded into the flowing waters, and we certainly felt the waters pushing the van a bit, however he was able to get us quickly and safely to the other side.

When we arrived at our lodging, where we’ll be fortunate to stay for awhile and not have to pack up and

View from Our Porch

leave for three days, we were led to our lodge, which is a permanent tent with a full bathroom attached.  The porch of our tent sits atop a cliff of about 25 feet with a small river flowing below it. Opposite us on the other side of the river was the edge of the Maasai Mara National Reserve. After a relaxing lunch, and a quick nap for Aimee (during which I caught up on blogging) we met up with Stephen for our evening game drive in the Mara. 

Finding Inspiration

Hard at Work on the Blog

Once we proceeded through the gate, Stephen had to jump out to finish some paperwork. 

Unfortunately, while he was doing this, a group of Maasai women encircled the van forcefully trying to

Warthogs

sell souvenirs.  They were extremely aggressive, sticking their arms into the windows of the car, with their various crafts they were trying to sell.  “No thank you” was simply met with the offer of a different items. While obviously their livelihood depends on selling these crafts, half a dozen arms through the windows of your car does not do anything but create an uncomfortable feeling, and no desire to buy anything. We continued to decline, and eventually had to close the windows.  Finally Stephen came back, and we proceeded into the Mara.

Ostrich

We immediately noticed the very different landscape in the Maasai Mara as compared to the Great Rift

A Very Lonely Tree in the Distance

Valley.  It was very flat, with only gently rolling hills and mostly grassy. You can see for miles in every direction.  Another thing we noticed is the trails are in much worse condition than near Lake Nakuru.  The ground seems to soften quite a bit more here when it rains, and many areas were completely full of deep ruts, in some cases more than 24 inches deep where vehicles have gotten stuck in the mud before. 

Topi

In terms of wildlife, we did not have to drive long until we were surrounded by gazelles, impala, topi, ostrich, and warthogs, and for the first time saw mongoose, and dik-dik (the smallest antelope, about the size of a medium sized dog.)

Topi

Skull

After driving a bit deeper into the Mara, at one point Stephen turned off the main dirt trail on to what

Hippos

barely looked like a trail, with tall grass growing up between the tire tracks.  He meandered between bushes and overgrown areas looking for anything that may be taking a nap between them. At one point he came to a gorge with a river at the bottom and said sometimes there are hippo down there.  We looked but didn’t see any.  He continued along the edge of the gorge a bit further to a bit of a peninsula on the cliff over the gorge.  There were a bunch of hippo in the river at this point.  The river was about 30 or 40 feet below us.  He then said, “If there are no lion around to eat us, we can get out and walk over to watch the hippo.  This was the first time we had exited the vehicle in any of our drives, so we were a bit apprehensive.  Once we put our feet on the ground and walked over to the cliff’s edge, the incredibly massive beasts swimming in the water distracted us from our fears. 

We spent a bit of time watching the hippos, then got back in the van and continued onward.  On the way

Hippos

out of this area, another safari party came towards us.  As he usually did when passing another vehicle, Stephen would slow down and talk to the driver.  (Given the nature of his job, I believe he knows or at least recognizes almost all the other safari guides.)  Aside from exchanging pleasantries, I believe they also typically share where interesting animals have been seen.

After this exchange, we headed over to another area, where there were about 10-12 safari trucks all gathered together.  Something was definitely going on.  We were standing up looking out of the top of the truck as we arrived late to the party, and Aimee and I both saw something walking in the grass.  With a bit more urgency and excitement, Stephen hit the gas and squeezed around the other vehicles (I swore we were going to sideswipe 2 or 3 of them) and placed us in the front.  There were two cheetah standing out in the open at the foot of a tree, surrounded by safari trucks.  We were only about 20 feet from them, but some of the other trucks were less than 10 feet. This was an amazing site.  The cats looked at us a bit, and then eventually wandered off between a couple other trucks and went out into the field.

At this point it was getting late.  The park closes at 6:30, and Stephen had to get back to the gate to not

Hyena

get penalized.  However, on the way out, all sorts of other animals started appearing that we hadn’t seen all day:  hyenas, jackals, fox…   So we kept stopping briefly to look at some of these We finally made it to the gate and pulled through at 6:31.  (Hopefully that was close enough to not incur a fine.)

From here, we headed back to our camp, enjoyed a nice dinner and a few cocktails, and headed to sleep in anticipation of a full day of wandering the Maasai Mara the next day.