joeyi

Saturday, Amboseli

This day turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip. It started right after breakfast when I went outside to check to see if you could see Mt. Kilimanjaro. Sure enough it was visible. Story of my life I went to take a picture and my camera read “card full” and my spare cards were back at the room. Hakuna Matata, I raced back to get another card and when I got back the view was even better as the clouds were clearing from the top. The snow level on the mountain had increased from all the recent rains.

At 9 we left and headed to the Massai village near the Serena hotel. A man that Pam knew had purchased 400 acacia trees to plant that day and we volunteered to help. I wasn’t really sure what to expect after reading trip reports here about the village tours and reading the book The White Massai on the plane flight over I had my preconceived notions. I can honestly say all those notions were wrong and that morning was something I will always remember.

I started to dig a hole, with my not very good tool and I had dug 2 strokes when a young warrior, Daniel came over and started digging with his panga (big knife). He dug the hole so fast, and then together we planted the tree. We must have planted at least 30 trees together. I enjoyed talking with him and learning a little more about his village. One of his friends saw I had a camera and asked me to please take his picture. He really wanted to be photographed in the worst way. I did get a few good shots of him and hopefully the prints I’m having made will find there way to him. Other warriors were using their spears to dig with and they were much more effective than our shovels. The massai children would get water from the irrigation trench they had dug and water the trees and then the woman came and spread the dung.

The funniest part of the whole morning was all the cell phones that kept ringing. Even in their traditional dress they had cell phones on their belts. I couldn’t help but ask whom they call and how they charge the phones. The answers were “we call each other” and they have solar chargers with invertors.

Our little group of 6 people (even our driver helped out) was finished planting around noon. My husband who lives in flip-flops was pretty well coated in mud by this time. At one point I did see him almost slip into the irrigation ditch while retrieving water, but fortunately he caught himself. This would not be his last encounter with the deep rich red mud of Kenya.

We had brought a big bag of school supplies with us from the US and thought this would be a great place to donate them. They had a school house that was built by the same man who organized the tree planting. We located one of the teachers and he opened the school for us. The kids all clamored into their desks and seemed happy to have visitors bringing gifts. There was a world map on the wall and I pointed out where we from.

Now no village visit would be complete without some shopping. One of the men walked you through and you picked out what you liked from each vendor. When I got to Daniel, my tree planting helper he gave me as a gift a very nice beaded bracelet. After you had everything selected they took you outside the little shopping area and the negotiating begins. This was our first real experience with the bargaining and was not our favorite part. In the end we left with a bag of beaded jewelry and hopefully they were happy with the deal.

The afternoon will have to go into the next installment.

atravelynn

That's wonderful you saw baby jackals. I'm sure they were shy. The only baby jackal I've seen was in the talons of a martial eagle.

I know what you mean about the interesting use of language. I love to hear the different twist put on phrases and the meaning it conveys.

wildebeestus

Joyce, Having just finished Patty's report, I feel like I've met you already! Karibu to the group, I myself am a newbie lurker-turned- reporter. What an interesting view of Kenya, family visits mixed with safari on the side. Laughed and laughed with the rain humor - nothing like the wisdom of the guides "rain coming/rain going" "poncho on" "What is rain but some water from the sky?" "Now we are a boat." Only in Africa. Can't wait to see the green photos! Deb

Nyamera

Where did all the flamingos go? Did they die because of toxins or did they move to Lake Bogoria or somewhere?
I already had my suitcase out as I was going to Tanzania with Lolazahra, but then she invited an aunt instead.
The acacia planting in Amboseli sounds really fun, and meaningful.

Leely

Having seen your photos and now Patty's, I think it's safe to say that your husband secretly or not-so-secretly loves mud. I'm sure he enjoyed planting in flip flops.

Did your driver like visiting Amboseli? I ask because on two trips to Tanzania, we met many people, usually working at hotels and restaurants as well as on Zanzibar, who said they'd never been to the Serengeti, Ngorongoro, etc., and that it was their dream to someday visit the famous parks of their country and see the animals.

julimbo

Hello Joeyi,

Thoroughly enjoying your trip report. Just a quick question about the camera you took. Were you happy with it as your sole camera and did you have any of the lense attachments for it i.e. the telephoto or wide angle lenses? The reason I ask is that after much research and handling in the camera shop I've decided it's the camera for me. The only question is whether or not I should get the telephoto lense with converter for attachment.

Thanks,
Juliet

p.s. Glad to hear the rain didn't damper anyone's spirits. Am going in May of 2007.

joeyi

One other word I forgot to mention that was used a lot is “sorry”. Everyone is so polite and they are always saying “sorry”, even if it is not their fault.

