Trip Report: Kenya & Tanzania, Sept/Oct 2007
 

MyDogKyle's Trip to Kenya & Tanzania, September-October 2007


PART 1

I've put off starting this trip report (as I'm sure many others have done before me) because it is just so hard to get my mind around all the things we saw and experienced in East Africa, and the thought of trying to summarize it all in some logical (not to mention original) way is really a daunting one! But that's a good thing, really... no, more than that, it's a wonderful thing -- to have experienced something in life that is so overwhelmingly good that it takes you days and months and maybe even years to fully understand it and know how to think about it, to sort through your memories and your
feelings and make some sense of it all. I felt that way two years ago when we got back from India; a friend who had been there told me, "it will be six months before you can make any sense of your memories of India, or really understand the impact this country has had on you!" and she was absolutely right. So, I start this attempt at a trip report with caution -- Africa has had such an impact on me that I'm sure I will never be able to describe it all or fully explain what it means to me, but you Fodorite friends helped me so much in planning my trip that I owe it to you to try. So, here goes... please forgive any spelling or other errors (if I fact-check like I would at work, I will never get this posted!). Apologies to those of you who don't like long trip reports -- you can feel free to skip this one, I won't take it personally.

The Planning: My husband and I started talking about a trip to Africa years ago, but we couldn't think realistically about it until recently because of the cost and vacation time involved. We decided that 2007 was the year because it would be an incredible way to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary (and because 2005-2006 happened to be really good years for our companies and we had some bonus money to work with). We chose East Africa primarily because we'd watched a lot of nature shows growing up in the 1970s, and Kenya was a place I'd been dreaming about since childhood. But an equally important consideration was finding a place we could afford to go for 3 weeks, and East Africa fit that bill, too.
I spent a LOT of time doing research for this trip -- I'm a researcher by profession, so figuring out an itinerary and learning about new places is one of my favorite parts of travel. I started off looking at small group tours with companies like Intrepid Travel (we loved traveling around India with them), but the more research I did, the more I started to realize the differences in types of lodgings, what a difference your lodging's location can make in some parks, and some of the potential pitfalls of sharing a vehicle with a group (especially if you love photography or are interested in animals that aren't a part of the Big 5). Now, let me just say right up front that I don't think there's anything wrong with group tours (especially for people who love the social element of that kind of travel) and it's certainly more environmentally sensitive to share a vehicle -- so I would not rule out traveling that way in the future, especially if it meant I could return to Africa! But for us, and for this special trip, it really seemed like a private vehicle and guide would be the best solution. Also, most of the group tours don't let you choose your lodgings -- and in some cases, particularly the less expensive tours, they won't even tell you where you'll be staying until you get there. Once I discovered this board and started reading about the experiences of people here, I was really convinced on the idea of planning a private safari for just the two of us. I also loved the idea of booking our trip directly with companies in Kenya and Tanzania. We'd done that for a short tiger safari in India (before we joined the Intrepid group) and really enjoyed working with a company in Delhi. We decided on primarily a driving safari (with a few flights to save time), because we really wanted to see as much of the countryside as possible and have a look at life in these countries outside of the national parks and reserves. I had a lot of reasons to be glad about that decision, but also have to say that I appreciated the flights when we had them because they helped us fit more into our three week limit.

So, which safari operators? I came up with a rough idea for a three-week itinerary (10 days in each country) and shopped it around to different companies -- Eastern & Southern, Let's Go, Southern Cross, Roy's, Green Footprint Adventures, Good Earth, Africa Serendipity, Go2Africa, Tropical Trails, and Sunny Safaris. Some of these would plan trips to both Kenya and Tanzania (in cooperation with an operator in the other country), and some would only book in the country where they were located. I read many, many online reviews of various operators and checked out what the guidebooks had to say about them and where their home offices were located. Perhaps more importantly, I looked at the types of replies I got from each company and evaluated not only the price, but also how much they seemed to be listening to what we wanted, what kinds of questions they asked, and what kinds of suggestions they made to improve on our ideas (since they really know Africa better than we do!). It was a tough choice, but ultimately we decided on Eastern & Southern for the Kenya portion of our trip and Green Footprint for the Tanzania/Zanzibar part. We are so grateful to Serah at E&S and Mirjam at GF (she's no longer there, sadly, since she moved to Kenya), whose skill, good humor and patience were wonderful during our year of planning and planning and planning this trip! (A very close second choice was Africa Serendipity -- Sandi was really helpful and had some great ideas for tweaking our itinerary, both in e-mails and via her participation on this forum. So thank you too, Sandi!)

Here is the itinerary we decided on, for the last week of September and first two weeks of October:

Day 0 -- fly SFO to NBO (via Chicago and London)
Day 1 -- arrive Nairobi and meet up with Eastern & Southern (Kenya Comfort Hotel)
Day 2 -- Nairobi -- Giraffe Center and Sheldrick's elephant orphanage, then drive to Mt. Kenya (Serena Mountain Lodge)
Day 3 -- drive Mt. Kenya to Samburu -- afternoon game drive (Samburu Intrepids)
Day 4 -- Samburu -- gave drives and visit Samburu village
Day 5 -- drive Samburu to Sweetwaters -- afternoon and night game drives (Sweetwaters Tented Camp)
Day 6 -- Sweetwaters -- lion tracking, game drive
Day 7 -- drive Sweetwaters to Lake Nakuru -- afternoon game drive (Sarova Lion Hill Lodge)
Day 8 -- drive Lake Nakuru to Masai Mara (Mara Serena)
Day 9 -- Masai Mara -- balloon safari, day and night game drives
Day 10 -- Masai Mara -- hippo breakfast, game drives, Maasai village visit
Day 11 -- fly Mara to Nairobi to Arusha/switch to Green Footprint (Karama Lodge)
Day 12 -- Arusha National Park -- game drive and canoeing (Karama Lodge)
Day 13 -- fly to Tarangire -- game drives (Oliver's Camp)
Day 14 -- Tarangire -- walking safari and game drive
Day 15 -- fly to Lake Manyara -- afternoon and night game drives, bush dinner (Kirurumu Lodge)
Day 16 -- Mto Wa Mbu walking tour and the Rift Valley Children's Village near Karatu (Ngorongoro Serena)
Day 17 -- Ngorongoro Crater -- morning hike on the rim and afternoon game drive (Plantation Lodge)
Day 18 -- drive to Arusha, fly to Zanzibar (236 Hurumzi, Stone Town)
Day 19 -- island tour, including Spice Tour, lunch and Jozani Forest (Pongwe Beach)
Day 20 -- Pongwe Beach
Day 21 -- fly Zanzibar to Nairobi to London (then we spent 2 nights in London, meeting up with a friend from Paris)

Pretty typical for a first-timer's visit to East Africa, I think. As is also pretty typical, a few things changed even after we'd come up with a "final itinerary" -- first Serena bumped us from their Ngorongoro Crater lodge, so we switched to two nights at Plantation Lodge. Then, shortly before our departure, we found out that Samburu Intrepids was also bumping us because they were overbooked and in the midst of renovating their tents, so we ended up being upgraded to Elephant Bedroom Camp. Both of these changes were ultimately for the better, and I will talk about that more as I get to that part of my report. (And I should also note that neither of these changes resulted in any extra cost to us.)

A few other thoughts on our lodging choices: We decided to "splurge" on Oliver's Camp rather than the alternative of Tarangire Safari Lodge, because it was my husband's birthday and we really wanted to have the experience of a small tented camp. It was one of the best decisions we made, even though the cost was a little tough to swallow. We actually ended up having that special camp experience in Kenya as well (at Elephant Bedroom), and I have to say that those were the two most memorable lodgings of our trip. We helped to rationalize Oliver's by choosing less expensive options in Nairobi and Arusha, and thought that worked out really well. Both Kenya Comfort Hotel and Karama Lodge were described to us as "very basic," but we thought they were just perfect for our needs and were glad we chose them. (If they think these places are "basic," they obviously have not traveled with us before, because we usually go much more budget than this!) We stayed at some smaller and more personal lodges in Tanzania than in Kenya, and overall enjoyed that experience more... but the "big tourist lodges" in Kenya were fine too. I think it was probably good that we stayed in some of the bigger lodges earlier in our trip, because we really appreciated some of the perks of staying in a smaller place by the time that came around.

