6-day Safari

KENYA

Animal species spotted: 32
Days on safari: 6
Photos taken: %&7#&9€
Kilometres in the van: 1444km
Food served on each meal of the day, every day: beans
Kai’s pulse on the run, getting too close to the wild animals: *similar to amount of photos taken*
The animal that made us smile most: pumba (warthog)

Spending the day in Nairobi was quite a different experience. We decided to take a guided walking tour to get the most out of it. There was not much to see, and I must confess I did not like it a lot. A lot of very poor people, some came to us begging for food, some yelled at us clearly high or drunk. Very dirty, smelly, busy, bad air, black smoke coming out of the “boom box” buses, and hustlers who just would not leave you alone. No matter how often you say no, I will not buy this or no, we don’t need a safari, they will follow you until you get annoyed and subsequently start being unkind, which I do not like. Afterwards we found a tour agency offering a 6-day safari for quite a good price. We would be leaving the next day very early so we spent the evening resting up and packing for the adventure.

The safari was a mind-blowing experience. And that is a word I hardly ever use, maybe because not many things have been mind-blowing to me. I’ve mentioned it before that animals make me happy and it’s as simple as that. I have been high on emotions with a smile on my face for the entire week, and I hope this feeling lasts a long time.

We were picked up in the morning and taken to a van stop in the centre where we waited an african amount of time for everything to be settled. Tourists were moved from van to van while all kinds of packages and bags were thrown around. It seemed a little disorganised, but once we got on the road we felt they knew what they were doing. Our van had a couple from Spain, a French, and an Argentinian. Somehow we all got speaking in Spanish, the group is great and we had a lot of fun together!

After a 6-hour drive, of which about 2 hours was driven on very bumpy roads, we arrived to the Masai Mara village where our tent accommodation was located. The tents were actually more like cottages, each had real beds with mosquito nets and a private water closet. Quick check in, 15-minute nap, a cup of tea and off we went to the first game drive. That means driving our van up to the Masai Mara nature park with the rooftop open, so that we can stand inside the van to see the animals better. As soon as we arrived to the park we saw dozens of zebras, giraffes, wildebeests, antelopes, impalas, monkeys, etc, so many animals, we lost count. Apparently the highlight of African safaris is the BigFive, which means spotting the five most difficult animals to hunt (in the old days by guns, nowadays by cameras), namely: lion, leopard, rhino, elephant and buffalo. We saw three of these already on the first day (and the rest the following day). It turns out it is not that common to catch all of them, so we were lucky indeed!

The next day we spent the whole day starting from 6 am in the park, just early enough to see the magnificent sun rise. It’s quite a feeling, standing up in the bouncing van, looking at the scenery, sun coming up, turning the sky all shades of red, spotting a family of giraffes pass by, singing the Circle of Life in your head (this song was constantly there for me in the background). The mornings are quite chilly, luckily I had my down jacket with me, but the others suffered bit as they had not realised it could get so chilly, we were in Africa after all. When we explained to them, we are actually in winter now, and as we are about 2000 metres above sea level, it is no wonder it is cold, they were astonished, and clearly had not thought about that at all when packing for the trip! We saw many species, including: 13 lions (one couple mating), families of hippos, giraffes, elephants, cheetahs, a leopard in the tree, “pumbas” as we called the warthogs, from the movie Lion King, crocodiles with their mouths open, rhinos from afar, and countless of zebras and other grazers. After about 10 hours we returned to the camping site, had some rest, dinner, couple of drinks with the group, and went to bed early. Some in the group visited a nearby traditional Masai village, which seemed to be just one more way to make you pay more, a very touristy thing, hence we opted not going and were pleased with our decision.

