The Sun on the Mara

So you may remember K from the previous blog entry on the people of the Mara.  Well, here’s the story of how we came to meet K.  We had just come back from our first game drive and we could see that the sun was about to set.  We got dropped off on the ridge right across the river from our camp.  We decided this was the perfect place to watch the sunset and try and get some good photos (yes, Ashley I know it’s hard to believe but your mother took some pictures of the sunsets....!)  Unbeknownst to us, we were causing quite a commotion with our Masai friends; they didn't want us out there alone.  Mind you we were only about 100 yards from the main lodge, we could see it from where we were standing and all we needed to do was walk down some steps and cross the bridge to get there.  At first they told us we must “come in now”….after a bit more discussion, they sent K out to stand by us and guard us wzungus (the plural of the word meaning white men...not a very flattering term by the way).  When K showed up, he said “hakuna” (no worries) and said we could stay….and he stayed right there with us…notice he has his spear in hand…

We chatted with K while we waited for the sun to get closer to the horizon.  We learned K lived about 15 Km from the camp and he stayed at camp in quarters they provide for the guards and the servers.  They rotate going home about one or two weeks every 3 months.  The guys in our group got to handle his spear and admire his machete (they each ended up buying one to take home) and finally the sunset was ours for the “taking"...  As soon as the sun was down, K quickly escorted us back across the bridge over to the main lodge.  They had a campfire going for us and we chatted over it a bit and it wasn’t more than 15 minutes later when we heard the first hyena…and then saw four of them  - black figures with the last rays of the sun behind them, walking across the ridge….right where we had been standing to take our pictures of the sunset about 20 minutes earlier...

So, I could say I risked my life for these pictures, but actually it was K who risked his life for the silly wzungus who acted like they had never seen a sunset before!  You can believe me (or ask my family) but I have indeed watched (and photographed) many a sunset.  However, I had never seen one on the African plain before that night.  I know these photos won’t due them justice, one can never capture the image quite like God can paint it, but you might get an idea of the awe and wonder that I felt when I saw these…hope you enjoy, butif you choose to just skip right past these and go to the next blog I won't be offended...

Before I show you a couple (I'm restraining myself here) of the sunset shots, I'll show you this sunrise picture and another one of the late afternoon sun. 

Not surprisingly, there is a bit of a story to go with the sunrise picture.  This was literally taken while I was standing in the doorway of my tent.  Right after I took the photo one of the monkeys jumped right out of the tree, landed on the dirt path in front of me, looked at me for a moment (while I'm certain he formed some mental comment about my sleeping attire) and then he sauntered on down the path...after that I decided that next time I should probably get dressed and go to the bathroom first; before picking up the camera and heading straight for the door...

I took this one at about 4 pm our first afternoon.  There were several clouds in the sky and we could see that off in the distance, someone was getting some much needed rain.  This cloud didn't hold any rain, but the bit of shade it provided sure felt nice and I couldn't resist snapping a picture of it.

 

So here are a few of the sunset shots...the first two were taken on the ridge across from the camp.  I don't think it was as pretty as the ones from the second night, but you can be the judge...

The good thing about the first night was we were able to take our sunset photos with our feet planted firmly on the ground.  The second night, we had gone quite a bit further from camp looking for rhino and there are very firm rules about being back to camp by 7 pm...and sundown is at about 6:55 pm.  Jonathan was riding Bullet as hard as he could so we could get back in time (I think it was actually about 7:02 pm when we arrived at camp).  So although the sunset was a bit more spectacular the second night, I had to take all of these photos from a moving van....while standing up with my head and my camera looking out of the open roof and hanging on for dear life with my other hand...I don't believe anyone was taking pictures of me at the time...at least I hope not...

Anyway, here are the shots from the second night....hope you enjoy them...