Driving to the Masai Mara

We stopped for lunch at 1pm and Omondi told us that we had caught up with the vehicle we would have been on if we hadn’t had a private car. He told us that they had left Nairobi at 9am! He pointed vaguely to a minibus in the car park. This was to happen time and again over the next four days, but we never actually met anyone from the other vehicle, or saw Omondi talking to any other driver! He told us that the passengers in the minibus were all young people, so we’d been given a private car in deference to our age! I didn’t know whether to be pleased or insulted! 😊

Lunch was buffet style. There were noodles, rice, beef stew, and bananas for dessert. It was fine, even if the beef was a bit chewy!

Back in the car, we continued our drive. We started to have a conversation with Omondi. We felt that, despite the inauspicious start, we needed to build some kind of rapport with him if we’re going to be together for a few days! We were now driving on a super smooth road recently built by the Chinese. Omondi was none too complimentary about the huge Chinese influence on his adopted country (he was born in Uganda to South Sudanese parents) or, indeed, on the continent of Africa as a whole.

We passed countless farms where corn was being grown, and cattle, sheep, and goats were being raised. We stopped at a roadside stall to buy corn to take to our Masai guides. We also stopped to use the toilets in the town of Narok, the district capital of Narok County and the major commercial centre. It has a population of around 40,000 people, mostly Maasai. We saw lots of posters in the town, advertising a forthcoming tour by an evangelical preacher. There were numerous churches of various denominations all along our route. When I asked Omondi about it, he said religion was not very popular here!Read more