Deciding when to fly and when to drive: We had originally planned to drive to Tarangire and then on to Lake Manyara, but in the end Green Footprint offered us the flight option for the same price, to give us more time in Tarangire. And since Oliver's has such great guides, it made a lot of sense to take advantage of that and meet up with our Green Footprint guide again in Lake Manyara. Finally, the last major tweak we made to our itinerary was that we'd originally planned to drive from the Masai Mara back to Nairobi and catch a later flight to Arusha, but decided to spend a bit more and fly the whole way so we'd have some time to relax at the lodge in Arusha. After having done the rough-and-tumble drives up to Samburu and then down to the Mara, we were so, so happy to get on a plane and see a little of Kenya from the air! So, we're very happy that we did a combination of drives and flights. I could see a lot of benefit to both ways of getting around, and thought we ended up with a good balance.

On packing: I won't bore you with the details of our packing list because it's not all that different from what other people have posted on this board, but I do have a few tips based on what we found useful along the way.

1. Photography beanbags: we love our cameras, but we're certainly not pro-level and did not really want to invest in a real "safari beanbag," so I came up with a cheap solution that worked great for us and saved us some weight in our luggage. I took two sizes of heavy-weight ziploc bags and taped some rubber "grippy" shelf liner material to the outside of each bag, trimmed to fit. While we were in Africa, we stuffed the bags with our fleece hats and gloves, which we didn't need to use most days anyway. This provided a reasonable cushion for the big camera, especially with our longest lens and the storage-size ziploc. The grippy material kept the camera from sliding around on plastic. I ended up never using the small "beanbag," which I'd made for our video camera. At the end of the trip, we took out the "stuffing" and tossed the bags in the trash.

2. Dust protection: the zip-off legs from our pants made great dust covers for the cameras while we were on game drives. I also had a small nylon bag for this purpose, and it helped a lot (especially in the Ngorongoro Crater, which was a complete dust bowl!). We also had buffs to pull over our faces on some of the dustiest drives -- a godsend on that drive from Isiolo to Samburu. Bandanas would be just as helpful.

3. Other things we were really glad to have with us: duct tape (for repairing rips in our self-destructing daypack); little travel packets of Tide to wash some clothes out in the sink (sure they do laundry at the lodges but it's not that hard to do some of the small stuff yourself, and some of the laundry services were pricey); ginger candies for some of the long car rides, to combat motion sickness or the smell of rotting wildebeest in the river; photos of our families to share with the little boy we sponsor at the Rift Valley Children's Village (and our drivers loved to look them, too, and ended up sharing some of their own family photos with us!); lots and lots of memory cards; thank you notes to write letters to our guides and use for tips.

4. Keeping track of photos: Before we left I wrote up little index cards with the date and place for each day, and we would take a photo of them each morning to help us remember where we saw each elephant and tommie and zebra along the way. After we'd taken 2500 pictures, we were very glad to have done this. Also, it was fun -- after the first few days, we starting trying to find the most creative place to put the index card each morning, with a backdrop that showed something unique about that place. So now we've got some funny pictures and might actually put a few of those "day marker" photos in our scrapbook!

Finally, I just want to remind everyone with your photos and videos -- don't forget to take pictures and footage of your lodgings, the campfire stories, and all the people you meet along the way. I felt kind of silly doing a "video tour" of each of our rooms and lodges and sometimes felt shy about asking people to pose with us for a photo, but now that we're going through all our pictures those are often the ones I treasure most or get the biggest kick out of. The animals are a given... they will make a great photographer out of anyone. Just don't forget all the other things that make a safari special. You can always edit later!

Okay, enough blabbering about that stuff. Those of you who have gone on your own safaris already know about the unique torture of booking your trip and then waiting... and waiting... until finally the big day arrives and you're getting on that plane, hoping that Africa will be able to live up to your insane expectations, honed by months of reading and watching movies and documentaries and reading this chat board.

Great start to your report, even though you haven't even got us on the plane with you yet. I think that all of us who have been fortunate enough to go to Africa understand what you're talking about regarding how hard it is to really describe your feelings when you return. Looking forward to lots more of your wonderful writing.

This is a wonderful start! I like your ideas about the faux beanbag and the day/date card photo to start each day.
I'm looking forward to more.
And as far as I'm concerned the more details the better.

I'm so excited to read your report!!

And what a wonderful start! Your summary of your overall experience gave me goosebumps:)

Great tips...I especially like the one about the index cards.

And I am currently going thru the planning stage myself for our trip to Kenya, Tanzania & Rwanda for the exact same time next year.
And you hit all the parks we have on our itinerary (Tarangire, Ngorongoro, Samburu, Mara).

I am at the excruciating point of having to make that final decision on a tour operator.
I've had a lot of correspondence with Roy's but my instinct (and bank account) are now pulling me towards Eastern & Southern.
E&S are giving me a much better price for the same exact itinerary and so far have been much better at “hearing” what we want and how to help us get it.
I find this part very hard, because I know the tour operators work very hard answering all my questions and have spent a lot of time on me. I feel guilty, then, having to say, “Thanks for all your work, but we’re going with someone else”.

Anyway, I can’t wait to hear about your experience with E&S, as I’ll need to be making my decision in a matter of days!
Just curious, it seems that E&S uses Leopard Tours in Tanzania. Any reason you didn’t let E&S do your entire safari (partnering with Leopard).
I see you used Green Footprint for Tanzania. Just trying to glean information from you since we have similar itineraries.

Also, we’re tentatively staying at some of the same lodgings, so I can’t wait to hear about your experience!!
I see that you did a night drive at Mara Serena. I didn’t know this was possible…thought you could only do those outside the park. ???

Anyway, love your report so far! Very enjoyable read…keep it coming!

And Happy Anniversary!!

:)>- Lisa

Thanks for starting your report! Looking forward to more.

SOunds amazing. I leave for my first safari in 48 days and am so excited! Can you explain to me the purpose of the bean bags? I love my canon as well, but don't know what the bags are for...Thanks!

Thanks so much for the nice replies! After I posted this I looked at the length and thought, oh no! Who's going to read all this?? Also, try as I might I still could not fix some of the formatting problems, hence some very long paragraphs. Sorry if that makes it harder to read.

Just to answer Lisa's questions up front...

Why we chose to use Eastern & Southern and Green Footprint:

We asked E&S to price out our Tanzania itinerary as well, but on further investigation I read some mixed reviews of Leopard Tours and was not sure if we wanted to go with them. Serah at E&S had trouble answering some of my Tanzania questions, although she was always very, very helpful and knowledgable when it came to the Kenya portion of our itinerary. Meanwhile, we were corresponding with Green Footprint (who only operate in Tanzania), and I loved their philosophy of travel: small company, small lodges, getting out of the vehicle and being as active as possible. Many of the activities we wanted to do -- like hiking, walking, canoeing -- would have been booked with GF (through the Serena lodges) even if we'd gone with Leopard Tours, so we decided it made more sense for us to go directly to GF instead of booking the Tanzania portion through a Kenyan company. Mostly it came down to wanting to do more "active" things in Tanzania and stay in smaller lodges, and for those reasons Green Footprint seemed a better fit for us.


Would I travel with these companies again?

I would definitely recommend Eastern & Southern for travel in Kenya -- they were fantastic, we had a great guide, and Serah was so patient and helpful (and gave me a big hug when we met in Nairobi!). Since I don't have experience with having them book a trip in Tanzania I can't really say one way or another -- but I was impressed by how they handled everything for our trip, so I imagine it would be fine.