Nyamera,

Not sure where all the flamingos went. There was some talk of Lake Eementaita and we were going to stop there and look on our way from Lake Nakuru to Lake Naivasha, but the road was really bad and there was a big detour and we couldn’t quite figure out how to get down to Elementaita from the detour. Crater Lake had a lot of flamingos.

Leely,

I think my husband loves mud, Patty got a much better picture of him in the mud than I did, and his poor flip flops almost didn’t survive that game drive in Meru, but I’ll save that story for later.

I think our driver very much enjoyed his weekend in Amboseli, sort of a working vacation for him. He seemed just as excited as we were when we saw an animal. He worked just as hard as any of us at the Massai village (and that was not in his job description). I can be one to ask too many questions so I tried not to be my usual nosy self and ask too many personal questions of people. But I did ask him if he had his own car, which he doesn’t and he takes 2 matatus to get to work (1 to 1 1 /2 hours each way). And this is a job he has had for 30 years. I would also like to add that he had just left the embassy in Nairobi 5 minutes before the bomb went off in 1998. He considers himself a very lucky man. He joined us for most of our meals and I think we entertained him with family stories from Rod & Pam’s childhood and then all of Rod’s joke telling. He helped us all with our Swahili including a good session with Reggie on counting in Swahili.

Juliet,

I was very happy with the camera, I had a canon powershot A510 prior to the S3 that I only had for about a year, but realized it was not going to do what I wanted for this trip. My husband did use the powershot in the beginning but after uploading photos at his sister's in Nairobi he decided my camera was better & he stopped taking pictures and left all the photography up to me.

I didn't bother buying any of the lens attachments. I figured if I was going to go to that extreme I would just buy an SLR. I love to take pictures but I’m a real amateur. That is just my personal opinion and if you do end up buying attachments I would love to hear how you like them.

wildebeestus

Wow, Joyce, it's rhino mania!!! Eleven, so close, babies, black ones, white ones. Awesome pictures.

Personal favorite, the flamingos. The close up of the wading bird, lovely! Lunch alongside them at Small Lake Momella in Arusha NP was one of my favorite Tanzanian memories. My friend who went with sent me a highly sparkly rhinestone flamingo pin for Christmas. At the time I carried on so much, the guide said he'd remember me as "Flamingo Girl." (and no, am not trying to compete with Spa Girl) Deb

joeyi

Saturday afternoon

Pam wanted us to get the most variety of lodging so we moved over to Kibo Safari camp. In hindsight we should have stayed here first as even though they had in suite bathrooms in the tents, the showers were much better at Ol Tukai and would have been nice to have a good shower after our tree planting. One week in Africa and I’ve come to learn what’s a little mud or dust on you.

The tents at kibo are rather basic after our stay at Olonana, but for one night they had all you needed. We had lunch and then every one rested up for a bit before our late afternoon game drive. This time the guys came with us and they even let Rod (husband) do some of the driving. I must note that he and Pam grew up 4 wheeling in the California desert with their dad. Of course this was the fist time Rod was driving a 4 wheel with right hand drive, but he caught on pretty quick. Mostly the roads were pretty tame but he did all he could to make it more exciting. So now our driver is in the back seat being a passenger, I think he really enjoyed this part of the trip, especially since Rod was being very entertaining.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned it yet, but Rod can either be the quietest guy in the room or the funniest. It depends on his comfort level with the crowd. And even though he is a very reluctant traveler, he must have been very comfortable this trip as he had everyone laughing. Sometimes he uses “props” to add to his humor. Earlier in the year he had seen a pith helmet with a solar powered fan. He really wanted this for Africa. Of course I thought this was the goofiest thing in the world, but if it would help encourage him to make this trip I figured he could have this pith helmet. Well needless to say where ever we went people loved this hat and I wouldn’t be surprised if it starts showing up in some of the lodge gift shops.


So while driving, Rod donned his pith helmet, was wearing his masai beaded bracelet and became the newest safari guide in Kenya. We went back to Observation Hill since the guys had missed that yesterday. We didn’t see a lot of different animals that afternoon but we did laugh a lot. Leaving Observation Hill we did see an African hare or at least some kind of rabbit. Once again not quick enough with the camera, but sometimes it’s better to see things with both eyes than one eye behind the shutter. We decided enough of Rod driving for one day and we let our driver bring us back to Kibo. Pam routed us on different road and this brought us back around by the Serena.

