Saturday, July 28, 2007
17 February: Mount Kenya to Nairobi to Stuttgart
Monday, July 23, 2007
16 February: Mount Kenya
Dinner was lovely – I had pasta with fresh mozzarella and tomatoes for a light change of pace and then we trundled off to bed.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
15 February: Masai Mara to Mount Kenya
We climbed into two Toyota minivans (now we really knew we were back in civilization) and stopped at the school first, driving through a secure gate into the dirt courtyard, where a bunch of girls with close-cropped hair in matching bright-colored dresses were running around. They all stared at us when we arrived; some waved and giggled shyly when we waved back. The school principal greeted us warmly and showed us around, obviously quite proud of her students’ achievements. In her office she showed us a board displaying the students' test scores in various subjects over the past few years. Another listed the top student from each class and what secondary school and university they had attended after graduating. A small number of the students are orphans; their names were listed separately and it was obvious that they receive special attention. The school is funded in part by the Presbyterian Church but is a government school (as opposed to private). The grounds were tidy and the buildings – simple concrete structures with corrugated metal roofs – looked to be in good condition; there was even a computer lab. We were led into a 5th grade classroom where the girls, who are just starting to learn English, sang several perfectly enunciated songs. Outside, a 7th-grade class recited a poem for us on the theme, “education is the key to life.” I felt a bit awkward with all those wide-eyed faces gaping at us, but I really enjoyed our visit. I wish we had had the opportunity to talk to some of the girls individually.
Right next door to the school is the Nanyuki Spinners and Weavers project, also funded in part by the Presbyterian Church to provide poor, widowed, and single women with weaving skills to support themselves and their families. We got to see the entire process from start to finish as we proceeded through a series of rooms full of women, their hands in constant motion: first carding and spinning the wool into yarn, then boiling and dyeing the yarn with all-natural plant materials (the dyeing takes place outside, in heavy iron pots over open fires), and finally weaving the yarn into rugs, wall hangings, shawls, and sweaters. Outside, the weavers’ small flock of sheep was wandering freely on the grounds. Many of us bought items from the small shop – DH and I finally decided on a wall hanging of three elephants under an acacia tree ($58), similar to the “Elephant Runner” pictured on their website. Several women in the weaving room were working on a special order of wall hangings depicting two cat faces in bright shades of purple, green, and orange – they were gorgeous and I really wish they had had some of that design available for sale.
Then it was on to the Mount Kenya Safari Club, nestled in the lushly wooded foothills below the craggy, snow-topped mountain (the second-highest in Africa) that gives the club its name. I had high expectations for the Safari Club, given its illustrious history: it was founded in 1959 as an exclusive hunting retreat by the movie star William Holden and his friends, and its membership roster reads like a “who’s-who” of international aristocracy and celebrity (charter members included Walt Disney, John Wayne, Lyndon Johnson, Clark Gable, and William Randolph Hearst). The club is now a Fairmont hotel, but signs of its storied past are everywhere. The low-slung main buildings have an understated elegance – posh but not overdone, with hunting trophies everywhere and lovely courtyard gardens.
For the moment, Mount Kenya itself was hidden in the clouds. We sat in a spacious lounge, enjoying the view of the very tempting pool and landscaped grounds framed between two giant elephant tusks, while Tonnie checked us in. Then we went straight to the dining room for lunch, which was a bit of a disaster. The place was busy, with what looked like a lot of businessmen, although nowhere near full. We never got the drinks we ordered, there was a huge line for the buffet, and by the time we got to the food, they had run out of all sorts of things. DH finally gave up and decided not to eat (very unusual for DH). I ate quickly, then we signed up for a horseback ride tomorrow afternoon before heading off in search of our room. The lodgings sprawl over many acres (they actually have vans to take guests to their rooms) and I think ours was one of the furthest away, but we weren’t complaining, as we needed the exercise. A guard in a police officer-type uniform encountered us mid-way and insisted on carrying one of our backpacks and walking us all the way to our “riverside cabin” (#119 – by “riverside” I think they mean that you can hear the river). He wavered momentarily by our door as if he might be expecting a tip, but we didn’t give him one since we hadn’t requested his services. Our room was huge and nicely appointed, with a stone fireplace, comfortable armchairs in a large sitting area, and a private veranda. We had a gray marble bathroom with two (!) sinks, a shower, and sunken tub. (We had only been supplied with one small bottle of water and had to request more from the front desk; remember that we even brushed our teeth with bottled water.) In spite of all this, the Safari Club was not one of our favorite lodgings on the trip. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I couldn't help feeling like the whole place was a little faded, perhaps resting a bit too heavily on its laurels.