On the third day we drove 6 hours to the next location, Lake Nakuru, a salty lake. On the way we stopped at Lake Naivasha and did a little boat trip on the lake, spotting more animals and lots of birds. We asked on several occasions if it was possible to swim in the lakes but either they did not understand us or they’ve never heard of swimming, as they just dodged the questions and answered something else. Communication was a little vague anyway. Our “guide” - more like just a driver - did not tell us pretty much anything that was going to happen. We only knew where to be at what time, but the course of the day was never known to us, so we just sat in the car wondering when the next bathroom break or lunch would be, or where we would be staying overnight. No itinerary, no schedule, no information from the guide. But in a way that was okay as we did not need to think about anything, just be in the moment and concentrate on the animals. During our world trip Kai and I have had to organise everything on our own and now it felt like a luxury not having to think ahead, just go with the flow.

In Nakuru we stayed at a hotel, which was a welcome change to our tent lodging. Hot showers, comfy beds, night lamps, keys to the room… Our group had longed for some beers the entire day, so you can imagine our disappointment when we sat down at the restaurant to eat, only to find out they don’t sell beer. We dined quickly and went out to the corner shop to buy beer. They did not sell it either, and neither did another shop nearby. Our hotel guard said only bars sell beer and because the bar was at least 200 metres from our hotel and it was dark, he insisted he go with us for protection, “because it is not safe”. He came along and we bought some beers at a very dubious little bar, from a fridge that was not on, hence the beer was all warm, but after a day like that you can appreciate even warm beer. We sat on the rooftop of our hotel sipping beer, getting to know each other (in Spanish), and had a wonderful time.

Lake Nakuru game drive began at 6:30 and we saw the white and black rhino, lots of flamingos and plenty of other animals already known to us. The lake had grown 60% in size after heavy rains a few years ago. This has affected the ecosystem so that for example the flamingos have moved over to another salty lake in Tanzania as the water salinity in this lake is too low after the fresh water rains came down. We also learned that some years ago there were a lot more animals in all of the nature parks. The animals are vanishing due to human actions, they don’t have enough space and the ecosystem is changing.

We started heading back towards Nairobi as some of our group would end their safari there. While saying goodbye one of the Spaniards started crying, he was so emotional from having to depart us. We had a really good time indeed and exchanged phone numbers so we could keep in touch. With a fresh group in the van, including people from Finland, we continued to Amboseli nature park, another 4 hours’ drive from Nairobi towards the coast. While the journey itself was pretty slow and uncomfortable in the van with the heat from the engine below our feet, no air-conditioning, and bumpy roads, the views were incredible and as we neared our destination we saw the Mount Kilimanjaro rise in front of us as they sun was setting. During the last hour of the drive in the dark and on the dirt roads, we bumped into a family of elephants just in front of us. I saw their shapes in the headlights with sand dust flying around, slowly walking across the road. A magical moment.

Amboseli offered us some of the most brilliant views yet: waking up in our little tent-cabin, we could see the Kilimanjaro straight from our beds with the door open. It was clear skies in the morning, so the peak was fully visible, and breathtaking. Once we got on the road again, we saw dozens of families of elephants in the dry plains that seem to go on endlessly. We saw herds and packs of animals all headed to the same direction, walking with a purpose in straight lines. They were going for the wetlands, swamps, to cool off and to drink water. It was quite a funny sight seeing giant elephants tusk deep in the water, as well as hippos and other grazers. Spending the day in this great park was rewarding and tiring at the same time. Most nights we have gone to bed between 21 and 22:00 and this day was no exception. Safaring is hard work, although you don’t really do much.

I had a bad night’s sleep as in the middle of the night I realised I was sharing my bed with a rat. He was in my hair and I jumped out of bed, but was too slow to catch the little bastard. I set the mosquito net a little tighter around the bed and tried sleeping again only to wake up a few minutes later to find the rat in my feet. That was it. I swapped beds with Kai, who apparently is above the rat in its hierarchy, and I instead had a few with mosquitos in the other bed. So, you can imagine I was not very happy getting up at 5:30 on the last day to see the sun rise over the dusty plains of Amboseli and visit a few more nooks and corners for more animals, before setting off to Nairobi. After a tiring 4 hour drive we arrived at our lodging (same as before) and slumped on the beds exhausted, ready to rest for the remainder of our time in Kenya. Tomorrow we depart this amazing country for another kind of experience: South Africa, hopefully with a short visit to Swaziland, a place I have wanted to go since a child.