Dinner and another Masai dance troupe. The food at Kibo was just okay and not some of the best that we during our trip

atravelynn

The pith helmet is a riot. I'm sure he is part of the memories and stories other travelers who crossed your path.

joeyi

Sunday, Amboseli

I’m the only early bird in the crowd, everyone else slept in. I sat outside the tent reading hoping that I would get another view of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Not as lucky today as I only got a glimpse of the top right side.

Finally Rod wakes up and we go have breakfast. It was nice enough to eat outside. Not long after Reggie joins us and so do Pam & Henry. Breakfast was pretty good. Our driver had been up for awhile and was waiting for us to go. I should note at Kibo he was given his own private in suite tent for his accommodations. At Ol Tukai he was in a shared room and he had to walk to the bathroom.

Today we are headed back to Nairboi but not without driving around Amboseli some more to see if we could see any more game. Today we saw lots of elephants around the park. We also saw 2 jackals. We stopped at Serena late morning, as Pam wanted to show me the hotel. The grounds are very beautifully landscaped and there are lots of murals painted on the walls.

As we got closer to the entrance to the park we saw many giraffes and zebras. As we were paralleling what was the “dry lake bed” I do not know if we really saw water in the lakebed or a mirage. There was one time I would have bet money there was water but then when you got closer the water was moved to another place.

Has anyone else had this experience??

The rest of the ride back to Nairobi was uneventful until we got to the Mombassa road truck scales and a huge traffic jam. At one point it became a free for all and people were driving in the shoulder or up the middle of the road. Our driver told us that sometimes the trucks have to wait 3-7 days at this place to get weighed.

Again it was nice to have a house to come home to regroup and do laundry. In the morning Rod and I fly to Samburu. Reggie goes back to school; Pam to work and Hank has some peace and quiet.

joeyi

Monday, Samburu

We had an early cab pick up arranged to take us to Wilson Airport for our flight on AirKenya. This driver wasn’t as good as the last one and didn’t seem to know his way through the traffic that well. It was taking an awfully long time and I was getting worried we’d be late. When I realized we were on the Mombassa Road I knew something was wrong and asked him “are we going to Wilson?” he turned and looked at me confused as he was taking us to NBO. Now I’m really getting nervous about missing our plane. He made the first U turn, drove on the shoulder, took some back streets and got us to Wilson in time although I will mention it took us 1 hour 30 minutes and the other time we made it in 45 minutes. Now we’re waiting to board the plane and I see the luggage getting loading, but one of our bags is not on there. Next thing you know a baggage man is walking through the waiting area carrying our bag looking for the owners. Something in the bag tripped off their x ray and they thought we had bullets in the bag. Back to the security check which was 2 woman searching your bag and we pulled everything out and they decided it was the socket set of a mini tool kit we had brought that we thought might be a nice gift for a driver.

I feel really fortunate that the above little experience was probably the “worst” (using this term very lightly) thing that happened us to. I’ve read so many trip reports in the last 9 months and I know we had a really smooth trip.

We’re the last ones on the plane, but we made it and off to Samburu. It was a beautiful sunny day and we had a nice view of Mt.Kenya on the way. We made one stop at Nanyuki to drop off passengers. We moved our seats up front right behind the pilot and when we took off again he started pointing out good trout streams on the right and elephants on the left. There was a beautiful pine forest that we flew over too. We had a driver meeting us from Eastern & Southern and he would be with us til he took us to Meru and dropped us off at Elsa’s Kopje. The reason for this was, originally we wanted to go to Elsa’s first and then Larsen’s Tented Camp as the flights are routed that way, but Elsa’s was full those 2 nights and it was one place I really, really wanted to go. Serah at E& S came up with the option to fly to Samburu and have us driven to Elsa’s and then fly back to Nairobi at the end of the week.

Our driver Ben was waiting for us and this would be our first time in a pop top mini van. We took the short drive from the airport to Larsen’s. The first animal we saw on our way was a dik, dik and then a gerenuk. Samburu did not look anything like I was expecting, it was green and lush and some many wild flowers blooming. The scent in the air from all the flowers was really nice. It was warm and sunny but you could see it had rained hard recently as some roads were blocked off from flooding and Ben had to pick his way around the detours. He did make a brief stop along the river and there were some elephants crossing.

