Masai Mara, safari time

Masai Mara grasslands



Part of our Africa experience was visiting the Masai Mara game reserve in southwest Kenya, abutting the Serengeti plains and Tanzanian border. We loaded into a Moto Line minibus early in the morning and drove for around 5 hours. Our trip took us out of the valley up into the green highlands and tea plantations. As we passed south the landscape became arid, with high rolling, dry hills. Tea transitioned to wheat fields and scrub land. As we descended into Narok, which is the leaving point for tours going into the park, we began to see a tall people, draped in red and black tartan like wraps around their shoulders and midsections, carrying long staffs and herding sheep and Brahma cattle. The Masai.

One of 42 tribes in Kenya, the Masai are herders, but not nomadic. They live in stick fenced villages. The huts are made of mud packed onto stick frames that look like flat, brown, bread loaves. Each night they herd their cattle into fenced circular paddocks, again made out of sticks and briar wood to protect them from predators. They are not farmers and depend on their animals for food, including drinking a mixture of milk and cows blood. Unfortunately, from what I could see of their land it was horribly overgrazed and the animals thin from lack of grass compounded by drought.

We met Joshua, our guide for the park at a petrol station in Narock. Hanna, Steve and Sherri Danielson, Brianna, Emma, myself, and Ombedi, who has lived at Nehemiah for ten years, loaded into a pop top minivan for the long drive to camp. Joshua was friendly and knowledgeable, but had a theory about unimproved road driving. The faster you went, the more time and distance you covered airborne, then the smoother the ride. Even after having experienced Kenyan roads and driving I was not prepared for this. Thankfully we arrived at the Ololaimutek entrance and drove up a dry wash to the Kenia Safari camp. We had planned to stay in a tent camp which was full, so instead had adjoining cabins made of cement block, each with 3 beds to a room and a sink and toilet. The camp ran a generator for lights a few hours each night and early morning and had a cook house which served basic, but tasty food. “Hot” showers were available in a block of 3 shower stalls with water heated by a fire under a drum. Unfortunately, if you were in the last shower downstream, all you got was a trickle of cold water, but no complaints. We were “roughing” it.

The evening we arrived we drove into the park for what was to be a 2 hour tour and enjoyed seeing zebra, gazelle, an ostrich and some elephants and cape buffalo along a stream bottom. The park has rules that you don’t leave the vehicle and the vehicle has to stay on rutted tracks or the main road, but not drive on the grass. Joshua at one point pulled off the track a van width and was stopped by a ranger. A long pleading, back and forth argument in Kiswahili and we went on with Joshua telling us he had to pay a fine of $10,000 schillings (130 dollars), or he would be banned from the park for a year. We returned to camp and Joshua went back to the park office to “negotiate”. I’m still not sure the outcome, but he suggested if we paid a bribe of $3,000 schillings the matter would be closed. It was decided that if we paid the fine and got a receipt we would deduct the amount from the safari fee, but he declined. Our friend Ombedi made it clear to Joshua we were “not going to walk in darkness, but in light”. We would help him with a fine, but bribes were not an option.





Morning and the Wildebeest migration is starting. They had come from Tanzania earlier—over a million animals crossing the Serengeti to graze and breed. In August they return, crossing the Mara River. We drive south and west through the park. Gazelle, zebra, antelope in large numbers move across the scrub. Large ostrich run around with featherless legs as if they forgot to put on pants. Elephants seem to float through the grass in small groups, so graceful and fluid, and in no hurry. The land becomes hilly, topped by thickets, and above the short tree tops giraffe in twos and threes browse on thorny brush. Creek bottoms provide cover for roving herds of Cape buffalo which snort and belch as they graze with birds perched on their backs eating ticks. We begin to see more Wildebeest accompanied by small bands of zebra. Climbing out of the bottom land a young male lion is perched on a knoll either resting after a meal, or picking out his next. Oblivious to his audience and totally nonchalant, it is hard to imagine how quickly and powerfully he can move. Close to the Tanzanian border the land becomes flatter, but still rolling. Prairie grasses extend beyond the eye and I can only imagine that this could have been the American west 200 years ago dotted by buffalo. Building herds of Wildebeest move south, grazing as we arrive at the Tanzania-Kenya border. We stop at the Mara River and are escorted upstream by a ranger named Michael to the point where the wildebeest cross. Hippo lie in pools with their noses barely above water and their tails flipping water onto rough, gray backs. Some sunbathe in the sand grouped like a family beach outing, while a 20 foot crocodile is parked on the waters edge. I have seen this place in the Planet Earth documentary. At the peak crossing over 1.5 million animals plunge into the river. Some drown; some are dragged downstream by crocodiles laying in wait. Most make it to return the following year as the cycle continues. The crossing so far has been easier since drought has resulted in low water levels. The drive back to camp is quicker with a stop at Keekorock lodge which has an elevated boardwalk above a hippo pool. You can sit and enjoy your drinks while watching them move at dusk to graze in the grasslands.





Our last day in the park was a sunrise game drive for two hours. We were almost nonchalant watching zebra and buck when we came upon a pride of lions with a fresh killed wildebeest. Though there were a number of vehicles parked nearby, the lions seemed nonplussed. Two cubs were sitting near and would sneak over to feed and then be pushed back. A black backed jackal hung back picking up leftovers as the lions ate, vultures hopped nearby. Finally, two of the lions bit into each of the carcass shoulders and dragged it to the edge of the bush to finish their meal. Joshua told us the females tended to make the kill; the male would eat first and then lie in the bush nearby while the rest of the pride ate. An amazing sight for our last morning.



In true Kenya fashion our hired matato didn’t show on our arrival back at Narock. Ombedi and Joshua pounded the dirt streets trying to figure a way to get us back to Kisumu. Joshua was going on to Nairobi with Sherrie and Steve who were leaving for the states in the morning. It was decided we would also ride to Nairobi where it would be easier to hire a bus for Kisumu. In the end, it was a good diversion since we saw another part of the Rift Valley and the highlands. Nairobi is crowded with vehicles, trucks and people. Not a place I would chose to spend time, however we did see a beautiful suburb when we left Sherrie and Steve at Hampton House, a transient hostel for missionaries entering and leaving Africa. Moto lines provided us a matato and driver for the 6 hour drive back to Nehemiah. We left at five o’clock which meant we were traveling partly at night. Not recommended!! Large trucks constantly coming towards us, always with their bright lights on, no highway markings, bad roads with sometimes 3 foot drop offs at the shoulders. I was quite frightened for the people walking the shoulders. Thankfully we arrived late without incidence and were thankful for this part of our journey to end, and a good nights rest.

July 30th-Aug 1st