Kenya Trip Part 2

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So we all woke up at 5:45am so that we could eat breakfast at 6am and then be in the car and leave for the park around 6:30am. If you don't make it in time for breakfast than too bad. We made this pretty clear the night before that we meant the times and we weren't running on Africa time (which can give you a leeway of probably 2 hours).
I slept in my clothes because it was pretty chilly. When my alarm went off I popped out of bed and got ready for breakfast. I may not always be a morning person but when it comes to traveling I have no issue waking up early. (If you've ever gone on a road trip with me then you know I like to start early. 4am is common).

I went to breakfast and some others joined. We were amazed to find real coffee! I did miss coffee since they really don't have it in Uganda. Although it's grown there it's not refined and sold in Uganda. When ordering coffee in Uganda it looks and tastes more like tea. It's as though they just took two coffee beans, smashed them with a hammer, put them in a cup with hot water and voila! On this tour though we had real black coffee. I didn't really want it but I didn't want to pass up the opportunity to have a cup so I took it anyway.
The breakfast did not disappoint either. It was a large English breakfast with toast, beans, sausage, the works. Definitely not African but good. We did notice that everyone was eating except the Chinese, who were still in their tents, awake. We finished breakfast and started brushing out teeth and getting into the car. The Chinese quickly went and scarfed down their breakfast while the rest of the group was loading into the car. I think that that's a culture that I still don't understand.

Eventually we all got into the van and headed for the national park. The sun had just risen. In the front of the park once again we saw the zebras all hanging out. We did have to wait for a bit as some of them decided to cross the road. Pedestrian crossings in the city are called "zebra crossings" because of the white stripes on the road. We were fortunate to see a proper zebra crossing.

After the zebras we sped off down some dirt roads. I wondered what the rush was because we have all day in the park, unlike the day before. As we hurried we soon found out what the fuss was all about. We soon saw a rhinoceros. It's a pretty rare animal to see and yet we saw it in our first hour in the park. It was pretty impressive. There was only one and it was a bit hard to capture a photo of but nevertheless still amazing. The rhino walked off so we continued our journey. We passed by a "sausage tree" which has seeds hanging from it that look like sausages. Kind of strange at first. I forget if people eat them or not.

We drove on in the hunt for more animals. Once again I was just happy to be there. I personally didn't care if we saw any more animals I just wanted to spend a week camping in the area. I was still in awe by the fact that I was in Africa and the animals I was seeing weren't just placed here but have always lived here.

On our drive Sammi, the driver, started to teach us some Swahili words so that instead of telling him to "stop" when we saw an animal we should say "simama!" We also learned "tuende" for lets go, "tafadali" for please, "asante" for thank you. I also learned that "rafiki" means friend and "simba" means lion (thank you Lion King).

We drove onward and saw many herds of zebras and wildebeest (who were migrating). I took a small video of some of the wildebeest running through the savanna. We also ran into an ostrich, some vultures, and then a family of giraffes! This time I was very close to them and was able to take a much better photo than what you saw before. Sammi said that the giraffes are the animal that like to be photographed so sometimes they come up to the car to pose.

After the giraffes I told Sammi that we wanted to see some Hippos. Hippos are the 2nd most dangerous animal in the park since they can kill you with one bite. They wont eat you but if you scare them then they'll charge at you. The good thing about them is that they're easy to find because they don't leave the water. You're not allowed to get out of the car in the park except around the hippo area which I found a bit strange. I didn't think much of it though because it was nice to walk around and and stretch the legs. We eventually pulled up to the pool where the hippos were swimming. We were up on a ledge but there was a path to walk down. I found a nice log to walk out on to take some pictures. Other walked to the edge of the water. I thought that that would be a bad idea but when I saw people taking pictures right along the water's edge I though maybe the hippos are used to people. This was one of those moments when my initial intuition was correct. While Elizabeth was taking a photo by the water a hippo burst out of the water. She flew back to the group and that ended the waterside photos. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera out when the whole hippo attack took place. It would have been a good action shot. Elizabeth was upset by the fact that I was more concerned about a cool photo than her well being. To me it seemed a waste to go through the trouble of getting attacked by a hippo and not have photographic evidence of it.

Next we moved on and had an encounter with a lion. This time I was able to get a close up. It was just chilling under a tree in the shade just trying to cool off. This trip made me realize something. If you're going to go on a safari you should buy a good camera. I always a bit disappointed with the quality of my photos.

Towards the middle of the day we started to see less and less animals because of the heat. The best time to see animals are in the morning and in the evening. Since most were gone we decided to leave the park and go and get some lunch.

Upon exiting the park we were once again attacked by the Masai tribe trying to sell us things. Eric our guide said that the products are actually much more expensive in Nairobi so I thought I would negotiate and get a couple of souvenirs now. I won't really mention what I bought incase they end up as gifts later.

We went back to the camp so pack up our things and eat. The lunch was once again great. Then we headed off for Nairobi.

On the car ride back Rachel, Sarah, Elizabeth, and I were all playing a game "I claim I can name". If you lost then you would have to do a "forfeit" which is pretty much like a dare. We were sitting in the back while Thanasis sat in the front. Since he was sitting in the front he couldn't hear our game so most of the dares involved doing something to him (for the following take into account that he has a girlfriend). I felt bad for him since he had to endure me kissing him on the cheek while Rachel stroked his beard, Elizabeth holding his hand every opportunity that she had, Sarah had to ghost him (closely mimic all of his actions while he was walking down the street), and Rachel later feeding him his dinner. He was very calm and didn't overreact or question what we were doing which surprised us considering that to this day he still has no idea that it was all part of a game.

The van finally got to Nairobi. Some stayed at a hotel while the rest of us stayed at the MC house. The MC house is a house owned by AIESEC (the organization I went to Uganda with) where the head of the Uganda chapter and some interns stay. Since we are in AIESEC we were allowed to stay there for pretty cheap, although we did have to sleep on the floor. It was good because we talked to some of the interns there (Kjel (sp?) from Norway and Marie from Estonia). We wanted to see the real Nairobi so the next day we planned to go with the interns to their projects in the slums.

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Photos

Hippos!
I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas

Comments

[Anu]

I am on my way too...August 2nd wk. Did you get to pick a sausage fruit?? it looks small , but its bloddy HUGE/bulky and heavy. We needed 4 hands to pick a full grown fruit. quite funny.... did you get to see the migration/crossing over mara river??

[nowhereman25]

hey. i didn't get to pick any of the sausage fruit. i'm sure they're deceptively large though. also didn't make it over to the river. someone told me that the migration had already ended. I'm not sure if that's entirely true though.