Masai mara.
“Jambo! Welcome to Jomo Kenyatta international airport. Please do not get up until the plane comes to a complete halt. Outside temperature is 16 degree Celsius. Thank you for flying with Kenya airways. We look forward to fly with you again soon.” Cue: The best African music ever.
Welcomed by the abundance of African patterns, colors, the smell of the savannah and the glowing faces of the immigration officers as they charged $50 for visa on arrival, my first day in the continent after being away for almost two years was rather spent in revisiting the memories of playing ‘ampe’ along with my best friends who also brought the best ‘fufu’ and ‘banku’ (a traditional Ghanaian dish) for me to hog on.
The next day we left at dawn to embark on a 5 hour journey by road to Masai Mara, which was the other part of the serengity in Kenya. Our driver, Kwame, who we later found was one of the best driver we ever had while travelling abroad, told us that before we get excited about the place we’re going to, we better get excited about the journey. And never had we thought that, the quotes that we had read on travel pages or sites would actually be true after all. The view to this journey to supposedly out of this world land embraced by the savannah and now home to some extraordinary procreations of God , and an extravagant display of one of the greatest proof of the geographical tectonic plates shifting, The largest rift valley on earth, was rather magnifique!
Day 1.
Just before entering the Mara Game reserve, we visited the Maasai Village that housed 15 families all of which were families of just One forefather. We were greeted with a rather different, as one would say, dance that involved constant jumping to great heights and humming words in Swahili which meant to welcome us in an African spiritual way, which not only did gave us an insight to their culture but also in a very unrecognizable and amusing way cleansed our minds of all the worries that we carried along with our luggage to this beautiful continent. They showed us various techniques and artworks that took place in their little village which led from showing us how to make fire- the cavemen way to having a real lion’s mane which was cut from its body, after they killed him for invading their personal territory, was sewed together and was for sale for a simple price of $2000.
We reached hotel Ashnil Mara, around noon, to find that the only river in the serengity which comprised of nearly 4000 hippopotamus flowed right next to the camp resort. The resort came with magical view of the sunset in the savannah and also if you’re ready to pay 100$ to have breakfast the next morning with the hippos in the mara river, it would be even more extravagant. (ofcourse they’ll make you sign the no responsibility if you get eaten by the 4-foot-wide-opening-mouths animals in the river policy.)
Day 2.
The next day as the sun rose above the horizon of the savannah appearing to have been taken out of the opening song of the lion king, we had our breakfast at the normal lounge and headed on for the game drive in the forest. Our sightings consisted of every breed of animal known to man, starting from Mr. Dig Dig (speak laying emphasis on the sound of ‘D’ , or heavy African accent) to lilac beasted lola to saying hello to an entire family of The simba(lion) which lay under the utterly pleasing shades of the typical African Tree ,after a successful hunting and preying on a wild buffalo. All of this followed by numerous sightings of antelopes, birds, wild boars and hyenas who ironically are the most shy creatures in the forest.
The locals are very fond of the Big five of the continent of Africa, namely Lion, elephant, wild buffalo rhino and leopard which comprises two of the three big cats, the third being the cheetah,which is not only served as a meat flavored with all restaurants The Carnivorous but is also the basic motive of any traveler travelling to the savannah grasslands to spot these animals in the game reserve.
Day 3.
We were done with The Mufasa, and the next day surprised us with the next lot-the rhinosaurus, elephant, the buffalo leopard at all its glory. We spent this day too viewing this vast expanse of varying topography and sunlight which seemed to be a little broken pieace of heaven as the more than ever clear blue skies merged with the green grassland in far away lands appearing to be some sort of fairytail, and seeing the usual,(yes after 3 days, hyenas will be a usual!), until we stumbled upon a very unique and phenomenon of watching a male ostrich dance before its female counterpart to entice it, which was also followed by change of colour of its body from white to cherry red .
Day 4.
We ended the last day of our trip with a slight disappointment of not being able to view all of the three big cats of the wildlife capital of the world
We said our ‘Kwaheris’ (goodbyes) to the most humble staff and left for mainland Kenya. After a while, the disturbed noises on the walkie-talkie which spoke Swahili started again. We ignored it thinking it would be for the other travelers as the voices in the walkie talkie only spoke when the other drivers found a rather But later did I realize about what my grandmom always used to say, when god doesn’t give you something at first, he ll give you tonnes of it later. Of course that was for money, but here to our luck we spotted not one but Three cheetahs sitting majestically among a bush. It was a Eureka moment! We had now spotted all of the three big cats of Africa!
On our way back we stopped at a local restaurant run by an Indian couple serving delicious chicken dishes which were a sigh of relief for us after many days of continental eating. At a local shop nearby were paintings,printed materials and woodworks made by the local tribesmen which if you bargain, can get for a price as low as $10. The people selling these are simple Maasai men and are happy with whatever they get and would bid adieu with a huge and magnetic smile.
We left with memories unforgettable, with experiences exceptional and a particular attachment unfathomed by the ordinary. For you may say, the people, the culture, the colours, the food,the beats, the shake-your-booty dances, the smiles; theres’s this certain magic in the winds of Africa which leaves the mind in a state of unbounded oblivion, in a state of true love for a place as enchanting as Maasai Mara.