September 1 – Drive to Lake Nakuru
We started a long drive again back towards Nairobi in route to Nakuru National Park – known for pink flamingos and white rhinos. On the drive there, we got caught in a massive rain storm and hail the size of large grapes. It was crazy, but we made it and were just so happy to be done with the long drive! We had time for a game drive that afternoon and had the following highlights:
–Baboon encounter – Tom just told us to keep the car windows up as the baboons like to climb in to look for food. As Amanda and I got out to take photos, I noticed a baboon climb into the window of the car next to ours and look around and finally sat in the drivers seat for a while
–Pink Flamingos – they were amazing to see and listen to. There are about 2 million at this lake and they flew with such grace. Just a sea of pink!
–White Rhinos – this was a goad for me as I never saw Rhinos on last years safari. Today, we saw 14 of them and they were incredible. I love the horns!
-The final prize was a leopard. We spotted a leopard in the “V” of a tree, and watching it move, stalk a rabbit (and lose and the rabbit was fast), and then watching him stalk and go after a Thompson gazelle (like a deer). He got closer and closer and ducked behind bushes and trees and tried the surprise attack. He eventually lost the hunt and we had to leave as the park has curfew. We must have stayed with him and kept moving our jeep for about an hour and a half. Such a highlight!
September 2 – Final day at Lake Nakuru and long drive
A morning drive allowed us to see a large pack of hyenas that must have been unsuccessful the night before (as they hunt at night). It was funny as we watched one go after the flamingos, but he lost. They also tried to circle a couple warthogs, but those warthogs are fast! Amanda kept saying they were the ugliest animals, but I found them to be a little cute in a bear looking way.
In order to appreciate the greatness of this park, we went to the highest part to see it all, and were told the movie “Out of Africa” was half filmed in this park and it was so pretty. This park was beautiful as it was a lush green jungle and trees everywhere (harder to spot animals), compared to Masai Mara which was dry, dusty and very wide open (easier to see huge herds).
We had a 7 hour drive back through Nairobi to get to our next camp at Amboseli. We were smart again and stopped to get more wine (this time 9 bottles for 6 nights) so we could share or have two bottles if need be. We got there well after sundown, and this was our first night to really camp, and we got to help set up tents and cook over an open fire. I was excited to camp as I like to rough it, get dirty and cook over a campfire. With that said, Amanda made my day as she brought all the fixings to make s`mores. For all you that camped with my in college, you know how much I loved s`mores so why not in Africa??? To my surprise, our guide and cook didn`t know what they were, so Amanda and I took it upon ourselves to teach the art of s`more making, and we had two star students by the end of two nights of practice.
September 3 – Not the typical walk in New York
I think we woke up this morning and were the dirtiest I have ever been. I don`t know how, but all the dirt and dust just multiplied overnight and Amanda and I were filthy…but the showers at this place were only cold and didn`t work as the water had to be pumped in from somewhere else. So we just threw on the same dirty clothes and headed out for safari. I still can`t believe how much dirt was under my fingernails and no matter how much we cleaned it, it just came back (real sexy safari right?).
Our first prize of the morning was spotting a male Lion that had just killed a zebra. Amanda wanted to see a live kill so badly, and I said this may be as close as we get. The lion was munching on the zebra legs (as we saw the stripes). As we drove another mile, we found a pack of hyenas also eating zebra, but this part was the head and body. Our guide thought the Lion must have killed it and taken part and the hyenas came to take the rest and dragged it away.
Masai Tribe Visit
In the late morning, we decided to visit a Masai tribe. For about $20 a person (which was shared equally with all 18 Masai tribes in Kenya), we could visit the tribe, get a tour, ask questions and take photos. This was something we both wanted to. Since we were camping, and the Masai men visit our camp frequently, they offered to walk us to their village and again…why not walk with the Masai people? So we started off on a mile walk in a wild animal reserve. Good thing that Thomas and Jackson had a spear to protect us if a wild animal came up. Actually, at one point, they told us to walk faster as a couple of elephants were coming our way. Makes me feel better to think we are walking faster and can out walk a charging elephant…
I think Amanda got one of the best photos of me “cruising with my Masai friend Thomas” He`s all dressed up in his traditional attire, and I`m in shorts, a tank and sunglasses walking in the park.
A few highlights from the visit and new information we learned:
–Our village guide: Samsom (29 years old) was our official guide as he spoke the most English. He is the first son of the chief and would become the chief one day. The chief rules over about 6 tribes in the area and has a wife in each village, so Samsom had lots of siblings, but he was the chosen one as the next chief. That was funny as later Jackson and Samsom asked separately about marrying me. My rule of thumb while traveling (especially in the middle east and Africa) is to say I am married and my husband is back in the US. They both said I could have a husband in the US and another one in Kenya. They sure were persistent, but alas, I didn`t take a Masai husband!
–Welcome song: When we got to the village, all the men and women came out singing for us and performing a traditional dance. We were allowed to join them at one point, and it was easy to spot me with all the women as I was so much taller and blond. Amanda blended in a little more, but her curly hair and pale skin made it easy to spot as well.
