Are Safaris A Good Idea?
This weekend, I had an incredible opportunity to visit Masai Mara, in Kenya. We were on a very tight budget, so we started early in the morning on Friday and drove through the Rift Valley until we ended up in the Masai Mara national park. We stayed in very basic tent — with a rusty shower and basic food. I was definitely starting to miss my Nairobi little roof room with a view, until Saturday when we started on a long and glorious drive through the Savannah.
Every which way I turned was like a postcard. Long golden grass reaching up to my shoulders kissing a sky so blue, it could have been used in a pool brochure. Large sweeping swatches of pale colour, dotted with brightly coloured butterflies, and birds whose wings had been dipped in colour. In the vast expanse that stretched between Kenya and began the border of Tanzania, were hidden the animals that featured in childhood stories.
We drove through arid scrubland that eventually turned to long swaying grassland and onward to the bank of the beautiful Mara river. Each roll of our tyres bringing up swarms of multi coloured butterflies from within the grass. Peeking over the swollen banks of the river, were large smooth skinned hippos, cooling off in the mud, barely a stone’s throw away from gentle green ridges of crocodile, hidden perfectly in the muddy banks.
Along the long drives were hordes of wildebeest, grazing in the sunshine, and dense clusters of zebras standing in optical groups of stripes — back to front and edge to edge. In the distance, large graceful elephants cross in large strides to find water and gentle giraffes eat from the prickly Acacia trees dotted in the distance.
Of course, every bit of Masai Mara was stunning — the ostriches hiding in the zebra colonies, and the graceful gazelles prancing as they nibbled delicately on short grass and the warm streaming sunshine, singeing the top of the grass to a perfect gold. But the tourist vans were after The Big Five — chasing Africa’s biggest and most famous game.
We were lucky enough to see two lions (one of whom was very methodically eating a baby buffalo), two leopards, a cheetah post-kill and plenty of elephants. As our van drove up to the lions, I couldn’t help but question my decision of coming to see them. Personally, I hate the idea of zoos or seeing animals in cages, bowls or enclosures. It really upsets me when I see people with their arms and legs around leopards and cheetahs, which have clearly been drugged so that humans can have their photo opportunity. And after watching the incredible Blackfish, which exposed Seaworld’s breeding practices — I have been extra cautious of programmes that claim that they have enviornmental protection schemes, when they clearly make money off it. So this to me seemed different and perhaps (dare I say) a little more responsible?
With over 1500 acres of open space and in their natural habitat, it felt like Masai Mara was at least an animal’s natural home and we were visiting. We weren’t permitted out of the vehicle (except to pee) and were not touching, or interacting with the animals directly. There wasn’t any food given to them either by us or by the rangers in the park. This felt ok. Later, when J and I got home, he was flipping through a guidebook (a present), when he read about how the influx of vans into the Masai Mara camp has led to cheetahs changing their hunting patterns, choosing to hunt in the mid-day sun.
This made us question whether being there was okay or not. Although the experience was incredible (probably one of the most amazing things I have seen in my life), the number of tourists visting every year could only be a huge strain on the wildlife, and it’s likely that our affect is felt. I couldn’t help feel like this was a better place to see animals than a zoo. And even with my additcion to wildlife documentaries, my personal opinion is that more people seeing and appreciating animals in the wild, helps better our collective awareness of protecting them.
So there it is. That’s what I’m Wondering This Week. Have an opinion? Been on safari or know someone who has? Let us know what you think the most responsible way of doing it is?
#WonderWithMe.
