Flying high over the Maasai

Update: uploaded some photos to flickr.

Well, back in Nairobi after 3 days out in the Maasai Mara on safari. We left Nigeria last Saturday, flew into Nairobi and stayed the night at the Safari Park Hotel which, as you might have guessed, is safari themed. Rose early on Sunday and caught a light plane out to the Maasai Mara where we were greeted by a tribesman in traditional dress and with the very traditional Maasai name of Jackson. On safari, there are the ‘big 5? which people hope to spot - the lion, elephant, leopard, water buffalo and the rhino. Niall thought that if Jackson could achieve this, we’d have made a Jackson 5. We visited a Maasai village where our guide, Moses, explained various aspects of the Maasai life, including that the jumping was used by the males to impress the women in the village. After seeing the village, none of us was in a hurry to jump particularly high. He also introduced us to the chief of the village, James (?!), who had the distinction of having killed a lion, something which was formerly a rite of passage to manhood for Maasai warriors. We saw inside a traditional hut, formed mainly from cow dung and sticks, and watched some of the young guys start a fire from two pieces of wood. We also learned about various natural remedies, including a tea-like drink made by boiling and straining elephant dung.. uh, that makes it sound really awful, but it didn’t look so bad.

The safari camp was at an ‘eco lodge’ which was great. All power is solar and much of the water is recylced. The rooms are basically permanent tents but they include running water and a flushable toilet. The food was ridiculously good and I had some great afternoon naps between games drives and other activities. One morning we went on a balloon safari which was a pretty amazing, incredible peaceful experience. Our pilot was experienced and did an outstanding job; she took the balloon incredibly low so that we actually dipped below the level of the bank when going over some of the rivers. Over the couple of days we saw heaps of different animals but highlights were probably seeing some male lions at very close proximity, the elephants, a hippo out of the water and maybe the giraffes. I hadn’t realised that all the animals dwelt in such close proximity but they were all very close to each other.