Blogs from Masai Mara NP, Rift Valley Province, Kenya, Africa - page 15

Back from the Masai Mara. Back to Nairobi. We definitely preferred the Masai Mara funnily enough. There really isn’t that much about Nairobi. It’s smelly, dirty, smoky, noisy like many of these places, but there’s not even much to see or visit in the city. It has a bit of a music scene. But you need to get taxis from door to door if you go anywhere after it gets dark cos it’s not exactly safe. Unless that is, next door to where you stay is the most fantastically seedy club/bar where for the bargain price of 200 shilling ($3) you can "get to know" one of the ladies out back. Adam & Julien declined. Marianne & Claire had the common sense not to come. We booked a 4 day tour to Masai Mara and Lake ... read more

From a sartorial standpoint, there’s a lot that a ragged traveler like me can learn from the developing world. Even here, in this remote Maasai village, where people live in cow-dung manyattas and crap in the bush, I’m woefully underdressed for Sunday service. David is hunched over on the edge of the bed, running a rag over his shoes with great gravity. Little Lanoi - his bald, bright-eyed eight-year-old - has put on a rustling skirt and a red gingham blouse. For my part, I’m wearing a pair of pants that look like they’ve spent the past week wrapped around a muffler. There’s dirt caked to the bottom of my hiking boots; David clucks his tongue with disapproval. Outside he breaks a leafy branch from a tree and thwacks at my pant legs, partly to get ... read more

Laid low by a cold for much of my first week, I’ve managed to spend a full ten days in Nairobi - an accomplishment that, I’m certain, will warrant a commemorative t-shirt before I go. Back on my feet at last, shaking a metaphorical fist at the gray winter skies, I pack my bags for a week in the bush - a stay with a Maasai chief who, incidentally, has a profile on CouchSurfing. When I tell Khadija, the receptionist at my hostel, that I’m heading to Narok in the afternoon, she shakes her head and says, “You’re going to the middle of nowhere.” When I tell her my final destination is actually twelve kilometers from there, a strange silence passes between us: a moment that snugly fits into the space between ominous and foreboding. I’ve ... read more

Supa! I hope that this blog finds you all well and happy. We have just come back from an amazing weekend and I can't wait to tell you about it... it's a long one, though... so get ready. Thursday evening we went to eat at a place called Carnivore. It has been rated one of the top 50 restaurants in the world… twice. It was great. The servers gave you meat straight off the sword and we ate until we couldn't eat anymore. Alan said that the beef was the best he's ever had. His exact words were, "Every time I bite into this beef I am blown away. It is the most amazing thing I’ve ever eaten." That evening we stayed at a place in Karen (just outside of Nairobi) called Karen Camp. It was ... read more

As I stared out over the open plains of the Masai Mara, my mind played through the events of the past two weeks and I couldn’t help but smile. It had been a rollercoaster of mixed emotions and it was hard to believe that it was almost over. So much had happen in such little time and I guess it hadn’t completely sunk in yet. I stood there amped full of energy, for this was my first experience in a game reserve and I eagerly awaited my first glance at African wildlife. The Masai Mara Game Reserve (721 square miles) is located in southwestern Kenya, bordering the Serengeti National Park, on the Tanzania border. Masai Mara is Kenya's finest wildlife sanctuary. Rolling grasslands with patches of acacia woodland stretch as far as the eye can see. ... read more