Sir David Attenborough – Where Art Thou?

I will start by saying that it is about 5:30 am in Nairobi and that the Canucks are playing to win the Stanley Cup right now. The local wifi is on but the code they provided does not work… I may go insane before the staff awake and I can access thei computer! J Go Canucks Go!!!

A four-day trip to the Masai Mara (finally spelt right! J) is only just enough time but if you can afford ($ and time) more you should do you best to spend as much time as possible out there! I imagine that this is going to end up reading like a rambling journey, which is somewhat appropriate as that is exactly what a great game drive on the Mara is like!

James & I having a picnic on the Mara River

My journey actually began at the 2011 ATLAS Africa conference in Kampala, Uganda. The first day of sessions a guy in his early 30s shows up in full Masai traditional dress (which is really just Masai dress once you get to the Mara but in Kampala it seemed more of a cultural statement/costume). He was dressed in the criss-cross cloth, covered in beads that played tinkling music as he walked, and even carried what I considered, at the time, to be weapons (they must have loved him at the security check that we all had to pass through!).

As luck would have it, Donna, Joy, and I sat beside him and after a while I simply had to strike up conversation…. When else would I get to talk to a real live Masai Warrior?! It turned out that: a) his name is James, b) he is a graduate student in the US who is currently doing his master’s data collection, and c) he is studying at Clemson University where my friend Greg Ramshaw teaches (Greg and I graduated from U of A together & James took a class from him). Well as any of you who have worked in communities, particularly in Africa, once you know someone that the other person knows… you have the inside track!!

Over the course of the next day I ended up having a photo taken with James and his friend William (also Masai) about 5 times (the conference provided a photographer that printed up the pics, complete with the conference name/date!). I also mentioned that I was hoping to go to the Masai Mara but that I didn’t think I would be able to… Enough said really! The next thing I knew James had contacted folks that he used to work with and made arrangements with William (who happened to be a driver/guide with a Land Cruiser 4X4…this will be important later) to pull together a package that fit into the very high end of what I could pay but at the same time was something that I really couldn’t afford not to do! Here’s what the deal was:

a)    Return transport from Nairobi to the Masai Mara,

b)   Day 1: Two game drives (morning and afternoon)

c)    Day 2: All day game drive

d)   3 Nights accommodation at Basecamp (and amazing eco-lodge).

e)    Total cost of the package: (approx) $1100

Oh yeah – I was the only tourist in the car!  So it was my schedule to follow and my photography needs that were met! Basecamp is an award willing eco-lodge and the food they serve (set menu) was at least 4 stars!! I cannot believe the food they served – breakfast stayed the same (sweet corn fritter, sausage, eggs and fried fungus if you wanted it) but lunch and dinner always changed! They were at least 3 courses and the soups starters were always amazing. I just about fainted when I got a salad… wait for it… with huge chunks of feta on it!! J I am still trying to get over my cheese deprivation in Ghana!

Other balloons getting ready to fly!

That other thing that I added onto my trip was actually a gift (best ever) from my parents, brother, grandmother, and Janay… a hot air balloon ride over the Mara! This was something that I had dreamed of doing for years (decades really but who wants to admit to having dreams that are literally decades old?) and thanks to those folks I had the cash to do so! William (again – it’s who you know) arrange a special deal with friends of his who have started a new company “Hot Air Safari” for me to join the morning ride two days ago. The experience was about 4 hours long (about 1 in the air) and it was worth the $400 USD and then some – I think the actual rate is somewhere between $450-$500 but this experience is one that anyone going to the Mara should do! I would also highly recommend Riz (our pilot) and Andrew (company director and another pilot) as they ran an incredibly safe and thrilling tour… and by now I am just a wee bit done with being toured!!

Okay here are the goods on my experience in the Masai Mara!

Day 1: Depart Nairobi for Basecamp – the journey takes the majority of the day but there are some pretty significant highlights for the first timer! After leaving the traffic and pollution of Nairobi behind, you head off to a more rural existence and start to see some of the familiar sights of rural life in Africa. There are small towns teeming with activity, men sitting under trees playing games or chatting, weekly market set-ups, and of course folks selling all kinds of products along the road (from veggies to souvenirs!).

