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Published: March 16th 2007
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Our safari began the same day that we arrived in Kenya at 5am. That was a long day for sure! We arrived in Nairobi (more commonly referred to as Nai-robbery for all the crime they have there...) early and were taken care of by our tour operator. We visited the ATM and the supermarket where I actually found Skippy Super Chunk peanut butter! Which made for delicious PB&J sammies for breakfast in the van. Out trip started out with a long drive out to Masi Mara game reserve, which is the northern connection to the Serengeti (in Tanzania). The road out there was absolutely absurd. The paved parts were minimal compared to the pot holes and the dirt parts were plagued by ditches where the rain had washed it away. It wasn't a far drive but it took around 8 hours to get there in the bumpy, hot, dusty van. Our camp was remote, on the outskirts of the reserve, but actually had hot showers! (Powered by a fire going under a 50gallon drum full of water, haha.) The first evening we went out for a short game drive and saw all the animal herds near the front of the
reserve, water buffalo, gazelles of all types, and of course lots of Zebras. That night we got a great cultural performance by Masi Warriors dancing around the camp fire. Their chants sound almost like wild animals, it was kinda scary! The next day we had a day long game drive with lunch out under the shade of a tree. That was an amazing day, it started out with us seeing a cheetah right up close, elephants on parade across the road right in front of us, as well as tons of lions. We saw some uninteresting hippos and a croc that was so still I was sure it was fake. The lions were so lazy, when we found some they would even come over to the van and lay down in the shade of the van right against the wheels! They were really cool though. After the long day of game drives we were so tired that we skipped the expensive visit to the Masi Village and relaxed at the camp instead.
The next morning our super early before breakfast game drive proved futile and we saw only a few gazelles and water buffalo before moving onto the next
reserve. Again the long bumpy drive wasn't so comfy, but we got out to Lake Nakuru in the evening with plenty of time to enjoy the creature comforts of the hotel we stayed in. Good buffet. The next morning we did a game drive around the lake and saw what they mean by pink lake, there are thousands of flamingos all going around the edges of the lake doing their funny walk and making a silly honking noise. We saw a lot of other animals there including the elusive white and black rhinos and a few groups of giraffes, I really liked the giraffes, they are so big! After our game drive and a bag lunch we took the long road back to Nairobi where the tour company proceeded in seriously annoying us by first assuming that we'd made our own hotel accommodations for that night, which was right in the middle of our tour, and then tried to get us to do a cash advance on our credit card to pay the balance we owed! Saying that you take credit card doesn't mean that you personally walk the customer to the bank and have them get a cash advance!
Soaking up the shade
Those 2 lions are right below me! The company was called Amicabre out of Kenya and we'd used the website Africaguide.com who coincidentally didn't post our complaints about the company because they said they weren't valid! This company was talking on their cell phones in the middle of meeting with us! So for the record don't use either Amicabre or the africaguide.com to arrange a safari trip, you'll overpay and not get good service. The guides themselves were actually great and we had fun and everything, but when you pay top dollar, you expect to get some respect and ass kissing.
Our trip down to Tanzania was also somewhat of an annoyance, the people picked us up late and so we were the last to get to the bus and I had to sit in the very back row with 2 Americans and an African woman with her 2 kids, so there were 6 souls in seats for 4... But the funny thing is that the American kids were from Camarillo and the guy had gone to CLU and taken my dad's class! He said that he'd even seen photos of me when I was a kid, haha. We drove past Kilimanjaro, but didn't get a
good sight cause its perpetually covered in clouds. Another funny thing about this long bus ride is that Africans can't have the windows open. Its boiling hot and everyone is sweating but all the windows (save one) were completely shut. Its so strange.
Tanzania was good, our safari started in Ngorogoro Crater where we saw the best assortment of animals of our whole safari. There were great herds of wildebeest and zebras, some uninteresting hippos, and the best was the lion who was panting over a dead wildebeest. The weather was perfect too and being inside the crater was a whole new landscape. Our new guide, Michael, was good, but when we drove the curvy road down from the crater I could have sworn we were in a rally car race, he was insane! The dirt roads were wet and we took turns so fast, I really thought we might die, but we made it out alright and headed on to the Serengeti. Again the landscape was totally different and flat and boring, the grass so long, surely hiding lots of lions and wart hogs. We drove into the Serengeti and straight to the hippo pool and actually saw
an interesting hippo, it was dead and floating upside down with his legs straight to the sky, cool! We watched the hippos for a bit and then went to the campsite. Our new cook was great and he even made us popcorn as a snack before dinner, but tonight he went a little slow and didn't get the dinner out until it started pouring down rain. The thunder and lightening were cool and we didn't get too wet, only problem is going to the bathroom while its raining. The next day's game drive was mostly fruitless and we didn't see much in terms of animals, and completely missed our last opportunity to see the last of the big 5, a Leopard. The big 5 are: Lion, Water Buffalo, Elephant, Rhino and Leopard, and you want to see them all, but we didn't...just saw a few cheetah's, that sorta counts, right?
We made a quick stop at Olduvai Gorge where the oldest human remains have been found. It was a small museum filled with tourists, but really interesting to imagine what it must have been like that long ago. And from there we were onto Lake Manyara, our last reserve.
Monkey Business
"Hey Joe, can you clean my ass today?" The place we stayed there had a swimming pool, but we were still sleeping in a tent. The pool was a great way to get all the dirt and grime off before our last day, but it was somewhat disconcerning that in the early morning the pool was filled up with frogs and all types of hugely massive disgusting bugs, oh well. Lake Manayra was beautiful forested area, but the best stuff we saw were huge groups of Baboons, playing, fighting, and having sex. And then we were on our way back to Nairobi. This time the bus wasn't so bad, even though the girl behind me made me shut my window all but a sliver, I really don't understand what it is about fresh air they can't handle, but it was the same in West Africa, bus filled with people, all the windows shut.
We got back to Nairobi and had 2 nights booked at the ritzy Holiday Inn, for some Luxury after our 8 days of safari. I'm glad we did cause Aaron and I both got the shits almost immediately and spent the day laying around in bed and using the toilet. Stupid safari food making
The pink lake
Flamingos are weird. us sick! We even got to watch bad movies, like the Terminal with Tom Hanks, and Haunted Mansion with Eddie Murphy, great films, really.
We made it to the airport no problem and were excited to move on to South Africa, everyone said we'd love it.
Oh and by the way, you should take a look at the past couple blogs, cause I added some good photos.
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