Masaai Mara & Lake Nakuru

It's been 9 days since my last confession ... I mean blog!! Sorry it's taken me so long for any updates but Dom and I have spent the last weekend roughing it in Masaai Mara & Lake Nakuru on a four day adventure safari!!! I would put pictures up ... but this computer doesn't seem to want to accept my camera so you can check out Dom's blog, or be patient and wait until I get home to put some up, you choose :)

Masaai Mara & Lake Nakuru are almost too beautiful to put into words, or even to capture on film, but I will do my best to share the experience with you. Just picture everything you've ever seen on television and movies about the "African Landscape", but then add the smells and sounds of nature at its finest, and elephants within ten feet of your safari van, and you're almost there. Then to top it off ... play the soundtrack to "The Lion King" in your mind for four straight days and you'll have an idea of what it was like for me.

Our safari (KiSwahili for "journey") began Friday morning bright and early for a four hour drive to Lake Nakuru with out good ole pal and guide Barry taking the wheel. Once we arrived and settled into our "budget lodge" it was off for a late afternoon game drive through Lake Nakuru. As soon as we got there it was animals left, right and centre. We saw White Rhinos with new little babies, warthogs (to which I consitently sang in my head "when I was a young warthog..."), giraffes, wildabeast and even a hyena which are said to be rare to ever see. We also parked up on this overlook called "baboon point" where sure enough baboons run the place. As soon as we got out of the van a baboon walked right up to it and jumped in before we had time to close the door!!! They are little scavengars ... but we got them out before they stole anything!!!!

The next day it was off to Masaai Mara for the big game drives!! When we arrived we set up shop at our permanent camp site ... tents with real beds, indoor plumbing and everything!! We had a little siesta as it had been a long, and bumpy, ride and then it was off to explore one of the most beautiful parks in the world. Within an hour and a half of being there we came accross a herd of elephants and we even found two lions that were in the midst of their mating ritual. The way it works, a nature lesson for all of you, is that the lion and his missus seperate from the pride for 7 days where they go without food and just "do it" every 15-20 minutes or so until the seven days are up, then its time to feast. Imagine ... all that time without eating, haha a nightmare if you ask me ... haha! We drove right over to them and the lion actually got right up and mounted his lady friend with us no more than 3 meters away from them!! So James ... unfortunately I will not be able to bring you back a lion cub this time round, but in some odd months (whatever the gestation period for a lion is) I know where to go back and get you one!!!

We spent all of Sunday doing a game drive finding our way down to the border of Tanzania and Kenya ... so I've officially been in two African countries and seen the Serengetti, but I don't know if it really counts :) We also happened upon a family of hippos, Africa's deadliest animal, and boy are they a sight!! They just lie there and do absolutely nothing and make intermitten groans and sounds that remind me a lot like the starting of a motor boat ... needless to say Dom and I kept our distance!!!

At the end of the day we were fortunate enough to go and visit a real Masaai Tribe Village. The Masaai Tribe is one of the oldest tribes in Africa, and the world, that still live life according to the traditions of yesteryear. They brought us into their village, showed us their houses ... which are made of sticks and cow poop mixed with mud that the women of the village build. The way it works is that each village has a polygamist chief (which they are quite proud of) and each of his wives builds a house for that relationship. So the more houses, the more wives!! The Masaai also survive on a diet solely provided to them by the cows, goats, and sheep that they keep within the walls of their village, as the village is protected by a high fence to keep the lions and leopards at bay!! They use the milk from the goats and the cows, which they mix with cows blood, and heat before they drink. Aside from that they eat the meat from the three types of animals ... that's it. Imagine... warm bloody milk ... mmmmm!!! They also showed us how to create fire using just two sticks and some hay ... I probably will never be able to recreate it myself, but it was cool to watch!! They ended the tour with a dance and song by the males and then the females which are traditions to them, it was quite neat!!! Finally ... we were allowed to purchase or trade them for some of their homemade crafts should we want and then it was time to go!!

When we got back to camp for the night I had an interesting run in with a dung beetle. I got smoked in the head with, what I thought, was a rock or a ball ... which happened only after I got up to make a new cup of tea since a moth decided to dive bomb right into my first cup and drown itself. Whatever had hit me in the head, which hurt if you cared to know, fell to the ground and when I looked closely it turned out to be a huge dung beetle. This thing was bigger than a golf ball ... it was crazy!!! And ... everyone laughed at my expense on both accounts ... felt just like I was back at home :)

On Monday we headed for an early morning game drive before it was back to Nairobi for our last bit of time with both of our projects, which is where we will spend the next few days. I will be unlikely to make any more posts before I get home so bear with me!! And for those of you reading this wondering if I've been emailing as well, I haven't been doing the mass email thing, so don't think I've forgotten about you all!!! Look forward to sharing it all with you sooner than later and I have more than enough pictures that we can arrange a slideshow anytime!!

To all of my readers ... thank you for taking the time and interest in this adventure of mine. It is one I'm unlikely to forget anytime soon and without all of your help this whole thing probably wouldn't have been possible. If you ever have time in your lives to visit this wonderful place please do so ... Kenya, and all of Africa for that matter, is not what people want you to think it is and it's a truly magnificent and wonderful place that is entirely misunderstood.