I would also use Green Footprint again, because for the most part our experience with them was equally wonderful and we absolutely loved our guide. In the planning stages, Mirjam had some very good recommendations based on the time of year we were traveling and I never felt like GF was pushing any kind of "standard" tour. They asked a lot of questions about us up front and designed an itinerary that really suited our interests well. The only problem we had with them on the trip was a less-than-ideal vehicle for the last several days. When I gave them feedback about this being the only thing we were not happy with, Mary at GF told me that they have decided to sell that vehicle because it's had too many problems. I think we were switched to a different vehicle because we had that flight segment in the middle of our itinerary (to Oliver's). We used two different cars from Green Footprint and the other one was really nice. I think GF is a small company who works really hard to deliver a personal, exciting experience, and I really have so much good to say about them.

There were no problems at all in using two different companies, by the way. The "handoff" from Kenya to Tanzania was seamless.

And finally, to answer your question about night game drives from the Mara Serena -- yes, they do have them (or did as of September, anyway), and it was really terrific. We went on three night game drives -- Lake Manyara, Mara Serena and Sweetwaters, and they were all really worthwhile, with very different types of animal sightings in each. The guide for the night drive at the Mara Serena was outstanding, and it really added to our experience there.

Thanks again for the feedback... it helps to know I'm not boring everyone! :)

MDK -

Great report, looking forward to more.

Re the night game drives, I had heard that Serena had discontinued their night game drives, so interested to know:

1) where do they take you?
- with the lodge being smack in the middle of the reserve, it's got to be a long drive to get outside where it's legal to be out in the dark
- did you exit a park gate? which one, if you recall?
- with a tracker?

2) how long was the drive?
- when did you leave? return?

3) were there many others who went with you? and, how much did they charge?

Thanks.

Hi Sandi,

I looked in my notes again and saw we did our night drive at the Mara Serena on October 2nd. So, they were still doing them as of early October.

It was about $75 per person, I think, and the drive lasted just over an hour. In addition to the two of us, there were two other couples -- so six passengers, the driver, the spotter, and the guide. The guide was standing up in the middle of the vehicle and looking out the roof hatch, so all the passengers had window seats.

We didn't drive outside the park gates -- from what we could tell, we were driving around in the area right below the lodge (the view you get looking down from the room balconies and pool area). We went close to the river several times and saw lots of hippos walking around grazing. And tons of other critters, too. I don't get the sense that we drove very far, really, but we did see a lot of animal activity (and some really intense lightning in the distance!).

Your thought process and background in planning is very helpful to others, especially since you are a researcher by profession.

You hit a couple of accommodations that are not frequently mentioned here, so learning more about those will be good.

I hope your problem vehicle did not cause you to miss time in the bush.

I had enjoyed corresponding with Miriam about general Tanzania travel topics and Green Footprints. Sorry to learn she is not with them anymore.

Don't worry about the length of the report. You'll want the details for you. None of us have to read the report if we find it gets too long and you never know just what details prospective travelers are looking for. I see reports more as references so more is better.

Looking forward to the rest.

PART 2 – “Into Africa (via Chicago and London)”


We left San Francisco early on Saturday morning, after the usual sad and guilt-inducing goodbye to our dog, Kyle. (Little did he know that a few weeks from now, his photo would be a big hit with some little boys at an orphanage in Tanzania, and that a certain safari guide in Kenya would see his picture and dub him, “A very good and handsome dog.”) Fortunately, we’re blessed with friends and family who are excellent dog-sitters, so although we really miss him when we’re on the road, we know he’s in good hands.

Getting from home to Africa was quite a marathon – a flight to Chicago, then to London, and finally to Nairobi, with three slogs through security lines (SFO was a breeze, Chicago a disorganized mess that almost made us miss our connection despite more than two hours’ connecting time, and Heathrow was a long wait but very organized and efficient – three hours’ connection here was more than enough, we probably spent a total of an hour getting through security). Along the way we also had to deal with a boarding-pass-eating American Airlines ticket machine, accompanied by a grumpy ticket agent who took out her frustrations first on the machine and then on us (“You can stand here all day but I’m not giving you a boarding pass! You’re just going to have to ask for them to reprint it in Chicago!”) . Ah, what happened to the days when air travel was fun? It was nearly impossible to get any sleep on those 20 hours’ worth of plane rides, so when we reached Nairobi around 9pm Sunday night, we were groggy and wiped out.

From the start, Kenya made quite a different impression on us than the last country we visited, India. The airport was small, quiet, not chaotic at all. The only small point of confusion came when everyone off our plane headed to the line to buy visas, and a young woman in an official-looking suit announced, “There’s another desk over here, come with me.” Everyone just stared at her as though she was speaking Swahili. She looked aggravated, gesturing to the long line, “There’s another desk!” But still no one moved, so we left the line and followed her down a hallway, with a few “brave” souls trailing after us. “Please give me your passports and $50 each,” she said as we were walking down the hall, and we did briefly wonder if this was really the way we were supposed to do this. But sure enough, there was another visa desk with no one in line, she handed our passports and money to the man at the desk and we breezed right through. I’m so glad we didn’t bother with getting our visas in the U.S., as it was so easy to do at the airport. But I did feel a bit sorry for that woman – the way everyone had stared at her like she was some sort of con artist!

Our luggage took a few minutes to arrive, but both bags were there, no problems. When our driver from Eastern & Southern Safaris met us outside the baggage claim area in a big group of drivers and porters, we kept expecting to be bombarded by guys wanting to carry our bags and get us taxis, as we had been on arrival in Delhi. But, nope. Instead we went out to a quiet, nearly empty parking lot and then drove through a completely deserted industrial area with big, flashy billboards for Coke and car dealerships and no real signs of life (or anything uniquely African, really) at that hour of the night. Where was this crazy, chaotic Nairobi that we’d been warned so much about?

We stayed that night at the Kenya Comfort Hotel, which perfectly suited us as a crash pad for one night’s sleep. At that point, all we really needed was a shower and a bed. We took a few minutes to reorganize our duffle bags so we wouldn’t have to mess with it in the morning (we’d split our clothing between the two bags, just in case one of them didn’t make it all the way to Nairobi), and then inserted earplugs against the thumping music of the disco across the street and fell sound asleep.

(I want to put a plug in here for the Kenya Comfort Hotel as a good alternative if you’re looking to save a bit of money toward lodging elsewhere in your trip. The hotel staff was nice, the place was perfectly comfortable – if you come prepared with earplugs – showers were hot and the breakfast the next morning was very good. I’m glad we didn’t bother spending a lot of money to stay in a posh hotel in Nairobi, since we arrived late and left early the next morning.)

Before we knew it, the alarm was going off and it was time to head downstairs to the breakfast room. On our way we took a look out the windows and saw some things that made me start to feel more of a sense of place. From our fifth floor window, we could look out across the street and see a group of men cooking on their rooftop, smoke rising up from little charcoal stoves. As we walked down the stairwell the narrow windows framed a view of a bus stop, shaded by the brilliant purple blossoms of an enormous jacaranda tree. I think seeing that tree and all the drivers hanging out beneath it was the first thing that really made me catch my breath and think, “I’m in Africa!”

More, please...
:):):)

Love your report, MDK. I am so happy you had an amazing trip. Don't stint on the details!

MDK,

Looking forward to the rest.

Don't stop now.

Thanks for the Kenya Comfort hint.

PART 3 – “Elephants and an Ice Cream Bus” (Sept. 24th, 2007)

Our guide James picked us up at the hotel at 8am and we headed downtown to meet with Serah at Eastern & Southern’s office for our safari briefing. James was an older man, very polite and quiet but not overly friendly – it was hard to get a read on him at first. Fortunately, we’d have 10 days together and over time he’d really warm up. He made us laugh so often, and was obviously working very hard to make our safari dreams come true. He is definitely one of those old school guides who asks, “What do you want to see next? Lion?” and then would, as if by magic, find a lion. One of the first things we noticed about his minibus was that somebody had stenciled “ice cream” on the gas tank hatch. So, his sense of humor was evident from the start.

