14th March 1986 : Comings and Goings in Masai Country

Woke up to a beautiful orange sky and went to the loo behind a prickly bush among grazing Thomsons gazelles.

Ahead was a day of driving, initially on bad, dusty roads cut through thorn trees being pruned by gazelles, giraffes, zebras and topi. The road was lined with Masai tourist stalls, garish outposts of civilization, and Masai manned the stalls and walked along the road, tall, slender people with primary coloured plastic-bead jewellery around their necks and wrists and dangling from their ears; most wore large metal rings around their ankles; all had shaved heads that accentuated their beautifully angular features. We passed Masai villages with timber-and-wire cattle pens and, later, earth-walled cattle compounds. 

We stopped to shop at the first town after coming to bitumen road and bought the first chocolate of the trip.

Drove on through expanses of grey-brown ploughed fields and treed areas, where vicious long thorns stood out starkly white against grey-green foliage, all backdropped by hills. The shades of green, brown and yellow grass reminded me of Australia. And then we saw the spectacular Rift Valley spread out below.

Camped halfway up the escarpment, 40km out of town. Vicki and I chatted about relationships and femininity as we walked out to look over the Valley. We were rewarded with a spectacular, tranquil panorama as the sun set behind the hills and pink light washed over the valley. Starlings shimmered peacock blue-black. The wind temperature dropped as the sun set so we headed back, reaching camp just in time to bid Adri and Albert farewell as they hitched into Nairobi for a private break.