Kenya

A night in a hotel in Kenya to organise my things, fallen asleep to the sound of Liverpool playing, boarding my new truck in the morning to head west. Our truck a baby compared to the old gal of the spicy vulture, this one has arm rests, new comfy seats and cup holders!! It’s the little things at this point.

It’s New Year’s Eve and we’d head into a national park first, only 700 square kilometres big compared to the 35,000 of the Serengeti, here you have a great chance to see the black rhino up close. Our game drive into the park saw us meet with another lost lioness, stressed and looking for her pride, of which there is only one in this park. Male cubs get relocated to other tribes as there is nowhere to reproduce here, whilst eventually when mating males die one’s will get relocated back in. This lost lioness was so close to our truck I could have touched her and I was for a moment terrified she would leap right in for a ride. Fortunately for all involved she soon carried on her way in search for her pride; the pride we found ourselves the following day.

The 2 males, one of which we thought was about to try his luck with a baby giraffe were lazy buggers, the girls, one of which we hoped was the female we saw the day prior kept a watchful eye on what was potentially about to be their dinner. The yawns, affection & mannerisms of these mammals is fascinating to watch and so very cute. They really are just big pussy cats, getting annoyed at siblings who are laying too close, or wanting to snuggle up to dad. Fortunately for us and the baby giraffe, she wasn’t dinner that day, or at least that’s what we drove away telling ourselves.

This park is famous for its ability to find black rhino, a usual scarce specie that’s endangered and shy, typically hiding within the depths off forests and bushland, here of which there’s not a lot of. We unfortunately didn’t see any black rhinos, although if you want too this is the place to be, but we lucked out with the white rhinos. A baby and mum in the distance were getting circled by a pack of hyenas, the territorial boys making sure the pair didn’t get too close to their den. The baby rhino playing with the Hyena hilarious and the cutest thing I’ve seen, the tiny thing following closely behind mum whilst being brave and taking on the baby hyenas. They got so close to the truck, weary of her onlookers mum took Bub off, but what an incredible experience. The following day we would see them asleep, and come across a family of 5 on the roadside, one by one piling into a sleep pile with dad squished at the bottom. Cute!  

New Year’s Eve’s proceedings happened as they typically did, in bed by 9 and exhausted, except tonight there was a fear element. We had bush camped many times before, you’d think sleeping amongst the hyenas and lions was second nature at this point, but that fear never leaves you. My washing hanging up outside my tent despite the downpour stayed there as a herd of buffalo hung out in the bushes besides our tents, my washing could wait. Instead we retreated to the truck for cards, before ringing in the new year with a stunning sunrise and a cake for breakfast (a Kenya tradition on New Year’s Day) after the hyenas sussing out our dinner eventually retreated back into the bushes. A slow and steady walk to the nearby waterfall, nerves rising when we saw the very fresh buffalo footprints but so far no sign of lions, today we would drive for a while, heading closer to Ugandan border, saying bye to Kenya until we return in a weeks time.

Uganda was special, to read about my time here see: www.darceymae.com

Once returning from our week out of the country, eventually getting let back in after a few of the boys played visa roulette with border security (they’re braver than I would be!! - take my money!!) we headed for Kericho. Our tea tour here took us to the plantations in our campsite, the tea productions here contributing considerably to Kenya’s economy, tea being its largest export, 70% of leaves picked sold to major companies like Lipton and Tetley. With a chill in the air following the afternoons rains we all needed a brew to accompany our card games that evening.

Kenya has to be one of the most, if not the most corrupt country i’ve ever travelled too. Money can get you in and out of anything, including the country !!! Drivers licence’s, cops, politicians, even at immigration, corruption is evident and known, our visas all void by the time we were entering Kenya for the last time, nothing a couple of dollars slipping through the cracks couldn’t handle….thanks intrepid!

The following day we embarked on what would be one of the most important experiences we would have in Africa. Our journey not only to the Masai Mara, but to stay with the Masai people.

Simultaneously I am reading ‘One of Them’ by Eti, as she documents her 14 years of life in the masai village; a truely unique story I’m not sure has ever been replicated. If you want an insight into the traditional life of the Masai, read her book. My short time amongst these people can’t do their culture justice like she is able.

We arrived to the welcoming of local children, dressed in traditional clothing of bright cloths, draped over their waists, chests and across their stomachs. This clothing, is the only material the masai own, traditionally, when they migrate across the land the clothes on their backs is all they bring, along with of course their cows. The multiple layers serve purpose, attaching a red layer to multiple trees when  a leopard is attacking to make it seem like It is cornered by many masai, just one example. The masai’s cows are its everything, your livestock depicting your wealth and happiness, they even get placed above human family members in regards to importance, family even is not a materialistic thing amongst this tribe, everyone can be replaced and given away, except ones cow. The masai don’t hold credit cards, bank accounts or cash, even phones, a cow is their means of trade, how they buy a house, and will even serve purpose when man is searching for a wife for ones nephew. The masai boys will be denied education, their job is to care for his families livestock until the sun sets each day, this cycle repeats until a boy becomes a man through its right of passage, joining warriorship. Warriorship begins with circumcision at around age 14, where they’ll then spend a year in the bush alone, and learn to hunt, survive, care for the land and oneself. It’s during this time where many warriors will be killed by other masai or wild animals, the lower number of males to females an important concept later on.