Serah, who had helped us plan this trip for a very long time, was so friendly and welcoming when we arrived at their offices – she gave us both a big hug, and then produced a thick folder of e-mails that we’d sent back and forth. “April 6, 2006!” she said with a grin, pulling out my very first e-mail. She went through our itinerary, gave us some tips about life on safari and travel in Kenya (most of which I’d already read on this chat board), and then offered this advice about James: “Ask him lots of questions. He will be very quiet at first, but if you draw him out he will never stop talking!”

From there we hopped back in the bus with James and took a quick tour around downtown Nairobi. After all the stories you hear about “Nairobbery,” I was glad to see that it was just a busy urban center with people walking everywhere, flower delivery boys and men and women in business suits and women selling fruit by the roadside. Granted, our perspective was skewed by the limited parts of the city we saw, but it definitely was not the most rough-and-tumble city we’ve visited. From downtown, we headed out to the suburbs to visit the giraffe center and Sheldrick’s elephant orphanage. On our way we passed dozens of new or still-being-built McMansions, as well as the high-vine-covered walls of fancy estates – clearly a very wealthy neighborhood. Like any place you visit for the first time, it’s hard to imagine what life must be like for the people who live there unless you have a chance to talk to them, but I found myself wondering who lives in these gigantic homes? Such a contrast with most of the homes we would see in rural areas of Kenya and Tanzania (and, in fact, with our own little house in California). This was one of many, many experiences on this trip that would make us reflect on ideas of wealth and poverty, and on the strange circumstance of being on the “wealthy” side of the equation for a few weeks. At home in the Bay Area, we are definitely not considered wealthy! But of course, anyone who can take a trip to Africa is vastly wealthy by world standards. It’s a humbling thought.

The giraffe center was a real treat, both for us and for the giraffes (the warthogs just watched from the sidelines). We went up onto a feeding platform and handed them grain pellets: as soon as I picked up a handful of pellets, a half-dozen long necks would pop up, begging like dogs, with their long, slippery tongues reaching out to snag the treats. I was the only one willing to put a pellet in my mouth and let a giraffe give me a “kiss” (it’s really not as bad as it sounds). A large group of school kids showed up right as we were leaving, and it was fun to see how excited they all were (kids and giraffes, that is).

Our next stop was the Daphne Sheldrick Elephant and Rhino Orphanage. This was a place we’d been looking forward to for years, since we’d first seen it featured on “Globe Trekker.” And we weren’t disappointed. Even though there was a crowd at the 11:00 mud bath, we had a good view the whole time and got really close to the baby elephants. It was fun to see all the khaki-clad tourists squeezed in beside the school children in their smart uniforms (why does everyone wear sweater vests here, despite the heat?), all of us practically swooning over the adorable babies. The littlest ones came out first, trotting in a bouncy parade with their handlers, who told us each baby’s story as they wallowed and scooted and splashed each other until they were dark red mud balls. After the little ones finished, out came the big kids, two- and three-year-olds, who were even more animated and fun to watch. One named Makena even kicked a (muddy) soccer ball around while the others took turns pushing and shoving and climbing on top of each other. I think our video camera was worth every penny just for the footage that we shot at Sheldrick’s. It was so inspiring to see how happy and healthy these orphaned elephants are. And yes, we sponsored a little ellie named Dida.

After our hour was up, we headed back into Nairobi for lunch at the very posh Serena Hotel. Beautiful place with lovely African artwork in the halls, but I’m glad we didn’t spend the extra money to stay overnight here. As we drove out of Nairobi and onward toward Mount Kenya, I started making notes of some of the most interesting signs we saw along the way. Here are a few: “Montezuma and Monalisa Funeral Co. and Coffin Sellers,” “Glory Institute of Advanced Driving” (we saw a few people who could benefit from going here!), “Thriller Luxurious Pub and Butchery,” and a billboard for a radio station that advertised itself as “Pure Niceness.” On the road out of the city we saw some more beautiful jacaranda trees in bloom. And so much evidence of car culture – car washes, dealerships, fancy gas stations, a drive-in movie theater… and yet it really did seem like most everyone was just walking everywhere. It made me wonder how many Kenyan families can actually afford to buy a car. There didn’t seem to be very many on the road, considering the size of the population here. The only real traffic jam we hit was when our minibus was briefly held up by the President’s convoy driving past in the other direction. Kind of a nice surprise, to see the President on your first day in a new country!

We drove for several hours into Kikuyu country. The landscape was beautiful – lush green farms, coffee and tea plantations, some with terraces and wide stretches of dark red earth. We passed a tiny blue shack with “Church of Faith in God” painted on the side, and right next door a concrete block building called the “Jackass Bar.” Mid-afternoon we saw troops of school kids in bright pink shirts heading home along the country roads. And, painted on the side of a building in a tiny village: “Happy Mints: the new Smile for Kenya.” We stopped along the way to use restrooms and bought a delicious ginger soda called “Stony Tangawizi,” passed through a huge outdoor market in the town of Karatina, and somewhere near Nyeri I saw the first little kid wave to us and call out, “Jambo!”

Not long after we’d entered Mt. Kenya national park, we were greeted by the sight of a massive pile of elephant dung in the road. An auspicious sign, because a few minutes later we rounded a bend and saw our first official wild African animal – an enormous bull elephant! His tusks were so long they swooped down in graceful arcs and crossed in the front, and he was grazing alone in a green meadow, surrounded by wildflowers. It was a ridiculously beautiful sight, and even though I knew better I could not help crying out, “Elephant!” in sheer elation. Then we were all silent, watching him until he’d finally had enough of us and headed off into the brush, disappearing without a sound.

The Serena Mountain Lodge looks like a giant green treehouse, with picture windows and balconies and a rooftop deck overlooking a waterhole. We reached the lodge by walking up a winding path through the forest, and along the way we were greeted by blue Sykes monkeys. Well, maybe “greeted” is not the word – my husband was rushed by a mother monkey with a baby clinging to her belly, clearly not to happy to have her picture taken!

I know some of the “tree lodges” get a bum rap, but we had a great experience at the Mountain Lodge. Our room was like a snug little cabin, with a floor-to-ceiling window that looked out onto the very active water hole. At first we were disappointed not to have a room with a balcony, until we saw people trying to go out on their balconies and getting chased back into their rooms by rampaging monkeys! In the first daylight hours we watched a big group of buffalo and some glossy little bushbucks. We explored the lodge a bit and spent some time in the hide that’s connected to the lodge by a tunnel; from here we had a close-up view of the buffalo herd and a big male waterbuck. After nightfall, we saw lots of little animals: genets on the feeding platforms right outside our room (still not sure I like the whole feeding platform idea… but it was nice to see them so close), white-tailed and black mongooses, more monkeys looking in our windows.

After dinner we went up to the rooftop for a slide show, which was interrupted by a hyena sighting at the waterhole. Everyone rushed out to see, but he wasn’t doing much except sitting in the dark. It wasn’t long before the action picked up, however – as soon as the slideshow finished, a large group of elephants (with impeccable timing) arrived at the waterhole. We grabbed some seats at the bar’s outdoor balcony and watched them for a long time. I’ve told everyone I know that elephants were the real revelation of this trip—it’s so fascinating to see the complexity of their behavior compared with the way they are in captivity, how they are constantly communicating with one another. They kept busy eating, drinking, massaging their bellies on the rough rocks by the waterhole, seeming to get into conversations and arguments with one another and breaking off into smaller groups. At one point an older female had a group of adolescents gathered around her in a semi-circle, watching her dig a hole with her tusks, as though she was teaching them how. The best part was that the herd was sheltering a tiny baby, who was nursing and still clearly learning to walk. They were gathered so close around him that we could only glimpse him when they spread out to move. At one point several of the larger elephants had a tense standoff with the hyena and eventually charged him and ran him off, probably for the baby’s sake. Even after we finally forced ourselves to try to get some sleep, sounds at the waterhole woke us and had us running to the window to watch the action. The hyena was back and whooping up a storm, and one of the elephants let loose with a shrill trumpet, this time rushing full speed at him and driving him off for good. We were starting to get the idea that we wouldn’t get much sleep on safari.