We had the afternoon to ourselves so DH and I visited the animal orphanage (1000 shillings per person). This experience was even better than advertised. We simply showed up at the gate, where we were met by a very nice young woman who gave us a personal guided tour. First we went over to visit the three orphaned cheetahs (two brothers and a sister) because it was their feeding time. They were all lying on top of a sort of tree house structure in one corner of their enclosure and really had to be convinced that it was worth the trouble to come over for their supper. They were fed big bowls of raw meat, one at a time, in a separate small enclosure, then sprawled on the ground and cleaned their faces. After seeing these amazing cats in the wild, it was nice to get a close look at them, but I think this was the first time I realized that visiting a zoo will never be the same. Next we met Patricia the ostrich, who snapped corn out of our hands, Oliver the adorable 4-month-old Cape buffalo (hard to believe he would turn into one of Africa’s most dangerous animals), a baby eland, and a baby wildebeest, all of whom were wandering freely on the grounds of the orphanage. Oliver was so persistent in his pursuit of our corn that our guide had to lure him away and put him in his pen. We saw two African porcupines and a variety of monkeys, including a very inquisitive Sykes's monkey and a black-and-white Colobus named Jack, who is wild but comes to visit his friends every day. He will jump on your arm to be fed but unfortunately he wasn’t feeling very sociable when we visited. I did feed another Colobus through the wire fencing – I had never felt a monkey’s hand before, and the sensation of those small, soft fingers taking the corn out of my hand was unforgettable.
The parade of animals went on and on…various species of small cats (including forest cats with kittens that looked just like house cats), two “zebroids” (half horse, half zebra – originally bred in an attempt to develop a new pack animal), a pair of pygmy hippos who were fast asleep in a mud puddle, two white rhinos (the female has a two-and-a-half-foot-long horn!), a giant tortoise, and a pair of crowned cranes (the male had broken its wing, so they brought the female in too because they mate for life). The orphanage also has a captive breeding program underway for the bongo, a beautiful, endangered forest antelope with dramatic white stripes. One of the bongos had just given birth, and for the sum of $500 the youngster was available for “adoption” complete with naming rights. We really enjoyed our visit to the orphanage and were quite impressed with the whole operation; it is truly much more than an orphanage, as they are engaged in a variety of breeding programs and release many animals back into the wild. We assured our guide that we would come back tomorrow to make a donation to their efforts.
After our visit to the orphanage, we wandered through the club’s numerous art galleries and shops, then made our way back to our room. Dinner was a much more pleasant affair – a four-course meal (I had beef with a mushroom sauce) with a delicious pineapple and ice cream dessert. Now that we had finally arrived at Mount Kenya, we were really struck by the fact that our African safari was coming to a close. Soon we would be returning to Nairobi for our flights home, but we were looking forward to our final day – especially our visit to Sweetwaters Game Reserve to see Morani the “tame” black rhino.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
14 April: Masai Mara
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
13 February: Serengeti to Masai Mara
We boarded an aging Aero Kenya L410 twin-prop with balding tires and flew to Kisumu, just over the border back in
Our third flight of the day (about 25 minutes) brought us to Kichwa Tembo private airstrip, which consists of a dirt runway and a small thatched-roof gazebo ringed with benches. As we descended we could see the characteristic lone acacias dotting the plain, which is why the Maasai call this area the “spotted land.” Two warthogs scampered into the grass, tails wagging, as we touched down. At an elevation of 5,360 feet, I was relieved to find the weather relatively cool and partly cloudy after the heat of the Serengeti.
