Our Visit to The Maasai Village

First of all I would like to say that I grew up knowing that my parents when in Africa saw the Maasai People when they came to their camp after dinner and that they were very good jumpers and that they wore a red uniform and metal Accessories and carried big knifes and had holes in their ears, so when I heard that we were going to a Maasai Village I was so excited because I would finally see the Maasai Warriors that I'd only seen photographs of before. Any way here are the photos and a description of what is happening in them.

But wait, first I should tell you that our driver John was Masaai and he took us to the village.  He told us they get their holes in their ears by cutting with a knife and then sticking a stick in the whole and swapping for a bigger stick and then a bigger one and then an even bigger one.  He didn't become a masaai warrior because when he was looking after his dad's herd of cows he kept losing some of them.  His Dad got really mad and went to the council of elders and said his son was hopeless and should be punished.  They agreed and so sent him to school instead - he was 9 years old.  so now he has studied and learned so much about the animals and the land he can be a tour guide and not a Masaai cow herder.  he was really pleased and said the hyena is his favourite animal because it meant he could go to school.

Here is what the village looked like once you'd gone through one of the many openings in the wall surrounding made of wooden sticks and and very very dry grass. Each house is for each woman in the village and each gate onto the village is for each family in the village

This is the Maasai Warriors welcome dance with a Maasai song that they sang to go with it,

it was so awesome.

This is the Jumping competition that I mentioned earlier, they got me, Dad and Mum to join in it was like a dream come true :)

This was Dad competing against the best jumper in the village, the higher you jump the more girlfriends you get, Dad got told he could get all the girlfriends he wanted because he jumped the highest.

This is how funny the Maasai thought he was. 

Inside the village the women were waiting to sing for us. 

 Here's the hut the women have to build, all by themselves out of mud and cow dung.  there is one woman per hut but she might be one of many wives for a masaai guy.

This is me and mum sitting in the hut with a Maasai Warrior who was the chief's son. 

Shopping at the Maasai market.

That night they came to the camp and we danced and sang and they made me their chief it was the best night of my life by far and I doubt it will ever change.

It was the most fun I've had ever it was awesome and I can't stop thinking about it, I'm definitely coming back hopefully next year.


Joseph Hewson, Maasai Warrior in training

My First Safari on the Masai Mara/Ever

When we landed we were greeted by our driver for our time staying at Intrepid Safari Camp, when we'd gotten back to our home for the next three nights we were told about what was happening and how things were done around here with some fresh mango and passion juices. After that introduction we were taken to our tent where we were told to look around until our first Safari which was at 3:30-6:00, when that time came we went to the main meeting point for all Safaris where we were greeted by a Man called Joseph that cooked pancakes for us to give us energy for the safari (They were actually crepes but they call them pancakes). When we first left the camp site grounds we were met by these interesting Baboons.

Then we saw a group of these birds loitering around the Football field.

Then we met this funny chap just wondering along without any care in the world
his name was Warthog.

As we were looking around for animals this what we saw.... five or so trucks surrounding a certain point which we eventually drove up to.

This is what they were surrounding.. a leopard the second rarest animal in the whole reserve,

second only to the Rhino.

Usually they're in trees hiding from hyenas but she wasn't until.....

Our guide John told us that leopards can kill their dinner and bring a whole wildebeest up the tree with its mouth and then snack on it for days.  The one we saw just wanting to snooze.  

This may look like a leopard but is actually the worlds fastest land animal the cheetah.  She is standing on a termite mound looking for something to eat.

look how camouflaged she can be among the grasses.

We saw vultures waiting to clean up and snack on whatever the cheetah finally catches.

Here's the tallest animal in the world, the Giraffe

Here is the king of the jungle - having a snooze.

Following this we returned back to the camp where we had dinner and then went to sleep too.

Joseph Hewson

First Day in The Mara Intrepids camp

This post is going to be dedicated to the resort/camp where we are staying while we are on Safari. I will explain what happened in all the days that we spent there in a separate post.

This is the sign that we found at the mara air dirt strip runway.  The planes have to call ahead to the people on the ground to tell them they will be landing in the next 20 minutes so please clear the runway of animals

The sign at the camp telling us what's going to happen in our day

This is our swimming pool

It's right by the river which has hippos and crocodiles in it

This is our tent where we stayed.  It's no ordinary tent....

This is what the inside of our tent looked like!

This is our safari truck.  In the mornings our tent attendant would bring us hot chocolate and cookies at 5.45am before we went on our first safari drive at 6.30am.  We would then have breakfast half way through our drive at a nice spot on the mara but once we came back to the camp for a huge breakfast feast.

This is us taking off on our first safari drive.

It had been raining so some of the roads were a bit tricky but our guide John was an awesome driver.

This is me watching elephants ...but more on that in my next post.

