Marjie’s 50th birthday started early with a last
meal at the wonderful Sarova Mara Game Camp, just inside Maasai Mara National
Park. Zebras and wildebeest greeted her
on our way out, then we left the park and started the 5 hour drive to Lake
Nakuru.
The first hour took us past many Maasai villages and
manyattas. The land looked too dry to be
inhabited. Kids were walking to school
in their various uniforms, each carrying
a backpack and a stick—firewood for the school lunch.
The land started to rise and became more and more lush. Maasai
land transitioned to Kikuyu land, the farms became larger and we could see the
cabbages, wheat, barley, potatoes, corn, and carrots growing. Wheat was drying on large white plastic tarps
on the side of the road, men walking through to dry it. The vistas were stunning, reminiscent of
Italian hill country but with different vegetation and human structures. Every
kid we passed waved.
Lunch at Lake Nakuru had the same amazing variety of fruits
we have become accustomed to. Indian food, which for us is “ethnic food” and
not part of American cuisine, here has been incorporated into the local
cuisine. (Indians originally came as
laborers to build the first railroad, exported from one British colony to
another.)
The game drive around Lake Nakuru displayed nature’s fireworks. Two leopards
moving effortlessly on the limbs of a fever tree, later seen on the
prowl in the deep grass. A group of
impala stood their ground, barking ferociously, the out-front male’s sharp
horns not to be messed with. Several
families of lions, luxuriating and licking each other and enjoying the setting
sun. A rare rhino who never looked up
from the grass he was eating as he slowly moved along. Groups of monkeys who intrigued us with their
human-like qualities. Zebras and
wildebeest and cape buffalo and a jackal.
Our guide Juma brought us to our lodging for the night on
Lake Elementeita. Perched on a
steep hill overlooking the lake, with
escarpments and farms in the distance, it is a splendid location. We just had dinner with Juma, hearing about
growing up in Mombasa.
Now we are in the lounge.
This is a cozy, small lodge, and we and the other tourists are on the
internet, trying to keep up with our usual lives as we experience this
marvelous country.
Kids walking to school-firewood in hand.
No comments:
Post a Comment