Ok here is most of the Kenya portion. I just have the Masai Mara left to write about, but i just cant type anymore right now! Also, im not sure if i mentioned it, but the cell phone i used was just my one from home that i have with AT&T. I didnt get a sim card, just had my international capabilities turned on. It wasnt cheap, but i only needed for emergencies. It worked everywhere by my camp in Samburu. It worked in the park though. It would go back and forth betweeen Celtel and Safaricom. In rwanda it went on a couple different networks. It was really convenient though.

Day 6/Start of the Camping Safari
Today I woke up really excited/nervous. We were actually gonna be done with the waiting portion of the trip and be with the animals! I was pretty sure nothing could compare to seeing the gorillas, but I knew it was not going to take as much effort to find these animals, and there would be a variety. Plus, these animals were gonna be the ones I had been watching on TV for years and wishing I was there in real life. We stopped at the little gift shop at the Fairview to pick up some post cards for our family and sent them off. Not sure if they would ever get home, but we would find out I suppose. We looked at the souvenirs there and didn’t really like them so much. I promised the girls at work I would bring stuff back from Africa, but I really wasn’t a huge fan of the style of the items. This was just a little shop though, so I was wondering what else was out there. Anyway, even though I was really excited to start our safari, I couldn’t help but be nervous. I had been keeping up with the news and the places we were going had not been effected at all, but for me, it was still scary. I figured once I got out there and saw things were fine I would calm down a lot.

Around 9am we check out of the Country Lodge, where I was sad to say goodbye to running water, electricity, and internet. Our Gametrackers guide showed up right on time. His name was Steve and I couldn’t tell if he was going to be really nice and fun, or really quiet and boring. Our cook, Peter was there as well. He was tall and kind of goofy looking. Reminded me of Snoop Dog circa the early 90s. Just a little darker! I knew I was going to like him. The vehicle was pretty much what I expected. Definitely not as nice as some of the companies, but it was just fine. We had to stop by the Gametrackers office so I could meet Damaris, the one who had planned this whole trip for me and get a briefing about what was going to be happening. This whole time I had though Damaris was a man, turns out she was a woman. That will teach me to make assumptions about African names. I wonder if that was obvious to you experience Africa visitors? Anyyyyway, we got to the office which was in the middle of bustling Nairobi. We went up to the office while Steve and Peter finished loading the car. When we met Damaris I told her I was not going to Lake Nakuru. She tried to convince me it was safe, and I have no doubt I would have been, but I promised my parents I wouldn’t go there, and I knew if I did I would just be stressed and nervous the whole time. What was the point? We decided to stay in Nairobi one night instead, which was fine with me since it meant a hotel where I could charge my phone and camera. It would be a long drive, but I was looking forward to seeing the scenery of it all. So we bought our water, rented sleeping bags, and off we went to Amboseli!

At this point, we hadn’t been anywhere in Kenya other than from the Airport to the hotel, so we hadn’t seen much of the poverty areas. As we were driving out of Nairobi, though, we stopped for something at one of the gas stations in one of the poor areas just on the outskirts. I saw graffiti on the wall of a building that said “Kibaki Again” in Swahili. I wondered if this area had been effected by riots at some point, but I was too nervous to ask. The buildings were made out of that crimped tin and there was trash everywhere. The goats and cows looked very unhealthy, especially compared to the ones I had seen in Rwanda. People looked at us, but not in a threatening way. I mean, we were the only white people around, so we definitely stood out. So even though I was nervous to stop here, I stayed calm and figured that the guys I was with knew the areas, and I didn’t. They would not stop us in a dangerous area. I just had to trust them. ***Again, remember this is my first time to any Africa, let alone any third world country, so seeing this is completely new to me and quite shocking. The internet forums cant really prepare you for how you will react to seeing this way of life.*** So we finally really got on the road after this pit stop. I soon discovered that every neighborhood I passed was going to be like the last one I had seen. Maybe im naïve, but I really didn’t know that basically everywhere but Nairobi was like this. I was really sad for these people. I know they are used to this and its probably not a big deal to them, but I live such a charmed life compared to them. I almost felt guilty for it. Like why do I deserve to live the way I do?

We stopped for lunch a few hours into our drive. At this point the ride had been smooth and on a pretty normal road, just a few bumps here and there. Peter made us a nice little spread of sliced tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce, and ham to make sandwiches. That wasn’t so bad I thought. I was wondering what was in store for our meals the rest of our trip. Our rest stop was at one of the many curio shops. We looked around but didn’t buy anything. I did admire the brightly colored paintings on those fabrics though. We moved along where we had to stop at a gas station before the final leg of the drive. Steve told us women might try and sell us stuff, but not to worry. They were harmless. Ummmm yeah, I had no idea what was in store for us. Jess and I thought it was strange that we had to stop for gas though. There were gas stations along the way we could stop at, and we really didn’t need any. Jess suggested maybe Steve was in on the whole selling scheme and they sort of work together. I said no they wouldn’t do that to us! However, I later changed my tune.

We sat at the gas station for a few minutes where we became surrounded by Maasai women trying to sell their jewelry. A simple no was not good enough. They kept trying. “Madam, how much you pay for this?” “Madam, I give you all for 500.” Ill never forget the sound of their voices saying Madam over and over. I can see how some people would feel nervous or threatened with these women, but this is just how they work. I had fun with it and just tried to enjoy the new experience. I knew I wasn’t going to buy anything, so I didn’t even look and tried not to make eye contact. Jess, on the other hand, is much weaker than I. The second she even took a look at their stuff they were on her. They started throwing rings at me telling me it was free and to remember them when they came back. Yikes, was I just cursed?! After about 15 minutes here we actually left. I really had no idea why we stopped for so long so maybe Jess was right. Maybe this is all part of the scheme.

However many hours after we had left Nairobi, we finally made it to Amboseli. Me and jess had a little competition on the way, seeing who could spot the most animals. I spotted some zebras and giraffe before getting to the gate. She didn’t do as well as me. I think she counted the donkeys as sightings just to get ahead! There were more masai women at the gate trying to sell stuff. They made the mistake of trying to sell us jewelry. We really wanted knives. Jess found a nice one with a wooden casing that was pretty cool. We figured we could use it for protection. I still didn’t like anything so I didn’t buy. We were finally going through the gates of our first reserve! We drove over the dried up lake for just a few minutes before spotting some zebras in the distance. I was so excited! They were everywhere and within a few more minutes we were so close to them and wildebeest. I was confused though. Where were the lions? Arent animals like the zebra and wildebeest in a fight for their life at all times?! Hmmm, guess not. Guess that’s just fine TV editing. I knew actually seeing a kill was very unlikely, but I really didn’t know how chill the life is for these animals. I think I saw 1 lion for every 200 zebra/wildebeest. That’s nothing!

