Safari Adventure Time

Hello again,

Now I will get you caught up on the fun part: the safari!

Alright, well as I left it off we had just caught a matatu from Kisumu to Nakaru. After a bit of a wait for the matatu to fill up with enough people it finally left and we were on our way. The first part of the ride was quite pleasant as it was sunny out, the roads were well paved and we carried easy conversation. About an hour or so in we entered what we think was the rift valley. The road was surrounded on both sides by steep hills and large fields of tea plantations. It was quite beautiful especially once it started to rain, although the road got pretty bumpy at points and the roof started to leak on me (not the end of the world). I found it very interesting along the way to see the different people and how they lived. It was also pretty interesting to see some of the shops which people were running, including a few Hotel-Butchery combinations. Can’t say I would have thought of combining those two types of stores!

Starting out on our adventure!

Fields of tea...and rain

The trip to Nakuru ended up taking much longer than we had expected due to a lot of road work being done so we didn’t end up meeting Simon until around 7pm. Thankfully the matatu driver was accommodating and let us out at a gas station where Simon was waiting for us. At that point we took a taxi with Simon to his house to get settled, meet his wife & child, and have some dinner. His wife Millie was very kind and his son Bryson was adorable. It was great to see that Millie was very good about feeding Bryson well with both breastfeeding and banana porridge. Once dinner was complete we prepared for bed, which consisted of a mattress (which Simon had purchased specifically for us) on the floor. Somehow all three of us managed to get enough space although our feet were hanging out over the end. The girls were a little scared because of a mouse which we saw run past our feet. Personally I found it more amusing than scary, but we used one of our Ipods to play some music by our feet to keep them at bay.

Simon, Millie and Bryson

On Tuesday we woke up early and managed to brave the latrine. It was not the most appealing experience, but had to be done! After some coffee and bread we left for town with a matatu. I was a little caught off guard about how cold it was (hadn’t thought to bring either my sweater or my long pants), but the matatu had a heater which was a pleasant surprise. In town we picked up some water and granola bars for the safari before heading out to meet up with the rest of the people on our safari in Naivasha (the turnoff for the Maasi Mara which is halfway between Nakaru and Nairobi). On the way we passed by what had been a refugee camp following the election violence of 2007, which had been developed in to a formal residential block. I think Habitat for Humanity had some hand in that project because I saw a sign up, which was neat to see considering the volunteer work I did last summer for them in Toronto. We also stopped at a viewing point over one of the lakes we passed to take in the sights and get some pictures.

Taking in the view

Once we eventually made it to the meeting place we had some time to check out the gift shop before eventually saying goodbye to Simon and joining up with the rest of the safari group. On our tour we had Marcin and Anna from Poland along with Owen from Holland. The driver / tour guide was Isaac. Everyone seemed quite pleasant. We then headed off on the nearly 5 hour drive to the Maasi Mara. Along the way I had a good long chat with Lisa, and we also got to see some giraffes and other animal after having stopped for a quick lunch. There was a gift store at the lunch place so I spent some time exploring to figure out prices, but didn’t actually buy anything.

Once we arrived at the Mara we quickly dropped off our stuff and headed into the park for an afternoon game drive. We got very lucky with our sightings as we got to see two cheetahs (apparently there are only 1000 in all of Kenya), some wildebeest, water buffalo, impalas, zebras, giraffes, and even 3 lions on a hunt. Right at the end of the drive we even got to see a herd of elephants, meaning that we had already covered 3 of the big 5. Not bad for a short drive. Once we got back we had dinner together as a group and celebrated what we had been able to see that day. The Polish couple was pretty tired, as were the girls so everyone headed to bed pretty early, although Owen and I ended staying up pretty late talking. He is an interesting man, who works in a global HR (Human Resources) company that helps find workers for companies or events, and as a result gets to interact with many people in different languages. We talked about the financial crisis (since 2007) for a while and I got to learn a lot more about the Dutch political system. He was just finishing up a month long trip all around Kenya to see the country and visit his uncle who lives in Nairobi. He had just broken up a few months ago with a girl he had been dating for 12 years so I think this holiday was part of a purposeful, but brief, chance to reflect on his life back home.

Seeing some giraffes along the way

Thumbs up for being on a safari!

