For views from the plane and van on the trip back from the reserve, see: http://picasaweb.google.com/dhoekema/OnTheWayToTheMaasaiMara?authkey=Gv1sRgCM3_tpyBpI3ptAE&feat=directlink
Our second outing with Beverly was to the Maasai Mara, a game reserve on Kenya’s southern border that is an extension of the Serengeti plains of Tanzania. Beverly flew out to the reserve a day before we left. We attended a recital on Wednesday evening that started just as Beverly concluded her first game drive. The recital was in the beautiful garden of the US ambassador’s residence and gave us a chance to meet Ambassador Ranneberger, some of the other Fulbright scholars here this semester, and a member of the Permanent Presidential Music Commission of Kenya, who invited us to a conference on Kenyan music in April in Mombasa.
The next morning we traveled to the Maasai Mara by road—riding in a 4-wheel drive van with a pop-up top. The top stayed down for the drive there, which was mostly on a smooth new road to Narok. We felt a real appreciation for the new road. Immediately past Narok, we started dodging potholes, and before long the pavement ended and we traveled on dirt and rocks for the last 100 kilometers. The trip involved about 5 hours of driving and 35 minutes of negotiation at the park gate. David requested that we be charged Kenya resident rates because we qualify for residency for the semester and the paperwork is in process. The park officials insisted that we needed the official permit in hand. After much patient inquiry on David’s part and pleas by our driver, who brings many guests into the park, a compromise was offered and we paid the Kenyan rate ($14) for one entry and the non-resident rate ($60) for the other. I remained in the van during these negotiations and could have spent our saving stwice over if I had succumbed to the sales pitches of the Maasai girls who crowded around my window, offering bead jewelry, carvings, and the opportunity to take a photo.
Entering the Maasai Mara is entering another world in many ways. The overgrazed plain suddenly becomes verdant grassland, where herds of cows and goats and the red-clothed Maasai herdsmen no longer dot the landscape. Instead, there are elephants, antelope, beasts of prey, and a great variety of beautiful birds. In the reserve, the roads are better maintained, as are the vehicles. Instead of battered, wheezing, smoke-belching matatus—mini-vans with an extra row of seats squeezed in selling rides on established routes—the vans are well-maintained 4-wheel drive pop-tops with tourists and camera lenses peering out.
Keekorok Lodge, where we stayed for two nights and Beverly stayed for three, is a wonderful place, with attentive staff and excellent food. Almost all of the guests were from outside Kenya, but only a couple of other small parties were from the States. The resort had many guests from Great Britain and India, several from Europe, and large parties from Iran and East Asia. One of the highlights of the lodge was a boardwalk through the woods that afforded great bird watching and brought us to a game-watching blind over a hippo pool. We spent a lot of time watching the hippos and hoping they would climb out of the water. They never obliged us while there was still enough light in the sky to take photos. But at about 3 am our first night, I was awakened by very loud deep breathing and snorting right outside our window. We looked out and saw a half dozen hippos grazing on the lawn between our cabin and the pool. Our cabin had a Dutch door, so David was protected from death when he leaned out to get photos. (Hippos are high on the list of animals that cause death to the unwary—we were told it’s not a good idea to get between a hippo and its lunch or pool.)
We saw many predators on our game drives. We were very lucky to see, on three different excursions, the one African predator we had not previously seen in the wild—the leopard. We also saw many lions, a couple of cheetah, and a hyena. On the other hand, we saw very few of their prey. There were lots of elephant around, but only small herds of antelope, no zebra, and very few giraffe. We started worrying that the predators were going to go hungry, although the ones we saw all looked sleek and happy. This morning we read in the newspaper that the ecosystem of the Maasai Mara is under threat for several reasons and that one of the most critical, diversion of water from the rivers that sustain its grasslands, was causing decreases in the populations of herbivores.
It was good to travel by road and see the contrast between life in the park and life in the Rift Valley, where the inhabitants are suffering from persistent drought, the grass is eaten to the quick, and almost all the trees are gone. It’s hard to begrudge them the water diversions. Kenya’s national parks and wildlife bring substantial revenue into the country. Park fees alone total almost $10 million a year. But the people who no longer have access to land that is reserved for game parks are not receiving much benefit from tourism.
Again, we have two sets of photos linked to this posting. For the game in Maasai Mara, see: http://picasaweb.google.com/dhoekema/MaasaiMaraKeekorokLodge?authkey=Gv1sRgCI7Wj6q9m7zxGw&feat=directlink
For views from the plane and van on the trip back from the reserve, see:http://picasaweb.google.com/dhoekema/OnTheWayToTheMaasaiMara?authkey=Gv1sRgCM3_tpyBpI3ptAE&feat=directlink
