Monday, August 20, 2012

Safari Trip Part One


I am officially back in Mombasa safe and sound.  I’m going to have to break up my blog posts by a couple days because I have too much to say to put it all in one.  Thursday morning we left early to get to the bus station to leave for our safari. The bus took us from Mombasa to Nairobi and was eight hours long.  Surprisingly, the bus ride there went quickly and was similar to an airplane ride in that we received snacks and refreshments on the way. 
                                                                     Chelsea and I- bus buddies!
 We stopped at a “rest stop” for lunch where we could purchase food if we liked.  I didn’t want to risk getting sick from the meat so I stuck with french fries.  Before we left many of us wanted to use the bathroom which was basically just holes in the ground.  We managed to find one individual stall with an actual toilet so we took turns.  After we made the trip to Nairobi, the Elective Africa coordinators-Flavia and Grace- picked us up from the bus stop and we took taxis to our hotel. Nairobi was a lot more urban than Mombasa and seemed cleaner.  We didn’t know if it was this way because it was the capital or if we were just in a nicer area of the city.  Pulling into our hotel was a bit of a shock.  Most of us expected a hotel, something basic like a Super 8 but we pulled into a backpacker’s hostel.  All the buildings were painted with a mural of an African savannah and we stayed in rooms with sets of bunk beds.  The hotel wasn’t what we expected but it really was clean and a cheap place to stay.  I think part of the unexpectedness was because we had heard from other previous students about their hotel and all of us assumed that we would stay at the same one.  All of us were very hungry so we went out to eat at a local Italian restaurant.  It was very very nice and I almost felt underdressed in jeans.  I had pizza; yes. I am so ready to eat American food again. Haha! After dinner we went back to the hotel, hung out around the bar and played cards. 
Friday we woke up to a frigid, rainy morning. I didn’t expect Africa to be cold and didn’t bring many items of warm clothing.  Luckily, one of the girls brought two pairs of sweatpants and let me borrow on for the safari trip.  The safari vans came and picked us up from the hostel so we could start our journey to the game reserve.  Our group was large so we split up into three safari vans, everyone got a window seat for maximum viewing pleasure.  Our vans drove to where we would be staying which was in the Maasai Mara game reserve.  On the way we drove through the Great Rift Valley which is beautiful.  The roads wound through the hills and reminded me of driving through Spearfish canyon back home.  Since my group was in “Safari mode” we managed to relate almost everything we saw to The Lion King and we even threw in a couple songs off the soundtrack along the way. 
                                                our safari van group at the Great Rift Valley
After about two hours of driving we stopped for some lunch which was traditional Kenyan food. Our driver, Peter, told us we had 2 and a half more hours to go, but he warned us that the last hour and a half the road was very rough.  He wasn’t kidding, but he also didn’t slow down. We raced down the bumpiest road I’ve ever been on.  The only comparison I have to that road would be driving in grandpa’s old manual pickup through the pasture, hitting every single rock- except much faster and about 10x worse.  We finally made our way through the savannah-like environment and arrived at our hotel.   The camp area we stayed in was a mixture of rooms made of cement and military tent rooms.  Four of us stayed together in a cement room except there were holes in all the walls leading outside and our glass windows didn’t close all the way.  The caretakers told our group to make sure we shut our windows at night or else the monkeys will come inside our rooms and steal our belongings.  We were also informed that the electricity is only on from 5:30-7:00 am and 6:30-10:00 pm, meaning we had to be very conscious of when we showered and got ready in the morning.  Once we got settled, we were going out on our first safari that afternoon.  One of my roommates, Chelsea and I had purchased safari hats for the occasion and were ready for the experience! As we entered the park tribal women stuck their hands inside our van to try to get us to buy their items. It was slightly awkward and irritating as we declined.  We finally got inside the park entrance and I think all of us were more than amazed.  We saw zebras and wildebeest first right off the bat.  The funny thing is we were so captivated by the zebras but throughout the entire safari we probably saw at least a thousand zebras.  I didn’t know they were so prevalent.  We saw quite a few different animals and I have loads of pictures.  It soon started to get dark so we made our way back to camp.  Dinner was prepared and it was traditional Kenyan food again-lots of starches of course, but I wasn’t feeling the greatest so I didn’t eat much.  After dinner we showered and got ready for bed.  Since the lights go off at ten there isn’t much to do except go to sleep and we were all exhausted from traveling.  We were told not to go outside the camp fence because the animals come out close to camp at night; wisely, we followed directions.  We went to bed in anticipation of the full day of safari. 
                                                                                    zebras!


2 comments:

  1. Good to hear from you! Regarding Zebras--The eternal childhood question: Are they white with black stripes or black with white stripes? I'm glad you got out to see another part of Kenya. Take Care...Love you...MOM

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  2. That's so cool I was singing the beginning of the circle of life while I read this!! Can't wait till you get home we'll have so much to talk about :)

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