So we woke up in Nairobi for my birthday instead
of Samburu but oh what the hell, it is not terribly important, only the people
that are with you are what really matters. I would love to have had the kids with us, but I did get all
the phone calls, SMS’s and well wishes, so
all was good.
We spent the day restocking, washing and
generally getting ourselves back together. We realized we were pretty lucky to
have escaped unscathed from our night on the road and just generally happy we
got to Nairobi before Ken really hit the wall.
So we were
prepared to stay put and go and do the giraffe house and the baby elephants
again but we just got too busy fixing and cleaning that we never got there.
Steve literally spent the whole day going over
the truck and fixing the indicators that had conked out on the trip from Marsabit
and the gearbox which seemed to be losing oil. Ernest has gone over a tree
(which I had told him not to go over!!!!) which damaged the solenoid switches
that operated the low range and four wheel drive. Thank goodness we have
someone who can at least figure out what needs fixing.
Ken seemed to be in high spirits, all the tests
showed that he just needed minor surgery so he was scheduled for Monday with a
doctor that he was quite confident knew what he was doing. The new plan was
that we would continue down to Dar Es Salaam via Amboseli and Manyara in
Tanzania and Ken would have his surgery, recover for a few days and then he and
Rouvierre would fly to Dar and meet us there. Steve would drive Ken’s car so he didn't have to drive for the
next 10 days which would give him time to recover fully before having to drive
again.
Ernest did go scouting around and found the most
gorgeous hotel, Hemmingway’s, and as a surprise
for my birthday the girls were told to put on their best clothes and off we
went to dinner.
Oh my gosh what a beautiful hotel. It is so nice
to have a break like that from the truck and especially Karen’s camp which I would quite happily never
see again.
After two days at this camp we had truly had
enough of Nairobi and we decided we would go mad if we stayed for another
minute let alone another day, so we bade a fond farewell to Ken and Rouvierre
and we headed for the bush again. We knew he was in good hands and the sooner
we set off again the sooner we would get to Dar where he and Rouvierre would
rejoin us.
The trip out of Nairobi was quite uneventful and
believe it or not the GPS worked perfectly and Ernest just followed my instructions
and we never got lost once…The trip to Amboseli
where we were headed was about three hours and we drove into the gates at about
two o'clock.
As you drive up to the gate and get out of the
car you are swamped with dozens of Masai trying to sell you everything from
beaded necklaces to carvings to spears to bags etc. etc. gosh you get so
overwhelmed, it is hard to get from the car to the office to pay and then back
to the car. I just wish I had got a picture of them trying to sell stuff to Ernest;
they start to climb up to the window of the truck and stick their heads through
the window. You can't really buy anything because if you just inquire how much
something is they have already pushed it through the window or into your hands
and you just can't give it back and then they start demanding money. So you
just put your head down and run the gauntlet.
Amboseli is situated at the base of Kilimanjaro.
It is very flat and the whole ecosystem is based on two swampy lakes that are
fed by water that comes from the melting snow off Kilimanjaro which bubbles up
from underground. The areas around the swamps are green and very grassy but as
you go further out it becomes very dry and dusty. Last time we were here it had
just rained and the whole one side of the reserve had turned into a very
shallow lake, this time it was more like a very dry dusty salt pan with very
little grass and no trees. As you get further into the reserve and closer to
the mountain you find a few forests of trees. The trees are mainly flat crowns
and the pictures that you see of Amboseli usually show these trees against the
backdrop of the mountain. Most of the time however you don't even know the
mountain is there as it is covered in clouds. Now and again the clouds clear
and the picture that you see is just wonderful.
There is a huge amount of animals around the
swamps from zebra, wildebeest, oribi, buffalo, grants gazelles, Thompson
gazelles, impala, warthogs and just tons of Elephants. A lot of the Elephants
are submersed in the swamps up to the middle of their tummy with tiny babies
battling to keep up with mama and you can sometimes just see their tiny little
trunks in the air as they struggle to keep up. There is also the usual amount
of Hippo - I have never seen Hippo actually feeding in the water. They swim
along opening and closing their mouths and eating the water grass in the
swamps, they don't even get out of the water to feed.
Our first night we spent inside the park in the
official camp as we couldn't figure out where the camp was that we stayed at
last time, which was close to the community and near a school which we thought would
be a good idea to go and see again.
So our day two in the park was spent driving
around seeing the game and making our way towards where we thought the old camp
site would be. At the gate they told us that there was only one official
campsite in the park but they had said there were other “community campsites” along the edge of the park where we could get permission from the
tribe to sleep.
We eventually found the old camp where we had
stayed but it was closed “for repairs"
--it takes these guys four or five years to repair a campsite .... Talk about
efficient.
Anyway, we tried to convince the camp minder
that we were completely self-sufficient and we would like to just camp right
there or outside the official camp... No! No! No! Oh dear as we didn't fancy going all the way
back to the other camp again.
At this point two Masai Warriors arrived on a
motorbike (sounds like a contradiction in terms doesn't it) one really bright
young man jumped up to the truck window and asked if we would like to camp in
their campsite which was in tribal land 200 meters away. We decided that was
exactly what we were looking for so off we went behind the motorbike to inspect
their site. (The Masai live right up against the park and it is hard to tell
which is Masai land and which is park.)
