Kimana Off The Beaten Path

4 more images

Oh yeah, firing is another job which is striktly men's duty. Nowadays most of the Maasais use matches to make fire, however, they learn to do it in a traditional way in case they left without matches somwhere in the savannah. Bellow, on the pictures, you can see the demonstration of making fire done by group of young Maasai warriors. It works but need few minutes to make it.

4 more images

Maasai people are nomads, moving oftenly their cattles for good pasture and water. Therefore their huts are very simple and quick to build. It is strictkly women's job, as all other jobs inside the village, bcause men take care about cattles only. In case of danger, coming out from the predators or their traditional enemies, the Turkana people, men are suppose to defend the village.
The Maasai hut is very simple one, first they built wooden construction and than covering it by the mixture of mud and cattle droppings. Usually there are three rooms inside the hut, one for man only, one for kids and small kitchen which serve as a woman's bedroom too. In case man have more than one wife, which is allowed, there will be added separate huts for each of his wifes.

4 more images

The village, which is situated in the middle of savannah, is fenced all around by spinous faggots in order to protect people from the predators. There was group women and children, standing in the open space and welcoming us by the traditional Maasai dances. We were asked to join them in the semi-circle and dance together. All I had to do was banding my knees in a rhytm and pretending to sing a song.

3 more images

There is a small Masai village, right next to Kimana Safari Park, and I was expecting to visit it in organize tour. Unfortunatelly, it wasn't possible because, as I was told, there is some corruption problem between Park and Masai people. Therefore I had to arranged this visit in secrecy asking my driver to help me about.
This Masai woman is welcoming our small group right in approaching to the village. Later on I found that she is a money holder, a kind of Masai banker, coz she was collecting money from us, 500 ksh per visitor.

Oloitokitok is very close to the Tanzanian border, and I loved going for a walk up through the forest and sneak into Tanzania for a while. With a bit of luck you might even see some colobus monkeys in the trees. The trail will bring you to where the Nalemoru route up the Kilimanjaro start. You should not go any further than this, though. While noboby is bothered if you sneak across the border for a while the Tanzanian authorities take it very seriously if they catch you in the Kilimanjaro National Park without you having paid your park fees. And have fun trying to find the borderstone, which sits somewhere in the middle of a maizefield!

One of the excursions that we did during my stay in Oloitokitok was to the Shetani Lava Flow in the Chyulu Hills (Tsavo West). This relatively young (200 year old) lava flow stretches like a black belt through the Chyulu Hills, and is an impressive spectacle.

As a bonus we saw a few klipspringers on the lava rocksjust by the side of the road.