The Masai Mara, a 1500-square-kilometer private game preserve operated by the non-profit Mara Conservancy, is effectively the continuation of
We clambered into two ancient Land Rovers – each outfitted with three stair-stepped bench seats, open sides, and a canvas roof – for the 20-minute drive to camp. Noticeably lacking were seatbelts and grab handles; all we had to hold on to were metal bars spanning the truck above each seat (this will become important later in the day!). Along the way we stopped under a tree and Wesley, our driver, pointed out a cheetah mom and her three 9-month-old cubs lounging in the tall grass less than fifteen feet away. Their bellies looked full and they were splayed out contentedly, completely ignoring us! We were absolutely thrilled to finally get up close and personal with cheetahs, although the grass was so high that it was next to impossible to get any clear photos. Nevertheless we enjoyed watching them for several minutes, getting our fill of their regal faces, sleek spotted coats, and tufted tails. (Postscript: After our safari I learned about the death of Honey, a Mara cheetah featured on the BBC program “Big Cat Diary.” In late February, Honey was sedated by the
One big difference between the Mara and the other (national) parks we visited is that in the Mara, safari vehicles are allowed to drive off-road. This can be an advantage when you want to get closer to the animals, although I have to question how wise this is from a wildlife protection standpoint, not to mention human safety. More on that later!
Kichwa Tembo tented camp is located in a cluster of trees on a low rise overlooking the Mara. We drove through an electrified fence into the cool shade of the camp and were greeted at the door by several friendly staff members. We made our way through the lovely gift shop out into a grassy area in the middle of the camp, where a number of resident warthogs were grazing on close-cropped grass. We were advised that we could approach the warthogs safely but we were not to try to touch them! Several of the baby warthogs were kneeling on their front legs to eat, which was quite amusing. Two others were taking a snooze by the side of the path as we walked by, so I finally got a good warthog portrait – albeit under less than “natural” conditions. We sat in comfy chairs in the spacious open-air bar and filled out our registration paperwork before being escorted to our tents (I believe there are several dozen in all), which are laid out in a rough half-circle, linked by a maze of stone pathways.
Our tent was the furthest away, nestled among the trees with the sound of a rushing stream nearby. I was totally blown away by the tent – a spacious structure secured to a concrete foundation, with a lovely king-sized bed piled with pillows, a writing desk, brass lamps, candles, and a fully-equipped bathroom that could be separated from the rest of the room with curtain-type tent flaps. The bathroom had a stone-and-cement walk-in shower, a flush toilet, and a sink unit styled to look like a bamboo and wood dressing table, complete with a stool. Outside we had a little covered stone veranda with a couple of chairs and a table.
We cleaned up quickly and went back to the main lodge for lunch. We had the best service and some of the best food of the entire trip here – the staff was very attentive and exceptionally friendly. We enjoyed the excellent salad bar, delicious barbequed lamb, and beef and vegetable kabobs, followed by a selection of glorious desserts, including a macadamia nut and caramel concoction that was to die for! Apparently hearing that we were fawning over his creations, the amiable Chef George came out to say hello. (Later I bought a cookbook in the gift shop featuring the cuisine of CC Africa camps, and there is a picture of Chef George!) After lunch we had a short rest, during which time I sat outside of our tent with my journal, listening to the cacophony of bird calls, the soothing sound of rushing water, and the occasional blast of a hot air balloon rising above the plain in the distance.