Whoops, it was right next to the Masai village
and not exactly what we were looking for... Too many little kids, dogs, goats,
sheep and flies - hundreds of them. So we asked him if we could camp under
thaaaaat tree over theeeere. “Sure no problem!” he said. So off with our cavalcade which
had now grown to a dozen Masai warriors, to find a suitable tree far enough
away from the village not to be swamped with all the undesirables. Eventually
we settled under a very shady tree with about a dozen Elephants quietly
standing under another tree about 20 yards away.
Now, to deal with our entourage of guys all
wanting to assist us in some way or another and all wanting "in" on
this very exciting action with these Strange Travellers. The son of the chief
whose name was Solomon, took control, negotiated the fee which incidentally was
almost the same price as the parks board and was exorbitant, he then organized
one guy to clean up the site, another to find wood for us, another to make sure
nobody else came near us... All for a little extra! In fact there were 12 of
them, putting out the ground sheet, putting out the chairs and generally being
very helpful. He very enthusiastically said they thought we could slaughter a
goat and let's have a" groot opskop," (big party) ... No no no we
thought that wasn't a good idea, but thanks!
Then it
was photo time! Next thing Kim, Andrea and I all had their blankets wrapped
around our shoulders and their beads around our necks...
Once we were all settled Solomon decreed that it
was time to leave us alone. He instructed our Askari to stand guard and see
that we were not disturbed. They all left promising to come back later to see
if we needed anything else.
There was an old foundation just 10 yards from
where we were camping which Solomon told us was the old school.... The very
same one we had visited 5 years ago and given them the Way to Happiness and
Youth for Human rights booklets. Talk about providence. Wow, these warriors
were probably the same kids we saw in the school 5 years ago and gave booklets
too. They had moved the school because it was right on one of the Elephant
corridors and had become dangerous for the kids.
A little later that afternoon our Askari took us
for a short walk around the area. Fortunately the Elephants had moved off back
into the park and we never came across any others although there was evidence
of them spending a lot of time wondering around here.He showed us the corridors
that these Ellie's use to go deep into the Masai territory, all in "Masai"
of course with arms madly flying around. He jabbered away telling us this and
that about the grass (of which there was very little), trees sand and who knows
what. He ended off the little walk with
a challenge to the two men, Ernest and Steve; to see who could throw his knob-kierie
the furthest. He beat them by miles but it was quite sweet to see how proud he
was that he could throw much further than them. He ended off by saying (in Masai
with gesticulations that we kind of understood) that Steve could leave in the
car the next day but that Andrea could stay.... And no doubt become wife no 4!
Steve was most upset!!
Luckily for us the clouds cleared late in the
afternoon and Kilimanjaro showed itself in all its glory!. Apparently it has
lost 80 % of its snow over the last 30 years due to the deforestation of the
mountain. This is a real worry for the future as once that snow has fully
melted then the swamps will dry up and the whole ecosystem will collapse.
Hopefully not in our lifetime!
That night as it was getting dark they all
returned to see how we were doing and took it in turns to sit around the fire
with us, two at a time, in our deck chairs like it was the normal thing to do.
So mama me, thinking it would be the correct thing to do, cooked some sausage
and Pap for them but when it came time to eat, they politely told us that they
only eat meat, drink milk and blood so my pot full of Pap went to the birds.
Two of them stayed right to the end to hear
stories, they wanted to hear our stories and they wanted to tell us some of
their own. So interesting to hear. Solomon had one wife and two children but
was now waiting for his parents to choose wife number two for him. The first
two wives were always chosen by the parents after that he could choose the rest
for himself. He was the son of wife number four of his father, and because
father had chosen this wife she was the favorite and so he implied he was the
favorite son. So each man lands up with at least three to four wives and they
like having lots of girls as they can “sell" them and get lots of cattle in exchange.
He talked about how much he loved his cows and he
would NEVER sell any of them. I think he loved them more than his wife. He just
could not see the disaster that they were heading for. Just more and more
cattle, sheep and goats but less grass and things to eat. The cows were so thin
they could barely stand up. The countryside was turning into a desert and they
were pushing more and more into the reserve to find better grazing. In fact
everywhere you drive in the reserve you just see cattle grazing amongst the
Zebras and Wildebeest. Soon this grazing will also be gone and the tourists, who brings most of the money, will also be
gone. Boy this is a downward spiral if ever we have seen one!
We never found out what happens when they run
out of girls as I am sure their birth rate is not one boy to three girls. Maybe
some men land up with no wives and move away?
Anyway his whole logic was that if the grass
runs out, he would find a wife that lived further away and then he would take
his cows there for a while and then when the grass was finished there, he would
bring them back.
They pride themselves on the fact that they live
side by side with the wildlife with little conflict between the two but we
could see the looming clash that the huge increase in livestock was starting to
create and the possible collapse of the whole system.
Solomon was such a bright and intelligent young
man but was so steeped in the strong traditions of the Masai that he cannot see
the inevitable impending doom of his future and the future of his tribe.
Steve went to bed that night knowing that he had
missed his opportunity of getting quite a few thin cows in exchange for his
wife.
Would love to read your comments, until
tomorrow!
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