Stuart Butler, a writer and photographer who has covered Africa for more than two decades, recently spent five weeks walking across Maasai lands in Kenya with a Maasai companion. (To get more background on the reason for his journey, click here.) Here are some new developments that grew from the trip, which include a partnership with Kenya Tourism, and the development of a guided tour though Maasai territory.
Photo by Stuart Butler
I’ve been back at home for two months now and have been busy writing up the books and sorting through the photos. But back to Kenya: in the final week of our walk I was contacted by a Dubai-based marketing company working on behalf of the Kenyan government to re-brand Kenya internationally to tourists and investors. They’d heard about Mako (my companion) and I walking around the Masai Mara region and wanted to send a photographer and filmmaker down to record a short story on the project. The new marketing campaign, Make It Kenya, has now been launched by no less than President Uhuru Kenyatta himself, and the ‘Walking with the Maasai’ project is the lead story for the tourism portal! To see the short, and beautifully filmed, movie about our walk, please visit the Make It Kenya website or scroll to the bottom of this page. And, after you’ve enjoyed the film, please spread the word about the ‘re-birth’ of Kenyan tourism by sharing and joining the Make It Kenya campaign.
On a different note, if our walk inspired you, then why not join Mako, Patrick and me as we re-walk a part of the same route? In February 2016 we will be running a one-off, 14-day guided walk through the Loita Hills and down to (and through) the Ol Derikesi Conservancy. During the course of the tour you will walk for days through open grasslands surrounded by zebra and wildebeest, gather around a fire at night as Maasai elders recall days of hunting lions with spears, camp in remote forests where colobus monkeys crash through the trees and bushbuck flit through the shadows, and help herd the cattle back to the Maasai boma at sunset.
This will be no package tour. This will be a genuine adventure and is likely to be one of the most exciting journeys you’ll ever make.
For more information on the tour, click here.
Click here to read about week 1 of Stuart’s journey.
Click here to read about week 2 of Stuart’s journey.
Click here to read about week 3 of Stuart’s journey.
Click here to read about week 4 of Stuart’s journey.
Click here to read about week 5 of Stuart’s journey.
Click here to read about week 6 of Stuart’s journey.