–Dancing and jumping: There was a lot of jumping as part of the dance. I noticed the men jumped for height and the women weren`t able to jump as high. When we were invited to jump, we were only allowed to jump with women, but I started jumping too high…whoops. I wish I could have jumped with the men and gone for the jumping height as it looked more fun, but that`s not allowed.
–The village: The village was made of up 4 different families and about 28 different houses. All the houses were built in a circle which made a pen to store all the cows and goats at night to protect from the wild animals.
–The Diet: We learned the Masai`s diet is completely 100% from the cow. Guess I would die in this tribe or have to convert my ways. They eat the beef, drink the milk and drink the cow blood. Some times for variety, they mix the blood and milk. That`s it. No veggies, fruits, flour, breads or anything. Also, they are all super skinny as no fat in the diet and they walk so much every day. Maybe the Atkins diet was modeled after the Masai diet – somewhat?
–The houses: we got a tour of a house, and the entrance was so short, I had to duck a lot to get in and out and was hunched over once inside. We were told the houses were made of cow dung, and then more sticks to add strength. Cow skin was used on top to protect from the rain. Once the cow dung dried, it was very strong. There were two beds which had cow leather for “mattresses”. One bed for the mother and father and one for all the kids to share. –Fire: The men of the village showed us how they made fire in about 3 minutes from cow dung as fuel, and rubbing 1 stick onto a piece of wood to make a spark. It wasn`t like anything I saw the contestants on survivor attempt, this was the real thing and they were really good at it.
–The souvenirs: After the tour, they wanted to take us to buy hand made goods from each family, but there were rules to this procedure. Since all 28 families had stuff to sell, they wanted to separate Amanda and me and make each of us walk down a different side of the long row. They they told us to pick out what we “may” want and then when we are at the end, we could discuss prices and we didn`t have to get anything we picked up. We just said we wanted to look but that wasn`t allowed. Then Amanda said she had no money (and no bag on her) and she had to stay with me. Again they said no. They also said it was one way, so once we passed a family, we couldn`t go back (as they all made similar stuff – so it sucked to be at the end of the line). I finally said we will look together and will look at every family or we won`t look at any. Neither of wanted anything and it was so hard to walk there as everyone wanted to sell everything to us. It was my least favorite part of it all and even harder as we saw Jackson, Thomas and Samsom`s families and wanted to buy from them, but I really didn`t want any of it.
–The school: The final stop of the experience was seeing the school and meeting the kids. The school was fully funded by private donations from visitors. When we came in, the teacher asked the students to recite days, months and other info they learned in English for us. They also sang which made my heart melt. Another great video of this but too large for the website. At the end of this, Amanda and I made a cash donation and logged it in the book, plus left a package of new pens for the students, which we know would go a long way as there were only 2 pens in the class of 30 students.
Overall – the Masai Tribe village was amazing to learn a simple way of life and be able to experience it first hand. Not too many people get to do this, and it felt authentic (not touristy at all).
The final game drive in Kenya allowed us to see:
–Cheetahs – yes we got to see 4 of them siting, then stalking and chasing more gazelles. It was great as one cheetah took the lead and went towards a pack of gazelles and tried to single out one and get it to run away from the herd and back towards his 3 other cheetah friends that were waiting to make a kill. Unfortunately for Amanda and the cheetahs, no kill was made and the gazelle got to live a little longer. The cheetahs were very fast running and quite a site to see.
–More Lions – we got to see two more male lions being lazy. It tends to be the case as they male lions just lay around, sunning themselves and can`t be bothered when we come to take a look. They would roll over and pose for our photos which was nice.
–Mt. Kilimanjaro – we finally got to see the mountain as the other days it was blocked by fog. It was huge and impressive with snow at the top. We were told it takes 7 days to trek to the top and back down and was a very strenuous.
So that was our last day in Kenya and last night with Tom and Gideon as our guide and cook. One more night of s`mores and a couple bottles of wine with them to celebrate a great trip. We had an early morning wake up call (and I agreed to cook eggs the night before). While we were drinking the previous night, I started to talk about the fried eggs my mom made, which I love and make all the time, and I offered to try to cook a modified version (without all the spices and cheese) for the group the next morning. So over a low fire, in a bad frying pan, I made eggs for the group, but they weren`t anything close to my mom`s but a nice change from what we had the other mornings, and I love to cook so a nice treat for me to cook again. I was pleased as I was able to keep the yokes runny which I like!
Final adventure was getting to the border of Kenya and Tanzania. We had to officially exit Kenya and get stamped, them cross to Tanzania, purchase a visa for $100 each. Only problem I was almost out of US dollars and Amanda forgot to bring enough US for herself (as Kenya`s visa was $50). So we pooled what we had in US and my Euros and we both were able to enter the country and wait 90 minutes for our tourist bus to pick us up and take us into Tanzania (as our Kenyan team couldn`t go with us).