Joseph Hewson

Flying Between Zanzibar-Kenya Maasai Mara via Nairobi

Flying to Kenya, Masai Mara via Nairobi(Yes that is where the mall is with the terrorists.)

Once we'd flown to Nairobi we had to go through the old terminal used for cargo because the international one had burned down last month.  it was dinner time but it was very heavy traffic so we were stuck there for a while, with people walking down the lanes of the motorway trying to sell us bananas, bags of nuts, soccer balls - all sorts of things. When we in the taxi the radio was interrupted by a breaking news bullitein. The topic "The Mall Was Taken Back By The Police of Nairobi" which of course was brilliant fantastical news, When we reached the road of the hotel which was lined with army personal with big guns because of the Israeli Embassy was accross the road. We had to be checked to make sure that we were actually staying at the hotel. After that we still had to put our bags through a bag scanner(Not Technical Termonology) that looked like it belonged at the airport.

After a good night's sleep (and an awfull breakfast) we headed to the airport, to my amazement when we were waiting to board the plane there was a local tv show running and this is my idea of what happened:

scene one: Women takes a massive over dose of a drug then her friend comes into the room to save her but finds she is to late because she had spent all her time outside dancing while she shut her car doors.

scene two: Two teenagers that obviously haven't heard of a belt to hold their jeans up walk into a mansion, when one of the teens sits on a couch the other goes over to a door to find a women crying inside. (I was expecting a TA DA! so I thought I might as well do it  as well but as soon as I'd done it others just stared at me)

Scene three: All characters go to the ladys funeral to which they all start crying(as you do) and then the show ended.

After we'd found the plane (Yes we were playing hide and seek with it. :P) we boarded to find the pilot wearing... ya know casual dress (as you can see I was already worried about his qualifications). It was about an hour or so of flying in a 12 seater not row plane. While we were waiting to board at the airport we were sitting between the weirdest Americans EVER! (I'm not saying all Americans are like that by the way) - they were about thirty something and they were part of a big safari tour group, they were trying to do the math of how the rest of the people in their tour group could possibly fit in a plane that size. To make the situation even more mind blowing they had been told a numerous amount of times that they would be in different planes. Lets just say it made for a very interesting plane ride while they still tried to work it out loudly.

Joseph Hewson

Second/Last Day of Zanzibar

Yesterday after breakfast we went on a snorkeling Safari around the barrier reef surrounding Zanzibar, Brad who is the head of the hotel took his waterproof camera and made a video/slideshow with music to give to us. We were told that it is better to go snorkeling in low tide obviously because there is less room for the fish to be swimming in. When we returned I went canoeing YAY! Which took up my time until lunchtime. After that me and my new friend (whose name I can't say because its Kenyan and complicated) played football together and then badminton which I have to say would be second only to the Snorkeling Safari. Sorry we don't have any photos, only a video which I guess will only be seen by the people in New Zealand i.e my school and family. The only way I can describe it is it feels like you are swimming in an  aquarium with brightly colored fish all different shapes and sizes. It was beautiful and the Sea was clear warm and turquoise colored. It looked very much like these pictures taken by other people

Joseph Hewson   

More Photos of Yesterday

Yesterday we went to an Island called Prison Island where we met some Tortoises - some had been there 200 years they think! and where we found out that in "Olden Africa Times" most people used mud mixed with stone to make walls, but only some people put seeds in them. When they put seeds in them when it rains little bits of water reach the seeds, and little by little the seeds turn into plants which turn into trees so eventually they have a great fruit tree either inside their house or on the outside wall(generally the outside). Anyway here are some photos we took while we were there.

this is the island

 our boat

Here is the prison that never was, it became a quarantine centre instead for yellow fever during the war.  which reminds me we had to show our yellow fever certificates before we could get into zanzibar airport.  One woman forgot her certificate so had to have her injection at the office in the airport before she got in! i'm so glad we remembered ours. (and had it done in NZ)

here are the mud walls with tress growing out of them

Here's the main reason for going to the island to meet the tortoises.

 This tortoise reminds me of my cat Paddy when he is sitting showing off his paws

(Except his paws are closer together).

it was so hard for them to walk with their house on their back!

This is the spice farm where we looked at all these different spices and fruits before they turn up in jars at countdown i.e cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, cardamon, ginger, turmeric, lemongrass, black peppercorns.

 This is nutmeg

Here is a person climbing for coconuts that he will soon give us.

That was the first REAL and Fresh coconut that I have ever had, the ones in countdown have been shipped or flown over and are all dried out according to me and the guy that gave the spice farm tour.  He would sing while he was climbing so people down below knew he was up there and coconuts could be falling.  we drank the juice then ate the coconut - it was the best

When we were on the tour the designer for the farm/plant was making crowns and accessories for us and here is the photo that he took of us when we were wearing them. 

That was our day in all it's glory with photos and info.


Joseph Hewson