Then we saw them…wart hogs! Clearly Steve wasn’t a fan because he didn’t want to stop, but we loved them. They are so ugly and weird looking, but I don’t hold that against them. This was our first game drive. It was later in the afternoon, so we would do this drive on the way to our camp site. We saw baboons, which steve also hates, and me and jess love. I understand they can be a bit annoying, but they are so fun to watch. Especially the little alien babies! I had come to Amboseli for the elephants, and finally in the distance I could see them! They were massive. I knew they were big, but they were in huge families with 20+ of them at once. So amazing. We also saw buffalo, hippo, and a big male lion with his kill. I chose not to take a picture of the dead buffalo because his ass had been eaten. I didn’t want to humiliate the poor thing with a pic of it. The smell was horrible though. I had no idea. Another thing I was misinformed about were the hyenas and vultures. I thought the lions had to devour their food in minutes of else hyenas were going to get them right away. None were in sight, maybe cuz this male was so big and guarding it? I dunno.

After some veryyyy close encounters with the elephants we were off to our camp site. By the way, I didn’t realize how nervous I would be about being so close to elephants. They didn’t mind us at all, but there were so many and they were so big that if they wanted to just topple our car over, they could do it with no problems. However, I think they were too busy eating to even notice our presence half the time. Ok so we were on our way to the camp site. Could I really handle this I was wondering? I was actually close to just telling them, “actually lets just stay at a lodge instead.” It wasn’t so much roughing it that was bothering me. I don’t mind being dirty, and I don’t really mind using drop toilets. I just felt so vulnerable out there in a tent. So we get to our site, and it really is in the middle of nowhere. I actually liked that it was because I figured it would be hard for animals to get to us, and I doubted people were going to make their way out here to rob us. We were camping, the money is with the people in the lodges! However, I am making it sound like I wasn’t terrified to spend the night here. Im not sure why, but I was. I seriously needed a xanax!

So this was one of those safaris where you help set stuff up. Peter started dinner while Steve showed us how to set up a tent. It was pretty easy stuff, but jess put a hole in a pipe which cause a flood, so we had to move it all. We had a camp fire all set up and it was starting to get dark. Really dark. The toilets were a short walk away, but you better believe I was not walking to them at night. Jess and I decided we would just pee outside our tent if we had to go in the middle of the night. We tried talking to Steve a bit, and he loosened up. He wasn’t as serious as we had thought. Hes just kind of quiet. Finally Peter called out and said the soup was ready. Wow, we get soup with our meal? This is not so bad at alllll! It was a really good potato soup which was followed by fried chicken and potatoes. I had my appetite back, but after eating so little the days previously my stomach had shrunk and I couldn’t eat much. Peter thought I didn’t like his food, but I did, I just couldn’t fit anymore in! Great, now there was all this pressure to eat more! I was actually hoping to lose weight on this little trip, thinking camp food would not be great, and there would be no snacking like I do at home. However, with delicious fried chicken and potatoes to eat, I was definitely gonna gain some weight!

We called it a night around 8:00pm. I was very nervous to sleep, but was so tired I didn’t think it would be a big deal. Plus I knew once I made it through the first night it would be just fine. I decided that neither of us should leave our tent at night. It was just too sketchy with animals around. We cut the top off a water bottle and use it as our emergency night toilet. Well, it was only for #1, so we hoped a #2 would not need to happen since we didn’t have a plan for that one. My sister was writing in her journal with a little night light on, so I fell asleep really fast. However, that only lasted an hour or so. I started to hear animals rustling about, animals howling, and just all sorts of things. I was up until 3am before going to sleep again. I could not wait for the light of day! Not to mention I was so nervous at these sounds, that my stomach started feeling a bit funny and I thought I was going to have to use our emergency toilet for a #2. There was no way I could go outside in this state! Luckily the tummy calmed down and I made it through the night ok! I honestly cant believe how nervous I was. I was so excited about all the sounds I would hear and just being in the wild. I cant believe I had messed up my planning so bad! I cant believe I didn’t even think this sort of thing would not work for me. ***At least I learned now I figure. For many people, Africa is THE trip of a lifetime. For me, it’s just one of many trips of a lifetime I plan to take. I’m only 23, so going back to Africa is something that if I want to do, I will definitely do. That’s also why it was easy to come home early. I know I will come back at some point, just in a different way of course!***

Day 7
At 6:00am my travel alarm went off and it was time to wake up! I was alive and had not been eaten by animals, what a glorious day! I saw a beautiful sunrise from our camp. How could I not love this place? Yeah, it was growing on me now and I was really happy to be feeling a lot more comfortable. Steve mentioned to me that the howling I heard was Hyenas. I suspected it was, but was really hoping not because they scared the crap out of me! Today we saw lots more elephants, some ostriches with babies, a jackal, the standard zebras, wildebeest, gazelles, and impala. Seeing the large family of elephants against the Mt. Kili backdrop was beautiful. Ive seen professional pictures of it, so it was amazing to be there myself. Around 9:30 we went back to camp for breakfast. Another delicious meal from Peter of crepes, fried eggs, and some other tasty treats. Hmm, I was beginning to think this was not roughing it so much.

During the middle of the day, there is nothing to do. It starts to get really hot and you cant even go in your tent. We wrote in our journals and read some. However, this was not enough to pass the time. I had really wished I brought cards and some games. Not sure if its ever mentioned on the forums, but if youre on a camping safari, bring games!!! So finally it was time for our afternoon game drive. Boy was it hot still. We saw our fist hyena laying around. Boy are they ugly. I wanted to see them really bad when I came, but after they kept me up all night I was feeling a little bitter towards them. We saw our lion friend from the day before with his buffalo. Still just sitting there, but this time much more had been eaten. Poor guy. Steve took us to the lookout point area where you can see for miles. It was really windy and I swear I thought every rock I saw was a hyena, but that was just my eyes playing tricks on me. Nothing exciting really went on with this game drive. Steve told us about animals as usual in his unexcited voice. Me and jess talked about wondering if he was a good guide or just an ok guide? As boring as his job can get, I still felt like it would be nice if he at least pretended he was excited about seeing some stuff. Now that its over and we got to know him and all, its just that hes a really mellow guy, but we sort of could tell he was bored. However, he was NO mobutu, that’s for sure! Steve still showed us a really good time.

