More Memories of Maasai Mara

Continued from February 4th journal entry:

Cody and I fell in love instantly with the Fig Tree and it didn’t take too long for Terry to get over the cost… well, at least to stop grumbling about it.

Our room (looks like a canvass tent on the outside, feels like a finished, luxury hotel suite on the inside) is right on the Tarek river. We enjoyed a nice swim before dinner. It was strange seeing so many mzungus. Jeremiah was the only African who was seated as a guest, all the others worked there. Cody noticed right away and didn’t like it. “It kinda bothers me,” was his comment. A good thing to be bothered by, I think.

The food was good, though the drinks were expensive (100 shilling for a soda – it’s 20 or 30 at most in Kakamega). We offered to buy Jeremiah’s drinks during our stay, but he said, laughing, “Please don’t pay for my soda – you pay 100 /=, that’s triple what I would pay!”

During the dinner, a group of 8 or so Maasai Warriors sang and danced for us. They have jumping contests. It is tradition that whoever jumps the highest gets the girl. Man, can they jump! We ended the night watching an amazing lightening storm; Cody even caught a great bolt on video on his phone.

We left around 6:30am for our first game drive of the day. Not 5 minutes out of the gate we saw a cheetah stalking a gazelle. Everytime the gazelle would put her head down to eat, the cheetah would move a little closer. The gazelle would look up and the cheetah would crouch in the grass. After a few minutes of this, the cheetah made his move and the gazelle took off. I had no idea how fast gazelles could run! The gazelle got away. Terry attributes her speed to her raw vegan diet.

After seeing some nice ostriches, we hit about 20 minutes of fog. The effect on the trees was great, but not so great for spotting wildlife. Hmph.

Once the fog lifted, we thought we saw some lions, but they turned out to be hyenas! These are impressive animals, far more so than I ever imagined. They are huge! Not great posture. Very lazy according to Jeremiah, they only ever scavange. We then stopped so Terry could take a picture of an anthill and saw a herd of about 6 elephants. Every now and then it would hit us just how cool this is!

On our next drive in the afternoon, Jeremiah’s fried Steve joined us to help point out a few things. To us, Steve just doesn’t quite look like a Steve. Steve is a Maasai, about 4 ½ feet tall, with very long earlobes and a small moustache. He wears the traditional Maasai blanket and carries a small sword. We enjoyed having him along and he was a great help in navigating through the Mara, knowing where the slippery bits were and where the animals hang out. As just one example of his expertise, Jeremiah asked Steve what would happen if we went for a swim with the hippos. “I think you would have a problem,” was Steve’s most helpful response.

He also told us about the Rhinos. There are currently only 22 Rhinos in the Mara (we did not see them here, but did find some in Lake Nakuru National Park). The rhinos are protected now, but are having a hard time coming back. They only have one baby every 16 months to three years. And, Steve explained to us that they are very lazy and do not make good mothers. They prefer to sleep rather than take care of their babies and so many are lost to prey. Elephants on the other hand are very good mothers. The women, mothers, sisters and grandmothers always stay together. I am wearing an elephant necklace to remind me of the unique and important bond between women.