Our group had a 3-day stay at Kichwa Tembo, a safari resort
in the Masai Mara area of Kenya, adjacent to the Serengeti. The time of year
coincided with the wildebeest migration, an event that made all the other
species more active as well. The trip did not disappoint.
We arrived at the airstrip (not airport) and were greeted by
our guide, Timothy. He prepared some hot tea and coffee and went over some of
the basics with us, while our heavier luggage was whisked away to the resort.
Then we were on safari. Within a few minutes we were literally watching a pack
of hyenas tear apart the carcass of a hippo, with a flock of vultures waiting
their turn. It wasn’t all carnage and destruction, though we saw our share of
that. The most exciting thing was that almost every animal we saw, we saw up close. Disturbingly close at times.
Watching a lioness hunt from just outside your wide-open vehicle is pretty
amazing until she turns and starts walking towards you. You then realize just
how exposed you are. Thankfully she was more interested in zebra than in us, so
I escaped unharmed.
Our guide was of the Maasai tribe in this part of Kenya. In
addition to telling us everything about the wildlife around us, he also shared
aspects of his culture and his personal stories. He is about my age (he can’t
be sure of his exact age, because they only track the year and the season of
births) and is married to his first wife. I’ve heard this as a joke from people
in the U.S., but Timothy is planning to have at least two more. He’s just not
going to divorce the first one. The Maasai are a polygamous culture, and
Timothy has told his father that he intends to have more wives than he did
(two). We loved Timothy. He guided us to some of the coolest things we could
imagine seeing, he was funny and engaging, and he brought lots of drinks. Going
through the greatest zoo on the planet with a traveling bar is every bit as
awesome as it sounds. This is one to put on your bucket list, if it’s not there
already.
I can’t tell all the stories of safari, but one of the
things I really enjoyed was listening to Timothy talk about the hyenas
specifically. In his culture, hyenas are respected very highly. This is
somewhat in contrast to how we all learned about them in school. Umm, I mean
The Lion King. He said hyenas always call one another when there is a meal,
rather than keeping the meat just for themselves. A clan in his tribe named for
the hyenas has a reputation of being very welcoming and communal in this way.
These are the experiences you can’t have at the zoo. That and the fact that the
hyenas are actively gnawing on a hippo bone while he speaks.
Maybe the coolest visual experience we had was an early
morning hot air balloon ride over the Mara. We woke up in the damn dark and
took our Land Cruiser to the launch site. We were introduced to Vincent, our
French pilot, and then the crew started lighting the air on fire. The balloon
filled quickly and when the basket flipped upright we moved quickly to board
the flight. I’m not a huge heights person, but this was as chill and relaxing
an experience as I’ve had. There were several other balloons that took off from
the same location, and it was really interesting to hear them communicate and
change their elevations in concert so we didn’t have a quiet, low impact,
terrifying experience. We were up high enough for the fall to be problematic,
and even if you fall “safely,” there are a fair number of predators down there!
I don’t care how much you respect the hyena, I don’t want to meet one like
that. Anyway, we were fine. More than fine, we saw beautiful views of the
savannah. We followed the river for awhile, obtaining a new perspective on the
mass of life that is a herd of hippos. Then we moved back over the more open
plains, flying over elephants, giraffes, and so many types of antelope I really
couldn’t keep up.
Vincent was narrating for us, both about the wildlife and
the conditions. This isn’t related to anything, but I really enjoyed listening
to him speaking English with his thick French accent. He seemed a very pleasant
man, in addition to a capable pilot. He warned us early on that on the landing
sometimes the basket tips over, but said several times on the trip that the
wind was so mild that it was likely we would have a very soft landing. As we
descended in preparation, he reiterated that it would probably be very gentle.
Then at the last minute he yelled something about a termite mound. We had seen
these mounds throughout our visit. Basically piles of dirt several feet tall,
and pretty solid. Very solid, in fact, when it connects with your backside
through a hot air balloon basket.
Our last night of the safari included a “Bush Dinner,”
wherein we all loaded up in the jeep and drove out into the savannah to share a
meal. Our guide both drove us and joined us for the meal, which was a
multi-course feast. Timothy continued in his role of guide, stopping along the
way to show us anything interesting that popped up, and checking in on a badly
injured zebra we had seen before. We had a lantern-lit dinner complete with
hippos making a ruckus nearby. It was truly a life of luxury amid some pretty brutal
surroundings. I don’t know what it says about us as people that we vacationed
in a place where we might struggle to survive on our own, but I’ll leave that
for another time. I am thrilled with the opportunity I had, and very much plan
to do it again someday.