Tonight at dinner we got to know Steve even better. Peter kept to himself. His English was good, but he just liked to hang with himself more I guess. We talked to steve about having multiple wives, which of course he thought was a good idea, paved highways, being gay. We learned that Steve had a 2 year old baby girl and hadn’t worked since November. It was so interesting to hear other takes on these ideas. He was definitely not a fan of the gays. We tried to tell him how we felt and how we looked at it, but he was pretty set in his ways about it. Night had fallen and I was still much more comfortable than the night before. I was looking to get a good nights sleep. However, the hyenas made that impossible. Like clockwork, they started chiming in around 10:00pm. This time they were even worse. Oh, and it was really windy and even rained this night which just gave me the creeps. So anyway, not only were the hyenas howling, but they were doing their psycho laugh. Oh my gosh I cant even describe the fear that puts in me. I laid in my bed with my ears covered for hours. Sometimes the rain would drown it out so I could sleep for some minutes, but not for long. They were SO close. The reason they scare me so much is cuz they seem so spazy like if they are in their group they will kill anything. I heard lions roaring, but I know they aren’t just gonna attack me in my tent. They are smarter than that. Hyenas, though, I wasn’t so sure. I kept my sister up all night asking, “did you hear that?” over and over. I started the night outside my sleeping bag because it was warm at first but now I was cold. I didn’t want to make any sudden movements and noise though so I wouldn’t get in! I am so like my mom I discovered. I worry about any and everything. At around 3:30am my sis made me listen to her ipod to put me to sleep. It worked until she got up with a terrified look on her face. There was something right outside our tent. What it was, we had no idea. She wanted to go look and I wouldn’t let her. It could have been anything. Then we heard Steve’s tent open. He must have been woken up too. Eventually it passed and we went to sleep. Hopefully steve would know what it was in the morning!


Day 8
Yay, morning had come again! I vowed to take Ambien every night from now on to put me to sleep. I just couldn’t handle all those sounds. I admit that I miss them now that im home, but sleeping through them while youre in the middle of them is another story. Steve told us it was a huge family of elephants that came through camp. That explains the loud noises. Glad it was just elephants and not the damn hyenas. Today we were off to Mt. Kenya for a night before heading to Samburu. During our game drive out of Amboseli, Jess asked Steve if he had hit anything ever. He said no and we went on our way. We didn’t see anything particularly exciting while driving out of the park. Right when we left, though, Steve hit a bird! I put my hands over my mouth and made a little scream. It was just one of those ugly brown pigeon birds, but I love animals so I hated it. He didn’t even slow down or jerk the wheel. He just kept going. He looked back at me all seriously like he was possessed. Me and jess looked at each other like, “What the F***?” Then I saw it’s wing, it was still alive! I screamed, ahh, hes still alive. Steve just looked at me again with that crazy look. Finally after a few minutes he stopped. Uhhh guess he just wanted to make sure it was good and dead? He pulled it off the grill. He told us he didn’t mean to kill him, but it was his time to go. Ehhh yeah. Whatever you say. Me n jess just kept giving each other those looks. Steve seemed to have more than one personality!

The drive to Mt. Kenya was really pretty. It was totally different than the drive to Amboseli. The drive to Amboseli sort of reminded me of Southern California or a drive to Vegas. However, the drive to Mt. Kenya was more like Rwanda. All green through hills and stuff. Really nice for a change. Oh, and it was gonna be a lot cooler here since we were gonna be at a higher elevation. The only problem with this drive was that it was just the one lane roads through hills, so it was hard to pass slow trucks since you couldn’t see what was coming. For lunch, we stopped at yet another curio shop. Now I know these are the places that are rest stops, but Jess still thought they were in business together. Like maybe Gametrackers get a commission from these places? I still had faith that that’s not how it was!! After lunch we made it to Mt. Kenya. We pulled into this little lodge place with tons of horses on really pretty property. It was a little run down, but they gave Peter a kitchen and there was a bar. Not so fun when youre the only guests, but it was a place to charge my phone and watch the G Prime network with Spanish Telenovelas dubbed in English. Boy are those addicting! Me and jess were still staying in a tent tonight. Since we weren’t at a game park, though, the only animals that would visit were monkeys and horses. Not a problem for me. Plus, the grounds were so pretty, it was easy to stay here. Oh, maybe it was the running toilets and hot water? Today was pretty uneventful, so we went to bed around 9:00. I took my Ambien as promised (yeah, my sis didn’t like me waking her up at night!) and fell right to sleep. Nothing woke me up all night and it felt amazing to have a full nights sleep.

Day 9
Today we woke up and were going on a nature hike. I wish I had written down the name of our guide this day but I forgot. He was so great. We finally knew was it was like to have someone enjoy showing others their knowledge of the plants and animals. We were originally going to the MAU MAU caves. We started walking through the forest which was beautiful. Our guide would point out plants used for different ailments which was really interesting. We were definitely following the trail of some elephants, though we couldn’t see them. We got to a point where a tree had fallen, the work of elephants our guide told us. Then we heard a really loud sound off from the elephant. He did NOT want us there. We had finally caught up to them and couldn’t go around. We had to quickly walk back to where we came. It was kind of exciting since we were on foot. I knew if the elephant charged we had to jump to the sides, so I wasn’t nervous. Plus, he didn’t charge, so it wasn’t such a big deal. So we couldn’t make it to the mau mau caves because it would be too dangerous to try and pass the elephants, but we had a nice visit to some Columbus monkeys which was nice. The more monkeys the better. We also met a huge troop of baboons which were all around us. It was so fun being on food for a change!

Today was supposed to be a 3 hour drive to Samburu. I have learned, though, that a Kenyan 3 hour drive is more like 5 or 6 hours. Its like they tell you the time based on good roads and no slow trucks in your way. However, they have horrible roads and one lane, so im not sure how they don’t calculate for this kind of slowing! Steve told me that the Hyenas would be back for me in Smaburu. I wasn’t looking forward to it, but I knew ambien would solve all my problems. The areas we drove through to get to Samburu seemed more Muslim. The women were covered in a totally different way than the rest. When we had to stop for some unknown reason yet again, a man came up to sell me stuff. I liked his stuff though. It wasn’t those beads that t he maasai women sold, his stuff was metal and much better in my opinion. Instead of jewelry, though, I spotted a knife I had to have. The handle was so pretty with some metal detailing and a nice leather case around it. Now both Jess and I had our knives. We were starting a small army!

Driving to Samburu I felt like I was in the middle of nowhere. I had felt that with Amboseli, but now I really knew what I twas to be in the middle of nowhere. The road was just dirt with nothing around for miles and miles. It was so different from Amboseli. The plants and everything. It was even hotter too. We finally arrived at the gate and made our way to camp. It was a permanent camp run by Gametrackers and it was great. The tents were all set up for us and they kept it really clean. The toilets were drop, but they made a box thing so it felt like a normal American toilet! It was right by the river as well, so animals were always around. I also liked that we had a guy who was our night guard. In case any animals came around at night he would keep us safe and scare em off. Me and jess watched a little monkey try getting into one of the tents. It was so cute. He would look around to make sure the coast was clear. We didn’t tell the guys cuz we knew they wouldn’t approve. We just watched smiling. Eventually he was found out and scared off though. We did an evening game drive and saw lots of elephants. I really cant get enough of them.

