Masai Mara National Park

Trip Start Jul 02, 2008

Trip End ??? ??, 2009

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Flag of Kenya Masai Mara National Reserve, Kenya
Saturday, April 11, 2009

Jambo! (Swahili for hello)

Happy Birthday Susan!

Happy Easter and Happy Passover!

I've been in Kenya just over one week now, a few days in Nairobi, the capital, then I took a 4 day camping safari in the Masai Mara and Lake Nakuru National Parks, and now I'm back in Nairobi again. Nairobi has a population of about 4 million and is considered the cultural hub of East Africa and also the most dangerous city in East Africa. I don't see the danger here, I find it just as safe as any other city, but I also haven't been roaming around the city at night much.

The safari was absolutely fascinating. I spent 3 days in the Masai Mara and one day in Lake Nakuru. East Africa has what's known as "The Big Five". These are the 5 animals that the British were most afraid of when they came to Africa; lions, buffaloes, elephants, leopards, and rhinoceros. I was lucky enough to see all of the Big Five plus many, many more animals.

Visitors are pretty much guarenteed to see 4 out of the Big Five animals, with leopards being a rare sighting. Not only did my group see two leopards, but we saw them mating. Male and female leopards are only seen together when they're mating, but they mate for multiple days. The ritual only lasts 7-22 seconds with a lot of sleeping in between sessions. The two leopards we encountered were at first sleeping, then the female started crawling around the male to show her interest. The male finally stood up, mounted her, and within a blink of an eye, he dismounted and went back to sleep. How typical, huh?

Another rare site that my group saw were cheetahs, the fastest land mammal on Earth being able to run up to 115 km/hr (about 90 mph). At one point we saw two cheetahs, but they were very shy and kept moving away from our truck. Another time we saw one cheetah and was able to watch him for about 30 minutes. At first he was just standing there almost posing for us, then he passed right in front of us, layed down in the grass, and started his search for a meal. Eventually an impala came within striking distance and the cheetah was off runnning. It was amazing to see him run, unfortunately they ran into the bush out of our site so we don't know if the cheetah was successful or not.

We saw so many families of lions that we actually stopped reaching for our cameras when we spotted them. Lions are so adorable and definitely have the maeurisms of a cat that it's hard to believe that they're one of the most feared animals in the park. Our guide spotted a dead cow in the distance so we drove over to it and found a lioness nearby. As we watched, the lioness slowly started coming closer but, unfortunately, never started her feast. Nearby, however, we did witness a jackal feasting on a gazelle.

One of the most beautiful animals in the park, in my opinion, is the zebra. We saw so many everyday but I never got tired of watching them. Here's a list of all of the animals I saw over the four days: lion, buffalo, elephant, leopard, rhinoceros, giraffe, wildebeest (too far for a decent pic though), cheetah, zebra, hippopotamus, crocodile, impala, gazelle, monkey, baboon, jackal, warthog, hyraz (like a big rat), dik dik, topi, eland, waterbuck (all 4 types of antelope), ostrich, stork, flamingo, eagle, and many other bird species.

One afternoon we went to a Masai village, one of the major tribes of Kenya. The son of the chief brought us around the village explaining their way of life, showing us a traditional dance, and bringing us inside one of the manyattas (huts where they live). There's a ceremony where all boys of around 14 years old are circumsized. If a boy doesn't scream or cry this is a sign of his strength and that he has what it takes to be a warrior. These boys then go off together into the bush for 3 years and cannot return without the head of a lion. Our safari guide said later that this tradition doesn't exist anymore because it is illegal to kill a lion, but according to the Masai they still practise this. When the boys return from the bush they are ready for marriage. The father chooses his son's first wife, but the boy himself can choose his own future wives. The number of wives a man can have depends on the amount of cows the family has to give the wife's family as dowry. Girls undergo genital mutilation at the age of about 8. Just like for the boys in the male circumcision, many girls bleed to death and HIV is spread easily because they use the same knife on all of the children. Because they stitch the girls up after the procedure to only allow for urine, blood, and a penis to pass, many girls and babies die during childbirth because the girls are not able to stretch large enough for a baby.

I took over 800 pictures during the safari and I wish I can share more with you, but here is a small selection.