Grew's News 3: Charged in the Masai Mara!

My apologies for the tardiness of my posts. I have just spent two hours trying to upload images to my previous post with the end result of one new photo. Grrrrrrr!!! The internet speed is slow and the connection is unreliable so I may need to add more photos when I get home.
Let me update you on our most recent adventures! Our team has just spent the past few days on safari in the Masai Mara. We stayed in a lovely tented camp located just outside the park, had 4 game drives and visited a traditional Masai village. The weather was lovely, although we did get some rain. Our group enjoyed the beautiful vistas, numerous animal and bird species and especially the kindness and hospitality of the Masai people. We were even greeted in the traditional Masai way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o49ko_68Qw&feature=youtu.be

The Masai Mara is the northern portion of the Serengeti Plains. It is comprised of approximately 1510 sq km of open grassland. This year the rains have come early and in some places the grass is long and green. This provides great nutrition for many of the species within the park but also makes it more difficult to see some of the animals. When I travelled to the same park in 2006, the country was experiencing the seventh year of drought conditions. Everything, at that time, was brown and crispy. It is wonderful to see the contrast.
On our first game drive, as we approached the gate, I spotted a large number of women in Masai dress ready to try to sell us their wares. When some of us got off the bus to use the bathroom, we were ready targets for the hard sell. "Hello, Hello, 1000 shillings!" This was chanted over and over by multiple women at the same time. After using the modest bathroom facilities I attempted to return to the bus. I was immediately approached by the women and when I appeared interested they completely swarmed me, each women trying to sell me her items, each saying, "Hello, 1000 shillings!", over and over. When I realized that it was impossible to conduct a transaction in that melee I returned to the bus. There, they starting tossing bracelets inside hoping that I would buy. Eventually I was able to broker a deal with Anna, one of the women, and I have a few special mementos of being "charged" by eager women merchants. One of our youngest travellers asked me why the women were so forceful and I pointed out that our bus was stopped for only 10-15 minutes and in that time these women needed to make a sale. The money from this sale would surely be used to buy food and to support the entire community. With so much at stake they were motivated! I should also point out that the Masai Mara is called that for a reason. The park is located on land used traditionally by the Masai people. They have been displaced and dispossessed for the last 100 years. As such they have had to adapt and many now rely on tourism for their primary income. We are their customers!

Charged by Masai Women Merchants!

On our third game drive we had another exciting adventure, this time with a single, much larger creature! It began to rain as we entered the park and at one point we approached a lone male elephant close to the right hand side of the road. He very quickly let us know that he was not happy with us by flapping his ears, staring in our direction and then he began his "charge". Our driver, ever alert however, simply drove away but many participants got some good pictures of a very grumpy looking elephant!

Of course we also saw many other interesting species including, but not limited to, a leopard, buffalo, zebras, elephants, giraffes, lions, cheetahs, topis, Thompson gazelles, impalas, and enough birds to keep our resident ornithologist smiling. I have included only a few of these amazing creatures for your viewing pleasure. A special thank you to James Barber for the high quality animal photos in this blog post!

Leaping Male Impala

Acacia Tree and Elephant

Lilac-Breasted Roller

Lounging Leopard

Giraffes Aplenty!

Pied Kingfisher

Woodland Kingfisher

Chin-Spot Batis

During one of our afternoons a group of us hired two hotel employees, local Masai men, to escort us to their manyatta. Along the route Kelvin and Moran taught us about the uses of local plants for medicinal purposes, how the Masai graze their cattle and demonstrated the use of some of their weapons. We were greeted at the small village by a group of young Masai men who shared some of their traditional dances. Next we had the opportunity to go inside a boma (a Masai home) and two men demonstrated how they make fire with wooden sticks and tinder. It was a lovely and informative trip. In the links below you can learn how the Masai warriors make fire and see them practise their jumping.

https://youtu.be/Rr9DWpGyvl4

https://youtu.be/u0vkv9VvrVU