Maasai Mara/Narok, Kenya - Safari
Trip Start
Apr 01, 2007
1
33
51
Trip End
Ongoing
Narok,
Kenya
Thursday, July 5, 2007
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K... so, we just wrapped up a trip to Maasai Mara - a Safari to Kenya's biggest park and home of the Maasai tribe (see National Geographic). With a guy I met here from Stuttgart, Germany and his girlfriend who came down to visit, we decided to do a little Safari'ing
Coming to lunchtime late, my friend..
.Packing all of our gear into a mini-bus (similarily driving by private taxi runners called 'Matatus'), we headed off for the 4.5 hour trip to the 'Mara'. The main defining thing I can say about this trip is about the roads. As I just recently wrote to a friend over email, the roads are not so much roads, as they are a collective stream of dirtpiles. Oh there is asphalt all right, but there are so many craters strewn about this tarmac, that NOBODY drives on it. It is all shoulder, baby. So, as I decided to recently define it, unless you have a penchant for blunt head trauma, you do NOT sit on the wheel well on these roads. The road in Canada would take about 1hr to drive on, but due to the abhorent lack of caring by the government to road quality, our bouncy, shock/strut massacre'ing rodeo-fest took several hours.
We arrived in and setup camp. Along the way, we saw many a Maasai warrior, dressed in beads with thier traditional Shika (?) red cloth robe wrapped around their bodys. Being a nomadic tribe, they live in mud shelters or very basic bungalow style places, just living off the land. Now, I could ramble and rant and give you the full speil of the trip, but this keyboard is gummed up and I talk to much, so the end result will be an abridged compilation of the trip - my apologies.
Through a couple half days and a full game drive day, we saw: Gazelle (mini), toki, dik-diks' (tiny mini deer), hippo families, baboons, zebra, elephants, lots of giraffes, kingfisher bird, spotted hyenas, foxes, vultures, crocodiles, a lazy cheetah and a pair horny lions (read on).
Me and Natutingyo..
The park is 1520km long, so needless to say, we didn't cover everything - but the only animal we didn't see was a rhino, which was fine for me. We busted out 3 memory cards FULL of pics, so I am just going to try to pic the best ones here and post those for all y'all. Your bus has to stay on the main trails, but you definitely get a good view of most of the animals if your driver knows what he's doing.
The highlights of the safari was seeing an absolutely stripped carcass of a wildabeest laying in the open sun - yeah, didn't smell to fresh, that's for sure. Again, we saw another carcass, but a little team of hyenas were just going to town on it. They were crunchin' bones and everything. There were foxes and vultures all just hangin' around, trying to get their fill. There was a heard of Safari buses huddled around the spectacle, just unloading full clips worth of shots onto their memory cards- capturing the action. The other was getting nice and close to an African elephant and checking out the hippo families just chilling by the lakes. The prize of the Safari is always to find a Lion, which seemed to evade us until almost the very end. We weren't seeing anything for several hours, getting distraught until during the last hour and a half, we saw all of what we were looking for for the whole trip. We happened upon a male and a female lion, just basking in the shade of a singlular tree in the middle of the field
Me REALLY happy about dinner..
. Turns out they were sexing it up the whole day, with 10 minute intervals inbetween. So we figured, hey, what a fantastic opportunity to catch lion porn. What a let down, because by the time he was up and on the female, a couple quick pic snaps later and he fell off her like a lazy lover and went right back to sleep! Apparently, Lions aren't known for their stamina in the 'bedroom'.. Don't worry kiddies, I got a couple photos.. hahaha..Safari aside, I was able to sit and talk with a Maasai member at the camp until the wee hours in the morning. This was a special treat, as he didn't talk to any of the other groups that were there - saying that they seemed rude or, just not 'nice' people. Talking to Natutanyon, he told me about himself, his village, how a collection of animals is a sign of success and wealth and about local customs. He makes his living on making money to save up to buy goats and cows, and once he obtains enough, he can marry - multiple times. Having children is a sign of purpose and success, and women are considered 'little people', not sharing meals or even eating the same food - and don't even dream about kissing your wife - they marry arranged here, not for love! Oh, did I mention all the Maasai do for food is drink milk, eat meat and drink cow blood fresh from the tap..!! Yeah, and they are healthy and strong people too! Nutritionists, go put that in your pipe and smoke it
and me REALLY happy about beer.. TUSKER!!
