Blogs from Kenya, Africa - page 5

Thankfully, I slept until after 9:00 this morning, untroubled by waking in the night. Breakfast was a buffet of Kenyan, English and Indian cuisines; my choices were dates, papaya, a scone, strawberry jam, pork sausages, and sweet potato, with green tea. Fully satisfying. Instructions last evening were to be in the lobby by noon for a couple of excursions. I was the only one there, provoking all imaginable questions about time and location. I pacified my panic by looking around the hotel. Now called the Sarova Stanley , it was built in 1902 as the New Stanley Hotel. Many historic photos testified to its fame as the place to meet for safaris, meals, and social occasions. The Thorn Tree restaurant, where I had breakfast, used to be open air, and the thorn tree was famous as ... read more

After breakfast at Sentrim Lodge, we left for our next adventure. I really would have loved to relax at the resort for a few hours, but that is not how Trekkup rolls. You definitely get your money's worth on these trips! Hippo Hunting So our first stop was to Lake Naivasha to go hunt for some hippos. We arrived at the beautiful Lake Naivasha Lodge, just gorgeous, where we would have our tour. We were each given a life jacket on our way to the dock and were split into three groups. You could already see many hippos hanging out in the water nearby! We precariously entered our small boats, with me wondering what would happen if an angry hippo nudged us. Then we were off traveling through the murky waters. They were mostly just standing ... read more

Our flight landed early in the morning and within two hours we were seeing the amazing African wildlife! So, there were about 14 of us on this 3-day weekend to Kenya. I knew a few from other trips, but the rest I had never met before. We landed and got through customs .... well, not so quickly. But we got outside to meet our guides. Instead of the planned breakfast we had expected, they said we would be going directly to our first game drive, so everyone got a coffee (I got juice) for the road. We loaded up into three vans and were on our way. Driving out of the airport was interesting as there were pretty cool sculptures of various African animals along on the side of the road. Nairobi National Park After about ... read more

Yesterday we had an adventure deep sea fishing on the Indian Ocean! It was a bit more than I expected in a lot of ways (the length of our boat trip, the swells on the ocean, and the disturbing nature of fishing itself). Let’s start at the beginning. We were up early as we were leaving at 7:30. It was raining when we got up, and while we were having our early light breakfast, but it soon stopped, and it turned out to be a beautiful day on the water. The owner of the fishing charter picked us up and we drove about 1/2 hour to where the boat is docked. My iphone photos said it was Mtwapa Creek (which we used to access the Indian Ocean, because of the reef). It was really pretty and ... read more

We had a very exciting morning game drive! We saw lots of zebras, an elephant herd with several baby elephants, lions mating, and a big group of hippos! We enjoyed a very nice breakfast our lovely camp (they have fruit, little pastries, cereals, an egg station, and hot accompaniments plus excellent coffee). It was another lovely sunny day, but with a cooling breeze. We headed out on our morning game drive at 8 am. We saw lots of zebras first, then an elephant herd in the distance, with several baby elephants. They are so cute! We also saw various antelopes including Thomson’s gazelles, Eland, and Topi. We drove quite a distance up to the lookout in the Maasai Mara. It was really nice to get out of the jeep and stretch our legs, as the roads ... read more