We met outside at 3:00 to hear a talk about Maasai culture by Andrew, a 26-year-old Maasai junior elder. He told us quite matter-of-factly that he is married but doesn’t want to have any more wives because he wishes to pursue his education and not be “distracted”. (While Andrew was talking, a huge warthog kept circling us, “clacking” his jaws together incessantly in a futile effort to seduce the female he was pursuing.) Andrew told us that there are approximately 2.5 million Maasai in
We climbed into the trucks for the short drive to the Maasai boma, or village, located on a gently-sloping hillside with a magnificent panoramic view of the Mara. The village was ringed by a wall of sharp-thorned acacia branches woven tightly together to form a thick mass several feet in width (the Maasai version of barbed-wire fencing). Outside the village, we watched a group of “old men” (as Andrew called them) playing a game of Bao on a long wooden board carved with small depressions and some type of round seeds. Andrew showed us the “sandpaper tree” and other useful plants, then took us through one of the four gates into the village (the number of gates represents the number of families in the village). Inside the walls, perhaps twenty huts ringed an inner fenced enclosure, where the cows are kept at night. A group of about a dozen women and girls, who had been busy setting up a market for us just outside the village, all filed into the cattle enclosure and performed a welcoming song for us. They wore bright red, pink, or lavender-colored robes and red-and-black striped sheets draped over their shoulders, along with gorgeous beaded bridal necklaces in bright shades of blue, red, and green. A few also wore elaborate beaded earrings and headdresses. The Maasai women gave the ladies in our group bridal necklaces to wear and the men got long strings of beads, and we all posed for photos. The women were very quiet and shy; I tried to imagine how bizarre it must be to have a constant stream of mostly-white tourists filing through your home all the time, pointing and staring and taking pictures.
Next we watched three young men demonstrate their fire-making technique using a sharp stick and a hollowed-out base of soft wood. They took turns rubbing the stick vigorously into the base until a thin tendril of smoke materialized, then the base was carefully wadded in dry grass, and one of the men blew gently on it until a tiny flame appeared. The whole process took about five minutes, and in the end the man held a flaming torch.
We then toured one of the huts, which looked incredibly small from the outside but contained a hallway and four rooms – one for the goats (which provide warmth at night), two bedrooms (one for the man and one for his wives and children), and a “kitchen” with a fire pit. It was incredibly dark inside so we could barely see, but in my photos you can make out the bed, with a sturdy frame of branches, a straw mattress, and a cowhide blanket. Scattered around were various buckets, sacks, and bits of “modern” clothing. Several houses were under construction so we could see the underlying network of woven branches, which is then covered over with a mixture of mud and dung. We noticed that at least some of the houses had a layer of plastic sheeting under the roof thatch, which is in turn weighted down with stones.
As we walked out again, DH asked Andrew how many cows the village owned. Andrew paused for a moment and then said, “between 60 and 80,” explaining that he couldn’t be more exact because “asking how many cows we have is like asking how much money you make.” Everyone laughed, including Andrew. Then we went to the market that the women had set up outside the village. Andrew instructed us to take a good look around, then pick out what we liked and the men would help us negotiate the prices. He explained that the women share all of the proceeds, so we didn’t need to worry about trying to give everyone our business. DH and I had an impossible time choosing between the vast array of wooden masks, animal carvings, bowls, dishes, and various beaded bracelets and necklaces. DH really wanted a bow and arrow but we were worried about getting it home (since we already have two spears to contend with). We finally settled on a carved elephant mask (not made by the Maasai, but a neighboring tribe), a blue and turquoise beaded bridal necklace, a small gourd “bottle” with a leather strap and beadwork used for collecting cow’s blood, and a necklace of black and blue beads.
