Shinkou

July 01, 2011
Maasai Mara, Kenya

Wow - up early at the crack of dawn to take a short safari to see the hippos. There is a lagoon not too far away where the hippos gather in the morning. Wendy decided to do some work on the internet so the Core Four in my matatu were me, John, Britta and Katie. In the other matatu, Richelle, Scott, Steve and Dave. Melissa slept in and Abbey, Tammy and Torey were too sore and stiff.

The hippo lagoon looked shallow until the hippos stood up and moved around. There were probably close to a dozen of them in there and more were walking down the creek to enter the lagoon. These new hippos were watched verry carefully by the others. One large hippo was challenged by three in the lagoon, but was eventually allowed to enter. While we were taking photos, another matatu pulled up. A young man jumped out and came over to me, shoving his iPhone in my face. He kept saying, "Wow - you have to watch this! I can't believe this happened to us!!!" I watched his iPhone as a cheetah jumped up on his matatu and looked inside the vehicle. The cheetah stayed on the windshield for at least 30 seconds! It was so wondrous!

After seeing the hippos, we had only a short amount of time before we had to return to The Fig Tree. We saw ostriches, hyenas, wildebeests.....and then the phone call came in. There were cheetahs on the prowl again. We dashed over to that area to see 7 cheetahs leisurely walking on the road. They didn't appear to be hunting, more like playing. One cheetah kept circling our matatu. And then he suddenly hopped up on our windshield! All I could say was "Hi honey!" and sat down! Then I composed myself and stood up and started shooting film! It was amazing! Closeup, the cheetah looks like a cute house cat!

As safaris go, I've been told we saw more animals than most. And to witness both a kill and a cheetah on our windshield - unheard of! We were blessed! We returned to the camp in time to join the others for a late breakfast. Then we had to pack up and get ready to leave back to Nairobi. We had to leave by 11am so we could arrive back in time to shop at the Maasai Flea Market at Village Market. They close at 6pm.

Our matatu took the lead and we were probably over an hour out from The Fig Tree when we received a call from the other matatu. Andrew had broken down about 20 minutes behind us. We had to turn around and find them. Watching Andrew and Paul try to fix the matatu was nearly comical. We knew we were in trouble when Paul took his pocket knife and cut a 3" thorn off an acacia bush and started carving it. While they worked on this project, some Maasai shepherds approached us. One woman, who was obviously drunk tried to sell us her beaded necklace for 5000 schillings. Then she said we could take her picture for 1000 schillings. She came up to me and asked if I had "babies". I said I had two. She said she had five. Would I like to buy one for 5000 schillings?

Finally Andrew and Paul fashioned a weak rope between the two vehicles. We attempted to pull the other matatu. The rope broke twice. We had traveled about 1/4 mile when we hit the first of three ravines. Of course, as we came out of the ravine, the rope broke leaving the other matatu in the ravine. We decided that we needed to leave one matatu there and call for help. Dave, Britta, Katie, Steve and Andrew stayed back. Scott, Richelle, Torey, Tammy and Abby crammed into our vehicle. We were packed like sardines for the 5 hour drive. We got back to Nairobi around 5pm and had an hour at the market. It was like a large Denio's Market. It closes at dark which is around 6ish. Everyone went shopping and bargained for the best prices. Back at HEART, we had a great last meal there and then began the packing process. It's hard to believe that we have been here in Africa for over 2 weeks.