Kenya is the country to visit if one wants to experience truly African landscape. This beautiful land of rich topography is the home of thousands of species of wild animals, most of which living in freedom, that is not fenced anyhow. Vast golden savannas, rocky mountains covered by jungle, even pine forests resembling our Polish ‘Bory Tucholskie’. When traversing the country from the bumpy dusty main national road, every kilometer or so there are big herds of cattle, sheep and goats. Among them one tiny, bright red dot is moving. This is the masai shepherd.
Masai is one of the prominent tribes of eastern Africa. Its people inhabit northern Tanzania and almost entire Kenya. Their living is based on cattle rearing and seasonal farming. Masai are very characteristic in appearance and it’s hard to confuse them with other African tribes. Skinny, both men and woman wear short trimmed hair and lots of jewelry. Colorful beads are stuck in the elongated ear bottoms, noses and lips, whereas the necks are surrounded by usually white plates of smaller beads. They wear bright colored checked covers that on the yellow prairies make them visible miles away.
There is a catch, though. Many Masais a white man will encounter are, unfortunately, spoiled by tourism. Their life is reduced to performing in front of tourists. You will find these not-so-genuine Masais along the main road between Nairobi and the Masai Mara Wildlife National Park. A visit to their village costs 100 USD! Guests are seated in the ‘waiting lounge’ outside the village, while the actors quickly disguise as Masai 
and get ready to perform their tribal welcoming dance. Guess we’ll skip this circus.
Similarly, some Masais that you meet along the main road are dressed up traditionally and standing there only to have a photo taken. There seems to be an official pricelist, with 1 USD minimum pay, otherwise no photo. Trying out the system once will be enough.
Finally, we reach the famous Masai Mara National Park. Having our own 4×4 this time (unlike in Tanzania), allows us to become true explorers. Now, it’s not only observing the animal that counts, but also the process of searching for it in some remote area of savanna. On the other hand, being on your own has its drawbacks in form of unplanned adventures; about that later.
So we drive through the wilderness. Cheetahs, lions, elephants, giraffes and zebras become an ordinary experience. To make time fly, we all chose our favorite animal. Marcin is most fond of ostriches and warthogs… why does he need this dusty safari, then?
Suddenly, before our eye appears the long sought ‘big migration’! This is the biggest movement of herd animals on the entire planet and takes place yearly from southern Tanzania – Serengeti National Park, to Kenya’s Masai Mara.
To experience this spectacle we had to traverse quite a distance through obstacles in the form of wild creeks, collapsed bridges and even had an adventure. The driver (one of us three) recklessly fell into a meter deep ditch; the car stopped diagonally balancing on its belly, with the rear wheel high in the air. If it wasn’t for Maciek, or rather for his significant weight (this time I truly appreciate your effort to keep the beer belly in shape), the car would have simply rolled forward into the hole. The guys were keeping the vehicle in place, while I was to search for somebody with a towing rope… it was just 100m from the place where just a minute ago we had been observing a female lion. Fortunately, beside her was already a legs-up zebra and the lion seemed to be digesting the feast. At last, some other cars appeared on the horizon, and responded to our waving in agony by also a nice big wave ‘hey, great safari, hey, enjoy ‘mzungus’! Finally, somebody realized that we are in trouble and, to our surprise, unwillingly came with a helping hand. With joined affords the guys got the jeep out, no major damages, as it landed smoothly on the bushes, we could continue our journey and search for the ‘wilder beast’. The view of thousands of animals crossing the landscape was the cherry on the top, definitely worth all invested efforts.
After Masai Mara, as if we haven’t had enough, the guys decided to head straight for another wild life reserve called ‘Hell’s Gate’. I think, I underestimated the name and failed to prepare myself for some surprises. *
But as always, everything has its pros and cons. Here, waking up just in time for the misty sunrise in the beautiful nature, our tent perched on a high cliff overlooking the valley where herds of zebras and lonesome buffalo start their everyday journey to the water pools, hundreds of footprints of baby cheetah around our tent (guys, intentionally left food for the hungry visitors and with ranger’s help we’ve identified their footprints) and above our heard hundreds of sweeping by (African!) swallows. wow!
Tired, hell-dirty and hungry we returned to Nairobi, the very last stop on our RTW. I guess that already visiting this city without being robbed, raped or killed is a success. We’ve done here some nice gift-shopping, this time consciously stepping into many tourists traps. Worn out by brutal bargaining, we finished the evening with a delicious sea-food dinner with Marcin. What a perfect closing of the trip!
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