The young man serving as our intermediary pointed at each piece we had chosen and called out to the women around the market to determine the price, then laid the items in the grass at our feet. The original prices were 3,000 Kenyan shillings for the mask, 6,000 for the bridal necklace, 2,000 for the gourd, and 1,000 for the necklace, totaling 12,000 shillings or about $170 dollars (1,000 shillings is about $15). Then the bargaining began! Unfortunately we only had 9,000 shillings and 10 Euro left to our name, and I really wanted everything. Our friend immediately offered 11,000 shillings for all four items. DH countered with an offer of 8,500; the Maasai man merely frowned. John then asked what it would be without the necklace; the man picked up the necklace and tossed it a foot or two to the side. An older tribesman came over and was now in discussion with our friend over the prices. While they were at it, DH and I talked to each other in German to discuss our options. We had done this before at the roadside shop in
Everyone else was still finishing up their purchases as dark storm clouds rolled in. It started to sprinkle and the women scurried to pack up their wares. I think we all assumed that we were going back to camp because of the rain, but we headed out on our evening game drive as originally planned. We saw the cheetahs again, still under the same tree, but the light was growing too dim for decent photos. We headed straight into the storm and we could see lightning off in the distance. We weren’t the only ones out there – we could see several trucks making their way across the plain around us. Our driver today was Joseph and he said we were looking for a rhino. I wasn’t keen on finding a rhino when it was too dark to take pictures; in any case, we all had our eyes only on the rapidly approaching storm. Suddenly, as if by some hidden signal, all of the trucks turned around and hightailed it back to the main road, but by now we were well out on the plain and had a long slog back. An arm of the storm had snuck up around us and it started to rain in earnest. Ponchos were passed around but there was no avoiding getting wet – pools of water would collect on the sagging canvas roof and when we hit a large enough bump, the water came sloshing over the side and onto the seats. For the first few bumps most of these sudden waterfalls hit DH’s side of the truck, but eventually I got my fair share of the dousing. We were soaked through in no time! All we could do was try to keep our cameras and binoculars dry. We bounced and rocked along over the rutted track as it got darker by the moment.
DH and I were seated in the very back of our truck with N & D in the middle and MIL & FIL up front. The four of us in back tried to make light of the situation (me: “This wasn’t advertised in the brochure!” N: “I think I’ve entered the fifth stage of dying!”), although we didn’t hear a peep from MIL & FIL, who were hunched over in the front seat and looked quite miserable. I for one was laughing hysterically the whole way. Finally, in pitch blackness, we entered the gates of Kichwa Tembo. The staff ran out to us with umbrellas for the 50-foot dash into the gift shop via a walkway that had turned into a torrential stream (I was quite pleased that my new Gore-tex sneakers didn’t leak!). We all tumbled through the doorway together and stood there looking at each other with dazed expressions.
It was only after a few minutes that I realized J was wiping blood off of his face – and his wife H was bleeding too! It turns out that they were riding in the back of the other truck, went over a particularly large bump, and got thrown into the air and knocked heads, cutting each other with their metal frames of their glasses. J had a deep cut across the bridge of his nose and another on his forehead and H had a nasty gouge just above her right eye. N, a urologist, immediately took control of the situation and performed triage with his wife D serving as nurse. Tonnie had disappeared in the mêlée but came back shortly with a first aid kit. While N was patching up J & H, I looked out the front door and observed the rising water, which was fast approaching the top of the step leading into the building. I asked one of the camp staffers if he had ever seen this much water here and he said no. At some point a very young doctor came on the scene but there wasn’t anything he could do that N hadn’t already done. Frankly he looked very shocked to be there, probably having been called away from a warm dinner! Fortunately J & H were real troopers; once they got over the initial shock, they were smiling and laughing about the whole epsiode. I took some photos of them with N that I am sure they will treasure forever. I felt terrible about having so much fun in our truck when the others were terrified, but luckily their injuries were superficial.
Finally everyone calmed down and we staggered off to our tents, the rain having finally let up. We changed, took hot showers, and hung everything up to dry (which was rather futile given the damp conditions). Our video camera appeared to have condensation inside the eyepiece and was inoperable, but we hoped that it would dry out. We regrouped for dinner and enjoyed another great barbeque with salads and, for desert, éclairs with chocolate and caramel sauce. A cup of hot tea helped warm me up. I asked Tonnie if the rains were going to affect our balloon ride tomorrow morning and he said no, but I was still concerned about the roads being passable. After dinner we watched a slide show about the Mara but I was so exhausted, I could barely keep my eyes open. Back at our tent, we found heart-shaped soapstones on our pillows; a Valentine’s Day gift from Micato. (They must not be that concerned about the weight limit if they are giving us rocks!) We collapsed into bed, incredibly grateful for the hot water bottles, and fell asleep to the sound of the raging river, hoping we wouldn’t be swept away during the night!