Safari Trip Report
I’m back from Kenya. Wow! What a trip!
We flew in to Nairobi and met up with the others on our trip. There were a total of 9, not including our guide and our drivers. Seven of us had some sort of previous connection to each other. Three were animal specialists. It was a very congenial group
Since I posted a ”what to wear” comment, I’ll start with What I Wore. We were supposed to use duffle bags with no wheels, frames, or handles. 3 people used rolling duffles. It did not appear to make a difference. We (DD, DSIL, and I) decided we did not want to check our bags but we did not want to carry heavy duffles through the airports either. So, we each packed a hard-sided carry-on suitcase. Our duffles were folded and packed into the suitcases. Once we got to our hotel in Nairobi, we moved everything from the suitcase to the duffle and stored our suitcases at the hotel for the 10 days that we were in the bush.
What I took
I also took 3 scarves that never saw the light of day, a small amount of jewelry that never left the suitcase, and sandals that never got worn. Not shown are two pair of merino wool base layer pants and tops that were used as PJs - it was cold at night - and also used for warmth on some of the early morning game drives! We had laundry done roughly every other day and that worked out well.
The woman who wanted to “dress for dinner” was a sweetheart and I really liked her, although I had expected not to. Our days started early and went late. There was no “dressing for dinner.” We often had no time between arrival back at the camp and dinner. I did not realize that at the equator, regardless of the season, there are 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness. We were packing as much as we could into those 12 hours of daylight!
I can tell people I slept in a tent in Africa, but it really wasn’t a tent. It was a cottage with canvas walls. There was no “roughing it.” The tent had hot and cold running water, electricity, and wifi. Heat was a couple of hot water bottles in the bed. I don’t know how they did it, but the hot water bottles stayed hot through the night!!
Below is a different camp. My “tent” had a porch with a view to the watering hole. I watched elephants, baboons, giraffes, cape buffaloes, and, of course, the ubiquitous warthogs among other animals.
I took my first ever hot air balloon ride and I loved it. We got to watch the sunrise over the Mara.
There were other balloons launching at the same time. I could not capture them with my phone. DSIL had a lens as big as my head and he got this photo
Breakfast after the balloon ride, with champagne, of course. Our captain explained why there is always champagne associated with a balloon ride. The French were the first to send up manned balloons. Sometimes the balloons would come down in areas frightening the local people. The balloonist carried champagne to offer a toast to the people and to prove that balloons weren’t supernatural.
We managed to see the Top Five (elephant, rhino, lion, leopard, and cape buffalo) and the Ugly Five (hyena, warthog, marabou stork, wildebeest, and vulture). We also visited the 2 last remaining northern white rhinos. If you are interested, here is an article with more info about what is being done to attempt to re-establish the northern white rhino. https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/saving-the-last-white-rhinos.html
We got to see a wee bit of this season’s Great Migration. This is a very small crossing we saw one morning.
A couple of pictures DSIL took:
Getting home had to be one of the most frustrating trips I’ve ever taken. Every.Single.Leg of the return trip had at least one flight cancellation! We arrived home 30+ hours later than originally scheduled. Needless to say, I was ready to burn my clothes! Saturday night we stayed at the TWA Hotel at JFK and were gouged mightily (hello, FIFA). For $1k/night, I expect hand lotion and a robe! Even if we hadn’t been gouged, the TWA Hotel was a terrible disappointment for me. I loved seeing the public areas but the rooms had all the charm of a Motel 6.
Nevertheless, the trip was fantastic and totally eclipsed the bump in the road at the end. If you have not gone to Africa, if you get the opportunity to go, do it!
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- 2 months ago
One more photo from DSIL - Sunset in the Mara
@1929Spanish-GW, I would have posted this sooner, but I brought home a nasty cough and a sore throat. It happens whenever I sleep under a fan, but it was unavoidable. In the Mara, the temps were warmer than the other places we had been. We were warned not to sleep with our windows open because the baboons would get in and wreak havoc in our rooms. The choice became roast or sleep with the fan running.
Baboons are pretty aggressive, especially if food is involved. While we were in the parking lot at the entrance to one of the national parks, we saw several baboons go into a minivan through the open windows. The woman and her children who were waiting in the minivan came piling out frightened and screaming. Then the baboons came out through the sunroof and ran off with a bag of chips in each hand! - 2 months ago
- last month
jsk