Karibu to Kenya - pt 1
We're back! I know I skipped the last week of NZ, and my 3 weeks in Australia.. I'll have to go back and do those when I have the time.
But for now, I'm in Kenya!
After a very long journey, 2 hours to Seattle, 3 hour layover, 9 hour flight to London, 4 hour layover, and then another 9 hour flight to Nairobi, Sam and I were beat.
We arrived at the Nairobi airport at 5:30 am, anxious because our hostel said there wouldn’t be anyone to receive us until 9:00 am and also hadn't been helpful in arranging any sort of transport. What the heck were we supposed to do with ourselves and our stuff for hours?
Luckily, or unluckily, depending on how you look at it, immigration took 2 hours due to the foreigner line originally having no immigration agent and then only having one.
Once through we had to collect our bags and do customs and then get a SIM card, leaving us ready to head into the city a little after 8:00. All that anxiety had been for nothing.
While getting my SIM, Sam had been chatted up by a woman who worked at a taxi and tour company. She kept asking about us doing a safari in the national park in town and/or us using her taxi service. We’d originally planned to use Uber, as it’s what had been recommended by people and the internet, but somehow we ended up choosing to use her services instead; Saying no was not only difficult, but no is not always listened to here either; There's always another barter, proposition, or push coming your way if you say no, which we learned very quickly. Not only that, but Sam and I couldn’t figure out how to get on the same page without discussing it right in front of her and that felt remarkably uncomfortable.
Our driver Moses was a really kind and friendly man, and once he took us to our hostel to drop our bags, there was more negotiating to be done about getting to Nairobi national park to go to the Sheldrick Elephant Sanctuary. We had originally planned to just Uber, for financial and ease reasons, but I had accidentally only booked one ticket to the sanctuary and he said he had a friend who could help us get another. Happy he could help us, we stuck with him instead, only when we arrived we learned that what we had negotiated in price was not what we were actually getting; He wanted additional money and hadn’t included our original ride. No party seemed happy, but Sam and I were exhausted, hungry, and jet lagged and just wanted to see some baby elephants, so we gave up, paid, and got out.
As we entered the elephant sanctuary grounds the female guard at the front said hello to us and asked if we were going to do a Safari drive in the park later; This was the 3rd time we'd been asked and offered this. We said perhaps and went on our merry way knowing baby elephants awaited us.
In the sanctuary we were met with a giant roped off dirt/mud area with men in green coats clustered inside. We chose a spot on the edge and waited patiently. After a few minutes a gasp, followed by a chorus of "awwww"s arose as the smallest little black rhino came waltzing down the hill toward us. She was accompanied by a man in a green coat, who, it quickly became clear, she was bonded to. She followed him EVERYWHERE, doing loops around the enclosure so everyone could get a close up view. Sam and I were lucky enough to get to touch her even- she came that close! We learned her rescue story: her name was Raha and she had been found after being attacked by hyenas. They'd ripped apart her rectum in their attack, which had caused a series of difficulties with bowel movements, and subsequently eating, nutrients, and growth. After many surgeries, Raha is finally on the mend and able to eat and have normal bowel movements, meaning she's finally growing and hopefully will eventually be able to be released into the wild.
After Raha’s exit, a group of 11 juvenile elephants came running over the hill from Nairobi NP into the space. The men in green coats all held massive bottles of formula, which each elephant grabbed with its trunk and held in place until every last drop was gone. They then wandered around eating leaves off of branches scattered close to the roped edge of the area. Each elephant had its own rescue and care story, most much less intense than Raha. We learned that most of these orphaned elephants are adopted into elephant families in the wild within 5 years of arrival at the sanctuary and listened to their stories as the elephants munched and got close enough to touch and pet. Their hide is as one would expect, rough and so very thick, like the strongest callous. Connecting with them through touch was magical all by itself, but being able to look into their kind, soulful eyes was the most beautiful way to start this journey.
