We’re off just before 9 to draw some money for the Mara. It’s $60 per person to enter, per day, plus we’ll need to pay for camping and whatever. The guys reckon we’ll spend at least 3 days in there, so I prepare for that. The idea today is to drive to a camp just outside the Talek gate (named after the Talek river that flows nearby). There are a great many camps inside and around the Mara (25 at least) but we have good info from Fanie’s other cousin, Vallerie who worked in the Mara for a few years. She reckons that he best camps are on the Talek gate side. As it happens too, yesterday while at the Nakumatt (big BIG shopping centre here) they were chatting in Afrikaans about the next few days and what kind of supplies they should be buying when a stranger happened to overhear them. She too was Afrikaans (and STARVED for the moeder-taal) and she JUST HAPPENS to have come from the Mara a few weeks ago. She insists on helping Fanie out and jumps on her cell phone to get another ladies number, who in turn has a number for a very excellent guide, Amos. She reckons that Amos knows the park like only a Maasai can and he was excellent in guiding them.
And again, as fate and luck and all that works out, Amos is based in the Riverside Camp, next to the Talek gate, one of the camps we were going to anyway! Amazing, huh? :) Afrikaaners is plesierig.
Armed with all this knowledge and high hopes we dash off, the same road we’ve travelled before, passing through Smelly town (it really is smelly) and over that treacherous mountain pass where we bought the sheepskin and bark hats, little shops perched over the edge overlooking the rift (I think one may have even fallen off the ledge), pass the little Italian Church until we reach a crossing where we turn left, instead of keeping straight on. Fanie gets pulled over again, this time the cop reckons he was going 95. Fanie asks that he prove it, show him the speed gun. The cop reckons no, the speed gun is 1km down the road. Fanie counters that he’s still within the speed limit anyway, which is 100 (for private vehicles). The cop reckons this is a commercial vehicle (here we go again) and walks behind the bakkie. Good thing we didn’t stick those “80” stickers on the back, which is what commercial vehicles have to do. The cop can’t do anything but ask to see a license, the triangle and once these are prod cud to let Fanie go. Heh heh, score one more for the good guys!
More shitty, dusty, old and newly built roads. More roadworks, more hard driving. Unfortunately we end up at the wrong gate, so we need to travel around the park a bit to get the Talek gate. On this tour we see many, many many Maasai herds, all bone skinny and just sitting there. The entire veld has been totally over grazed and these poor animals are starving.
Another sexy little anecdote: most of the cattle have scars from long cuts on their sides. This is because the Maasai perdiodiaclly cuts them to drink their blood. I suppose this is for nutritional value, or something.
Just after 14:00 or so we arrive at Riverside, with Aruba camp to the left. We’re greeted by the Maasai manager and organise us a campsite. 400 KSh pp/night, free firewood, crappy facilities (hot showers, but long drop toilets). At least there are trees for shade (it’s very hot!). We setup our tent, our chairs are sopping wet from the rain last night. We leave the canopy windows open a little bit for the fridge in the back, but I forgot to close it yesterday. The chairs have to dry out a bit, no problem in this heat.
The gang asked the manager to track down Amos for us and the tall Maasai arrives shortly after, all dressed in red with beads and jewellery. Fanie asks him if he knows so and so and he replies with the name of the man and the woman he is referring to. Test passed. They ask him about the state of the animals and the migration, he reckons that nothing is for certain but there are quite a few animals congregated around the plains at the moment. We arrange for an early start tomorrow, 06:00. While we were at the hospital yesterday the guys organised a fly over in a 6 seater airplane over the Mara. So they phone the pilot to ask what the deal is, but he is unavailable for tomorrow (Sunday) since he’s chartered to fly to Tanzania tonight. Earliest is Monday at 10:00. The big discussion before we commit to anything is: how long do we intend to stay here?? For Mattie, the migration is a very important thing to witness, but you never know when it’s going to be. Back and forth, back and forth, we chip in our 2 cents and it’s simple: we really, really want to go the Zanzibar. As it is, we only have 4 days there, so we don’t want to cut into that at all. Eventually there is an agreement to see what happens tomorrow and if we don’t see any action we do a fly over and hopefully get to see something. Worst comes to worse, we don’t stay longer than 3 days. There are hot air balloon rides in the Mara as well, but at $350 pp they don’t seem worth it. d
It was my turn to braai, lots of steaks while Annelie organised the braai broodtjies. Our steak must have come from one of those mangy Maasai cows, because it was rubber. We offer the rest to the camp reception, since it was very much inedible.
Sleep early tonight, we gotta move early tomorrow. I’m hoping for a quick win here so we can hustle to Dar Es Salaam. I think I’ve seen enough of national parks and animals by now.
[G & A], out.
Danger: wide load!
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