Masai aren’t religious, some recently influenced by us missionaries who have build catholic churches, majority believing in the stars, just like the story in the lion king, stars represent all the living and human things (yes, including cows), and a shooting star is your life star communicating with you.

After warriorship, a boy enters is 4th stage of life life, marriage, where his uncle will have paid a family 1, 2, 3 cows in exchange for their daughter. Often these arrangements are made when the female child is yet to even be fertilised in the womb, meaning often these men are much older. Female children can be sold to be married by the minute they have healed from their own right of passage, circumcision. This practice still highly valued amongst the masai, young girls excited to become a women and ‘be cut’, being sold off for cows normal for them. When. a girl is married off, even at age 9, 10, 11, they leave their home, their village and move to their new husbands house, they’ll often never see their own families again. This is where a lack of attachment or materialism is so important, by being so exchangeable and having such little value for things and people, it makes moments like these easy, or at least easier. Nowadays, child marriage and female circumcision is illegal in Kenya, and there are many incredible women and organisations saving young girls from these outdated practices, however it still occurs throughout many villages around the country and beyond.

Masai men have many wives if they have many cows, as your first wife will need help milking, cleaning and cooking, each having its own home, size relevant to the number wife, all reproducing with their beloved husband. The fact that many men get killed in the field by wild animals means that there are more females than male adults,  polygamy ensuring everyone in a village lives happily married, although happily wouldn’t be how I describe how everyone feels about this arrangement. This culture is unique and inspiring, their stories of warriorship incredible, many masai these days now influenced by 21st century cultures, technology and foods, much like our own indigenous community in Australia. Read ‘One of them’ if you get the chance, insane, I have written a story on Helen, a beautiful lady doing incredible things in the village we stayed in which will come out soon.

Our time here was short but sweet, enjoying masai dance, food, fire making and learning about the many ways they use their land for medicinal, food and shelter purposes, we all felt very privillaged to be there, and it’ll be an experience we all remember for a very long time. Fom here, on an absolute high we drove the short distance to our final campsite on our trip, a surreal feeling after 70 days on the road knowing we only had 2 nights left. Just outside the masai mara national park would be home for our final nights, 2 full days of game drives on the agenda, what we saw I wasn’t even bothered about, having already seen literally everything we could have wanted too already, anything extra now just an added bonus of the trip, and oh my gosh was this a bonus holy shiiiit.

 How do I even begin to describe the next two days, incredible, once in a lifetime, rare, lucky, just wow. There were many tears of wonder and awe, sqeals of joy and lots of smiles. From day old elephant babies coming within metres of our truck, falling in the mud and hiding behind mum, tiny little lion cubs who were left unattended whilst mum went to hunt, huge lions walking straight into us and using our truck as a scratching post (twice!!) and 6 cheetahs (!!) , just insane. How close we got to these animals (through their own doing, not our drivers) and how lucky we got that they happened to be on the road all just perfect. The icing on top of what has been one incredible cake had to have been seeing a cheetah hunt and kill. First spotted on our left hand side deep in some shrubs, sat upright head poking through the greenery, staring intrigued at the herd of gazelles on our right hand side, our truck now separating the two. Patience was the name of this game, our driver said she will hunt if we give her time, so time we did and for the next 30 minutes we watched her as she watched them, many cars leaving before the action happened. First its low, slow movements, purposeful and graceful in the grass, now exposed to the view of the gazelle, hidden slightly by ours and nearby trucks. She tip toes along for 30 metres or so, elegantly straight towards us, silent in the shrubs, any rustle will alarm her prey. And then she found her target, pauses and gets lower, she has to wait for the perfect time, other gazelle will run and alarm the one with its back turned lying down grazing, it’s blissfully unaware of the chaos about to erupt. And then, pounce. She leaps into action and zig zags through the grass, pre-empting the gazelles movements and after a short chase leaps and catches, the gazelle never stood a chance against the fastest animal out here. To kill she’ll suck the blood from the neck, until the gazelle goes completely limp, and then so will she, exhausted from her chase she’s torn between resting before eating but making sure she gets to eat, instead of the hyenas or lions already smelling the kill from many kilometres away. A cheetah’s success rate when hunting is high, they’re fast as fooook, but because of their lack of stamina to then eat said kill, it often gets stolen by other predators that when they haven’t had to work for their meal, have enough energy reserves to fight, and win meal of said cheetah. We waited around for a while to try and catch glimpses of hyenas but decided to continue on, everyone at this point stoked with the sight, our driver who has worked for a guide for 23 years even he hasn’t seen a cheetah kill before, let alone in broad daylight and so close. So incredible we couldn’t believe it, it made us cry, laugh and reminisce for days following.

There’s still so much I have to say about this trip, but after the Masai Mara we did unfortunately head back to the city of Nairobi where I flew home shortly after (not after an unfortunate trip to Singapore’s emergency department!). I’ll do a full recap, tip and trips and packing lists when I have 5 seconds to think, my week at home since finishing this epic trip chaotic to say the least.

Kenya was the perfect finish for the perfect 3 months in Africa, my time here treasured, exceeding all expectations and more.

 Peace out Africa, you were bloody incredible.