Our serenading in Masai Village. Although our entrance fee of $4 U.S. allowed us to take as many pictures as we wanted, I only took 3 here, since the whole scenario was too contrived for my liking.
| Back to "Masai Mara Game Reserve"
|
What followed was a long day of driving with a stop at a Masai Village. I wasn't too impressed with that stop but was impressed that I had my boots on and not sandals. The Masai are herdspeople who build enclosures to protect their huts and cattle at night from hyenas and lions. Thus, the ground was littered with a uniform distribution of cow patties!
The village itself was interesting to see, but the fact that tour groups are allowed to frequent only certain Masai Villages means that the locals simply treat it as an opportunity to sell you their goods. A reasonably permanent ring exists for the women to stand within as the tourists examine the bracelets and necklaces suspended from the wood. When we came in all the women and children were lined up separately singing songs, which I hardly presume is the normal state of the village.
En route out of the Mara, we did see many animals which live happily outside the confines of the borders of the Game Reserve. There were many antelope of course, as well as cheetah and lions.
This pride contained 17 lions according to the count of our guide.
This photo contains 10 of them. The two largest lionesses are not in
the shot. One was perched atop a knoll nearby, while the other stayed
nearer the others on the ground. She was getting extremely agitated
as there were many vehicles there and they were extremely close to the
pride.
This picture was taken at Narok, outside the medical clinic beside which we had camped the night before. This was the only campsite at which we stayed which had no running water of any kind.