I was wondering where you encountered an ice cream bus. You WERE the ice cream bus. Very clever of James.

I got a kick out of the signs you saw.

Your first animal sighting was quite spectacular from the foreshadowing of the dung to a beautiful wildflower setting for the ele.

Good point on the downside of the balconies. I wouldn't want to be charged extra for something I am chased off of.

Exciting times at the waterhole. Hope you weren't too tired the next day.

Am loving every minute of it. Even us multi-trippers are learning from you! Please keep it coming!

The monkeys were on their own safari, peering at you in your habitat through the window.

More, more!

MDK, I’ve finally caught up with your report, and I want more. I’m very much enjoying all the details.

Hi guys! Thanks for your interest and sorry I dropped the ball for a bit... things have been very busy at home. I'm working on it, and will post another installment later today. :)

PART 4 – “A Camel Traffic Jam and Several Kinds of Tuskers” (Sept. 25th, 2007)

This morning we got out of bed early with someone outside our door saying, “wake up for the mountain!” Last night we’d completed a checklist to let the staff know which animals we wanted to be woken up for during the night (which didn’t really make a difference since we were up most of the night anyway!), and one of the additional boxes we’d checked was “view of Mt. Kenya.” We bundled up in hats and jackets and went up to the roof to admire the morning light over the forest and a clear view of the peaks and glaciers at the top of Mt. Kenya. Since the most dramatic part of the mountain had been shrouded in clouds yesterday afternoon, it was wonderful to have a good look at it. We would see the mountain several more times during our travels through Kenya, but never with a view this close and clear.

The waterhole was already hopping, with a raucous troop of baboons running around, babies clinging to their backs like tiny jockeys. We were almost late checking out by 8am, because we were so caught up in watching them. We really enjoyed our short stay at this lodge, and had not expected such nonstop action here. I think it’s a perfect start to a safari, sort of an appetizer to the main course. The setting is beautiful with the rich green forest landscape and the views of the mountain, quite a contrast to the other parks we visited. Even as we drove out of the park, sleep-deprived but happy, we were treated to the sight of four black and white colobus monkeys, sitting high up in a bare tree with their gorgeous long tails hanging down against a bright blue sky. James got very excited when he spotted them, and told us that he usually didn’t see them in this area. They kept a wary eye on us but were courteous enough to pose for pictures, as if they knew how beautiful they were. Our bull elephant from yesterday was gone by now, of course, but in his place the flower-strewn meadow was filled with mother and baby elephants, so we paused to watch them, too.

Then the long drive began – through the greens and reds of Kikuyu country, with a pause on the Equator to take the obligatory photo under the “You’re Crossing the Equator!” sign (another, more distant, view of Mt. Kenya here… and lots of smiling vendors with little wooden animals), and onward north into the dusty heart of Samburu land. We did buy a few gifts for our families in one of the Equator shops, after the owner obligingly snapped our photo and then invited us to “just come look around.” As usual, it was the awkward business of bargaining with someone who kept (nicely) reminding us how much more money we had than he did, and knowing that was true but not wanting to get totally ripped off. In the end, we felt we got a fair enough price for things we would have bought anyway, I’m sure he made a good buck off us, and everyone left happy. Before we left, the guys in the shop asked me if we had any magazines that we “were finished with,” and I felt bad because I’d had some on the plane and tossed them out when I finished reading them. So I thought I would mention it here – several times during the trip local people were interested to know if we had any reading materials to pass along. So, something to think about if you finish reading something midway through your trip and are willing to leave it behind.

Just beyond Nanyuki we started to get to those really bad roads that we’d heard so much about – huge ruts and potholes, the minibus lurching up and down. More signs along the way: the “Gender Equity Bar,” “By-Faith Agrichemicals,” and something called “Sacred Heart Road Murmuring” (what the heck is road murmuring??). We stopped to fill up at a snazzy gas station in Isiolo and James announced, “Now he is OK – he got some ice cream.” Across from the gas station we saw a sign for a “Jazz Studio,” which really warmed the hearts of two trombone players like ourselves.

Isiolo really felt like a wild west town, crowded with people and animals and trash drifting by along the roads. There was an edge here that we didn’t feel quite the same way in other Kenyan towns we passed through. And this is also were the REAL Bumpy Road Madness began. We had to pull our buffs over our faces and shut all the windows despite the intense heat, and still there was dust everywhere, sifting into the van through every crack and crevice. We bounced and rattled over a loose gravel and dust-cloud road, our teeth and spines jolting. When we stopped at a police checkpoint on the outskirts of Isiolo, our minibus was immediately surrounded by women hawking fruit, guys holding up arms with ten wristwatches on each and lighters in both hands, and enterprising kids trying to chat us up through the windows, putting their faces right up to the glass and asking us where we were from and whether we wanted to be their friends. One boy in a dapper fedora introduced himself as Daniel and kept asking my husband questions, all of which led to his main point: “What can you give me, sir, now that we are friends? Americans have always been very good to me.” And on and on. It’s tough to know what to do in those circumstances, but we’re in the camp that says it’s fine to buy bananas or local crafts (or, hey, a wristwatch if you really want one) but not to go randomly handing out things to kids just for asking. So, I guess we were not very good friends to little Daniel, at least not the way he wanted us to be. We were relieved when James finally climbed back into the ice cream bus and we could be on our way. This kind of difficult balancing act is just one of those things about travel in the developing world – finding ways to be friendly and talk with local people along the way, without too insensitively dashing their hopes that you’ll start handing out money (or, worse, actually handing out money and leading people to believe that everyone from your country is made of the stuff, and it’s the only reason they should bother to talk to you).

The road from Isiolo to Archer’s Post was one long, bumpy, jarring, dusty, pitted gravel nightmare, but at last we neared Samburu national park and began to recognize the mud-stick-newspaper humps of Samburu homes. We saw a very dramatic sight as we drove across a bridge over the Ewaso Ng’iro River: some men were trying to herd a huge, writhing and very upset group of camels across the river (the crocodile-infested river, as James pointed out!), and the camels were having none of it. Meanwhile, several women walking across the bridge beside us were yelling to the hapless camel drivers (“cursing them out,” James explained), while some other men sitting under a nearby tree laughed at the whole frantic spectacle. “I don’t know why they won’t just use the bridge,” James sighed. I got the sense from their expressions and gestures that the women were saying basically the same thing, in less kind terms. When we passed by this same spot several days later all signs of camels and their frustrated owners were gone, so they must have reached some sort of agreement about crossing that river (or not).

Our camp in Samburu was an incredible surprise. As I mentioned at the start of my report, we were supposed to stay at Samburu Intrepids, but had been bumped because they were behind schedule in upgrading their tents and did not have room for all their bookings. So instead they switched us to a much smaller (and, I learned from Serah, much more expensive – thank goodness we didn’t have to pay the difference!) tented camp called Elephant Bedroom. The camp has a beautiful setting, right on the banks of the Ewaso N’giro River, with the six tents set back beneath towering doum palms and no fences in sight. We were still a bit shell-shocked from the drive, and so it took us a moment to understand why James asked us not to get out of the minibus for a moment. Then we saw them, our welcoming committee: three huge elephants who’d wandered into the camp and were busy grazing beside the dining tent! We all waited until they’d finished and decided to move on, and then the camp staff came out to greet us with warm towels to wash the dust from our faces and cool fruit juice to wash the rest of the dust down our throats.