At Larsen’s reception we were greeted with the cold towels and a glass of watermelon juice (one of my favorites). We were assigned the Kingfisher tent, which was the second to the last tent on the left if you are facing the river. You are told to keep your tents zipped as the vervet monkeys are very curious and like to get into the tents. We’re getting settled into our tent and could see the tent next to ours, Warbler, the last tent in the camp is full of monkeys and they are going in and out. Rod goes to investigate to see if the tent needs zipping. Sure enough the tent was zipped, the monkeys had figured out how to pull back the Velcro and that’s how they were getting in. When we went for lunch we told them at reception about the monkey invasion and we learned the secret is to also put your doormat over the tent flap so they can’t pull the Velcro. Although I’m surprised they haven’t figured out to just remove the mat. Lunch was delicious and I have to say overall the food at Larsen’s was some of the best we had the whole trip. We enjoyed the Samburu flute playing monkey bird chaser who was always at the dining room for breakfast and lunch. After lunch we had time to relax in our tent, but it was not that relaxing as they were building a pool and there was a lot of construction noise going on behind us.

We left for our game drive at 4 PM. I was really hoping that this would be when we would get to see a leopard, but I must say all the cats eluded us during our 2 days in Samburu. We did see lots of animals and besides everything we had seen south of the equator we saw our first Oryx, reticulated giraffes, Somali ostrich, gerenuks, crocodile, grevy zebra, one klipspringer and so many birds I cannot list them all. Ben was a real bird expert and since we’re bird lovers it was really nice to have some one that knew so much about birds. The terrain was so beautiful and as we were heading back to camp the almost full moon was rising above the mountain range to the east.

Another excellent dinner, I had the angus filet and it was very tender. On the way back to our tent the pathway was covered in millipedes. Rod was thrilled, as alI animals, insect, birds, reptiles, etc fascinate him.

atravelynn

Good thing you were on the ball and noticed you were'nt on the correct road for Wilson. Bullets in the luggage!? Glad that did not upset your plans either.

A dik dik and gerenuk are good starts to Samburu.

atravelynn

How long was your drive from Sambura to Elsa's? Thanks.

joeyi

It was long and some of the roads were not the best. We left Larsen's at 8 am, we were meeting the van Mark & Patty were in at a certain intersection so we could "convoy". It was about 2 pm when we finally got to Elsa's.

we only stopped once for gas/bathroom and then again at the gate at Meru NP.

i was glad we were flew back to Nairobi

joeyi

but i should add we did go through a lot of intesting terrain especially this one area that was very mountains and reminded us of Hawaii with the terrain and trees.

atravelynn

Thanks for the info!

julimbo

Thanks for the reply regarding the camera joeyi. Just bought it yesterday and am in love. Super user friendly. I ahve decided to skip the telephoto lense as that would only add to the bulk of the camera and it's just the right size for me as is. Hope you are enjoying the holiday season.

Cheers,
Juliet

joeyi

Tuesday, Larsens

Woke up to the most incredible bird sounds we’ve ever heard. Huge mugs of coffee and tea with cookies were delivered for our wake up. We had decided to meet our driver at 8 am for our game drive so we had a leisurely breakfast and the food was very good and served very hot. Many hornbill birds around the outside of the dining room (probably would have been in the dining room if it wasn’t the Samburu warrior who chased off the birds and monkeys)

Meet Ben at 8 am and left on the game drive. There were so many herds of elephants around. Some really big bulls and we even got to see and hear some trumpeting. Ben was pretty cautious of the elephants and gave them a bit of room. The elephants really predominated the morning but they were very interesting to watch. There were still lots of mud puddles and for a while we watched a few take a mud bath and then go rub off on a tree. We also did take a ride down towards the river and saw a crocodile on the opposite bank. There were many gerenuks too. Again the birds were numerous and Ben was great at pointing them out. At some point we got a flat tire so we stopped for Ben to change it. Being outside the van with all the wild flowers was really nice. I can’t say enough about how wonderful it smelled.

Ben wanted to take us to a Samburu village and we were a little hesitant about going since we had already had such a great experience with the Masai villagers in Amboseli. We probably should have listened to our instincts and skipped this village tour. We felt if was rather contrived, but maybe we were just too skeptical. I had to do some dances with the woman while Rod was able to watch and take pictures. I did enjoy seeing them rub the 2 sticks together to make the fire so I guess for me that was the highlight of this village tour.

By now it was after noon and time to head back to Larsens for lunch. They had all the tables set up out on the lawn. Ben joined us for lunch and the clouds had been forming, “rain coming”. It didn’t start until just before dessert and everyone raced into bar and had dessert in shelter. After lunch Ben went to have the tired repaired and we decided to meet at 4 pm for our game drive.

