The drive from Nairobi to Massi Mara takes about 7-8 hours and it is a visual feast of colors and activities. First, there are the Maassi – they (some as young as 4-5 years old) herd cattle, goats, sheep and camels along the roads. The women can be spotted higher up standing majestically in beautiful dress adorned in unique, shining jewelry. There are hundreds of make shift stands filed with a variety of colorful fruit, managed by women in equally colorful dress. Young and old men sell roasted corn from huts they’ve constructed with branches near by, and in districts you pass men standing by the roadside hoping to be picked up for manual labor like shoveling sand into trucks. Groups of children yell hello and wave enthusiastically hoping to get you to wave back ( remember when you used to try and get truck drivers to blow their horn when you passed them on freeway?) three people packed together on a motorcycle which functions as a taxi rush by, other roadside attractions include women washing their clothes in a stream and laying them out on bushes to dry or a family of baboons hanging out on the road side hoping you’ll throw a treat their way. Detours down bumpy roads provide a “Kenya massage” so Kenneth tells me!