Looking around, we could not believe our good fortune. The camp was absolutely beautiful, and I loved all the outdoor spaces – the dining tent and sitting area opened out to a small clearing where we had lunch and breakfast and a campfire at night. The “gift shop” was an assortment of beaded collars and bracelets hanging on a fallen log. And facing the river under a thick fringe of palms (whose shape reminded me of the inverted triangle of an elephant’s head) were two wonderfully slouchy outdoor sofas where we kicked back and watched an elephant crossing the river upstream from our camp. Our tent was a marvel, and also a bit of an embarrassment (we really didn’t need two beds, or anything this big!). But I loved how open it was to the surroundings, and after a few long days on safari I’ll admit I really did love the comfortable bed and the glorious rainfall shower. Plus, I would have reason, later, to be very glad there was a bathroom attached to our tent (and not for the reason you’re thinking…) We especially loved our little front patio with chairs facing the river and a small grassy patch where we noticed some dried elephant dung (or, as one guide called it, “wheatabix”). As we settled our duffle bags into the tent, the staff explained the rules: no walking around camp at night, even though the paths were well-lit by lanterns. When we were ready to come to dinner, we were supposed to stand by our tent flap and wave a flashlight for someone to come escort us. And always, always make sure the tent flap was securely zipped with the mat pulled up over the zipper when we left (monkey security). We also learned that only three of the tents were occupied, so we had the place practically to ourselves.

I’m going to interrupt my own narrative here to just say how much we loved Elephant Bedroom – how friendly and kind the staff was, going out of their way to make us feel welcome; how delicious the food was at every meal; how beautifully the camp blends in with its surroundings and how close we felt to nature there. I have nothing but the highest praise for this place, and was so sorry we could not stay more than two nights! One of the few things I’ve read about the camp on this forum had to do with the negatives of putting more lodges and camps into the Samburu area, and while I certainly understand people’s unhappiness about the potential for over-development, I was glad to see that the camp was very small and was doing some things to minimize its footprint. No fancy swimming pool or huge dining room or 24-hour electricity and hot water here, and we did not miss them one bit.

Now, the real game drives would begin! We left for our first one at 4pm, after lunch and a chance to take a nap and let the day cool off a bit. Now, I know if I describe every moment of every game drive in a 20-day trip, it will take me years to finish this report! The basic routine goes like this: we head out from camp to, as James puts it, “see what we can see.” The roof is popped up on the minivan, so we’re either sitting and looking out the open windows, or else standing watching out the open roof, with the wind in our faces. The sky is so wide here, the landscape rugged and dry but also more colorful than I’d ever imagined – red and copper earth, dirt tracks heading off through scrub and flat-topped acacia trees toward purple-blue mountains in curious shapes, triangles and buttes. “Like an African Monument Valley,” is how my husband described it. And then there’s the river too, a thick winding band like chocolate milk surrounded by rows of towering palms and pink dirt banks. It all feels very wild, elemental, and so beautiful. Sometimes I’d get so caught up in the beauty of the landscape, I almost forgot to look for the animals!

Elephants continued to be our good luck charm here. The first animals we saw were a family of elephants, mothers and babies of varying ages. I never got tired of watching elephants, no matter how many times we encountered them on this trip. These moms were busy digging a pit for the babies to slosh around in the mud, and several of the smaller babies tumbled down into the mud hole and had to scramble a bit not to land on their heads. It was interesting to see how occasionally the older females would step back and let a younger one assist the babies and take on the “mother” role – helping them climb up the steep side of the mud hole, for example. Sitting beside them on a branch (and posing nicely for us against a red earth backdrop) was one of my favorite African birds, the spectacularly colorful lilac-breasted roller. (Yeah, I know it’s not very original to pick that guy as a favorite! How could anyone resist?)

As we continued exploring in the gorgeous golden light of late afternoon, more and more animals appeared, mostly individuals or small groups rather than large herds. We saw warthogs, impalas, the startlingly long-necked gerenuks who were the first of our “Samburu 5.” Then cape buffalo with their entourage of birds trailing along after them and riding on their backs, reticulated giraffes (our second of the Samburu 5), guinea fowl both helmeted and vulturine, and a spunky little family of dik-diks (male, female and teeny tiny baby).

And one false alarm. James turned his radio on at one point, clearly concerned that we weren’t seeing cats. Well, it wasn’t long before someone was announcing a lion sighting, so we zoomed off to try to find it for us. There was a group of three or four cars, and everyone was straining to peer into the scrubby bushes, trying to make it out. Was that a tail? An ear? No, wait – maybe that thing over there? After a few minutes, James said dryly, “I think that is a bush.” And so we left and went back to wandering around, seeing what animals we could find. (Even though we mentioned this to him, it took James a few days to realize that we did not have any specific “goals” of seeing lions or anything else, and that we did not expect or want him to run around trying to find the Big 5 for us – he must have so many clients that think this way, I think he didn’t really believe us the first few times we told him that we were happy just seeing whatever we found along the way!)

Then, another breaking Swahili newsflash over the radio. James asked us to sit down and took off driving like a shot, the ice cream bus rattling wildly over the rutted dirt roads, past the river and into a more densely forested area. And there we saw it – a lone tree surrounded by 23 cars, vans, buses, Land Rovers, and huge overland trucks, everyone’s heads popping up through the roofs and gigantic camera lenses pointed up into the branches. “Leopard!” James announced triumphantly. Well, with that kind of audience, what else could it be?

It took a moment, but then we saw her, draped nonchalantly over a branch with tail and paws dangling, the picture of relaxation. A leopard! Our first cat, the third of our Big 5 – all those things we thought we didn’t care about, checklists and biases toward the big predators and all that. I mean, she was so beautiful it made me giddy. We hung out with her mob of adoring fans for a while, watching her adjust herself several times into increasingly more floppy positions on the branches. Then, to our delight, she was on the move. She sat up and let loose with a tremendous yawn, and then made her way carefully down the tree trunk so that we got a great look at her, finally leaping down into the tall grass and disappearing like a ghost. Did I enjoy having to “share” her with so many other vehicles? No. And do I think it was a good thing for her, to have such a circus attend her every move? No, of course not. But I’m happy to report that this was the only mob-scene sighting we had in our entire trip, despite the stories I’ve heard about East Africa being terrible for that sort of thing. And would I trade the experience of having seen a leopard in the wild, when I went to Africa dead certain that we would not see a leopard at all? No, I wouldn’t. It was an unforgettable moment for me, even if the circumstances were a bit odd.

Elated, we headed back to camp, having to hurry now that the light was quickly fading. James drove us to a spot on the high banks of the river, where we joined the rest of the guests from our camp for sundowners – our first taste of this wonderful safari tradition. Our host was one of the young Samburu guides from camp, who joked with us that we were waiting for “the appearance of the white elephant.” Tusker beers, a campfire, a nearly-full moon rising over the river. We toasted our leopard, and that she’d escaped her mob of paparazzi. What a blissful way to end our first game drive!\

Back at camp, we sat by the roaring campfire (which got a little too roaring at one point, when the fire bowl almost tipped over from the weight of a log!), followed by a delicious dinner with banana fritters and chocolate sauce for dessert. One of the guys at camp wandered around playing soft, hypnotic music on a traditional flute, to warn away any elephants that might wander by. As we fell exhausted into bed, we could not imagine anything more wonderful than this place, and we felt like the luckiest people in the world.

I think we met little Daniel too. I remember the "Americans have always been very good to me part" unless that's what every kid in Isiolo says ;)

More, more, more, please!

I hadn't realized you had started back up. Love how descriptive your report is. As Patty said, more, more, more!

You paint such a wonderful picture with your words!!!
What an exciting excerpt that was!
Keep it coming!
:)>-

Thanks, guys! Sorry the holidays have me swamped, and I've fallen way behind on this. Here's another installment...

