To the Masai Mara

January 5, 2009
We had an early morning wake up for our departure to the Masai Mara, the highlight of the trip, the best known game park in all of kenya, and, according to most, all of africa. it is located in southern kenya along the border with tanzania and would help complete our grand circle tour of Kenya. In the summertime, it is the home of the great migration of the wildbeest, made famous in the Lion King.
Magic warned us it would be a hard journey. remembering the trip to Lake Nakuru, we were fearing the worst. it actually was not bad at all. at least half the journey was on paved road and we arrived in the masai mara in time for a late lunch.
we made what is affectionately called a 'bush stop' (where the entire African bush can act as your bathroom :)''
on the way into the mara, which means 'plain'in the masai language, we saw zebra and antelope. at the gate to the preserve, we were surrounded by many masai selling their wares.
we are staying at the Sekanani camp, which has 15 tents set in the green foothills at the front of the masai mara. it is lush, and hilly, and reminds us of the swiss family treehouse, with suspension pedestrian bridge to connect the tent area to the dining area. it sways as you walk.. this camp is very unusual because it is not enclosed by an electric fence, or any fence for that matter. wild animals are free to roam to the camp, into the camp, out of the camp, and there is a large staff of massai warrior guards, with spears, to escort each guest between each place after sunset. the best way to describe this is simply to type the information provided to us in their guest handbook. here it is: 'wild animals. sekanani camp is not surrounded by a fence so animals do appear in the camp from time to time. our resident species include bushbuck, waterbuck, baboons, vervet monkeys, hyrax, bushbaby's and five species of mongooses. in addition to the resident species, we also have regular visits from elephants, leopards, warthogs, porcupines, impalas, zebras, and the occasional buffalo. the non-resident vistors usually pass through the camp in the middle of the night. this should not be cause for alarm. the night watchmen keep an eye out for any animals around the camp but once everyone has turned in for the night, they are allowed to walk through if they wish. we hope the sound of an elephant browsing around the springs below your tent will be an exciting experience and not a worrying one. at night you may hear the sound of little feet walking on the roof of your tent or perhaps on the canvas itself. this is generally a bush baby which is a beautiful nocturnal creature commonly found in the camp at night. sometimes there may be a thump on the veranda floor as one jumps down from the surrounding bushes. please do not be worried. these are absolutely harmless creatures out hunting for beatles and other insects which are their main food. after years of study, vervet monkeys have learned how to open zips and are prone to making a thorough inspection of your belongings if they get inside the tent. we've had to introduce small pad locks on the zips of the tent to prevent this from occuring.'
just as we arrived, the skys opened and it poured rain. we were greeted with a fresh towel and glasses of juice. each massai warrior gave each of us an umbrella and escorted us to our tents. the tents are large, canvas, zip up tents, with four twin beds and a separate area for the bath with a full size tub, shower, toilet, and sink. we were given a briefing on the camp rules, including locking up the tents. since we are in the masai mara wilderness, there is no electricity, only a camp generator, which runs only for two hours in the morning, and four hours in the evening. get those electronic devices charged quickly! they do provide flashlights.
we enjoyed a vegetable curry or spaghetti lunch in the dining tent, updated the blog, and spoke to the hotel manager about barack obama. he said that it proves that the u.s. really is a democracy and he held out hope that zimbabwe would learn that it too could be democratic as a result.
we took an afternoon game drive and saw lots of zebra, giraffe, gazelle, elan, antelope.
WARNING. WARNING. ALERT SMALL CHILDREN. THE FOLLOWING DESCRIPTION IS GRAPHIC. towards the end of the drive, magic turned around the jeep and we headed for an incredible sight. first, we saw a giraffe....but this giraffe was on its side, thoroughly dead, and a male lion was feasting on its disengorged belly. upon closer inspection, we noticed three lions in the immediate area as well as vulchers up in the trees watching the whole scene. magic parked the jeep as we watched this horrific, and incredible part of nature occuring in front of us. the girls were less traumatized than we imagined, but shayna did decide she'd seen enough and just stopped looking. we learned from magic about the process of a lion kill, of the order of feasting, from lions to hyenas, to vulchers. we also learned that it was very unusual for a lion to kill a giraffe since the lion is not capable of getting at the giraffe unless the giraffe is drinking, which forces the giraffe to lower itself on its legs. magic thinks the lion took a big leap and went for the giraffe's neck and then just brought it down. if any of you do have morbid curiousity, it is, of course, all on video.
the lion kill delayed us past our usual return time so that by the time we were heading back, the sun was already setting. at this moment, we saw a giant bull elephant standing just off the road. when we passed the elephant and looked back, we saw the silhouette of the elephant, set against the setting sun, set against the masai mara plains. it was stunning and we stopped the jeeps and just took lots of photos as the sun set below the horizon.
back at camp, we went right to dinner. vegetable crepes for most of the folks and lamb for marc. yeah.
we met our massai warrior guide outside the dinner tent. he escorted us back to our tent. we zipped ourselves in, padlocked ourselves in, reassured the girls that all the noises, sounds, animals, thumping on the roof, screeching noises, clicks, clacks, and lots of other decibals were all part of nature, of camping, of our experience, and that they should get to sleep.
lailah salama.