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Published: December 26th 2007
A Thoughtful Baboon
... sooo cute ... but sooo bad! (they cause alot of problems for people)We arranged a 9 day Safari through Gap Adventures and couldn't wait to see the animals! We were super excited to go to Kenya ... but got a nasty surprise when we realized that Nairobi is NOT a safe city! We only spent a day there though, then headed out for the safari. Our tour group consisted of 8 people ... and it was a bit of a trying trip because we really clashed with a few of our fellow safariers. It's amazing how 1 or 2 people can really affect the group dynamic ... Ugh! Five of our mates were very friendly and easy going ... two ... not so much. Either way though, we had an awesome time!! Our accomadation was camping for the entire week. Interesting though, is that we were camping IN the game reserves, and that there are no fences ... so we had to be on wild animal watch 24/7! It was crazy (and a little scary)!!! One time we were peeing the bushes (because the toilet was a stinky hole in the ground) and some baboons came flying from out of nowhere. One can move very fast with their pants
Traffic Jam!!!
Thankfully Masai Mara was the only time we dealt with this many cars ... but our guide told us that during "high season" as many as 50 cars will crowd around to see a lion! down when she has to!
Every day we did one or two "game drives" in either Samburu National Park, Lake Nakuru and Masai Mara National Park, and were REALLY lucky to see all of the big five: elephant, lion, buffalo, rhino and leopard! Lake Nakuru is famous for it's massive population of flamingos ... but sadly we were not in "flamingo season" and instead of millions of flamingos, we only saw thousands (still really cool, but not what we were hoping for). Masai Mara had the most abundant lion population ... we were able to see entire prides hanging out! Really disturbing though, was that we saw an incredible number of people not respecting the park rules - they were going off path in a persuit of the "perfect picture". It was most bothersome when we found a cheetah and her cub because they are endangered and people were seriouslly chasing them down. It really made us angry ... and we ended up reporting about 20 vehicles to the park authorities (they each received a 2000 Shilling fine - about $40). Unfortunatelly we didn't get to see any successful hunts or births, but there was lots of animal sex!
Lioness
Our first lion! On our last day in Masai Mara Reserve, we payed to visit a village of the Masai Tribe. Kristena studied them in school, so it was really cool to actually see them! They are an indigenous tribe who live in the wild, some practice polygamy, and drink cows blood. Google them, it's very interesting! They showed us a bit of their village, did some welcoming song and dance and told us a bit about their practices and traditions.
Before leaving Kenya, we had to experience "Carnivore" ... apparentlly one of the top 50 restuarants in the world. The lure of the restuarant is that they serve game meat, and that it is "all you can eat" ... so they
keep bringing the meat until you surrender your flag. Trevor expected to try impala and maybe some gazelle, but apparentlly in recent years the government has forbidden hunting of "game" ... but they have failed to include that in their advertisements! He still got to eat some funky meat though ... crocodile, oryx kidneys and ostrich meatballs! The meal was ridiculouslly expensive (and on top they charged a 28% tax - there goes your tip!), but it was a good
Masai Man
Trevor was telling him a story ... must have been a good one! experience. Overall Kenya wasn't our favorite destination ... we found the people to be really aggressive, the crime was an issue for us, and we don't plan to return, but we really enjoyed the safari!
Now we are in Egypt and when we flew out at 4am, it was really funny ... the people who work in the airport were sleeping on the job! Security, immigration, shop keepers, etc. Talk about a gravy job! Egypt is great ... Cairo is friendly and really safe ... we start our tour on Dec 29th, so we're going to take the extra days here and head west to the desert tommorrow.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone back home ... we are crazy jealous that you get to celebrate Canadian style!
Love you,
Trevor and Kristena
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Tait
non-member comment
Cool. I wana go on a safari. U guys saw a lot... whoa. Good job for reporting bad-asses too.