PART 5 – “Elephants in Our Bedroom” (Sept. 26th, 2007)

1:30am. Elephant Bedroom, Samburu. We awoke to a soft snuffling sound outside our tent, and the nearly silent shift of huge, stealthy bodies moving through foliage. Then, the most wonderful sound—the low rumbling that elephants make when they talk to one another. We crept out of bed and, as quietly as possible, unzipped a tiny notch in the tent flap so we could peek outside. There they were—in front of our tent and surrounding us on three sides, less than ten feet away. It was a group of moms and larger youngsters, busily stripping leaves off shrubs and selecting the best parts of the grassy patch at the front of our tent. We watched them for more than an hour, illuminated by the full moon and so close we could hear their every breath and chomp and grunt. Finally, exhausted, we had to silently wish them good night and try to get some sleep. It was an absolutely amazing experience to be so close to them, and to fall back asleep to their soft conversation. The next morning the paths from the tents to the dining room were dotted with fresh elephant dung. As we talked excitedly about our late-night visitors, James told us that he was trapped in his tent desperately needing to go to the restroom and had to wait hours for the elephants to leave! So, I greatly appreciated our attached bathroom and was sorry to hear that the guides’ tents did not have that luxury. That is definitely where I am a safari wimp!

This morning we left for our first game drive at 6:30, heading off before breakfast “to see what we can see,” as James always said. The light was absolutely stunning at this time of day, bringing out the deep russet tones of a reticulated giraffe’s coat and the red in the earth and the rocks, making everything glow. In addition to more of those beautiful giraffes, we saw another gerenuk, dik-diks, warthogs, waterbucks, grant’s gazelles, impalas, buffalos, and some stunning birds: superb starlings (who were also always hovering around camp, waiting to pounce on the tables at meals), ring-necked doves, a honeybill with her baby, plovers, and a flashy, preening secretary bird. We also spotted an impressive crocodile sunning himself beside the river. Our grand finale to the game drive was another sighting to add to our “Samburu 5” – a large herd of grevy’s zebra and beisa oryx (one of my favorite African animals.) One of the zebras put on quite a show of rolling in the dirt not far from our bus, stirring up a huge cloud of dust and kicking his hooves into the air.

After returning to the lodge for breakfast, we set off around 10am to visit a nearby Samburu village. (On the drive out of the reserve, we saw an unusual sight: a guinea fowl couple with one helmeted and the other vulturine. James told us it was extremely odd for them to pair up this way, but they looked quite happy together.) To be perfectly honest, I’d been a bit uncertain about the village visits and whether or not I wanted to include them, having read about other people’s experiences with it and knowing we were willingly going into a contrived “tourist” experience. Unlike some of the other places we’ve traveled (India immediately springs to mind!), there seems to be a much greater divide in East Africa between tourists on safari and regular folks living in these countries. By this I mean, if you’re on the safari circuit you don’t necessarily have much opportunity to meet anyone other than the people working directly in the tourist industry. (Of course, this would be different depending on the type of travel, how much time you spend in the cities, etc.) But we really wanted to have some experience of African cultures in addition to the wonderful experience we’d been having with the wildlife, and visiting a village is one of the ways to do that. I think it helped a lot to go into it expecting a performance and a photo op—realizing that this would be just a little peek into someone else’s world rather than a chance to really get to know the people who live there. There’s really no way to avoid feeling like a dorky tourist in this kind of situation.

The minute we arrived, a young man names Moses approached our bus and took us over to watch a dance demonstration that had just started for another group of tourists. He collected $25 for the visit, assured us we could take all the photos and video we wanted, and then told me that I was “lucky” to be a woman because I would get to dance with them in just a moment while my husband could take pictures. I cringed inwardly -- dancing is definitely not up my alley -- but I would play along to be polite. They started off with a welcome song and dance, the women singing and the men showing off their incredible high-jumping skills (straight up in the air, pogo-style, to impress the girls). Then the women sang a love song, and all of us women in the audience were decked out in beautiful beaded collars and invited to join in. I felt pretty darn stupid and definitely couldn’t get that Samburu head-and-neck move down, but it was more fun than I’d expected to get in there with everyone and be a part of things. I really appreciated that the folks from the village seemed to be having fun, good-naturedly teasing us and holding our hands and seeming genuinely warm and friendly, not annoyed by having to do this sort of thing for us. (Or, if they did feel annoyed they were good actors!) The singing was terrific, and we were thrilled with the video and photos when we were able to look back on them later.

When they’d finished dancing, the women took our hands and led our small group past the acacia thorn fence and into the village, where the other tourists went off with their own guide and we went with Moses. He spent a long time with us, telling us about Samburu traditions that govern the lives of the young men, or morani, who are “warriors” with responsibility for the security of the village and its animals. We met several of these guys and had a chance to talk with them and admire their elaborate beaded jewelry and ochre-smeared hair. The guys showed us how they build a fire out in the bush, and talked at length about the various practical uses of animal dung – donkey and zebra dung is dry and makes for good fire; elephant is too wet to be very useful; goat is burned inside the house as a mosquito repellent.

We had a chance to meet some women and children too, and to go inside one of the huts. They are made from cow dung plaster on a frame of branches, with cow skin floor mats and newspaper added to the plaster roof to reinforce it. The women build these houses themselves (and in fact, it seems, do almost all of the work in the manyatta), and each has three tiny rooms—a small sitting room at the entrance, a little kitchen, and a larger sleeping area for the whole family at the back. We sat in the bedroom while Moses told us about home life for the people in his village, and as we looked around the home we were pleased to see that it really looked lived-in: clothing and a tote bag hanging from the wall supports in a sort of makeshift “closet,” dirty dishes in the kitchen and a little goat wandering in and out. It definitely did not look like a pristine little hut built for tourists (something we’d think about again when we visited a Maasai village later in our safari…). We chatted just a little (via Moses’ translation) with the home’s “mama,” a young woman with a charming little baby girl. The woman seemed really pleased that we stopped and admired her daughter, asking how old the little girl was and telling her that we have a niece the same age. (I got the sense that she was used to being ignored by the tourists, and Moses had not even acknowledged her when we first went into the house.) The little girl hurried to the door as we were leaving and waved after us, calling out, “Lesele!” with a big smile.

It was also really interesting to see some of the huts that were still being built, recycling the roofs from previous homes and building new walls. The children in the village had assembled several “play houses” nearby, using stones on the ground set out in the shape of a floor plan—sitting room, kitchen, bedroom. We saw some of these kids heading back toward the village with their herds of goats, and they stopped to wave at us. At this point we also asked Moses a bit more about himself, and found out that he had just taken his exams at school and was waiting for the results, and that he hoped to go to university and become a doctor. He became very talkative the more we asked him about himself, and we ended up staying much longer than the other group of tourists… which meant that we had to face the final bit of the tour, the “shopping gauntlet,” by ourselves. This was the part I’d really been dreading. Moses took us to “meet the blacksmith and see his shop,” which really meant we were expected to buy a bunch of souvenirs. They had an impressive display of carvings and amber necklaces and beaded jewelry, and my husband did an admirable job of bargaining down from the astronomical prices they set at first (for example, they started off asking $100 for a beaded collar and we bargained down to $35, but we later saw a similar one in a lodge gift shop for $25). We bought some gifts for our families and the beaded collar I’d worn for the dancing, and still probably overpaid but felt like we got a reasonable deal overall. I’m just not much of a shopper and definitely not a good bargainer, so I was relieved when we finally agreed on a price for everything and said our goodbyes. I know a part of what you pay for is the experience of buying your souvenirs in this setting, rather than in a gift shop with a cash register, but it’s still a little awkward to be bargaining with people who have so little. And it felt more than a little awkward when we walked out of the “blacksmith shop” area and into a long line of women with beaded jewelry and wood carvings stretched out along the length of our walk back to James’ bus. I wasn’t prepared for that, and if I’d known they were setting that up while we were in the “shop,” I would have saved some of my gift-buying for them. As it was, we didn’t have the money or time to buy more and had to ask Moses to explain to them that we were sorry but we couldn’t buy anything else today.

