This past weekend we went to the Masai Mara – I’m a geographer and needed a map, so here you go.
And a close up, satellite style.
We woke at 5a to arrive in downtown Nairobi around 7 to catch our tour bus. This thing was mammoth. Imagine a truck container that had been converted into a passenger bus. We were certainly the tallest thing on the road. Then began our journey. We had it in our heads that the ride would be four hours – WRONG. Googlemaps cannot be trusted in Kenya (or anywhere?). After stopping for lunch and traversing some of the bumpiest and most treacherous driving I have ever seen, we arrived at our camp around 3pm. Then we set out on our first game drive.
The Masai Mara Game Reserve was established in the early 1960s and much of what I know about it,I read on its wikipedia site here. The reason we decided to go this weekend is because we heard about the Great Migration, which apparently is happening now as Wildebeests (could be called the “weirdebeasts” for their odd appearance) move en masse from the Serengeti into the Mara and back again. Unfortunately, although we nailed the right season to see the migration, our short trip meant that we didn’t actually see wildebeests by the hundreds or thousands as expected. However, we did see lots of animals, got out of town to see some new landscapes, viewed the great rift valley (geo-nerd alert!!), learned a bit about the Masai people, and had a lovely time.
And what did we see? From the paragraph on the last post, here’s what we viewed:
Link to the picasa album is here: https://picasaweb.google.com/MTIsaak/MasaiMaraTrip?authkey=Gv1sRgCJmQkIi93KDxBQ#
Over the next few days/weeks I will go back to these photos and narrate some stuff about them, about our trip, and about what we learned. In the meantime, enjoy.
A bit of commentary: There seems to be a power struggle between the local council that controls some of the game reserve and the national wildlife association in Kenya. And this makes sense because the reserve is a cash cow – each non-resident paid $80 USD to enter for 24 hours (thankfully, Jonah was free.) It was intimated to us that unscrupulous ticket takers pocket large sums of the cash. It certainly hasn’t gone to enrich the entirety of the Masai people, who live traditional lifestyles based on animal herding. But there is a lot I don’t know and don’t understand. How was the Mara established? How is it managed? What sorts of biological inventories or other research are conducted there? I must read an environmental history of Kenya generally and of the Masai Mara region specifically.
And what I know you’ve all been wondering: J did great on the trip. It required basically two days of sitting in his carseat on very uncomfortable roads and he slept through lots of it like a champ. Did he enjoy looking at the animals? I don’t know. He seems to enjoy mooing at cows more than staring at giraffes. I guess he just has pedestrian taste.
And a close up, satellite style.
We woke at 5a to arrive in downtown Nairobi around 7 to catch our tour bus. This thing was mammoth. Imagine a truck container that had been converted into a passenger bus. We were certainly the tallest thing on the road. Then began our journey. We had it in our heads that the ride would be four hours – WRONG. Googlemaps cannot be trusted in Kenya (or anywhere?). After stopping for lunch and traversing some of the bumpiest and most treacherous driving I have ever seen, we arrived at our camp around 3pm. Then we set out on our first game drive.
The Masai Mara Game Reserve was established in the early 1960s and much of what I know about it,I read on its wikipedia site here. The reason we decided to go this weekend is because we heard about the Great Migration, which apparently is happening now as Wildebeests (could be called the “weirdebeasts” for their odd appearance) move en masse from the Serengeti into the Mara and back again. Unfortunately, although we nailed the right season to see the migration, our short trip meant that we didn’t actually see wildebeests by the hundreds or thousands as expected. However, we did see lots of animals, got out of town to see some new landscapes, viewed the great rift valley (geo-nerd alert!!), learned a bit about the Masai people, and had a lovely time.
And what did we see? From the paragraph on the last post, here’s what we viewed:
wildebeest CHECK, gazelles CHECK, antelopes CHECK, topi CHECK, giraffes CHECK, elephants CHECK, ostrich CHECK, zebra CHECK, warthogs CHECK, elands NOT SURE?, buffalo CHECKAnd without further ado, my photos. A disclaimer: I am not a photographer, nor do I have a telephoto lens. Plus, sometimes I had to choose between watching something with binoculars and taking picture – binoculars won many times. But I hope you’ll enjoy this collection.
Plus we got an eye-full of lions with cubs and a leopard finishing a huge meal.
Link to the picasa album is here: https://picasaweb.google.com/MTIsaak/MasaiMaraTrip?authkey=Gv1sRgCJmQkIi93KDxBQ#
Over the next few days/weeks I will go back to these photos and narrate some stuff about them, about our trip, and about what we learned. In the meantime, enjoy.
A bit of commentary: There seems to be a power struggle between the local council that controls some of the game reserve and the national wildlife association in Kenya. And this makes sense because the reserve is a cash cow – each non-resident paid $80 USD to enter for 24 hours (thankfully, Jonah was free.) It was intimated to us that unscrupulous ticket takers pocket large sums of the cash. It certainly hasn’t gone to enrich the entirety of the Masai people, who live traditional lifestyles based on animal herding. But there is a lot I don’t know and don’t understand. How was the Mara established? How is it managed? What sorts of biological inventories or other research are conducted there? I must read an environmental history of Kenya generally and of the Masai Mara region specifically.
And what I know you’ve all been wondering: J did great on the trip. It required basically two days of sitting in his carseat on very uncomfortable roads and he slept through lots of it like a champ. Did he enjoy looking at the animals? I don’t know. He seems to enjoy mooing at cows more than staring at giraffes. I guess he just has pedestrian taste.
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