The air seems hotter and drier with every passing minute. The golden savannah and flat-top acacia trees, images so synonymous with a Tanzanian safari, soon give way to parched, rocky semi-desert. In the back of the Toyota Land Cruiser we’re slowly wilting like old spinach.
We pass a number of Maasai bomas, with fences of thorny branches wrapped around them in perfect circles. These enclosures bear testimony to the semi-nomadic people’s centuries-long defiance of this harsh and inhospitable environment. Long lines of cattle and goats kick up clouds of dust around us. Barefoot children run towards the car in excitement as we pass.