Kenya 2019: Maasai Mara Part 4 – The Maasai People and Last Looks

Wednesday, June 12th. Late afternoon.

We had requested a visit to one of the nearby Maasai villages because we were interested in learning some of the Maasai culture. We crossed the Talek River east of where we had seen the kill the day before and made our way through the town of Talek before coming to a small settlement at the outskirts. A lone Maasai man approached the truck and Lenny told us that the fee would be $35 per person. As we gathered up the requisite cash, we were introduced to Maasek, the son of the chief. He was short, perhaps just over 5 feet tall, well-built and muscular. He was dressed in traditional garb: a red plaid shirt, a colorful belt with silver scales dangling from it. He carried a large knife in his belt and a yellow and blue blanket over his shoulder. His neck and wrists were adorned with traditional Maasai beadwork. Although he was short in stature, it was immediately evident that this man commanded great respect from the rest of the villagers and thus, ourselves.

The village is more of a compound with a perimeter wall built from sticks and reeds. The Maasai people first arrived in Kenya in the early 1600’s as Nilots coming down from the north. Since then, they have subsisted on the land, primarily herding cattle, so the compound is used to house the cattle at night just outside their huts, which are made from mud and cow feces.

After our introductions, mine in Swahili, men started to gather outside the gate. Each was dressed in a vibrantly colored plaid tunic or a blanket. They had similar adornments to Maasek and wore simple sandals. They were mostly taller than us and carried canes used for herding the cattle. The men began their chants. One man starts, and the others repeat back in harmony. Before they began their warrior dance, we were offered a symbolic weapon of the Maasai. It’s a hand-carved piece of acacia wood to represent the fierceness of a crocodile. The warrior dance (adumu) consists of the call-response chant, with each man attempting to jump higher than the next. This dance is a way for the men to show off to the women and is popular for tourists because the men can jump very high.

Greg and I stood and watched, but they finally motioned Greg to join. He proceeded to best his partner. He finished his set and completed a round of high-fives. It was my turn, except I don’t jump nearly as high as Greg does, nor as elegantly. I looked more like a fish out of water, but I still had a fun time and I went through and high-fived everyone. Greg and I challenged each other. He won.

With the chanting completed, we headed into the village. Most of the men stayed and talked with Lenny, who was showing them the big lens. Greg and I walked between the huts and cattle, dodging cow pies as Maasek told us about the community. The money we had paid to see the village goes to their school across the street to provide their children with an education. We were led through the compound to a house at the far end and entered through the low doorway where we were seated inside. It was dark, with clouded light coming in from the windows. Maasek explained the layout of the houses. There were two beds, and a small fire pit where we were. A woman and a small child left the house while we were there. The Maasai mostly eat beef, but they also drink the raw milk of the cows, and the blood as well. I was thankful that we were not offered any of this.

Back outside, some of the men showed us how they make fire. They have a small piece of acacia wood and a stick made from olive wood, which they rub very quickly to create embers. The embers are placed on or in a pile of kindling consisting of dried grasses and cow feces. After several minutes, they got a fire started. We were offered the fire starters for the low price of $20 apiece. Silently between us, we felt that it would be rude to refuse such a gift, and we shelled out the money for it. The Kenyan hustle continued to be strong.

Maasek introduced us to several women, who did two chants for us. The women were covered with bright orange and blue dresses and tunics. Several barefoot children joined the group and afterwards we were taken to a small outdoor gift shop behind the village. We perused the tables. I haggled in Swahili for a lower price on a red blanket, but most of the other things that were there we had seen elsewhere in the country.

With the tour complete and all of our questions answered, we headed back to the truck and were joined by the warrior men once more. I exclaimed “Sisi ni marafiki!” Translation: we are friends!

We left the compound and headed back towards Keekorok. The clouds had been slowly building all day and at last broke free. We asked Lenny to pull over for a minute.

We fully understand internet culture and the importance of a good meme. Before our trip, our mother had sent Greg along with a small bottle of holy water. As the rain started, I broke out my phone and queued up Toto’s “Africa”. So if you were wondering at all through these blogs, yes. Yes we did.

We blessed the rains down in Africa.

*"Gonna take some time to do the things we never had..."*

Lenny and David were in stitches. They had never seen such a ridiculous spectacle. We returned to a rocky outcrop near the lodge where we had seen the lions that morning. Once again, it felt as though days had passed between our visits. A male and female lion were having a wedding there. When a male lion intends to mate with a female lion, they will abscond away from the rest of the pride for a few days.

The sunset started. At first, light pastel colors filled in the bottoms of the clouds, but as the sun neared the horizon it lit up like the opening of the Lion King. This was a fitting last sunset on the Mara.

Back at camp we had dinner and then perused the shop at the lodge for souvenirs for the family. They had the map of Africa printed on baobab bark for about twenty bucks. I figure I spent almost five times that on mine. The Kenyan hustle is strong. We finished the night with some more Tusker and repacked our gear.

HOMEWARD BOUND

Thursday, June 13th

The next morning we woke at 5 am and met Lenny and David. “Habari ya asubuhi!” Translation: Good morning!

Our plan for the day was to make a short game drive with a singular focus before heading back for breakfast at the lodge: We wanted to see a black rhino.