We went back to our tent, enjoying the families of vervet monkeys along the way, there were so many babies. This time we walked along the river path. The river was flowing pretty swiftly and we noticed a phenomenon that we never quite figured out. Every now and then the river would pick up speed and form little rapids for a few minutes and then go back to just flowing. If anyone knows what causes that I would appreciate an explanation.

My husband was enjoying his nap so much that he passed on the game drive and I went myself. The rain was short lived and the sun was out again and it was beautiful. We headed off towards the Samburu Serena this time as I was still hoping to see the elusive leopard. On our way all the Serena vans were heading our way. By now I’ve realized that all the drivers like to talk with each other so it took awhile to get past the caravan of mini vans. The general talk was where have all the cats gone?? They hadn’t spotted many since the huge herd of elephants came in the day before. We searched along the river (did see a really big crocodile), up towards the rock out cropping and even got desperate enough to check the “baited tree” at the Serena. It was just not my lucky day, one more look along the river and low and behold, a leopard tortoise. That was as close as I was going to get this time. Of course while driving around looking we did see many other animals and this was the afternoon that we spotted the klipspringer up on the rocks.

Driving back to Larsen’s we passed all the mini vans again and no one had any luck with the cats this afternoon.

Another very well prepared and served dinner at Larsens.

We really only had 2 complaints with this camp (and one is not really the camp’s fault). There was a very large party in camp that had all but 3 tents. They dominated the camp and dining area and were rather loud. The construction was also a little bit bothersome as it really drowned out the great nature noises, (but at least this was only during the daytime). Other than that it was a very nice camp with really good food.

joeyi

Wednesday, Off to Meru NP, Elsa Kopje

We had our breakfast at 7 AM and on your departure morning they serve you champagne with your breakfast. We checked out and were on the road by 8 AM. On the way out of the park we saw more elephants and 2 female Somali ostriches along side the road. Later we would see the male. We left the park through Archer’s gate and were headed for a fork in the road to meet the van that Mark and Patty were traveling in so we could caravan together to Elsa’s. They were coming from Joy’s camp so the meeting spot was pre set by the drivers who both worked for E&S. we arrived first and our driver just stopped in the middle of this intersection along the edge of Buffalo Springs reserve. We didn’t see any animals walking by but quite a few trucks came by with British military and very armed KWS rangers. It was the first time we had seen so much activity of this nature.

It was nice to see Mark and Patty and after chatting awhile about our safaris we got on the road. It was probably about 9:30 when we got going and we arrived at Elsa’s around 2 pm. We went through lots of different terrain and many, many little towns. In some places the road were very good and in some they were almost non-existent. At some point it started to rain and continued until we got to Elsa’s. Heading down from Meru town we passed through many towns were the man were lined up in very long lines to buy bundles of a tree leaf and branch. It turned out that is was mirra, which is chewed and gives them a “high”. For those of you who read the book the White Masai, it is the leaf that Corrine husbands chewed.

At the gate to Meru NP we picked up a young man who knew the best route to Elsa’s as there a lot of rivers in Meru NP and many were flooded over the roads. There was one way into Elsa’s at this time and he knew the way. The camp managers Anthony and Emma greeted us on arrival. Lunch was waiting for us so we said our good byes to Ben who was headed back to Nairobi.

Elsa’s Kopje was everything I imagined. I had read a report on this board (can’t remember the poster) during my planning stage but after reading that report I knew I had to stay here. My only disappointment was that we were not here for more nights. I would recommend to anyone planning a trip here to stay at least 3 nights, 2 is not enough.

The rain had stopped and no one was that interested in going on a game drive, but I decided I would go and then Patty said she’d go too. Driving from Elsa’s there is a stretch of road that has dik diks everywhere. There is a lot of growth here so you see them and then they disappear into the brush. There were many beautiful river views that we stopped at. I can just imagine this park when it’s not so wet. It must be like an oasis. One of the stops was a hippo pool with many hippos. When we got back into the vehicle at one of the river views Julius spotted a bush baby. It was really hard to see, but finally I saw it’s big eyes moving around in the bush. We had some giraffes in the setting sun on the way back and one giraffe that was missing part of it’s tail. Our driver thought that maybe when it was young a lion had tried to take him down and that was all he got. We didn’t get back til 7 pm and it was pitch dark, the guys were waiting for us at reception and had been wondering if we were stuck out there or something.

While getting ready for dinner, Rod started turning off all the lights in the cottage. Sitting in the lower seating area and staring out at the stars was amazing. The night sky was one of the best I’ve ever seen, just stars everywhere. It was hard to break away for diner, but the moon would be coming up soon. When we arrived at the bar they had canapés and drinks waiting. Dinner was served outside on the lawn.