Coming Soon

May 1, 2002-Rescues
(Sarova (Mara) Lion Hill Lodge,
Hyena,
Lioness and cubs)

Happy May Day. Here it’s their Labor Day left over from when they were allied with the Soviet Union. May has such a magical sound to me. It’s our homecoming.

We recognized some of the people at dinner last night. There are two brothers from Hong Kong who are on the same program we are. They said they’d be at our next stop too. The table next to us had an African couple with two young children. The mother sang nursery rhymes and church hymns to keep them amused. Behind us was an Indian family with an infant who had the most hair of any baby I’ve ever seen. He was really adorable. It has been an international group all along.

An American couple told us of an adventure they had that I’m just as happy we missed. Their guide took them on a seldom-traveled road in hope of getting closer to the flamingos and they got stuck in the mud for twelve hours. They thought the guide was going to have a heart attack trying to push the van, but it was totally mired. He would have walked for help, but they were next to a herd of Cape buffalo and he wouldn’t chance it. His mobile phone kept showing “no network” until he finally reached his wife in Nairobi. She called his office in Nairobi and they tried the lodge, but there was no service. They reached the park office and the rescue began. By this time it was after 7 PM and the stranded tourists were planning on spending the night. They had no food but did have plenty of water. Hakuna Mattata (no worries). The rescue van arrived and pulled them out of the mud only to have its battery die. The rescuees became the rescuers and gave the dead battery a jump. The only question I had was about bathroom needs. She said that she slid the door of the van open and hung over the edge while the guide was on the other side of the van. There was an explanation for the lack of cell phone service. Evidently Safaricom, a main provider, had given several dollars worth of free airtime away and people using it jammed the networks.

That brings me to our ride to the Serova Masi Tent Camp today. I watched in fascination as our driver played the game of gamble and pass. Since there are no center lines on the roads it’s the driver’s option as to when to pass. He hangs his head out of the window, sidles over to the other side of the road and gives it a go. I had a birds eye view since I was sitting right behind him. Prosperity was over quickly as we began our approach to the Mara on dirt roads. All the bouncing is a real test of bladder control. It had rained last night and the dirt turned to mud. The lodge owners don’t seem to care if visitors arrive alive since there’s no attempt to groom the dirt. In the rain it turns to slime and the ruts turn into traps. We slithered and slipped our way along as if driving on ice. At times we were at a precarious slant and I found myself leaning to the other side hoping to help maintain the balance. The one thing I knew was that we would not flood our exhaust system. The exhaust pipe runs up the side of the driver’s door of the cab and extends beyond the roof. I wondered if they throw the van away after it finishes one tour of these parks, but Jackson says that they last two years. The Hong Kong brothers got stuck going to the camp and on their game drive. They had to be towed out both times. Fortunately there were other vans around. I think they need a new driver.

We had a lot of time (five hours) to watch the scenery. We were deep in Masi territory and there were many herds of cattle and goats and many kraals. A kraal (corral) is a protective enclosure made of branches. Masi build their dung houses inside the kraals and the livestock is herded inside at night. It’s like a fort.

Current Events

I read a book and we both read the National, the major (perhaps only) English newspaper of Kenya. There were several interesting articles. One was about a demonstration by a radical sect threatening to forcibly circumcise all the women in two tribes between the ages of 15-65 if they didn’t do it voluntarily within the next three months. Female circumcision (clitorectomy) is outlawed now but is still practiced in a minority culture. Another article told about the “iweto.” She’s a wifes wife. If a barren woman so chooses, she may select another woman to provide children who will bear her family name. The iweto is married to the wife of the husband and does her bidding. It was made clear in the article that she wasn’t married to the man. If she already has children, they take the name of the barren woman. If the barren woman wants the iweto to have children with her husband, then that is done. The point is that the barren wife is shamed not to have produced children who will carry her name. In many cases, the wife is older when she chooses an iweto and the younger woman ends up as nursemaid for the husband and his wife. An interesting sidelight was that try as we might, the single article we found in the paper about the U.S. was the basketball game between Sacramento and Utah.

Campy

Our lodging tonight is called a Tent Camp. David keeps walking around and muttering incredulously that we’re gong to sleep in a tent. The camp is an attempt to replicate conditions that game hunters had in the days when they shot guns instead of film. The tent has a roof and cement floor. We can stand up in the middle. The flaps zip shut and the screen sides have pull-up canvas to keep out rain and cold. We’re provided with a candle and flashlight because the generator is turned off from 4-6 PM (we’ll be on games drives then) and from midnight-4 AM. I’m sitting at a desk in the tent and am plugged into electricity so it’s not that primitive. We do have indoor plumbing with a zip door. It seems as clean as some of the other places we’ve stayed. It is however missing netting around the bed. We may have to spray with OFF when we go to sleep. Last night I got tangled up in the netting and got the giggles. I think I woke our neighbors.

This camp offers extras, as did the lodges. When guests have pre-paid for three meals/day, I think that it’s a rip-off to charge for things like a box lunch to take on a drive if you don’t want to come back for lunch.

Re-runs

We’ve now seen the Big Five: elephants, rhinos, leopards, Cape buffalo, and lions. We will go out two more times to see what we’ve seen. The interesting part is that their behavior is always different. That’s the luck of the draw. We always go with high expectations but are prepared for nothing. Tonight we hit a bonanza. We never tire of watching elephants. There was a tiny (for an elephant) one nestled among three aunties. All of a sudden it took off running towards a large female with its little trunk flapping uncontrollably. It looked like the baby might trip over it he was that uncoordinated. When he got to the female and started to nurse, we realized it was his mother.

We saw topis, which we hadn’t seen before. They’re related to gazelles and have distinctive black shoulders and legs. At one point David asked Jackson to stop. He was pointing to a rock by the roadside when the rock wiggled its ears. It was a spotted hyena fast asleep. Much to my delight, we got a good description of how hyenas don’t kill their prey before they eat it. They eviscerate it.

We saw some warthogs and Jackson told us a legend about them. The warthog used to be the most beautiful animal in Africa and loved to gaze at his reflection at the watering hole. He wouldn’t let any animals drink until he had his fill of admiring himself. One day the lioness had enough and chased him. The warthog ran into a porcupine burrow and got needles in his face. That’s why warthogs faces look swollen and why warthogs always enter a burrow backwards even if they’re being chased.

How many vans of tourists will be attracted to a pride of lions with three rambunctious cubs? Today it was fifteen. We all gathered around to watch the mamas roll in the dirt and the cubs romp, play leapfrog, and climb over a fallen tree limb. The females finally got down to the evening’s business and started to organize the hunt as they headed off to work. Their black tipped tails act like flags for the others in the pride to follow through the long grass. One of the cubs turned to face our van and was slowly walking towards us. I was making all kinds of noise about how cute he was when it occurred to me that lions leap. He didn’t and we started to roll on down the road towards another pride.

It’s dark now and we’re zipped into our tent. All the flaps were put up for us when they turned the beds down for the night. It’s very still except for the chirping of crickets and whatever else is chirping out there. We just heard what sounded like large animal and I wonder who it is and where it is. It’s night and something will be killed. Night equals death here. Every night as we drive back to our safe haven at sunset and pass the prey calmly grazing I begin to feel sad. There will be less tomorrow.

Toby