The first major ‘sight’ is definitely the lookout to the Rift Valley that you get when driving down the escarpment to the valley below. The views are something that you get from high mountains but quite literally the valley opens up as far as you can see! The road down the escarpment is one that would have my grandmother’s knuckles and lips white and may turn the faint at heart into a raving lunatic! For those of you familiar with the Ice Fields Parkway it shares some similarity – a primary difference? Well trucks hauling fuel will pass on blind corners going up hill! There are also pull-off spots that folks (regardless of the direction they are driving) will pull into. These spots reminded me of the food sellers along the Cape Coast highway in Ghana – everyone sold exactly the same thing in buildings that looked exactly the same!

We didn’t make any stops until we hit the town of Narok where we met up with James and three other folks (a graduate of Clemson who also knew Greg and his travelling buddy, and a prof in Marketing from Narok U). We ended up staying for a quick lunch and I spent much of my time recruiting James’ classmate (who is Canadian) to come to VIU for the GIS program!!

Once leaving Narok we were quickly off the tarmac and it felt like my ‘real’ Masai Mara journey began. I started seeing the vibrant reds and oranges of the Masai men and women’s plaid blankets as they walked in the fields – herding the sheep and cows. Taking it all in was difficult as I felt a bit like kid in a visual candy story – too many choices of what to look at. The road itself didn’t help – William and James referred to it as the African Massage!!

Not too far along the bumpy (not as bad as some of the roads in Northern Ghana) road I started to see signs of wildlife. Thompson’s Gazelles and even Zebra… at that point I didn’t really know William and didn’t feel like I could ask him to stop and it was KILLING Me! Of course I had no idea what I was really in for so in retrospect I’m glad I didn’t ask him to stop!

About 1½ hours from our destination we came across a group of Greeks travelling together in a Mutatu (white mini buses that may or may not be 4 wheel drive – they are used as safari vehicles and taxis here) that had blown a fuel pump. Since our vehicles was empty (except for my luggage – which is not smallJ) we picked up the three wives as they had been sitting along side the road for 2 hours with only water to drink and had long since missed lunch! I thought it was interesting that William asked my permission – I’ve never been on a tour where as the primary paying client I get a say!! It was actually quite uncomfortable J.

The ladies were a nice addition and it turned out that one of them had been to BC and Spider Lake (20 mins from my house) of all places… it really is a small world. As we got closer to the lands that are actually part of the Mara ecosystem (there are community lands and protected lands on the Mara) we started to see more wildlife and as it turned out my game driving experience started when I spotted a herd of Elephants walking through the bushes on the hill across from us (this is where having a 4X4 comes in handy).

As I mention William and James are both Masai and it turns out that they have not only worked on the Mara for a long time but also grew up there so William was comfortable driving off the beaten path (outside the park and occasionally in) to get to the prime animal viewing locations. As we started driving through the bush I immediately got a sense of just how amazing this experience was going to be – we started seeing all kinds of large mammals!

Impala with weird horns

Big Daddy Elephant!!

On our way to that first group of elephants we came across: Impala, gazelle, topis (large antelope), elans (moose sized antelope that look like a cross between cows and deer), and then a small herd of Masai Giraffes!!!! J They are so beautiful and after seeing them in the wild I don’t think I could stand to see them in captivity! Eventually we found our group of elephants and it was simply AMAZING. When mom and I saw the herd of elephants last year I didn’t think that I would ever have such an experience but this trip – well the drive out was only the first of many times that I was surrounded herds of elephants (males and females) that included many young and old… there were lots of babies and some were so incredibly tiny!!!

Eventually we all agreed that despite the desire to stay with the elephants all day we should head off to our respective camps and before you know it I was checking into Basecamp!

View of Mara & Talek River from my tent

I will definitely have to post pictures of Basecamp as I’m not sure that my descriptions will begin to capture just how amazing this place really is! Everyone stays in Safari tents that are set-up on wooden platforms under thatched roof structures, but do not picture a tent like we would stay in at home! There are a couple of highlights including being met by a person holding a lovely warm and wet facecloth to help you remove the road dust! The rooms are spacious and contain a queen sized bed and shelving building in (hanging on the wall really) there is both a urinal, toilet (where they collect the urine for watering the trees) and an outdoor shower! There is also a lovely deck with a hammock and lounge chair and from both you can see the Talek River (Masai for Mosquito River) and the start of the Mara!!!! The best aspect of the place (other then the Masai Warriors that escort you around the camp at night) was definitely the food!! Any place that can feed me feta cheese in the middle of no-where is tops in my book!!

