I was afraid to go to Nairobi because there was a woman from Oregon who got shot in the face there a couple of years ago. Even though our plane was late, our driver was there to meet us. He took us to our hotel that had armed guards at the entrance. We were told not to walk at night. We didn't.
We had one day to adjust to the heat, time zone change and the overall craziness of Africa in general. Then we were off to the first of a sixteen day safari trip that would take us through eight different parks and end up in Tanzania. Looking back it would have been better to do two shorter trips with a chance to rest in between.
Samburu was our first stop. The Sopa Lodge was in the park and we were told not to go out by ourselves at night. Indeed the first night I heard lions and learned the next day there were two in the compound hunting. The entire trip was way over the top better than I had ever hoped for. At some point when I have time and a good connection, I will post pictures. We not only saw elephants, rhinos, and cape buffalo, they charged our vehicles on more than one occasion. In addition we saw every kind of gazelle, antelope, zebra, giraffe, wildebeest and more. There are a lot of bats in Africa and I had the experience of sharing a bathroom with one...
Aberdares, Lake Nakuru, Maasai Mara and Amboseli were all parks we visited in Kenya.Our driver the entire time was named Jonathan. He was a young ambitious man with a family and several other business in addition to being a Safari Guide/Driver. It was the off season and we were the only ones in the pop top land cruiser.
Jonathan did his best to teach us Swahili as we crawled over ditches and bumped down dirt paths through jungle and savanna. We learned that his father-in-law had passed away from complications of diabetes the very first day of our safari and ended up attending the funeral with him. He was a guardian angel for us, helping us to transition to the extremely different culture of Africa. Utter poverty to utter opulence with no in between. The stark contrast was offensive and difficult to adjust to. Johnathan took us to the boarder of Kenya and helped us walk through the boarder process. Then he handed us off like a baton in a relay race to our new driver in Tanzania....
Currency: Kenya Shilling (KES) $1 USD = $80 KES
We had one day to adjust to the heat, time zone change and the overall craziness of Africa in general. Then we were off to the first of a sixteen day safari trip that would take us through eight different parks and end up in Tanzania. Looking back it would have been better to do two shorter trips with a chance to rest in between.
Samburu was our first stop. The Sopa Lodge was in the park and we were told not to go out by ourselves at night. Indeed the first night I heard lions and learned the next day there were two in the compound hunting. The entire trip was way over the top better than I had ever hoped for. At some point when I have time and a good connection, I will post pictures. We not only saw elephants, rhinos, and cape buffalo, they charged our vehicles on more than one occasion. In addition we saw every kind of gazelle, antelope, zebra, giraffe, wildebeest and more. There are a lot of bats in Africa and I had the experience of sharing a bathroom with one...
Aberdares, Lake Nakuru, Maasai Mara and Amboseli were all parks we visited in Kenya.Our driver the entire time was named Jonathan. He was a young ambitious man with a family and several other business in addition to being a Safari Guide/Driver. It was the off season and we were the only ones in the pop top land cruiser.
Jonathan did his best to teach us Swahili as we crawled over ditches and bumped down dirt paths through jungle and savanna. We learned that his father-in-law had passed away from complications of diabetes the very first day of our safari and ended up attending the funeral with him. He was a guardian angel for us, helping us to transition to the extremely different culture of Africa. Utter poverty to utter opulence with no in between. The stark contrast was offensive and difficult to adjust to. Johnathan took us to the boarder of Kenya and helped us walk through the boarder process. Then he handed us off like a baton in a relay race to our new driver in Tanzania....
Currency: Kenya Shilling (KES) $1 USD = $80 KES
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