SAFARI IN KENYA, PART I

           Yesterday I mentioned our trip to Kenya in 2001. It’s been some time since I revisited that experience. Perhaps today (Thursday) having made dill pickles and frozen garlic, plus the fact we’ve had clouds and rain (yippee my garden is so happy), this would be a good time to look back.

              It seems like we had decided on Kenya before the end of 2000 because I got a great pair of binoculars for Christmas and I bought John a telescope (he could only see out of one eye) for Christmas. It was a trip of 16 participants including the couple who were the leaders…both zoo employees. It was sponsored by the travel agency with whom the zoo contracted and as such, we were able to both go for the cost of just one. Once all the zoo employees were on board, it was opened to volunteers, so it was a nice mix of staff and volunteers.

          Neither one of us had been on such a long plane ride before, but we managed, even John with his looooooong legs. The plane landed in Amsterdam where we transferred to another airplane bound for Nairobi. I can’t remember now if the guide, Anthony, and his staff met us or if they joined us at the Safari Park Hotel. It was a very nice English-style hotel and very comfortable.         

          Our first excursion was to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. Mr. Sheldrick was no longer alive, but his wife continued his work of rescuing baby animals, i.e., rhinos, especially elephants and other animals that had been abandoned for one reason or another (poaching). There was also a school group in attendance and I was amazed to learn that these children were required to go to school, that most of them spoke three languages and that the uniform they were wearing was required. Later on, I learned that even in remote villages, children would bring gallon jugs of water with which to clean their school. 

          This trust was very educational when it came to elephants. There were a number of babies and some were even still nursing. Their keepers held bottles so they could drink. The keepers also stayed with and slept with them at night…more like a foster mom than a human/elephant. The keepers also held big umbrellas over the babies because the direct hot sun would burn their skin…I didn’t know that. The keepers also helped them take mud baths which also prevented sunburn. I still have the t-shirt I purchased in support of this place.

          There were three vehicles in our group with five or six people in each one, plus the driver/guide. The top guide, Anthony, spread himself around the three so we each received the pleasure of his knowledge and company. Following lunch at the Norfolk Hotel in Nairobi our caravan headed for The Mountain Lodge at an altitude of 7,200 feet. During the drive, we also noticed that Kenyans do not waste an inch of space. They grow corn and garden wherever there is space, i.e., the road medians and edges. Also, during trips down the various roads, there were always pitstops so we could use the bathroom and the native peoples could sell us stuff. I do have to say that the bathrooms were the absolute worst I’ve ever encountered. In fact, one person in our group was so appalled she wouldn’t go. Toward the end of the trip she was so constipated, a doctor was brought in and there was talk of flying her out to Nairobi, but everything did end up coming out okay…joke there, ha ha ha.

The Mountain Lodge was about four stories and each room had a balcony which overlooked the waterhole. When we went to bed, we were told we would be wakened when the animals came to the waterhole during the night. Sure enough, sleeping soundly, there’s a knock on the door. We got up and went to the balcony. From there, we saw Cape buffalo and waterbucks, but not much else. The next morning, we were taken on a nature walk through the forest surrounding The Mountain Lodge. We had a local guide who led and were followed by another guide who carried a fun…just in case. Again, not a lot of animals, but we did see particular lily (photo) which doesn’t grow anywhere else and cannot be cultivated.

The next day, we moved on and over the equator which is a big deal. Now, I’ve read that water really doesn’t swirl the other way on the other side of the equator, but our guides provided a demonstration and it does indeed swirl the opposite direction on the other side of the line. Trick??? I don’t know but I was impressed. We all had our pictures taken with one foot on the north and the other on the south side of the equator line. We also received a dated certificate that certified we had crossed the equator on 17 March 2001 at Nanyuki Kenya. Very Cool!!!

After that, our next stop was Samburu Serena Lodge. This is one of the places where the Survivor television program was filmed, not in the lodge, but the Samburu area…I missed that episode. Each of us had a little cottage in which we stayed. The food, as in all these places, was delightful and yummy. In particular I loved the way they served coffee, i.e., hot coffee and warm milk if you used milk. Something else I really loved was the way we were greeted. We were always met with warm or cold wet hand towels and glasses of juice…passionfruit was my favorite.

