Masai Mara

Masai Mara, Kenya

We booked our tour through a company called Elida Tours and Safaris. The company is a ran by a husband and wife team (David and Elizabeth) and they have been so wonderful to work with. The customer service has been impeccable.

Elizabeth has been following up with me throughout our whole trip and David was waiting at our hotel bright an early to go over the itinerary with us with introduce us to our driver and guide for the next four days - Leonard.

Leonard seems really nice and provided some nice commentary along the 5.5 hour drive to the game reserve. We stopped along the way at a Great Rift Vally viewing area and a minimalist encampment for bathroom breaks and to stretch our legs.

But, the last 2 hours of the drive were pretty rough and intense. The nice paved road turned to dirt and rocks and it was insanely bumpy. I was pretty sure Josh was going to puke at a couple points (you know he gets motion sickness these days in his old age) and I’m a little bruised up where my arm kept hitting the metal pole in the pop-up van.

Leonard assures me he is a good driver and he says he’s been a guide in the Masai Mara park for over fifteen years. We talked at length about the polygamous marriages of Masai men. Those who know me well, know my interest in polygamy culture and my obsession with all those multi-wife reality shows. I even did a final paper on sex as currency in modern day polygamist marriage for a History of Sex class in college.

So, I quite enjoyed this conversation. Leonard said some Masai men who are wealthy can have 5 or 6 wives. They all live in different huts and he says the generally get along. Unlike American fundamentalist Morman polygamist, Masai women pretty much just raise their own kids and there isn’t much sharing of a child rearing responsibilities like we see a lot of here ( on tv anyway). Leonard said if we would like, we could take a walk to one of the Masai villages near our camp and meet some locals.

The Masai Mara reserve and specially the Ol Moran Camp where we are staying is located in Masai territory. We passed many Masai settlements on our way in and saw lots of Masai people herding goats and cattle and working/shopping in the markets.

Cattle are the main industry of the Masai people and the more cows and goats you have the better off you are and the more wives you can afford. A typical dowery for marriage is ten cows and once cow clean cost around $450.00 .

We’ve heard from several of our drivers and hotel staff that Masai people are considered very honest, trustworthy and brave. In Zanzibar many hotels will hire Masai men exclusively for their security detail because of their culture of veracity.

Only being in camp for less than a few hours, I can already vouch for the bravery. Our camp is not fenced, but is guarded by Masai warriors armed with only sticks and the occasional machete. And, we passed several groups of young - like 6 or 7 year old - Masai boys herding goats during our drive into the park. Just pushing their goats right along while lions and cheetahs could be lurking anywhere.

The Masai Mara Reserve is not a fenced reserve like Kruger in South Africa was. The animals are free to roam, which resulted in us seeing zebra, giraffes and a jackal.

The “amenities” here like internet, electricity and hot water are scarce! Hot water is available via a wood fire stove that heats water for the pipes from 5:30 am to 7:00 am and then again from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm. Electricity in the tents for lights and charging our phones is only available from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm, the WiFi router is only available during electricity hours and only reaches the dining tent. Breakfast is from 6-8 lunch is form 1-3 and dinner is from 7-9.

Our game drive tonight didn’t return until almost 7 pm and as you can see - dinner, hot water, internet and electricity all happen around the same time. We had to prioritize and make some cuts. So, tonight I took a cold shower just before the lights turned out and I’m writing this blog (which I won’t be able to post until tomorrow at the earliest) by the light of my battery powered headlamp.

But, honestly, tonight’s game drive was so incredible - I’m not even mad! Leonard did an amazing job of getting us great views of really cool animals.

He argued with park rangers to let us go off road to view two cheetahs who had just killed a wildebeest and were feasting with bloody paws on a hill. He drove in circles for 20 minutes to get us the best angle on two male lions who initially circled a water buffalo - considering a kill attempt - before backing off and then spent time lounging and playing by the watering holE.

We also saw several groups of elephants, tons of wildebeests, zebras, mongoose clans and two warthogs right outside camp. We were close enough to smell the warthogs and - let me tell you - Pumba didn’t lie about clearing out the watering hole with his foul smell!

Tomorrow we are headed out early with a bag lunch for a full day game drive that will keep us away from camp for most of the entire day. I can’t wait!