That evening around the camp fire it was nice to have some new faces. People who worked at other camps in the area came by and hung out with us. No clients though, just us everywhere we went! I took my ambien again and went right to sleep. No hyenas or lions woke me up. I really should be a spokes person for Ambien after all this!

Day 10
Today we woke up early as usual for our game drive. Daniel, our night guard, told us elephants and lions had come through here at night. How great. I loved knowing it happened, but I loved even more that I could sleep through it! These tents had windows so I really didn’t wanna see it all. Too scary for me! Right after leaving the camp we came upon some lions with their oryx kill. There were 3 girls and a male. Of course the male got the food even though the girls did all the work. Since this was my first real lion sighting I was super excited. I had seen that male in Amboseli, but he just sat there and then fell asleep. These guys were walking around and roaring and being just generally amazing. One walked right toward our car as I was videoing and I got really scared thinking she wanted to jump in. She didn’t. We were just stopped over her little bit of food. I learned then that they REALLY don’t care about us. The male started moving his kill away from the girls cuz they were getting too close. It was funny. It was sad, though, because all the other Oryxs were gathered around watching. They knew one of their own had just been killed. They are so pretty too. I’m glad I wasn’t there to actually watch the kill happen.

After this game drive we headed back to camp for the usual afternoon laziness. I tried to take a nap and just lay still, hoping it wouldn’t get too hot. I watched the temperature on my alarm clock rise and rise to 95 degrees and had to get out. It wasn’t THAT hot in the shade outside, but it was just boring and uncomfortable. No comfy seats to sit in, but what can you do? I read some more and walked over to the river to watch the animals pass by. Unfortunately there was just a masai woman bathing in it, and no animals. Not what I bargained for! After 10 days of wearing the same 3 outfits and not washing them, it was time to do laundry. Luckily I had brought about a million pairs of underwear, but I still needed clean clothes on the outside! It was so hot that they dried in a couple hours. Ahhh, it was nice to feel clean again.

Finally time for our afternoon drive! Here we ran into some strange birds, crocs, and cheetahs! The two cheetahs were so beautiful. We were one of the first cars to find them, but then within minutes we were surrounded by about 7 or 8 other cars. We still had the best view though. There was a croc sunning himself right near them. They were staring him down and we wondered if they were planning on eating him? At one point they got a little too close to the croc who snapped and hissed at them. They decided to move along after that. Not sure where they were heading to, but they just traveled the dry riverbed for a while. After maybe 30 minutes or so we left them to be on their way alone. Shortly after we came upon some reticulate giraffes. They are really good looking. Much better than the standard ones I had seen before. What a good note to end our drive on.

Back at camp we continued to talk with the guys. One asked us if we had a moon in America. Jess thought he meant like, “is it night time right now?” But he really meant, do you have a moon? We told him yes. Then he asked if we had stars. We told him yes, but not as bright where we are. Too many city lights. Steve told us he wished he had married a white woman. He says they seem much more affectionate with their men than Kenyan women. He didn’t talk about his wife at all. I asked if they talked on the phone while he was gone and he said not really. I cant imagine that. He would always be on his phone with people, just not his wife I guess. A genet and a wild cat came for a visit this night. They both kept going through our trash to get food. I love cats so I loved these guys. I was excited tonight because we were going back to Nairobi for a night before heading to the masai mara. I was just really ready to finally have a clean and hot shower and nice toilets and beds. It wasn’t so bad camping. Definitely not as “rough” as I had thought, but a hotel for one night was gonna be great. Plus I was craving sweets. I needed a desert of some sort and hopefully pizza!

Day 11
Today we were going back to the Country Lodge. Jess jokes that it was my favorite place in Africa. However I have to disagree. The masai mara definitely was, but we’ll get to that later. Today was just a super long day of driving. We had a game drive out of the park where we saw a cheetah and her 3 cubs. They were so cute, but I wish we could have been closer. I notice the mother doesn’t make them follow as closely as I had assumed. They were actually traveling pretty far behind her. I was a bit worried for them. As per usual on this drive, all our rest stops would be at curio shops where Steve seemed to know everyone. Shoot, was jess right about the commission thing? Neither of us cared if that was the case, I mean everyone needs to make a living, but it was more curiosity.

At one of the stops I decided to purchase some of the banana leaf art and the fabric paintings. I HATE the pressue these guys put. They tell me no pressure then they say, pick what you like, ill give you good price. No pressure! Ok, then leave me alone to pick what I want! They run around picking all the jewelry to show us and I pretended I liked it to be polite, and then he tries to put it in my basket. Ahh, no I don’t want it! Being in Africa, I assumed the stuff would be pretty cheap. The guy tried to sell me 2 banana leaf things and 2 big painting things for $250. Ummm not a chance buddy. It sucked though because I didn’t wanna totally low ball the guy, but I also didn’t know what a fair price was. Eventually we settled on a price I was willing to pay, but I still think it was too high. After that he rushes me over to the back to show me something. He puts some necklace on me which I lie and say is really pretty. Then he asks me how much ill pay for it. EXCUSE ME? I just spent how much money here and you are trying to sell me more?! Ah so annoying. I got really grouchy after that and left. What a trickster! And of course I didn’t buy the necklace.

We got to our hotel midday. The first thing I did was shower. I was so dirty! I had showered some while camping, but not daily by any means. I scrubbed and scrubbed and I was STILL dirty! I needed an exfoliator. It was so nice to wash my hair. And as usual, it was nice to have the internet. We were able to send pictures to friends and family. We also went to an early dinner at the Fairview. We had the best mocha shake ive ever had anywhere. It was SO good. Then we had some pizza, just like I wanted, and I got a chocolate éclair which really hit my sweet spot. I ate so much. By this point, though, I was sick of camp food. There is no refrigeration, so you are kinda limited in your options. I was sick of carrots and tomato with EVERYTHING. If I never eat another carrot again, it will be too soon. I cant believe neither me or Jess got sick from the food though. Im used to everything being refrigerated, so its amazing I didn’t have a reaction. Plus I have a really weak stomach, as you learned with my malarone issues.

After dinner we hung out in our room for the night. Watched the local news and G Prime of course. I really miss that channel! We web-camed with my parents for a while which was fun. I was really missing them which was strange to me. Normally they get on my nerves, but being away from them made me miss em a lot. I missed my cat too. I just missed having a pet to cuddle with at night. I was with so many animals, but I couldn’t cuddle with any of em! We went to bed where I couldn’t sleep because I had been reading a book about Rwanda for the last few days and kept having nightmares about someone bursting into our room with a machete. Tomorrow we were off to the grand finale. The masai mara!!!