We left camp and scouted the low-forested hills to the southeast, some of the roads were familiar now from a few days prior. There was more driving and more nothing. A few giraffes moved away from us in the twilight. As the sky lightened , we came upon some wildebeest and shot the sunrise there.

We headed deeper into the foothills and came upon a very isolated ranger post. I was fairly sketched out about it for some reason. It just didn’t feel right. There was nothing to see there anyway and we headed down the mountain. At 7:30 we decided to call it off and head back to camp for breakfast. We hopped on the main road. Greg and I were deflated.

I’m so glad we had two guides. It was great to have a full-time spotter. It frees up the driver and allows the untrained eyes to see things that we normally wouldn’t. David was the first to see it as we drove past it, looking back over the truck as Greg and I were looking forward. It was hiding behind some large bushes off to our right in the shade. We would have never seen it without him.

It was a black rhino.

Lenny peeled around and positioned us. Greg and I were nearly in tears. As we mentioned in the other blog, there are approximately 5,500 black rhino left in the world. The Maasai Mara is the size of the state of New Hampshire and hosts about 15 of them, so seeing one in the wild itself is rare. Seeing one in the Maasai Mara is ultra-rare. More of that Tester luck. Bahati sana. Translation: very lucky. We both got a little choked up.

By now the sun was up and we watched this rhino go about his day, wandering the hillside and eating some low vegetation. This was another time where we did our work shooting photos and then just put the cameras down.

Because we were on the main artery to the camp, there was a fair bit of traffic that morning, but most vehicles stopped for a moment or two and then carried on. It made us wonder some things: are these people there to appreciate the wildlife or is it more of the prestige of going on safari? Are their guides good and do they know what they’re looking at? With the rhino populations of the world under threat, will my children be able to experience the awesome presence of this creature?

Like the grizzly bear in Yellowstone and the lion kill two days before, this was a borderline religious experience. It’s difficult for us to explain. There are no fences separating us from these animals. On safari, it’s the humans who are in the cage and separated from the wildlife, so it’s humbling to be before these animals, to be so close, and for them to go about their lives uninterrupted. This is an experience that no amount of scrolling through pictures on Facebook and Instagram can provide. It’s something we would never find in our corporate desk jobs, nor has any zoo ever brought us to the brink of breaking down in tears at the sight of an animal and it never will.

After about a half an hour, the rhino moved up the hillside and into the brush. We returned to camp for breakfast and showers. We took one more walk out to the Hippo Pool, watched some vervet monkeys playing, and checked out. The woman at the desk asked if we had seen anything that morning. She was thoroughly surprised we had seen a black rhino.

“Bahati sana” I said.

“Ndio! Bahati sana!” she replied. Translation: Yes! Very lucky!

We loaded our gear into the truck and left Keekorok at 9:30. At 10 am, we were back at the entrance to the Mara. Greg haggled for a blanket from one of the hawkers for about $10. As we headed back towards Narok, we were treated once again to the endless Kenyan massage, broken only by a herd of sheep crossing the road. We napped on and off back to Nairobi.

We arrived back in Nairobi at 3 pm. Our flight didn’t leave until 10:30, so we paid for a room at the hotel again (sadly for full-price). We said farewell to our friends, Leonard and David. We downloaded photos, backed them all up, and overall decompressed. We caught a cab to the airport at 8 and got very strange looks at the size of our carry-ons, but after some insistence, we didn’t have to check them. The airport was hot and humid. It had been a long day already and we were tired. The flight to Frankfurt was packed. There were crying kids in the middle seats of the plane. We ate something that resembled a dinner and fell asleep, waking as we descended into Germany.

Our plan was to disembark and then get a cab into downtown Frankfurt since we had an 8 hour layover. If you've ever been through the Frankfurt airport, you know it's an absolutely immense place. After getting lost in the terminal for an hour, we finally found the main section, abandoned our excursion plans, and had breakfast at the same small cafe that Greg had eaten at a week earlier. I had a German craft beer with my meal. Finally! Some good beer! Our next flight was in six hours, so we wandered around to find a good place to set up base for a bit. I worked up photos while Greg took a short coma (nap is too light of a word).

After lunch we hit the gate and hopped onto a flight to Newark. The descent into Newark was fairly rough. We went through customs without incident, got some dinner at a local diner, and went to sleep. I had two more flights to go the next day, so I was up at 2:30 am and at the airport by 4. I flew from Newark to Denver, barely making my connection to Reno. Home. Done. Adventure complete.

I had travelled nearly 22,000 miles in two weeks on 11 flights. I can’t even calculate the distance we drove through Africa, but it’s probably in the order of a thousand miles. We saw almost a hundred different species of animals in the five days we were on safari. We saw more animals in those five days than we had seen our entire lives combined. Our cameras shot a combined 11,000 pictures. Most importantly, we both arrived back safe and sound, so overall it was a successful trip.

The next and final installment of this series will be our perceptions, recommendations, and lessons learned from our experiences. Thanks again for joining us on our great adventure. We look forward to having you along on our next one!

-Ed & Greg

Kenya 2019: Maasai Mara Part 4 – The Maasai People and Last Looks

Kenya 2019: Hindsight

Kenya 2019: The Mara Triangle

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