Myths and Monsters

    It's funny how you spend the whole day on safari trying to get to animals, and then the animals spend the whole night trying to get at you. Waking up intermittently during the night would provide a quick reminder of just where one fits into the food chain in Africa as a cacophony of hyena noises could be heard uncomfortably close to the tent. When we got up for the morning game drive, we quickly found a large trail of ants coming through the front of the tent and extending to the shower in the back. We got dressed and grabbed the bug spray. Within two minutes, thousands of dead ants lay curled on the floor, and we were forced outside by the fumes. Ilkeliani provides a wake-up service complete with coffee, tea and biscuits, which we enjoyed outside under the moonlight while our tent slowly became habitable again. When the time came for the drive, we headed to the walk-through tent at the entrance of the camp and waited for Dominick. 

Joe scoping out hyena.

Me scoping out more sleep.

    When Dominick arrived we made plans to go on a hunt for the elusive Black Rhino (which he had actually found the morning prior), and we set out on a long drive southward. On the way, we saw a few hot-air balloons rising above the grasslands. This is a very unique (but quite expensive) way to see the Mara, and Dominick told us it was mostly the Chinese who are willing to pay for the flights. We passed a few interesting birds and other animals as we drove, and we eventually arrived at some hills near the border with Tanzania to be told that we were finally in the land of the Rhino.

I guess he was renting it out that day.

    After searching around in the tall grass for the majority of the drive, we were forced to give up on Rhino hunting for the morning and turn back towards camp. We felt a little disappointed that we had apparently wasted a drive, but we got a huge boost when Dominick suddenly stopped next to a stream and exclaimed "Whoa! We got a big boy here!"

And indeed he was a big boy.

Looking regal.

Uncomfortably close.

Gold and Green

    We were feeling much better as Dominick hurried us back for breakfast. As we crested a large, open hill, the unmistakable outline of a bunch of vehicles came into view, and we once again got excited about the prospect of some rare find. As we neared, it became clear that we were to witness one of the rarer sights in the Mara: The filming of the Bollywood movie.

Masai actors

Do they have Oscars in India?

Another classic Mara shot.

    We had almost reached the camp when we stumbled upon two male cheetah resting in the morning sun. We took another frenzy of photos before finishing the trip back past a troop of small monkeys.

Cheetah One.

Cheetah Two.

Monkey on the run.

    When we got back to camp, we were greeted at the entrance tent and invited to go on a nature walk and visit a Masai village after eating. The walk would be free, but admission to the village would be 2,000 shillings apiece. That was way too expensive in light of the fact that I had zero dollars after our stop on the way into camp the day before, but Joe agreed to pay 1,000 for each of us for admission. Our guide-to-be Julius said that probably wouldn't be enough, but agreed to take us to the village and ask after I threatened that we could just skip the Masai village. We agreed to that plan and headed to the main tent for breakfast.

Which was delicious.

    Our walk with Julius started out with him talking about the various plants and animals in the Mara, and how the Masai use them for medicines and the like. We caught a glimpse of a chameleon headed into the scrub, and made toothbrushes from a tree (Julius made the claim that he didn't need any fancy toothpaste because all he needed was this one type of tree, but I would argue that he didn't need any fancy toothpaste mostly because he didn't have many of his teeth).

The chameleon.

Probably deadly.

Julius leading the way.

   We eventually stopped in the open and Julius started to instruct us on how to throw a spear. After a few example throws, we each too a shot at tossing it. Joe asked him if he had killed a lion before, and he replied: "Lots." Actually, all Masai people would answer in the same way. It's probably comparable to asking an anesthesiologist how many intubations over a retrograde wire they've done. You can usually arrive at an accurate estimation by using the following formula: Number of times actually done = Number of times claimed x 0.

"Where is the trigger on this thing?"

Practicing for the long-distance regional anesthesia competition.

Julius showing us how it's done.

    We then continued on to the Masai village, at which point we were greeted by the chief of the village's son. We told him we only had 2,000 we could spend on entrance, and he asked for 3,000. We again offered to skip the village, and he agreed to our original offer. A group of Masai men in traditional warrior garb then assembled outside the village and performed what was described as traditional Masai songs while moving towards the entrance. At this point they stopped and started a jumping competition. We even participated in the competition for a little bit. Apparently, the guy who jumps highest gets the most girlfriends, and since the Masai have no limit on the number of wives they can marry, the ability to jump high is an advantageous trait.

Freaking American's trying to short-change us.

"I've got their money! Let's bail!"

Bronze

Silver

Gold

Joe in the chief's lion hat.

"Now dance, minions!"

    We then went into the village where we were to visit a traditional house, hear the women sing, and have the option of visiting a small gift area where no one would be offended by our not purchasing anything (or so we were told). We started by listening to the women sing, then watched the men make fire from two sticks (it took all of a minute). The chief's son then asked us to buy the sticks to take their technology back to our country. I refused on the grounds that I didn't have any money (and I already had a Bic lighter at home). We then went into one of the houses. The houses are really short considering the height of the men, and we were told that this was because it was the short women who built the houses. They are made out of mud, sticks and cattle dung, and are not excessively glamorous on the inside. We emerged from the house to find ourselves haggling with the chief's son over the price of two Rungu (throwing clubs). We then were shown to the small gift shop, which turned out to be about the same size as the village. We made our way awkwardly around the tables being asked to touch the wares at each point (as if doing so would put money in my pocket and make me want to spend it). We eventually left and headed back to the tented camp for lunch, leaving a seemingly disappointed Masai village in our financially-deficient wake.

Houses in the village.

Looking back at the entrance to the village.

Kids playing in the streets.

The women singing.

Making fire.

Success!

You break it, you bought it.

(That's a Rungu on the ground in front)

The cowpie walls of the house.

Good place for the family pet.

The master bedroom to Joe's back.

The kitchen/living room

"Please... You must touch..."

    Lunch was ready when we got back. You can judge for yourself how good it was...

Vegetarian Lasagna

Fruit and Ice Cream

    We went back to the tent and tried to get a little more rest before the evening game drive, but once again we were subject to the windless heat of the tent. At one point, Dominick stopped by the tent and told us he would no longer be able to drive us around because he had been reassigned or some such nonsense. When 4pm rolled around, we were happy to be leaving the tent and headed into the cool breeze of the open-air Range Rover. Our new driver, Sami, met us at the entrance tent and we told him that we would like to see a Rhino, if possible, but that cats and kills would be good too. We also suggested getting close to some buffalo (as we had only previously seen them from a distance). He didn't disappoint on the majority of that, and first took us to a recent cheetah kill before we got close to some elephants and a whole mess of buffalo.

This kill was an hour or so old. Note the topi

in the background paying very close attention.

A family of Crowned Crane

A young elephant

The buffalo

Proof I was there

...and proof Joe was too.

This guy wasn't in a good mood.

    We made plans for one last attempt at a Rhino in the AM, returned to camp, and got ready for dinner. I again was charging my camera during dinner, but I did capture a shot of the sunset and the moonrise from the raised platform before we called it a night.

Always worth a picture

Moon reflecting on the rail.