I'm glad you continued your report -- your writing style, with its detail, really involves the reader. It really seems like you had a nice trip, and as you wrote, there are many "trips of a lifetime" and you'll now know what to expect when you get back to Africa.

Looking forward to your next installment. I admire your writing honestly about your reactions to everything you see. I think your report will be a useful reference to others planning their first trip to a country, any country, where poverty is very visible.

You were lucky to see the lions in action. Most often they are snoozing or just lying around.

Jen, I really love your report. I have to hand it to you that you did something most of us here haven't done, a real camping safari!

I can't wait to read your report of your next trip of a lifetime: I recommend <b>India</b>. If you think seeing a male lion is great, nothing compares to a tiger.

By the time I got to Africa, I had already been to India &amp; Cambodia, so I was not as affected by seeing so much poverty.

I forgot to mention our experience at the equator on the way back from Samburu. We stopped and got a little presentation about how at one side the water drains counterclockwise and on the other side it drains clockwise. I learned something about this in middle school, but i learned it about toilets flushing. Same thing though. So after his presentation that used a pitcher and a cereal bowl with a hole drilled in it (which took all of 5 minutes) the guy asks if we wanted a certificate that showed we had been to the equator. I knew he just wanted money for it so we said no. Then he says, ok i'll just take whatever you want to give me. Huh? Steve didnt warn us about that! We gave him a few dollars but were not happy about it. I would have forgone the whole thing had i known he wanted money. It wasnt about not wanting to spend the few dollars, that was nothing, it was just the fact that it was a stupid sneaky scam.

Wayne-I have been thinking about India actually. Big cats are absolutly a favorite of mine and Tigers top that list. For my next third world experience, though, i wouldnt mind doing a group tour or if traveling privately, im bringing a man, not my sister!

Jen,

India is just the best. Be forewarned tiger safari is very very different from tracking lions. Lions are naturally social and a huge pride will gladly lay out right in front of your vehicle.

Tigers are solitary, they are more skittish about people and prefer to stay hidden. People have gone on tiger safaris, driven for days and not seen anything. But the sixty seconds or so that I saw a male and female tiger skip through a field together was one of the very greatest moments of my life.

Going with a small group is fine. Six or less. But things are cheap enough in India that you and one other person can hire a private guide and driver to take you everywhere.

Jen, you’re so funny! Maybe I’m evil, but if I were your sister, I’d have to mention hyenas every time a saw you. I’m looking forward to your adventures in the Mara.

&lt;&lt;We stopped and got a little presentation about how at one side the water drains counterclockwise and on the other side it drains clockwise.&gt;&gt;

I think the scientific term for this is bullshit -- its a scam, a charade. I saw it, and when I questioned/challenged the charlatan, he asked me to leave -- they tilt the bucket, apply subtle pressure to the matchsticks.

While the Coriolis effect is real, its not strong enough to influence the rotation of water only a few meters from the equator.

http://www.ems.psu.edu/~fraser/Bad/BadCoriolis.html

Here's an analyis from a scientist -- The first couple times I saw this, I was truly amazed. When I was altered that it was a scam, I had to see for myself one more time. In the small bowl there is no way that the Coriolis Effect could determine the direction of the spinning water so I watched the presenter carefully. I noticed that he guided the direction of the water in two ways: (1) When he set the bowl down, he spun it in the direction he wanted to the water to spin and (2) he guided the matchsticks to the middle with his finger and simultaneously started them spinning. His tricks were well practiced and unnoticeable that it is no surprise that he continues to wow the tourists and make a good yearly salary for Kenya. I tried his tricks at my house as well and was able to get the water to spin either direction.

Here's the link to the last quote

http://www.msu.edu/user/lettinga/ed870/samplete891.htm

Jen, I'm someone who likes camping. I do it 1-2x a year for 2-4 days <i>just for fun</i>. But here's a tip: on my first safari we camped (budget camping) the first two days to keep costs down. Then we stayed at lodges the rest of the trip. Happy campers.

<i> I loved knowing it happened, but I loved even more that I could sleep through it! </i>

What I loved was this comment of yours about animals in camp at night.

You and Jess will have memories adventures to discuss for a lifetime. I hope she gets to see this report to relive the trip. Years from now, you'll get a charge out of it too. Very entertaining.

ok finally I finished. I really had no idea what kind of work went into these trip reports until i just finished this one.

Thit-i had no idea i was an acutal scam! I just thought it was a sneaky way to trick tourists into giving money. Now that i know its all fake im pissed! I wonder if they pull this crap at all equatorial tourist stops?

Day 12

We got to sleep in a little today since we weren’t going to leave for the masai mara until 9:00am. Having been waking up by 6 almost every morning, this was a nice change. On the flight back from Rwanda, one of the magazines had a whole feature on the Masai Mara. I have researched it and read lots about it, but it made me even more excited reading the little story about how much people love it. I had liked the other parks I had been to, but I wasn’t in love. At least not with the scenery. Anyway, the mag said that the drive from Nairobi was only 3 hours, and our safari planner told us that too. Hmm, not bad! Why didn’t I realize that they were using Kenyan hours? If I did, I would have known it was gonna take us 5 or 6 hours in actuality. We were used to long bumpy drives though. I have to admit, though, I was in a horrible grumpy mood this day. I was excited to be going to the mara, but I had like no sleep and I was just not someone to mess with that day.

We told Steve we needed to purchase water. He passed by many larger gas stations that would have taken USD or credit cards but he chose to stop at the smallest one. He knew we didn’t have Shillings so im not sure why he stopped here. Well they had one of those visa/mastercard stickers on the window so I figured, oh they must take cards then. Great. So we take our water to the counter and I ask if she takes USD and she says no, so I gave her my credit card. She looked at me really confused and said they don’t take those either. I pointed to the sign and she just looked at me even more confused. Guess they didn’t get the memo that the reason you put those signs up is to let customers know you accept credit cards. So I told steve that we couldn’t get water and he took us to one of the curio shops where he knew everyone. We bought a couple 3 liter bottles at $5 each. What a racket! At that point my mood just continued to go downhill.