As we left the elephant sanctuary, we got another chance to practice saying no. The female guard from when we had entered had ordered us a Safari vehicle to do a drive around the park, and was going to charge us $200. We struggled to tell her no, as she was so friendly, yet also quite pushy, and we are both massive people pleasers. The hardest part about trying to say no was that, again, Sam and I had no way to communicate about the situation without the guard being present. It was uncomfortable and we realized we were going to need to get used to “no.”
Painfully, we squeaked out “no” and that real food was the priority; we’d only snacked really since leaving California and needed a real meal ASAP.
In our long Uber ride, we learned a lot about these giant, bizarre, ugly birds in the trees (marabou storks), and about the local form of traffic control- police that stand in chaotic roundabouts and decide on a whim what direction of traffic gets to go and when. More than once, at one of the roundabouts that connects to the CBD, we sat for almost 10 minutes waiting for our turn.
After a meal and a supermarket trip, we spent the rest of the day at the hostel stretching and doing yoga, chatting with other people, and playing games.
The next morning was Safari day 1! We woke up early for our pick up, thrilled that we no longer would have to navigate on our own. Outside our driver was waiting, but as I gave him my bag and confirmed his name was Abraham, the name told to me by our Safari coordinator, he said he wasn't Abraham, his boss was. That didn't make sense to me, as I had been texted directly from Abraham not 10 minutes prior saying he was at the hostel.
Unsure of what to do but thinking he knew Abraham's name so it must be alright, I let him have my bag. As he loaded it into his van, another man came around the corner and told me he was Abraham. My goodness. To confirm, I asked if he was with the company we were with and if he was picking up 2 people for Allyson. He said, "Allyson, yes, but one." My heart sank. There was no way that in two days I had somehow mis-booked/missed Sam's ticket twice. This one was way more complex to fix too.
I texted the coordinator and immediately got a response that Abraham was wrong and Sam was all booked. Phew!
The correct Abraham whisked us off to the CBD, taking a stunning forested back road that let us skip that dreadful roundabout.
We met up with our guide, Albert and the other 5 people in our 4x4 Landrover, and to Masai Mara we drove.
The initial drive through the city and its outskirts brought a lot of thoughts and emotions. People here live so differently. What their daily lives look like is so different, their sanitary conditions, their housing, modes of transport, everything.
Seeing it all as you drive by is very confronting, and is a reminder of how lucky we are to be born and living in the place we are. It's a reminder of how truly insignificant many of our problems are, and it really got me thinking about my relationship with travel and the communities I visit and how I can use this privilege of where I am born and what I have to have a more positive or lasting impact on the places I visit.
After many hours of driving, we got to a very remote area that Albert said may have some wildlife. It wasn't a part of our safari itself, just a leg of the drive but within minutes, we drove past a herd of cows with a few zebra intermixed. My jaw hit the floor. We drove a bit more and came around a bend to be met with a bunch of giraffes, one just off the side of the road. I almost leapt out of my seat with joy, and absolutely teared up. These majestic animals I had only ever seen in zoos were just out and about on our countryside drive!
The rest of the drive had a few more fun animal sightings, including baboons and an immeasurable amount of big and small livestock. It also was full of small groups of children that when they saw our 4x4 coming, beamed and waved excitedly and so vigorously sometimes that their whole bodies moved. They squealed in delight when we waved back and staying vigilant during drives and waving at every excited little one became one of my favorite drive activities.
After many hours in the car, we finally arrived in the Masai Mara area; to get to camp and our lunch, we turned off the main dirt road onto what was the worst road I’ve been on, ever. I’m honestly not even sure you could call it a road. The rainy season and constant 4×4 traffic had destroyed any and all flat sections, turning them into large drops, mud pits, or burm like sections that forced the car to almost a 45° tilt at times. We were jostled, bounced, and held our breath while clinging to the handles of the car for dear life until we were safely at our camp. Only then were we told we had 1.5 hours before we got to do it all again in order to get to our drive in the park.
