Real Good Safari

Once again, I figured that you could read Andrew’s or Sam and Blair’s blogs to get the full trip from start to finish and well I thought I’d share a few highlights. When I think about writing the entire trip from start to finish, I kind of want to die so here are some favorites.

The drive to Nairobi. We listened to old gospel/ folk music that made me feel like I was in “Oh Brother, Where are thou?” and when we attempted to listen to the radio we heard Fergie’s ‘Glamorous’ and then a bunch of Kenyan women talking about relationships. Yuck. Our driver, Francis, got pulled over for passing a broken down Lorrie and the police officer said “come over here so I can charge you.” No, he didn’t get a fine but the particular phrase the officer used was, to say the least, interesting. For lunch, we ate at the Sikh temple in Makindu. Did you know that they feed anyone? What a great religion. We had to put on head coverings- Blair and I looked ridiculous and Sam and Andrew looked like pirates-and there were signs everywhere that said “DO NOT WASTE FOOD.” Luckily the food was spectacular. Great curry, rice, and chapatti and the cleanest/nicest bathrooms I have seen in all of Kenya. We just had to leave a donation at the door. Did I mention that it felt like we were driving through Southern Utah? I hadn’t seen a hill in 2 months and it was thrilling to see something that could possibly be called a mountain.

Seeing Stars in the Masai Mara. By far the best part of the Safari. We finished dinner and walked out from under the tent to see a beautiful star covered sky. I immediately tried to look for constellations and our guide jumped right in to help. Simon had received an astronomy book from some tourist that was from Miami and had read the whole thing. Here he was showing us the Southern Cross, Jupiter, Leo, the rift in the Milky Way, etc etc. We also saw the Big Dipper and where the North Star should be. L-o-v-e loved it.

The night I ate 5 plates of dessert. Enough said there.

My “Wendy’s Frosty.” Ashley taught me years ago to dip my fries in a Wendy’s Frosty. Our last night in Nairobi, we ate at Steers (a South African fast food chain restaurant) again and I got a chocolate milkshake and fries that were heavenly.

The Maasai in General. I loved to play spot the Maasai warrior on our road trip. It’s kind of like “Where’s Waldo?” but about fifty times easier. They wear bright red and everything else is green or brown. One of the guards I met at Olare Camp is named Boston. Quite a unique name for a Maasai right? He was born in a hospital in the Maasai Mara and there was a doctor there who was from Boston and told his mother to give him the name. I wonder how many Maasai people are running around with US city names. Safari Jackson offered us a day trip to see the Masaai village and we graciously declined because well that’s just a little too much tourist. We could’ve seen how the lived, their beds, buy things from them, etc but it was 15 bucks and most of the money would go to someone who didn’t need it anyways. Our route to Olare Camp was through a bunch of different Maasai villages (because our guide was a Maasai man) and our van almost killed 20 different herds of cattle and donkeys and a bunch of little children waving to us. I liked all the Maasai we encountered. They had an air of quiet dignity about them. Our guide was apparently the owner of the conservancy we traveled through. 150 acres of land. Wealthy Maasai Man.

Disneyland. Our game drives felt like being in Disneyland. We could see two distinct tire tracks through the grass and we were going so slow that it felt like those kiddie rides where they let you steer but in reality there is a metal beam in the middle that you can’t get away from. I swear Char and I went on a car ride like that when we were little. I was amazed that we never got lost. Sometimes we had a few options of different tire tracks and sometimes we just blazed our own trail. Well a lot of times. The opposite of Disneyland was when we came upon 3 or 4 vans that were attempting to get through a “gate.” These Kenya fellows had put a stick across the road and were charging people because they “filled in” the river so that vans could cross. By “filled in,” I mean branches not rocks. We got out with the other tourists and watched as van after van floored it across mud/branches. I would’ve preferred to walk but Safari Jackson hustled us all in the van and we floored it too. If we hadn’t made it, there was a big pile of rocks about 2 feet away and we could’ve helped the people that charged us fill it in properly.

Animals. Yes, we did see a lot of animals. I decidedly didn’t take a lot of pictures of the animals because I was more intrigued by the scenery than anything else. There is something about waking up at 6 AM, having a cup or two of hot chocolate, jumping into a safari van, and heading through miles and miles of brown grass. We were all bundled up and freezing but endured the wind to see the sun rise and just realize that we were in the middle of nowhere. I was completely satisfied to drive around and look at our surroundings in the morning and evening game drives. I did enjoy our time at the Masai River where our driver let us get out of the car (oops) and see the crocs and hippos from the cliff. The crocs were about 10-15 below us and when they slithered into the water I almost had a heart attack. I ran. The flamingos were definitely the most entertaining. I couldn’t get enough of seeing them fly. They would run, or stumble, across the water with these stick legs and once they took off they didn’t tuck them in. They stuck out right behind them. Andrew and I played the immature but super fun game of running next to the lake so that they would all start flying. I’m sure all the tourists shook their heads in shame when they saw us.

All in all, it was a great trip. The animals were unreal, the driver insane, and well we had lots of adventures which is what I had hoped for.