We drove a little more and came up to the rift valley viewing area. Steve pulled over so we could take pics and stuff. Then he disappeared as usual. Jess and I aren’t the kind that like to stop forever. We get out, take a couple pics, move along. We didn’t wanna shop at any of the many curio shops lined up. We wanted to get on the road again but of course steve couldn’t be found. He was off chatting with one of his buddies. Normally this was fine with me, but my grumpy mood was definitely not feeling it. I also was getting pissed at the guys who would come up and ask me where im from, what state, and will obama or hillary win the election…which was always followed by, “come to my store ill give you good price.” Normally these guys annoyed me, but I always played nice and didn’t really mind. Today I was SO over it though. We went into a store just to look because we were bored of waiting for steve and had nothing else to do. One guy got mad at my sister and said, “all you do is touch touch touch and no buy!” Ohhhh this really pissed me off. Sorry we don’t like your crap, a**hole. Ok, I didn’t say that at all, but I wanted to. I kept my mouth shut though.

It felt like the road we took was the worst one yet. It was bumpy, dusty, windy in places. There was also construction going on which made things much worse. We eventually got to Narok which made me nervous. I read about some issues there, and even though things had calmed down, I was a bit on edge. We stopped to get gas here and I hated that of course. Obviously nothing happened and I was worrying for no reason, but I didn’t know! So we passed through narok without a single issue. We saw maybe one tourist car on the whole drive to the Mara. Guess they are all flying. Unfortunately im terrified of planes, especially small planes, so I just couldn’t do the flying. Plus as bumpy and crappy as the roads can be, I got to see so many towns, people, beautiful scenery. It was worth it.

We stopped for lunch where steve said the gate was only about an hour away. I asked him if it was a real hour or a Kenyan hour. He said a real hour…but it wasn’t! I could tell the Mara was going to be beautiful by the scenery that was around us at our rest stop. Things were so green here. It wasn’t like samburu or amboseli at all. So after more like 2 hours, we arrived at the gate. As per usual, we were greeted by masai women trying to sell us stuff. I was not in the mood for it. I just ignored them so they would go on jess’ side of the car. Mostly they did, but a few stayed on mine. They tried to unzip my window so they could throw their jewelry in but I kept closing it. They didn’t try very hard though because they left within a couple minutes. We were finally through the gates. I was so happy because this place was beeeeautiful. It was green and you could see for miles. There was a giraffe crossing in front of us almost right away. I love giraffes and the way they move. I was in such awe, much more than any other park. I felt like I was in Jurassic park because I was just so in awe of everything. We did a little game drive as we drove to the Talek gate, which is where our camp was.

All of our other camp sites had been within park grounds. This one was just outside the gates though. I didn’t like that because I just feel safer being in the reserves. The town of talek was run down and looked sketchy like most the other towns. I really hated that our camp was right in this area. It was still pretty hidden, but when we arrived, the grounds were not nice and clean like the other ones we had stayed at. The grass was overgrown and I just didn’t like it for whatever reasons. We weren’t staying in tents this night. Gametrackers owns this camp, so they built little shacks to sleep in. I hated these too. I was just so tired and grumpy that I don’t think anything could have made me happy at this point. You can see how much I loved it in my pics…take a guess which one it is! After we put our stuff down and settled in, I calmed down. There really was nothing wrong with this place, I was just in a shi*t mood. There was even a lizard in our room which I loved.

We had like 4 guys at any given time working at the camp. 2 guys were like security guards and would stay up all night, and the other 2 were just making sure things were clean and stuff. Having the guys stay up all night keeping things secure also made me feel safer. Tomorrow we were going to be sleeping in a bit and not starting our game drive until around 8am and staying out later. Fine by me, I needed my beauty sleep!

Day 13
Our first real game drive in the Masai Mara. I still couldn’t help but smile the whole time because it was so pretty. I really loved it here. At this point is when I realized why people can want to come back time and again. For some reason this is the place that stuck with me. Within minutes of entering the gate, we saw a female cheetah. She was eyeing some gazelles that were way far away. Our guide told us she was going to be going after them, but it would take a while. We waited around for about 40 minutes with her. She would stalk a little then sit down or have a drink for about 5 minutes. Then she would move again. At one point she wanted to cross over a big puddle and sort of stepped in it, but decided she didn’t want to get dirty and muddy. She was like my cat at home, I loved it! Eventually, it got boring and I really didn’t want to see a kill (if that was ever going to happen) so we moved on. On this drive, and the remainder of our drives in the mara, we got our own Masai spotter. My sister even had a little crush on him. After the cheetah, we came upon a big pride of lions resting in the shade. I could see there were some younger ones in there, but no real cubs. That was something I was hoping to see, but never actually did. The lions were being pretty unimpressive just laying around so we moved on. After the lions was a massive herd of buffalo. Steve thought he was being funny because he put us right in the middle of it and they were extremely close. I was terrified because they had lots of babies with em and I didn’t want them to charge us thinking we were after their babies! Don’t get me wrong, if I really wanted steve to move he would have, but I was just nervous and I know he knows those animals way better than me so im pretty sure we were safe. We just sat and watched them for a little while. They were just staring at us and I had grown to love these guys. Then, steve noticed a baby who had JUST been born minutes before. The mom had the afterbirth hanging out of her and the baby could hardly walk and was all wet. It was beautiful to see. Since we were the first to come upon this little guy we named him Baby Bertoni after me n Jess’ family name! We watched him try walking around and nursing for about a half hour. Eventually more people came so we called it quits, but we were very happy about this sighting. After the buffalo came 3 cheetah brothers. I wish my guide knew more about them like some people seem to know. Maybe they are masai mara celebrities! They were clearly on the move and wanted something to eat, but there was not a single gazelle or anything in sight. Maybe WAY off in the distance, but it was gonna take em forever to get there. They were so great to watch. I thought the lions would be my favorite of the trip, but the cheetahs really made a sneak attack with me because they win by a land slide. They are so graceful and not nearly as lazy as the lions. I always thought they had kind of awkward bodies, but in person they are amazing and not awkward at all. After the cheetahs, our spotter spotted a black rhino in the brush. I was pretty sure it was just a rock he was looking at, and then it moved and I saw his horn and he was much bigger than expected. He didn’t seem to want to move much though so all we really saw was his head. I was pretty pleased though. From what he said, they aren’t the easiest to come by in the mara, so it was nice to see.

This was such a great game drive, so it was going to be pretty hard to top it. Hmm, maybe if we saw a leopard. Steve knew that was the last thing on my list of what I wanted to see. I didn’t want to count on it, though, because I didn’t want to be let down if I didn’t see it. First, steve took us to the hippo pool because he knew we really wanted to get a good sighting of hippos. We were allowed to get out of the car for this, which was a nice change. The hippos proved to be a bit boring though. I knew they spent most of their time in water, but I didn’t realize not a single one would be out. They just kept bobbing up and down. All I could see were their little eyes and noses. There was a baby which was cute, but again, all I saw were his eyes and nose. After the hippos we came upon a group of topis play fighting. At least I think they were playing. They were all butting heads and running around and prancing. One even started going after a gazelle and it was so funny. No sure if you all have seen a topi run, but sometimes they do this bounce thing and it is adorable. I really started to fall in love with these guys. We called it a night after this and headed back to camp.

