Africa Part 9 of 10

As we were driving across the vast open savannah watching animals, we saw an unlikely sight; a person walking along. He was a Masai. From what I understand, there are two things you need to do to become a Masai warrior (besides being born into the Masai tribe).

1) You must kill a lion. Sure, it sounds tough, but they get to use their club. I don't know from what tree they get their club, but it looks like a small branch with an enlarged bulb shaped growth on one end. Killing the lion is the easy part.

2) At the age of 12, they must, without flinching a muscle or getting anesthetic, be circumcised. Count me out.

Every so often, we would see one of these guys crossing the plains. Some of the tour vehicles had Masai in the car with them as tour guides. They also came in handy if the vehicle got stuck, the Masai would get out and lock in the hubs (I saw that happen a couple of times).

Shortly before lunch, we spotted a few vehicles jockeying for position around some bushes, so we headed their way. We pulled in and could see a female lion in plain view and the tail end of another partially hidden by some bushes. We thought it was a male but couldn't tell because the head was hidden.

This surprised me, because I have always heard that "You can't hide your lion eyes!" (Oh, that was bad). A few minutes later, he got up turned around. Paying no attention to the spectators, he came over and made his move on the little lady. From her body language and growl, it was obvious that she was not impressed with his king-ness. Dejected and embarrassed, he went and hid behind another bush to sulk. We pulled up and got a great view of him sitting there pouting. He was very regal and we watched him for quite a while.

Then, on the way to the lunch spot, we stopped beside the river and took a pit stop. Here we had to balance between modesty and safety. I could see crocs and hippos in the river and other animals back in the distance, so I didn't venture too far into the shrubbery to use the facilities. We then stopped for lunch, which we ate in the shade beside the river. This seemed to be the designated lunching area because there were many other groups there also.

While the male lion was the animal sighting of the day, the event of the day was yet to come. After lunch we headed just up river and found a large group (thousands) of wildebeest waiting to cross the river. They were waiting for someone to lead them across. We tried to get into good position, as did some other vehicles. The wildebeest would slowly move closer and closer to the river. They got to the top bank but none would go down the bank to the edge of the water.

Another wanna be leader dude started leading a large portion of the group around behind us down close to the river. This caused people, including us to move to look for a better view. It was another fake out. Back over at the original crossing area, they had regrouped and were getting closer again. Finally, two wildebeest walked down the bank and right down to the water. Something spooked them and they turned and ran back up the bank, which caused the crowd of wildebeest to retreat. It was no wonder they were spooked, we could see crocodiles and hippos in the water. But perhaps even more daunting to the would-be crossers were the wildebeest carcasses in various positions stuck in the shallow part of the river. There were legs sticking up here and there as a reminder to the rest that crossing could be dangerous.

Meanwhile, back around behind us, one brave wildebeest was again leading a single file line toward the water. We pulled up beside our other van and had the perfect spot, right on the edge of the river bank. The ledge was maybe 10 feet high, so we had an elevated vantage point. We had an unobstructed view of this guy as he paused for a moment at the edge of the water, and then just marched across. The others followed, single file. He just marched all the way to the other side. The entire herd gathered and crowded along the riverbank, but they would just follow the one in front of them into the river. There were a couple times when there were a couple lines at a time, but they would mostly stick to one single file line.

Finally, after about an hour of waiting, watching and hoping, they were crossing. We all watched with anticipation, knowing that at any second the crocs would snag one. It didn't happen.

We watched for 30 minutes or so while probably a couple thousand crossed. On the entrance side, they were jumping and falling over each other and the rocks. Still, they mostly waited for a spot in line before getting wet. Once they reached the other side, they would take off and run up the opposite bank, then continue on single file. Eventually, they stopped crossing, leaving some to cross at a later time. A couple of zebras came down as far as the water, but then just took a drink and ended up staying with the group that would need to cross later. I guess the crocs had had enough wildebeest and didn't want anymore rotting in the water. It almost made me feel safe enough to cross (not).

This was definitely the highlight of the safari for me. It was very surreal; yeah there were many surreal moments for me on this trip. After watching the crossing, we headed back toward the lodge. It had taken us a few hours to get this far and we wanted to be able to see more animals before we had to be back. The day was awesome.

Well, there were a couple animals that we hadn't gotten to see yet; the rhino and the leopard. Some of us decided to get up and go on an early morning ride the last day to go see the rhinos. There are less than 30 rhinos in all of Masai Mara, so they are very difficult to find in the wild. However, due to the fact that they are endangered, they have a few that they use for studying and breading. They keep these under guard 24 hours a day and put them in pens at night. During the day, they let them out to roam. Well, since these are used to people (I guess), they let us out of the van and we followed one of the guards up a trail until we came upon them. It was early (between 6 and 7) and the wind was coming down the hillside making us all cold. We were on an African Safari and we were freezing.