The drive back out after lunch was much less assaulting, probably because we knew what to expect a little. The bumpy, jolty, chaotic ride in a safari vehicle is apparently called an “African massage” and I pointed out to Sam that based on the number of drives we were set to do, we were going to be getting many massages. And then may very badly need some actual ones.
Albert parked us at the entrance gate and went to get our permits, without giving us one very important piece of advice… close your window. Almost instantly, our car was swarmed with Maasai women in colorful dress shoving their arms full of trinkets and jewelry into the car. Our opportunities the day before to practice saying “no” had prepared us for this moment, and boy did we use our new skill. We must have had to repeat “no, asante (thank you)” 50 times in the 10 minutes Albert was gone. Eventually, we found moments to close the windows, which only sort of helped. It was overwhelming, mentally exhausting, and so guilt inducing.
Albert came back and into the park we drove, immediately met with vast plains spotted with the occasional tree and a whole heck of a lot of antlered animals. There were so many groupings of brown and black specks dotting the landscape, and Albert quickly took the car off-road in their direction. Our first up close animal sighting was the cutest little lone zebra. I was so amazed that I honestly don’t remember much past the shock and excitement of seeing such a beautiful animal so closely.
We drove off road a bit more, observing the occasional water buffalo or giraffe, and herds of wildebeest, Thompson antelope, impala, and eland, which look like an antelope and a water buffalo hybrid; That thing is confusingly large and muscular, with a disproportionately small head. What was especially neat was how the animals coexisted and mingled when in smaller groups.
The energy of the group really picked up when we had our first elephant sighting. People were jumping out of their seats, literally. Our first few elephant spottings were from quite far away, and of singular, male elephants. They meandered through the grass in the most patient, graceful way and left us all speechless. Speech returned in the form of a squeal from me when we came around a bend and there was a small family of elephants, babies included. We soon learned we really picked the right time to come, as most animals had had offspring relatively recently and there were babies everywhere!
We continued further into the park, crossing a small stream, and encountering our first body of water. Albert drove up to it and poking from the surface we saw a bunch of little round, hairy ears. “Pffft” we heard, as a burst of water sprayed up and more of the hippos’ head and body emerged. They didn’t do a lot and really only wanted to show us the top of their heads, so we moved on to an off-road area where about 5 cars were congregated.
It’s usually a safe assumption that there’s something to see when there’s a crowd of tourists, but instead of driving up to find wildlife, we drove up to find that one of the 4×4s was stuck in the mud. Many drivers had gotten out to assess, watch the struggle, or give advice, including Albert. After many minutes of unsuccessful attempts, a guide forced the driver out, tried his hand at getting the car unstuck, and was immediately successful.
The rest of the observing vehicles then began to follow in the now unstuck car’s path and it became clear we were about to do the same. Sam and I exchanged shocked and skeptical glances as Albert edged to the top of the slope above the mud pit, stopped, and then gunned it. The car slipped and slid as it moved forward, and whirred in the mud, kicking it up, and flinging it over the top of the car and onto us. Just when it felt like we might be getting stuck, the car made its final slide and jolted out of the mud and onto the grass. Full of adrenaline and splattered with dark mud we followed the park of the other vehicles which continued to be concerningly wet. we arrived at the congregation of vehicles again and realized why Albert had taken us on such a wild ride; there was a mother lion with two cubs lounging by the river.
We watched them for quite a while as they rubbed on each other, observed us observing them, and then crossed the river.
Albert, concerned about us not seeing more before the impending nightfall, drove us back to the main park road, and subjected us to yet another bout of “will we get stuck” anxiety, complimented by an additional mud shower.
Before we got far though, he realized that back at the mud one of the company’s other cars was stuck, sideways. So back we went on a rescue mission, tying a cable to the stuck vehicle and getting way too close for comfort to getting stuck ourselves in the process. We got them out, went to exit the park before nightfall, but were stopped once again.
This time by the spotting of a group of lions attempting to cross the road and calling for their cubs. Hearing their small huffs and cries were both heart wrenching and unreal. Watching their powerful, graceful, apex predator confidence and movement as the sun setting cast purples and pinks across the sky was the perfect way to end day one.