Me n jess tried to chat it up with our masai guardsmen, but they didn’t speak very good English. I asked one what he does with all the cows and he said sometimes they drink their blood if they have no food. Yikes! Another ran off to get a small branch from a tree. I asked what he was doing with that and he said making a toothbrush. Pretty cool. We all joked around with the masai men asking how many cows we would be worth and it was fun. They would ask us if we could handle getting water in the river with crocs in it and if we could count all of the cows. Steve asked me if we have to pay dowries and the only reason I even knew what that was is because I learned about it in an anthropology course I took. I told him most Americans probably don’t know that word and no we don’t have to do anything like that really. Steve had also told us about how beating the women in the masai culture is fine. We asked what sort of thing would lead to that. One masai man said that if he is out working, he leaves his wife with the cows and goats. When he comes back, he counts his livestock. If one is gone, she is punished. SO we called it an early night tonight because we were heading out by 6:15 tomorrow! It would be our last full day in the mara and my last full day in Africa since I would be flying home the same night we returned back to Nairobi.

Day 14
We woke up and got into the mara before the sun came up. It was such a beautiful setting for a sunrise. We came upon a pride of lions who were just laying around in the road. They didn’t have a kill and didn’t appear like they planned on making one. They were slightly more active than the ones we had previously seen in the bushes the day before, but not exciting. Ive learned that lions can be the most boring animal to watch, even if they are one of my favorites. There was a group of cars from Mombasa and Steve told us he could tell by the way they drove. The people in the car were being very loud and the car was going off the road where it shouldn’t have. When we went off the main road we kept ourselves on the designated paths. These guys just created their own. I don’t like when people are disrespectful to the animals at all. I wanted to yell at them but I just gave them the stink eye. Seriously, were watching lions be so mellow and its early in the morning, why are you yelling and being obnoxious?

Steve was really working on finding me a leopard. We found a tree with a gazelle skeleton in it, but it was really old. No leopard in sight. We came upon a serval cat who was so pretty but moved very fast, so I only got a pic of the back of her. Oh well! Then steve said he had spotted a leopard but he lost it! We spent like 20 minutes in the area trying to find her again with no luck. Kinda disappointing since we almost had it but it was taken away. All the other animals had just sort of fallen into our laps, so I knew actually trying to find one wasn’t going to pan out.

At one point we met up with a family of mongoose. Steve stopped in front of their burrow and we watched them peer their heads out to see if the coast was clear. They were communicating with a single mongoose across the road. So we moved our car to appear like we weren’t their anymore. Finally they all moved to one hole and then got out together and made a run for it. They were so fun to watch. One got left behind though. Poor little guy. And when they were running, they all stopped at the same time and stood up together. No pics of this really since I was manning the video camera. These guys were a favorite to watch though. So tiny, but they are entertaining. We eventually came up to a group of giraffes, resident zebra and wildebeest, gazelles, warthogs. I plethora of animals. I loved seeing everyone together like that. This is what I pictured Africa like in my head! Overall, our last game drives were less than amazing. We loved to see anything so I wasn’t disappointed (except for not seeing the leopard). I really didn’t want to see any kills either, so I was pretty happy with everything.

On the way to our evening game drive, Steve took one of the camp staff members into town. The guy gave steve 100 shillings and I joked with myself in my head, hmm secret drug deal? Then steve gave the guy a larger amount of money (that I didn’t see) and I saw a rolled up bill under a map. WTF? I was just kidding when I said secret drug deal! I couldn’t believe my eyes. Maybe it was just a misunderstanding I though. Me and jess looked at each other and didn’t have to say anything. We were both thinking the same thing. But seriously, can these people really afford drugs? Plus, steve seemed really responsible and not like that at allll. I figured I was just seeing things incorrectly. Later that night in camp, steve would not put down his little blue bag. He never carried it with him, but tonight he did. Hmmm, very fishy when your clients already suspect you made a secret drug deal!!! THEN, him and the guy we took into town went into steves little cabin. They made sure the curtains were shut. Me and jess went to investigate. If it was pot we would smell it. We didn’t smell anything and we don’t speak Swahili so we couldn’t understand them. They were only gone a few minutes. According to gametrackers, its against their policy to allow staff to drink alcohol while with clients. Me and jess came to the conclusion that they were secretly drinking alcohol instead of doing drugs. Seriously, can you buy any of those powdered drugs for like 200 shillings? And is it even available in a little town like Talek? Maybe the rolled up bill I saw was something else? I just cant see any of those guys we were with doing anything more than drinking! During dinner we had some lions hanging around the outskirts doing their little roars. For some reason it was really comforting. I love the sound they make. Its so relaxing to me. You know, just when im finally getting used to the animal sounds, its time for me to go home.

We had to break into our second 3 liter bottle of water today. It tasted like I was drinking toilet water. It was so nasty. All the other water I had been drinking tasted like normal bottled water, but this didn’t. I noticed that the brand was different than the other 3 liter we had just finished. And our 3rd 3 liter didn’t evne have a lable on it, so I didn’t know what brand it was. I decided to open that one, hoping it would taste better than whatever I was just drinking. It didn’t. The label of one of them said it was cartridge filtered with uv lights or whatever. I dunno if that’s not as good a filtering system as others used or if we just got a bad batch but it sucked. We had Peter boil us rain water instead. That tasted much better.

Day 15

We had one more minigame drive before heading back to Nairobi. It was definitely bittersweet that this was coming to an end. On one hand, I was so ready to return to normal life (and comforts) of the states, but on the other I was just starting to feel comfortable in my surroundings and it was time to leave. Since I hate flying so much, I was on edge the whole day. I didn’t like that later that night I would be on a flight. It was hard for me to enjoy my remaining hours just thinking about flying. Before leaving Jess and I made our daily tea with milk and sugar. Peter knows we always put milk in our tea, but he asked if we did today. We said yes and he told us it was bad milk. Crap. I took a cipro for good measure. I really didn’t want to be having pee butt on my flight home. I prefer my uncomfortable seat thank you. Steve was clearly looking for a leopard again. After like 30 minutes I told him it was fine. Maybe he thought he would get a better tip if he found one for me, but it wouldn’t have helped. I was ok not seeing my leopard. I met one at an animal rescue center in florida, so its not like ive never seen it. I just wanted to see one in the wild, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles!