Checked in, we went on our first game drive that afternoon. We saw impalas, zebra, reticulated giraffe, dik-dik, bushbuck, Cape buffalo, gazelles and a leopard tortoise. We only saw the tortoise because there was a short cloudburst (really hard rain, but lasted about five minutes) and it was the water which brought him out. We also saw elephants, in particular a mother who stopped to nurse her baby. I also found out the elephants do hold tails, it’s not something from circus training. There was gerenuk, amazing how high they can reach on their hind legs and lions, even a lioness with cubs. These animals paid no attention to our vehicles, and we were able to take lots of photos.

The next day, we went to the Samburu Native Village. Again, a learning experience. The Chief and other important males met with us under the Parliament Tree (where they make important decisions that affects the tribe), and the Chief was given $20 per person for our visit. They did not wear western attire, but the native Kanga. Their village is surrounded by a boma which is a fence of spiney wood which keeps the wild animals outside and the people and their cattle safe inside. The shelters are made of a variety of stuff and covered with dried animal dung. We were provided with an example of how to make fire and a couple of our group gave it a try…at least one of them was successful.

We were entertained by the schoolchildren, and invited to go inside one of the shelters. It was extremely dark and so hot inside, and the animal hide on which we sat very stiff. I didn’t realize until I took a photo using the flash that there was a mother and child inside the shelter with us. I probably blinded them. The shelters are very primitive and a pillow is a piece of wood shaped like a slingshot, you know the “Y” shape and you put your head into the center…not very comfortable I’d say. The shelters also include a cooking fire and in this one, the cooking utensils were suspended from the ceiling. Not someplace I’d want to live ever.

Back outside, the women performed a native dance. We had all been instructed prior to leaving the US that we absolutely could not talk about or bring up female circumcision. That didn’t keep the Samburu from doing so. We were told that women with silver bracelets on their arms had been circumcised. Again, they wore the native Kangas.

It was hot…sooooooooo HOT. All I wanted by then was to go back to the van and drink a bottle of water. But, to do that, we had to run a gauntlet of women who were selling items they had made. I don’t remember if I bought anything other than a baby rattle, I figured I’d give to my grandchild when it was born in the fall. That never happened. It was a dried gourd and suspended from the gourd were strings of beads. At the end of each string was this shiny circle of metal. Yes, it looked familiar, but it wasn’t until my son Thor identified those pieces of metal as the ends from “D” batteries that I recognized them. Needless to say, the rattle may be in Haley’s saved stuff box, but she never got to rattle or chew on it.

Back at the lodge, only one other person joined me in the swimming pool. It felt absolutely decadent, but so cool and WET. After that and lunch (I still cannot imagine going to the Samburu village in the afternoon in that heat.), we went on another game drive. This time we saw a leopard in a tree. And, funny story here. I had given the kids the old Pentax camera when I bought a new one for the trip. John wanted it back. He was going to use it even though he had no idea how to do an F-stop or whatever. Out of 27 rolls of film, and using a camera he didn’t have a clue about, John took the very best photo of the leopard in the tree. In fact, I framed it and it hangs on the living room wall. Good job, John. (Unfortunately I cannot share that photo with you because it won't scan in the frame.)  

We moved on and saw more Cape buffalo, lions, Thompson’s gazelles and Impala. In one place we stopped on the side of a wide, but low water river, on the other side of which were some very nervous zebra. Anthony explained what was happening. There were three female lions, probably sisters. One of them got up and disappeared. We couldn’t see where she went. In a bit, the other two moved into two separate gullies on the riverbank. The zebra became more nervous. Suddenly, the lioness that left is loping across the river on a diagonal toward the zebra which suddenly disappear up the bank and into the foliage. The other two lions get up and begin loping across the river. Anthony said they’d eat well that night. I’m just glad we didn’t get to see the lions take the zebra down. 

Well, that’s enough for today…I’ll continue my Kenya memories tomorrow.