Do you really need me to tell you?

Of course the real reason for travelling to the Mara is the wildlife and that was like living in a BBC Planet Earth episode – all that was missing was David Attenborough’s voice given me running commentary on what I was seeing!! My experience in viewing wildlife in Ghana did not prepare me for what I would see and how close I would get when I was in Kenya! I saw 2 types of gazelle, 4 different antelope, lions (male and female), leopards, cheetahs, and more zebra, hippos, buffalo, wildebeest, elephants, giraffes than I could count! Some of the highlights were being surrounded by zebra and elephants (close proximity – like 10 feet! J) and getting to see hippos and lions create the next generation! That’s right – some good animal porn! J

Masai Mara from a balloon...with a local Masai!!!

As for the ballooning – I simply do not have the words to tell you how amazing it was! We floated over the Mara seeing animals and landscapes in totally different ways! The quiet was occasionally broken by passengers pointing to animals and by the whoosh created by Riz firing up the gas to heat up the air! A cell phone did go off but after a threat of imminent death it was quickly turned off… Only in Africa would you get cell coverage 1000 feet in the air in the middle of the Masai Mara!!!

Masai Warriors - He who jumps highest gets the girls!!

While floating over the Mara I could easily see the damage done by vehicles moving off the set tracks (like people moving off the trails to avoid mud!) and the ‘cattle highways’ that are created by the thousands of cows that migrate into and out of the Park each night – in theory cows are not allowed in the park but in reality they go in (with the Masai herders) every day!!! Of course it is a risk as there is little herders can do to protect their livestock while in the park and as they are only armed with spears I think they have to be some serious levels of courage (and perhaps mental health issues J)!

Wildebeest

After the balloon ride we headed out to Entim – a lovely eco-lodge located right on the Mara River… you know the one that Wildebeest and Zebra cross while dodging Crocodiles!!! After our lovely champagne breakfast we headed down to the river where we saw hippos and crocs!! After breakfast we headed out on a game drive that would normally end back in Talek River but for me it was just the start of a full day game drive!

I spent the day with James and William driving all over the Mara – heading up Look-Out hill, driving along the Mara River to see hippos (even a couple making sweet sweet hippo love J), crocodiles (one was really fat and the guys speculated that it may have had a zebra for lunch), antelope, and so many animals that I didn’t know where to look first! We had an amazing picnic sitting on the banks of the Mara watching crocs swim up and down the river!

Leopard!

In the afternoon we started our hunt for Rhinos – the only animal of Africa’s big 5 (Lion – check, leopard – check, elephant – check, buffalo – check, Rhino - L) that I haven’t seen! I wasn’t lucky enough to see one but I did get to see Lion’s having sex… even caught the post-coital growling on video! J After that we saw tons of birds and mutatus… 15 passenger van like vehicles that one should NEVER go on safari with! I said that I would come back to the importance of 4X4’s!! When we were waiting for the lions to get busy (literally) we watched/heard a group of 4 mutatus roar down the main road, which just happened to be on the other side of a river, trying to get to where we were! Fortunately they were unable to cross the river on the path that we took (an official path but 4x4 needed to pass).

Later on we headed over to the Park Warden’s place to seek permission to stay on the Mara later than normal (6:30 pm exit = sundown). While over there we caught sight of what the Mara must be like in high season – over 5 mutatus were parked next to a rather sick looking male lion and another 4 were just down the road parked next to a leopard who was trying to sleep in the shade! It made me realize that I would be less likely to enjoy life on the Mara during the high season and that I think some tourists (particularly those who can afford $10,000 camera/lens sets) really should consider what they are purchasing – why would you come to the Mara and travel in a vehicle that cannot go most places on the Mara???!!!!

Well I know that I have not begun to share all my experiences but since I went on this part of my trip I’ve made it to Tanzania, gone to the Serengeti National Park, visited the Ngorongoro Crater, and made plans to leave for Zanzibar tomorrow! On the plus side I’m now officially on vacation so will have more time to catch you up and post some pics!


A selection of pics from the Masai Mara:

Cranes

Buffalo

Spotted Hyena 

Simba - no really it is!!

Sun set on the Masai Mara

Hippo!