We took one of the camp staff members with us for some reason. Steve didn’t ask if it was ok if he joined us on our 6 hour drive back. Obviously this was fine, we had plenty of room in the car for him, but we paid good money to have our private car, driver, and the gas. I would have just liked steve to make sure it was cool that he came. About an hour outside of Nairobi we stopped for lunch. I noticed steve left his blue bag in the car and everyone had gotten out to go to the bathroom and stuff so I reeeally wanted to investigate things. I was trying to call Jess’ name to ask if I should look in the bag but she was busy searching through something in her bag and didn’t hear me. Then I noticed the guy looking at me so I panicked and didn’t look. When I told jess what she missed out on, she was very upset that this would haunt her for the rest of her life. What was in that blue bag?! At this curio shop we picked up another guest. Again, Steve didn’t ask if that was ok with us. This guest was the owner of the curio shop. He was going to the gametrackers office. Jess was right! They were all in this thing together! I called steve out on it and asked if they work together. Like it’s a set up thing that we will stop at his shop and he pays gametrackers a commission? Steve played dumb, like he always does when he doesn’t want to answer a question. He just said the guy is a friend of gametrackers. Finally I knew at least. That’s why steve knows all these guys all the time. They all secretly work together. Or maybe its not so secretly and I just didn’t get the memo that this is how it works?

We arrived at the panafric without any problems. Surprisingly this whole trip was pretty problem free. No flat tires or mechanical problems. The Panafric was pretty nice. A little outdated, but the staff was great and it felt safe and clean. Of course I took a shower right away. It was so great relaxing on a bed again. We got internet access there, so I wanted to check into my flight online and make sure everything was on time. As soon as I log in, I see a story saying there is a baggage problem at terminal 4 and anything traveling through there cannot check luggage or they wont be able to travel. Great. I knew I had to travel into terminal 4 since I was flying BA, but I wasn’t fully clear on if I was just transferring, could I check my bag? I had my mom call to find out since skype wasn’t working well. The lady said I could bring my bag, but they would have to like ship it to my house. Since all I had were safari clothes that I would never wear in the real world, I just said screw it and only did carry on. I did, however, have to leave my precious knife with my sister who was continuing on to Tanzania. Since I brought like ALL of my underwear with me, I picked my favorite pairs to bring back and left the uglies. Hopefully no one has to search my bags, right?

We had a delicious meal at the restaurant in the hotel. I made a little video diary thing to remind myself of all the thigns I would miss, and all those that I wouldn’t miss. Figured it would be fun to watch later since you tend to forget the little things.

I arrived at the airport without issue. I have heard people say not to go out at night, so even though it was a hotel cab driver, I was nervous about car jackings and stuff. I was totally fine though. At check in, many people were rerouted due to the terminal 4 issue. They were all confused like wtf? I told them about the news story and they were confused as I was. How can you not be able to check bags because of a computer thing. Isnt there a backup system? Guess not. Luckily I wasn’t rerouted!

Because of the rerouting issues, our flight was about 45 minutes delayed. I didn’t care since all that was doing was decreasing my wait time in heathrow. We finally took off and I was sitting near some great people. Im not a big talker on flights, I like to keep to myself, but I couldn’t help it. There was an older woman who had been doing orphanage work in Rwanda and a nice Kenyan man who had businesses in the USA. We talked abour Rwanda and he had never been there. He travels the world, but not his own backyard! The flight was super bumpy to start out with. I looked out the window and there was a beautiful yet terrifying lightning storm outside. We were not in it, but I could see it in the distance. It would go straight down and light up the land below it. If I wasn’t so scared, I would have taken a picture. The Kenyan man could tell how scared I was and he said, its just like when you drive a car. You hit a bump in the road do you get scared? I said no, but if my car crashes I might survive. If the plane does I wont. Then he said, Well you are here now and cant do anything about it so just relax. It was nice of him to try and comfort me, but I was so scared it didn’t help. Even my ambient didn’t help. Eventually, though, the ride was smooth and I slept most of the time. I waited for my layover in heathrow and then got on my plane to LAX. For some reason the couple next to me moved seats. I got the whole row to myself. I made sure to make myself comfortable and it was such a nice flight. This happened to me on the way back from Japan and Florida too. Im really lucky I guess! As soon as I got through customs, I was greeted by my very happy parents. The end!

Jen, that's a great report, and really gives a good sense of what its like to be on safari (you didn't sugarcoat anything, which is very welcoming). I think I've even been guilty of sugarcoating since I tend to write my trip reports while basking in the glow of warm memories, and I later think of things I should have added.

Your report is very refreshing -- thanks for sharing.

Michael

Thanks for finishing your report, Jen! It <b>is</b> a lot of work which is why I've been putting off starting mine

I read that same in-flight mag article and thought these guys have got to be kidding! Have they ever actually driven to the Mara? It's 5-6 hours on a good day.

Glad you got to see the rhino and the newborn buffalo calf.

You had outstanding luck in the Mara. Strange guide behavior, I agree. Will your sister add the Tanzania portion?

I found this to be a really interesting report. I am a little surprised that you would recommend Steve after some of your experiences, though! I laughed at your description of taking your first Ambiens on the plane. When I flew to South Africa with my sister last summer, I took an Ambien and she didn't. When I woke up, she told me that I'd been saying &quot;this isn't working at all! I'm not even tired!&quot; in a totally out-of-it voice, before suddenly passing out.

I'd be curious to know at what point in the trip you made the decision to come home early. Did your sister enjoy the rest of her time in Tanzania?

Hi Jen,

Thanks for your report, and for being so honest and detailed about your experiences. I really enjoyed reading it, and I think you've done a great service for people who are researching different types of trips to Africa. Like Leely, I'm also a big fan of camping at home but wasn't so sure I would have as much fun doing that in East Africa. It's so important to know yourself and be realistic about what you'd be most comfortable with when you're traveling (especially when you're spending such a big chunk of your hard-earned money and vacation time!). You showed us that you have a good sense of humor, and that probably helped a lot during the rough patches. Now you know some new things about yourself... and that's part of what's great about travel, too.

You had some wonderful animal sightings, and I'm sure you will never forget them. I'm so jealous of your serval picture! We saw them several times on our trip and never could get a decent picture.

To answer your question... yep, every time we crossed the equator (4 times in our trip), we ran into those guys with the water demo and the certificates.

And, following up on Wayne's suggestion about India -- tiger safaris are incredible, but as he noted you do have to work a lot harder for your sightings than you do in Africa (and you need to be prepared that you might not see a tiger). Also, if you thought the culture shock in East Africa was something, wait until you get to Delhi!

Great report jen. Glad you enjoyed the rest of your trip in the Mara. You certainly had some adventures, hope you'll be laughing about them in the future. You're an excellent writer...keep it up!
Thanks!

Thanks for finishing! I'm happy you enjoyed the Maasai Mara. Like others here, I'm curious about how the rest of your sister's visit went...