SAFARI!

8/16-8/21

Our journey began on Thursday the 16^th as we boarded the Coast Air bus to Nairobi. The 8 hour bus ride was impossible to sleep on due to the driver speeding up, slamming on the breaks, and passing every car we saw. That coach bus was not made for that type of driver; I don’t know how we made it to our destination alive!



Death wish?

Nairobi is so much different than Mombasa! It is in more of a mountainous region so it’s really hot during the day, but cold at night. I really wish I would have brought a pair of sweatpants! As fun and amazing as this trip has been—I miss American food! So much! The stew and rice isn’t really doing it for me anymore. As soon as we got settled in our 8 person room (with one random roommate) at the hostile, we were off to find a place to eat.

The next morning we loaded in to 3 safari vans and were off on another 6 hour journey to Massai Mara National Wildlife Reserve. The first 4 hours were long—there were a lot of speed bumps in which the driver, Solomon, no longer slowed down for anymore. I had already finished my book that I had started reading the day before so I was getting pretty bored. Suddenly quiet Solomon turned around and said “This part of the road, bad. Tarmac ends here.” Well… he wasn’t joking. The next hour and a half reminded me of the old days in high school offroading in the Burb on the logging roads.  I actually had a blast going 60 down the dirt road with pot holes everywhere! Then in the back of my mind I started thinking, if we crash we die. It’s not like there are ambulances or helicopters that can just come rescue us. Nonetheless, I still had a good time. Check facebook for a short, unjustified, video of it.

The vans!

We arrived at the Rhino Tented Camp around 3:30, took a 20 minute rest, and went straight to the reserve. It was amazing. Solomon put the top up so we could stand and take pictures of the animals. We saw zebras (which ended up being my favorite despite the fact that we saw thousands of them, literally), elephants, wildebeests, giraffes, buffalo, hartebeests, and different types of gazelle and antelope. We spent about 3 hours out there before returning for a shower (my first warm shower in Africa!), and supper. We were all exhausted and ended up going to bed around 9:30.

Day 2!

We were out on the reserve by 8:30am ready to see what the day had in store. My van included, Ali and Ben (the Canadian couple), Megan Sarvis, Megan Stuart, and myself. Megan Stuart had a really nice Nikon camera so her pictures turned out the best on this adventure. I wish I would have invested in a nice camera like that before coming here! The day began with more zebra, wildebeest, and gazelle. All the sudden we hear Solomon talking on the CB and before we knew it we were going 60 mph again on the sketchy dirt road in pursuit of a hyena! It was so cool; it was eating a wildebeest and fighting off the huge buzzards trying to steal the meat.

Taken by Megan Stuart



Our main destination for the day was the Mara River where we would be able to see the hippos and crocodiles. We eventually came up over this hill and there we saw thousands of zebra and wildebeests grazing in the sun. This was my all time favorite part of the trip! I could not get over how many there were! The whole time I kept thinking of the Lion King, I’m definitely going to watch that when I get home! We slowly rolled through the vast open field of these beautiful animals before speeding up again to see a black rhino! He was hard to see because of the bushes in the way, but still very cool. We also saw a cheetah and some mating lions before it was even noon!

Annual migration from Serengeti to Massai Mara

There was a stream of water to be crossed ahead and our van was the first one to go. I sat down finally because I knew this was going to be a rough ride. After crossing the water the embankment on the other side was straight up! We cheered when we made it to the other side because we honestly didn’t think it was possible. The next van wasn’t so lucky, I just remember seeing a split second of their front bumper and then back down the embankment they slid. They were stuck. Our van pulled them out successfully within a matter of minutes. These Kenyan’s are impressive! Then rolling up behind us was a huge truck, I don’t even know what it was carrying or why it was out there, it was very out of place. The driver smiled and waved at us before going straight down into the embankment! There was a huge crashing noise and yes, they too were stuck in the mud. Were we at some kind of circus? Again, the Kenyan’s were efficient, they pulled that huge truck out with just a little Toyota van and we were on our way.

haha!

Then truck number 2 came

The rest of the day was filled with more animals; we saw all of the “Big 5” besides a leopard. I would say we had a great experience overall! The Mara River was amazing; there were hippos and crocodiles all over. This river separates Kenya from Tanzania to give you a little perspective of how far we have traveled on this trip.

Hello hippos, and hello Tanzania!

When we finally made it back to the camp I was shocked at how dirty my face was! I cleaned it off when we got stuck before noon and now it looked like I had a spray tan gone wrong! I did stand up in the van with the top down for 8 out of the 9 hours we were on the reserve so I guess I deserved it. After 2 showers, I still was not completely clean!

To end the night we went to a Massai village, which was awesome! The people were so welcoming and gave us a great look into their culture. They keep all their livestock in the center circle of their village to keep the lions from attacking. If one does enter, it is killed. The baby animals are actually kept inside the tiny little huts the people live in made of sticks and cow dung! Along with the animals there is usually another 6 people living in there. I can't believe they crammed that many people into a house that is the size of my living room. The people sang for us and invited us into their homes. It was a great experience and amazing to see that people still live like this.

 The village

 Part of the singing

It was so dark in there! But this is the hut

Again, we went to bed early that night. The next morning we had to be in the van at 6:10 am! It was time to finally see an African sunrise! Of course, the pictures don’t do it justice, it was way more beautiful than words can describe or pictures can portray. We spent about 2 and a half hours on the reserve before returning to Nairobi. Before we left we got to see a lioness eating a wildebeest! We were so close to her it was crazy! I loved the safari, it’s definitely another adventure I can check off my bucket list!

About two hours into our journey back to Nairobi, Solomon began a speech, “The rhino grass from yesterday.”  We just stared at him confused. “You know, when we drove through the grass to see the Rhino.” Ohhhh, yeah. He went on, “The park rangers saw us do that and want to fine us. They have our license plate, but we convinced them it wasn’t us. If the stop us up ahead, tell them we were only here for a day. We drove in from Nairobi yesterday and we are leaving today.” The 5 of us just nodded in agreement, trying to digest the fact that we were on the run! A few miles down the road we stopped at a checkpoint and everyone was speaking in Swahili so I couldn’t understand. Felix, one of the other van drivers in our group came up and said something to Solomon then ran back to his van and sped away! We were right behind him. The other van got questioned, so some of the girls had to play along with the story and say we had only been here a day. This whole time I’m thinking great—we are going to get imprisoned in a foreign country for lying to park rangers! Ironic? J

It all seemed to turn out fine; we made it back to Nairobi later that night and ate at a restaurant called Carnivore. It was expensive, but very good! Probably the best food we have had the whole trip! They serve you as much meat as you can eat. I tried crocodile (disgusting!), ostrich (really good!) and an ox testicle (disgusting!). Everything else was pretty normal.

The whole safari experience was so amazing! I am extremely glad we decided to add this into our time here in Kenya. On the bus ride home we saw Mt. Kilimanjaro and it made me want to climb it even more! I’d love to come back and do that, see Serengeti, and do more medical work someday. My time in Africa ends in a few short days, but I know it won’t be forever. If I could stay longer I would, it feels like I have so much more work to fulfill here.