Walking with the Maasai

Sulphur Breasted Bush Shrike

White-Browed Robin Chat

After breakfast it is time for our walk with the Maasai. I am reasonably perturbed as well as very excited by this as A. We know what animals are out there. B. I cannot run. C. The Maasai seem to only carry sticks. (I am basing this on a previous experience where we had a tracker and a gun, I was sh*t scared then). What do we do if we come across a lion? Answer - you look him in the eye. Do not break eye contact or he will know you are weak and then he will eat you. Is that clear?
Josphat is taking us on the walk but we are accompanied by 2 Kenyan police armed with AK47’s. Now I am thinking why are they there. The people the other night said they went walking with the Maasai & they carried spears. Maybe our Maasai have not passed their spear exam? Perhaps it is to do with kidnappings or perhaps the police just needed a walk too! We are miles away from anywhere but who knows what goes on here.
After a skull and bone identification lesson we set off, it is overcast but extremely hot. We are taught to identify the shrubs & trees. Told how they are used for medical purposes. Pneumonia is mentioned a lot along with malaria and bad stomachs. We talk about Maasai life and learn a bit about the warriors. Young boys about 13 years old are chosen to become warriors. They have to go out into the bush & eat berries & drink blood for a few years. They have to kill a lion as the warrior that returns home with the mane & tail of a lion is the bravest & strongest and will become the Elder. How the hell would you go about catching a lion let alone killing it. One swipe with a huge padded paw is enough to knock you old cold if it hadn’t ripped your head off in the process. Josphat finds a trapdoor spiders house & gets it to come out by sticking a wet blade of grass down the hole & saying “come out, come out your brother is crying” What the significance of this is I don't know but a huge spider spurts out of the hole & just as quickly goes back in.

Back to camp & a Tusker beer before lunch, it’s a hard life this safari - ing heehee. The four of us are then served the most sumptuous lunch, out in the open under the shade of a tree. Birds are flitting about nearby and we are constantly looking them up in our books. We are so lucky that Stan & Barbe are so nice and we have the shared interests in birds & photography. We all get along so well it made the whole experience even more special. Back in our tent, as rain is threatening and we have a few hours to ourselves. It starts to rain & boy did it ever rain. For about 3 hours it poured down, torrential rain, thunder rolling around over our heads so loud you could almost see it and lightening cracking open the sky like it was an eggshell. It was good to have a rest. I download photo’s onto the ipad, wrote my diary and Ian .. yes went to sleep. Despite the thunderous racket going on, and it getting quite cold ( I had to get under the bed covers). Rip van Winkle returned. He was in such a deep sleep I had trouble waking him up in time for the next game drive at 4pm.