Safari

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.