The Rhinos are some hefty animals. They looked indestructible, but also seemed very docile. We were able to get with in about 10 feet of them and it was a bit unnerving considering the size of that horn on their huge head. We took turns posing for pictures, so I was standing there trying to act casual knowing full well there were three rhinos behind me. I held my forced smile as I wondered what was taking so long to push the shutter release. I had this terrible feeling that at any second one of them would decide to charge. Talk about getting a horn up the wazungu! After hanging out with them for awhile, we rode around looking for other animals, one in particular; the leopard. We ran out of time and had to get back so we could leave for Nairobi, no leopard this trip.

Back at the lodge, we all loaded back into the vans and headed out. First we had to backtrack on the same dirt road we came in on. Then we traveled down the main highway between The Mara and Nairobi. This is the same road that all tourists would need to travel to get to the game park, unless they flew into one of the remote airstrips (which I would strongly advise).

This highway cannot be effectively explained in words. It defies all logical definitions of roadways. It has more potholes per Kilometer than any other stretch of road in the world (ok, I'm just guessing here). Big potholes, little potholes, potholes in asphalt, potholes in gravel, potholes in dirt. Some potholes were so big that they had potholes inside of them. This is a two-lane highway, however, the asphalt (where available) was about a lane and a half wide. Lines? We don't need no stinkin' lines! Kenya is one of those countries that you supposedly drive on the left hand side of the road. "My left or your left"? seems to be the question. But, on this highway, there is no such rule.

We were on the left hand side, the right hand side, the middle, the left shoulder, the right shoulder, parallel, perpendicular, bobbing and weaving. Now, don't get me wrong, there where stretches were we actually hit cruising speeds of about 65-70. That doesn't sound too bad, but that's kilometers per hour, which is just over 40 MPH. Another odd thing is that every once in a while, just for kicks, they had thrown in a speed bump; Yup, across the highway. A couple questions here:

1) Why put in speed bumps when the potholes slow you to a crawl anyway? And

2) Don't you think that asphalt could be put to better use by actually filling a couple potholes?

My theory is that maybe when a vehicle gets stuck in a big pothole, they just pave over it, creating a speed bump.

Shortly into our trip from Masai Mara to Nairobi, I grabbed a can of coke from the cooler. Kenya still has pull-tabs; you know the old pull-em-and-chuck-em type. Anyway, as you can imagine, the can was kinda shook up already, so it fizzed out a bit when opened. Well, before I could get a drink, we were bouncin' to and fro while zigzagging down the road. I knew immediately that this was not a wise thing to do. As I was spilling it everywhere, I looked for that slight pause in the action where I could try to sip some. I tried covering it with some tissue I had, that only made it build up pressure and squirt further. Finally, my opportunity arose; I slammed the can against my mouth and created a suction cup with my lips. I could feel the pressure build up between swallows as I was bouncing around with this can pressed to my face. My cheeks were expanding, but I kept it there until I was able to drink about half the can. Phew, talk about "drinking responsibly"! What a pain, from now on, it's nothing but resealable bottles on this road.

Also on this drive I saw some road repair going on. There was a guy with a shovel digging some dirt from beside the road and throwing it into a rut in the road. I'm thinking that would be a full time job just filling that one rut. Maybe they could start putting up those signs "This pothole maintained by the Orongo family". I also saw a sign on the highway "Road Work Ahead". I never actually saw anybody doing anything. I guess, without punctuation, it's hard to tell what it was trying to say. I think it may have been a question. Such as: Does the "Road Work Ahead"? I'd have to say "No, not very well."

Another bonus in making the 4 to 5 hour drive, we went down and across the Great Rift Valley. Other than sounding impressive and being one of the largest valleys in the World, there wasn't a whole lot there. We got to get out on one side and look over it. The only problem was, there were a bunch of curios shops there. This is where we ran into the most high pressure sales dudes. Almost to the point of irritating. All these shops were situated on the side of a steep mountain, so the entire strip-mall (4 or 5 shops) was built on an overhang. On the upside, they had restrooms; well they were actually self cleaning outhouses. This is because the hole had no bottom. After fertilizing the hillside, we were back on the road.

Upon arriving in Nairobi, we went to a guest house that let us shower and relax for awhile. Our suitcases showed up and only one of mine was there. Apparently, they decided that they didn't quite have room for them all, so two bags were just going to meet us at the airport. I had been planning on being able to organize and repack both. Besides, I couldn't find my ticket stubs and flight information paperwork in the suitcase that came. I figured I would just locate it when we arrived at the airport.

Dinner at Carnivores was very interesting. I was a bit disappointed in the selections that night; I had hoped to try zebra or giraffe. The unusual meats on the menu that night were:

Ostrich - This was my favorite of the exotic meat, it was tender and had sort of a sweet taste.

Crocodile - So-so, it seemed to have quite a bit of fat and small bones. Reminded me a little of lobster, but then again, it's been over 20 years since I had lobster.

Gazelle - This was served seasoned in meat balls, it was pretty good.