! He even regaled me about the Maasai tradition to kill a lion. Nututanyon and 20 other men hunted and fought a lion, in which Nututanyon still has the lion tooth around his neck from 'his' lion that he killed with his own spear. His friend who was listening to the story too, showed me the scars from a previous cheetah kill in which the cheetah sliced down the back of his leg with his hind leg, and a scar on the back of his head where the same cheetah bitch slapped him, claws out, enough to gash open the back of his neck! After buying some heavily over-priced jewelry from him, we sat down at the local fire for the night. I was happy to pay $40cdn for stuff that only costs $6 in town. But I did get a special acquiry that I don't want to mention here, but is pretty rare. And no PETA, it ain't ivory tusks. I sat down with a couple tribesmen and he broke out the specialty, Maasai beer. This isn't the beer we all know and love. It is procured from the sausage tree, juice extracted and squeezed out, mixed with water, honey and sugar and some other good ingredients which at this time, I cannot recall. It is not carbonated, but 2 or 3 small tea cups worth was enough to get this Maasai flying high. Nututanyon only drinks once a month, so this was a special occasion for him. He was drunk and I THINK, THINK, I may have had a small buzz. ;) We chatted into the night about everything - my home country, differences in culture, what he thinks about every day in the sub-saharan desert and all the like
Lucas and the Maasai..
. I mean cmon, if all you are doing is farming cows and surviving, what would be on your brain all day?? Turns out in the middle of the previous night, they had to scare off a cheetah that was trying to kill a gazelle near our tents. Oh yeah, they are still 'spearchuckers'. They don't use guns or anything of the like.So after exchanging postal information, I wrapped up my visit and travelled back.
So far, the food is pretty cool down here - and I have learned how to make some local dishes as well. The guys at the place I am staying say I take the Ugali making (maize meal) quite seriously! Nyama Choma (barbecued goat (different than how we bbq), Sukomowiki (shredded kale and other veggies) and Ugali are the specialties here, definitely changing up the culinary norm I am used to!
So far, I am partying about 30 fold then I ever did in Canada, at least going out Wednesdays for Rock Night at Carnivore (yes, it's a mega meat restaraunt, and the bar doubles as a meat-market for ladies, very appropoe (sp).), and Fridays and Saturdays at Lifestyles+Choices+Ruzoras. The night is usually 6 of the 'Hoggz' which are a group of Kenyan guys that are a close knit family that are amazing hosts. Bonny (Boneface), Opush (Big-O), Ernest, Nico, Eric (The Fro) and Sly the playa and whichever guests want to come along
Maasai are intimate while dressing guests
. Beers at $1.40 for a 500ml Tusker, the night has already been written in stone. Liver cirrhosis, here I come!!!I planned to stay for 3 days, and so far have been here for 3 weeks.
Reflection time:
- I take it for granted, but it is so awesome to know people who are cool and who you really appreciate.
- The longer I am away the more I appreciate everything Canada has to offer. Mountains, climbing, camping, nature, etc.
-I guess I have learned, you don't need to travel around the world,
hitting 5000 different cities in 3 weeks to find what your looking for. The environment, food and language might change, but people are the same no matter where you go. HOW the people decide to live (and I don't mean 'survival' living), is what it's all about.
- It's amazing how many people in North America take themselves so seriously. I always thought I was weird and wasn't getting this whole 'business' attitude, not understanding why people can't just be real with each other and straighforward
Getting into a Maasai fight..
. My bluntness and lact for discretion sometimes has gotten me into trouble. One thing that is apparent, North Americans and Europeans need to take the proverbial 'stick' out of their ass and be real with each other. We are all living on this earth and just having a good time - stop being so anal and loosen your ties an inch or two, corporate america.- Everyone, for at least one week in thier life, needs to visit and live in a 3rd world country. I don't think you can come to any place in the world, almost living as a polar opposite to you and still have the same viewpoints on life. I think peoples love for materialism will take a metaphorical 'swift blow to the head'.
AND FINALLY, without friends and family, you are nothing. I have been so lucky in my life because of support from friends and family. Let me clarify though.. you don't necessarily need anyone but your self to reach 'financial' or 'vocational' success. Stepping on heads, cutting lines/queues, demoralizing others to benefit yourself - it all does pay off. You see it every day with the corporate dickhead boss, that somehow is rich because of it. But when that 'dickhead' goes home, he is in the land of 'Nobody'. Oh he has people that he can label with the moniker - Friend - but those people are nothing more than yes men or people who really don't give a shit about him
CLLLUUUBBB!!!
. Nobody wants to go party with him. Nobody cares about his opinions, hopes and dreams. Nobody REALLY likes him, they just tolerate him. If I lost my business, house and went bankrupt right now - hell, or even went to jail for some reason - my great friends at home, FRIENDS (not travel aquaintances) I have met travelling that still keep in consistent contact with me, people at the 'burrow' that I am staying at now are the real gold. Yeah, a cheesy soliloquy that sounds like an after school special lesson, I know. But sit down and think about who and what is important. As my pops said which is pretty well my #1 motto in life right now, 'Stuff is just shit. (re: material posessions). You can't take it with you. You get divorced, they take half and you are back to square one. You get tied to it and don't do anything with your life'. You (and I) don't have to sell everything and become a monk in Taiwan to show that, just realize what really counts. If I truly appreciate what I have, my health and where I am at, my possessions and success will be there - one way or another. And a house fire, divorce, bankruptcy or WHATEVER it is, honestly won't be any skin off my nose.the saga continues...