But day one wasn’t even over! As we left the park we watched a hippo come out of the water and run across the plain, we spotted a hyena and some ostriches, and then on the very dark, very bumpy, roller-coaster like ride back a hyena walked out in front of our car. We got back to camp hungry, happy, and ready to crash.
The next morning we got up early and got in the car for a full safari day. I admittedly didn’t have wildly large expectations, as we’d already seen so much in our short safari the evening before.
We’d learned from the day before and made sure our windows were shut when we got to the entrance. We still had women approach our car, but we were so involved with watching the monkeys climbing all over and bothering the guards that the women quickly left.
We knew we were going to drive so much farther into the park that day, spending over 10 hours looking for anything and everything. Early on we were lucky enough to see a group of cheetahs lounging and doing your normal cat things - big stretches, yawns, flops, and sunbathing. They too didn’t seem to care about our presence and moved with such grace.
We spent a lot of driving time going through plains void of animals, which was fascinating. We’d see the occasional elephant far off, but not much else as we made our way deeper into the park. At one point, we did a quick off-road excursion to pee, so now Sam and I can say we’ve peed in the African bush!
After much monotonous driving, Albert took us on a crazy off-road drive that led us to a male lion and female lion lounging beneath a bush. He got us not even 15 feet from them, which was simultaneously terrifying and exhilarating. I spent a lot of time taking in the male lion’s features, my favorite of which were his piercing gold eyes.
Albert eventually made us leave, as it was lunch time. We had our picnic under a tree surrounded by warthogs, birds, and some antelope, and then got back in the car to go to the border of Tanzania and Kenya. Here we stood in two countries at once and went on a river walk to view hippos and crocodiles. We learned that the dominant hippo in a family can be male or female, and they fight other dominant hippos to defend their rather small territory (100-150m of river).
Post-the river walk was the absolute best part of the day. We started to make our way back to the entrance, and along the way Albert took us off route once again. Tired and done with being in the car, we weren’t the most excited about this decision, but then he stopped by some bushes, turned off the car, and told us that directly in front of us a lioness was in labor. Our jaws dropped. Sure enough, sheltered by the brush was a very pregnant lioness with another lioness stationed behind for proration and support. She was panting heavily, very obviously in discomfort, and continually shifted around, showing us her swollen belly. We also continued to hear the smallest of “mew”s and realized she’d already birthed one cub. In our lengthy time observing her in her process, the cub meandered out from its protection in the brush and she had to get up to drag it back. She and the other lioness also seemed in disagreement about a thing or two, and occasionally snarled, growled, and bit at each other. We were amazed at the entire scene and could have stayed all day, but Albert told us that our presence actually was extending her labor and so we left.
We continued our way out of the park, and made one last off-road detour. By now we knew that if Albert was taking us off the path back it must be worth it. We came upon a large congregation of vehicles and maneuvered around to get a peek at what was in the middle of them all. There lounged three lionesses and five cubs, some enjoying the sun and some eating the carcass of a warthog. We watched in awe at how the little ones devoured the meat, ripping it off the bones, all the while skillfully avoiding the organs. They’d poke their heads up sometimes and show their small faces smattered with blood.
When they’d had their fill, they migrated with their mothers to the shade from the vehicles and we were lucky enough to be the one they chose. Sam and I sat, dumbfounded, as the group took refuge a few feet from us. The urge to reach out and touch them was definitely there; they’re cats after all, but we, absolutely stunned, sat and observed them yawning, crawling over each other, lounging, and rubbing faces with each other.
Eventually, they chose to move back to their meal and Albert turned the car back on and drove us the long, harrowing way back to camp for dinner an early bedtime. So many hours in a hot vehicle and so many exciting animal viewings had really taken it out of us and none of us lasted past 7:30.
Plus, we wanted to be nice and refreshed for our cultural visit to the Maasai village the next morning.