Wednesday was the day of our long safari so we got up fairly early, enjoyed a hot shower and had some breakfast before heading out. We set out the goal of completing the “Big 5” with the leopard and rhino still on our list. We spent the first little while seeing some giraffes from up close, checking out some ostriches and more wildebeest. We then quickly headed off as Isaac had gotten a call that there was a leopard nearby. After a quick, but necessary pit stop at the washroom, we arrived at the tree where the leopard was hanging out just before a few more vans came. The leopard was simply gorgeous, very elegant and had a perfect coat. I forget the exact number but I think Isaac said that there were only 20 or 30 in the entire Maasi Mara, so we got pretty lucky to see one. 

Some wildebeest

Once we had our fill of leopard watching we then proceeded towards the Mara River, stopping on the way to see the border between Tanzania and Kenya. They have a bit of a funny system with a 20 meter ‘no-mans-land’ between the two countries to avoid any disputes. The border is then ‘watched’ by small military bases on either side, about a kilometre from the physical. At the Mara River we had a quick but delicious lunch before getting a tour to see some hippos and crocodiles. The rest of the day was spent seeing some more cheetahs, lions and elephants before heading back to our place. The intention was to then go see the market which we had heard about called the Minyata, but that turned out to be a tourist trap where they tried to get us to pay 1000 Kenyan shillings to enter their village and pay high prices for gift items. It was a little awkward saying that no, we did not want to pay to see their homes and watch them make fire. The word “homes” was pluralized because it sounds like every male takes more than one wife.

Zeebras

Cheetah

Proof that I was there!

I guess they saw something more interesting than us

The leopard hanging out in the tree

The leopard sighting

On your left we have Tanzania, on your right is Kenya!

Hippo prints

A family of elephants

Somebody was angry!

Sunset

We then headed into the nearest town on our own to try and find the market which we had seen the previous day, although they told us that the market only was on Tuesdays. The town was fairly abandoned but we did manage to find a couple stores which were open and selling various Maasi items such as bracelets, necklaces and other trinkets. Once we were satisfied (and realised that it was going to rain very soon) we hurried back to our campsite for dinner and rest. The food both nights was pretty tasty, although more westernised than we had been eating. It did feel good however to finally be able to eat a bit of meat, after having not eaten any for almost two months (aside from the sausages at breakfast on Monday).

The next day we got up extra early for an early morning game drive at 6:30. On the game drive we got to see a few more animals including some more lions and elephants before finding some more lions after they had just made a kill. We got the privilege of getting to watch and listen to them eat the animal they had caught (I forget the name of it).It was a little disturbing but fascinating at the same time. Once we had our fill (they were still eating) we headed back from some breakfast and to pack up. We ended up leaving at 10 am towards Nakuru, stopping along the way for some lunch, shopping and to switch vans. In Nakuru we met up with Simon and got on the matatu shuttle back to Kisumu (after we had a bit of a scare due to Lisa forgetting her wallet with everything in it in the car we had taken from Naivasha to Nakaru). Thankfully she managed to find it. While Katie and I were waiting we got talking with a man walking by us who as it turned out had hosted some GIVE travellers in the past while they were going on one of Simon’s safaris. Small world.

Watching over their lands

Young lion protecting his prey

Katie, myself, Lisa, Isaac, Owen, Anna and Marcin

The matatu which we had tried to get had unfortunately already left so we got stuck on a 7pm shuttle. It was already getting dark as we left, which did sketch us out a little bit. I tried to get Katie and Lisa to agree to sleeping in shifts but Lisa got knocked out by the Gravol she had taken for her stomach pretty quickly and Katie refused to cooperate. As it turned out Katie and I stayed up the whole time, although she wasn’t very happy with me following my attempts to encourage her to get some rest. We eventually arrived back in Kisumu around 12 at night, which was much later than we had originally planned. We had set it up for Maurice to meet us in town with a driver which we had a connection to (the brother in law of the translator we had been using for the board training sessions). At first we brushed him off fairly rudely since there were a lot of people trying to get us to go with them or ask us for money, but once he mentioned Maurice’s name we reluctantly followed him. We only really relaxed once we saw Maurice ourselves and got in the car for the quick ride back to Kaguya. I felt bad about being so cold to Sally’s brother in law, but it was hard to know who to trust, and it is better to be safe than sorry.

Once we got back home we said goodbye to Maurice for the night, and were greeted by Victoria who had very generously stayed up to wait for us and serve us some much needed dinner. It was fun to catch up with her and hear about all we had missed in addition to sharing all of our stories.

Anyways that is all the writing I can manage for now, tis bank day tomorrow (Sunday afternoon) so I had better get some sleep. Hope all is well wherever you are when you read this post,

Cheers,

Graham