WILDTRIPPING

Maureen is the passenger for my intro video for a web platform of the Flemish national TV “Vranckx and the nomads”. She helps me out and we talk a bit. She’s from Navaisha and tells me that lake is more beautiful. Willem and I drive after lunch towards Nyahururu. The landscapes are beautiful and green and it makes me think about European summers. I’m imagining that I’m driving through the Ardennes.

The roads are made out of good tarmac. We buy some food in Nyahururu. We continue towards Rumuruti and the landscape changes completely. We dive down and we end up in dry land with herds of cows and sheep. We stop at the house of a Masaï family. For the first time it feels right again to pitch our tent in the wild. For some reason it has been a big hurdle to do this in Africa. During our former trips we used to pitch our tent in peoples front yard all the time. But now I think we have some reservations to pitch our tent as “rich” Europeans on the land of poor Africans. Our purpose has never been to have a cheap solution for our overnight stay but rather to connect with local people.

But this time it just feels right to do it. We can feel that water is a serious issue here. We try to be very careful with our own water and we don’t even dare to ask some of theirs. In return for their hospitality we give a great cooking show at night. (Willem distributing the food and I’m doing the frying)

We share our pasta with the kids. I give it into their hands and they run with it behind the wall of the house to eat it. Maybe it’s not polite to eat in front of others? They seem to really like the pasta. I don’t think it’s because of my cooking skills though.

In the compound live several children and woman and only two men. One of them is old, the other one works in Maralal. It’s very difficult to figure out who and how everybody is related to each other. Lets just say it’s an extended African family with a small petting zoo in their possession (two camels and a lot of sheep and goats). The leader on the compound is definitely the oldest female, her name is Margret and she speaks a bit of English. After our cooking show we go to bed. The next morning Willem claims to have heard Hyenas. Apparently the fence, made out of thorny pieces of wood is not such a luxury.

In the morning we should be able to see Mount Kenya but she decides not to show herself. A bit disappointed we say our goodbyes to our Masaï family and continue our road up north.