bat

Of course you are interesting! as is your report.

Nyamera

Thanks for your comments!

Pattyroth, yes maybe I’m too kind. If I’m to tell the truth, there is a photo in your Tanzania gallery that should be deleted. I don’t like the hartebeests standing on a termite mound.

Femi, I hadn’t thought of captions! Now I’m really stressed!

Lynn, yes, zebras, wildebeests, crocs and lions were very active at the crossing while the hippos and we were looking on.

Ann nyc, I thought it was obvious.

Kimburu, what report are you commenting on? Marabou joke? No stupidity?

Bat, no I’m not. I can agree that my report is though, but that’s only because I write how things really are while interesting people usually are too discreet when reporting.

atravelynn

If I had read the end of Day 5 earlier, I would never have made the comment about spitting bothering me. Those comments on religion are fascinating.

So now we have the story behind the leopard cub sightings. Truely an amazing thing to see. The Americans who had seen "nothing" the whole day in the Mara must be very clever to avoid all wildlife or they kept their eyes closed.

pattyroth

so sorry about the guys on the mound. But that crazy lion nearby was making us all crazy!

atravelynn

So if they are not called "nyamera" in Kenya, what do they call them? Do they just use the word topi?

No nyameras in Kenya. That little vocabulary tidbit could end up being profound.

joeyi

Finally finished reading all your days and looking forward to the rest of the report to hear about fisherman's camp.
I think you are too critical of yourself, you have some really wonderful pictures. And still waiting for the stupid parts.
On our one and only safari to the Mara our guides "quiz questions"' was what was the swahili name for topi, and I got it right thanks to you. So I think some guides in Kenya do call them nyamera.

thit_cho

I haven't made it (yet) through your entire trip report, but I did look at all your photos, and they are really excellent. Where did you see the little hyrax?

Michael

kimburu

Nyamera - since you assited non-Daim eaters to get the marabou joke, I will not respond to your question of "What marabou joke?"

I THINK I am reading the same report....and I THINK I typed a response to your question having said that I wouldn't.

Anyway, now I have caught up, it's a wonderful story and your photographs are rather good - the pictures of the river crossing are dramatic and the hippo in the zebra line is priceless.

Nyamera

Lynn, religious spit isn’t that nice on your sunglasses either.
The word topi is used. My camp will have the Maa name for topi, but I avoid writing it out here on Fodor’s in case any future guests would feel like using Google.

Pattyroth, OK the hartebeests will be granted an exemption for when there are lions around.

Joyce, when someone says a word is ”used in Tanzania” they usually mean that it’s used by those who speak proper Swahili, like your guide.

Michael, I saw the hyrax in Nairobi NP.

Thanks for all kind comments!

atravelynn

You're right. Spit is spit like a rose by any other name...

Do you realize how many of us you have insulted in your opening paragraph, "Next year I'll be really old..." ?

Nyamera

Thanks, Kimburu! Have you understood the stupidity, or do I have to include more embarrassing details in the next instalment?

Lynn, “really old” is negative or positive in relation to what you have achieved in life.

pattyroth

Wow! I just finally read your whole report and now I think I have to apologize for mine!!! (TZ trip earlier). It brought back memories of a brief trip to Kenya 20 years ago (only a few days at Little Governor's camp),although I must say your experience was decidedly more unique!!!

Favor

Nyamera - This is a great read, thanks for such a personal account. Your, I guess I would say, mosaic flavored writing style is fun to read. I do hope you get to stay in some sort of resident Kenyan capacity some day.

atravelynn

Day 6--If #16 is free, I wonder what the vehicle makeup is. Hopefully not 8 and 8. Now 5, 5, and 6 would be ok. But like you, I don't know 16 people who I could ask to come to Africa. In fact, I rarely bring along 1.

The clock illustration of animals at all the numbers is a good way of conveying their abundance. Speaking of abundance, biomass is perfect for the hippo pod.

I really can't believe the rock throwing incident. I don't know whether to be relieved at the lion's inaction or to be disgusted that such acts must happen often enough that the lion is used to it.

Member of parliment or any other elected official cheat? Come on, you must be joking.

Nyamera

Pattyroth, where is your report? I need a personal assistant to track all the reports that I have missed. The job would be on a volunteer basis though, maybe paying a volunteering fee high enough for me to go to Kenya.

Favor, thanks for your very kind words. Is mosaic the same as incoherent?

Lynn, Nyumbu doesn’t have any camp vehicles, so the offer was probably only for food and accommodation.

Favor

Nyamera - No, more like a lot of differently shaped and focused little pieces that, taken together, make a very pleasant whole. Sort of the opposite of incoherence.

Dana_M

Nyamera,
I don't think there is anything particularly negative about this trip, or your report, at all. Your photos are great, and you're giving us wonderful details. But, I do have to ask: is your goal to (a) live in Kenya or (b) to live in Kenya and be able to go on safari? I think they are vastly different from one another. If the former, then you can probably afford it and figure out a way to do it, if (and I know, this is a big if), you give up the latter. Safari is so expensive. Even at $100 USD per day, I bet two trips two Kenya would support you there for a pretty long time (by Kenyan standards). I am not being harsh, I promise, but only trying to help you. What is your long term goal? I ask this of you only because I'm going through a similar thought process myself. If you just want to live in Kenya, then take the money you'd spend on the next safari, rent a flat, on a six month basis or however long you can get a visa for, and just go for it. Yes, you'll give up your job, and yes, you'll be hanging by a thread, but you are never going to find a job by staying only a few nights in Nairobi. Instant gratification is so overrated. I have no idea how old you are, or where you are in your life. I do know, however, that the average cost of safari (even a cheap one) will support someone in Kenya for quite a while. Think about it. Throw caution to the wind, and as Nike says "just go for it".

Dana_M

Correction:

I say "Just Go For It"

Nike says "Just Do It"

Nyamera

Dana, thanks for telling the truth. My goal is to live in Kenya and be able to go on safari and I know very well that it’s not realistic. The report is far from finished and I was going to write about how I should try to do the next trip. The cost of one of my holiday trips would not be enough to stay for six months in the cheapest flat with a bathroom in a reasonably safe neighbourhood, but maybe three. Nairobi is expensive for a Nairobian. Even if I could afford six months I’d just wander between the flat and the market, maybe taking matatus to half interesting places that I could visit for free – and I would not meet a single person that I could ask about finding a job. What I would meet would be several people every day asking, begging and threatening me to give them a job. And then when I’d run out of money I’d have to leave without having seen a single topi. I spent almost 14 years trying to find a way to stay in another country. As it was a much richer country than Kenya, I actually “lived” there for those 14 years and was able to earn enough most of the time to have food and a roof over my head, but I didn’t get anywhere, not even to average living standard for the citizens of that country, that then was a bit lower than in my own country – and in Kenya that would be dangerous, unhealthy, illegal and ugly. The only way is to come to Kenya with a lot of money and that’s why I’m serious about going to work in some dangerous place, but I don’t know where, if not Iraq. If there were something in Kenya that I could go for, I’d definitely go for it. There is nothing here holding me back. I’ve got a job for two months or until Christmas if I’m “lucky” and it’s a job that I hate, and I don’t earn any money at all from my business. The only thing is a cat that’s not even mine and that would probably be well taken care of in my absence. Though that “probably” worries me a lot. I actually have to go somewhere even if I can’t go to Kenya, but I don’t want to go anywhere else. Re. my age and place in life: I’m not young and I’m nowhere. Maybe this should have been posted in another thread. Now I can’t send links to people to whom I would like to be seen as an interesting person that travels to Africa.

Leely2

You are still interesting so stop being so hard on yourself and keep trying. You might not get anywhere anyway, but at least you will have exercised your mouth and your brain if not your biceps.

Volume II coming soon?