Other than being uncomfortable with the role of “cash cow” (and my bad dancing), I really did enjoy our visit to this village and I felt like we got much more out of the experience than we’d anticipated. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested in having a closer look at some aspects of the Samburu way of life, but I think you have to be prepared for some awkwardness and know that what you’re seeing is by necessity a demonstration. I don’t at all blame the Samburu people for not wanting tourists traipsing through their villages when they are actually going about their private lives. This way they can have control over the experience and make some much-needed income from the tourists’ interest in their culture. But you do have to realize that you’re only getting part of the story—there’s no mention, for instance, of some of the harsh treatment that Samburu women are subjected to. Not that I expected to hear about that. And if photography is important to you, it is a wonderful opportunity to take portraits of people and photos of their homes with relatively little awkwardness about whether and how much you should offer to pay them. I’m sure you can tell I have mixed feelings about the whole enterprise, but overall I think it was a valuable experience for us, and I’m glad we did not entirely ignore the people in favor of the animals.

Speaking of the animals… Our late afternoon game drive was another productive one, and as usual James somehow managed to save the best for last (we’re not sure how he always managed to “plan” things so perfectly!). We saw more grevy’s zebras, warthogs running with their tails high in the air, elephant moms making a mud hole for their little babies to play in, a male impala in a full-speed chase after a female, and some huge buffalo boys. Down by the river we saw another big croc and some marabou storks. We heard an eagle terrorizing a flock of guinea fowl, and understood a little of their terror when we could not identify where the menacing sound was coming from (although we saw the panicked guinea fowl, we never did see the eagle). As we were getting close to closing time (sunset) and the light was becoming more and more intense, James suddenly said, “You want to see a show?” He pointed out two huge male giraffes not far ahead of us. As we approached, we saw that they were fighting furiously, in that oddly graceful way that giraffes fight—it’s not a head-to-head combat but rather a delicate side-by-side dance. The giraffes stared each other down for long, tense minutes, and then began swinging their heads and necks around to bash each other so hard we could hear the mighty thud of impact. It was an incredible sight, and seemed as though it might go on for hours… until a female giraffe showed up and both boys went eagerly over to her to investigate.

Driving back to camp we were still so excited about the giraffe fight and convinced that would be our day’s closer. But no—nothing on safari is ever exactly how you expect it to be. On our hurry back to camp in the waning light, we came across four female lions, just waking up for their evening hunting action. Our first lions! They were simply gorgeous, sleek and strong, with glowing spotted coats. It was fascinating to see how they changed from one moment to the next: kitten-like when they were lying down and rolling around in the grass, then slightly menacing as they got up and stalked purposefully past our minibus and off into the pink-tinged twilight. At one point a lioness passed so close beneath my window, I could see every hair on her back.

As if the lions weren’t enough, a group of mother and baby elephants crossed the road in front of us at the turn-off to our camp, milling around on both sides of the road so that we had to drive very cautiously between them. They made a striking picture with a nearly-full moon rising in the dusky sky behind them. One of the big females made a mock charge at us, and as we passed the last of their group, a tiny baby gave a shrill little trumpet, flapped his ears, and mock-charged us too! Now that is the perfect ending to a day on safari.

It just keeps getting better and better!!

I LOVED your tale about the elephants outside your tent! I had to call my husband over and read it to him, giddy with excitement, and telling him, "Can you just imagine!!??" We get so excited to see deer in our backyard or a cool bird we've never seen before...I cannot even imagine the thrill of having elephants RIGHT THERE outside your tent!
Fabulous!

I also really enjoyed your account of the village visit. I feel the same as you do, very ambivalent, wanting to engage with the people, but not feeling like a dorky tourist, not to mention the "cash cow" part.
Thank you for your enlightening account.
We will definitely do the village visit, probably in Samburu as you did. That it why I love this forum so much. Hearing about your experience and your vivid picture you paint really helps us with our decision.

And, boy,what a finish to an amazing day! The lions and the baby elephant!!! You're making our countdown so much fun...281 days to go!!!!!!!!!

By the way, if you don't mind me asking...I love your writing style and your vivid account.
Did you write this account down while you were in Africa or are you just now writing this from memory?
Or maybe a combination of both, took notes while there and are adding the emotional, colorful detail now?
I ask because I am just amazed at how wonderful your report is...KUDOS!

:)>- Lisa

Thanks, Lisa! Glad you're enjoying it. I keep worrying about how long this report is getting to be... especially considering our trip was three weeks long! So, it's encouraging that some of you are still reading, and I will keep plugging away.

About the writing -- We carried a notebook with us on every game drive and jotted down notes, impressions about places we visited, etc. This is usually my husband's job, and then I write the actual journals of our trips and he illustrates them. That way we have ideas and thoughts from both of us in there. I take the notes and write the jounrnal from that. Although I was working on the journal off and on while in Africa, I really had very little time to do it (and was pretty sleep-deprived during our safari!), so I actually have about a weeks' worth still to finish up.

For this trip report, I'm copying some things out of my journal but leaving out a lot (believe it or not!), and then adding some thoughts that I hope might be useful for someone planning a trip. I found this forum so, so helpful when we were in the planning stage (and really fun during the anticipation stage!), so I hope I can contribute to that for other people. But I know I am pretty long-winded as a writer. My master's thesis was nearly 300 pages, and my novel is more than 800! :) Anyway, I'm so glad you guys are reading, and it's fun to relive it all as I'm writing.

MyDogKyle,

Fabulous account, beautifully written with so much personality - a real treat. thanks

Your ele encounter was surreal. Nice detailed account of the Samburu visit. It appears you may be comparing and contrasting this visit with an upcoming one. Yes? You've done an outstanding job of retelling your trip.

Camel Traffic Jam is next.

Sorry if my titles were misleading... the camel "traffic jam" was the one in the river. ;)

Yes, I was setting up a contrast between our Samburu village visit and one we did later in the Masai Mara. Since it will probably take quite some time for me to get to that part of the trip, I'll briefly say here that we thought the experience was much, much better in the Samburu village, because Moses actually took a lot of time to talk with us and people there seemed much happier about the whole enterprise. Our guide James recommended that we visit both to see that differences between the two, and there were some interesting differences. But overall, the Maasai visit was much more of a hard sell, we were rushed through the village in about 20 minutes and nobody seemed very happy to have tourists there. I'll write more about that later, but just thought it might be worthwhile to mention now.

Thanks for the explanation of your method of compiling your thoughts and turning them into your report.

...Your novel????? I'm intrigued! Please share:)
You certainly have a wonderful writing style!

Holidays are such a busy time.
Take your time and continue when you can.
I'll definitely be ready to read more whenever you post!
:)>-

Actually I was reading out of order. I should have read the camel part first, but missed it. I'll look forward to going back to that.

If you ever have an unattached bathroom, you might be given a bedpan. I have a few times, but did not need it.

The helumted and vulterine guinea fowl relationship may be typical of the odd pairings in the northern parks of Kenya. Elsewhere in that general region was the lion and the oryx calf combo.

Congrats on the upgrade. Elephant Bedroom seems wonderful. How many people have leopard as their first cat? Lucky.

Wonderful report. I have to return to Samburu, I have to google Elephant Bedroom and I also have to get some more information about that 800-page novel of yours. What’s the best way of asking?

I share your ambivalence about the village visit. I took one in Fiji where they actually didn't ask for money (tipping is considered impolite there), but I still wasn't comfortable with someone's home & way of life being taken as a tourist attraction. "Look how the poor & down-trodden live!" So I skipped the Namibian village walk we could have taken in Botswana, even though it was already paid for in our package. I just couldn't bring myself to do it.

Regardless of that, I'm loving every detail of your trip! Please keep writing!!

Thanks for all the nice posts, everyone -- you guys are keeping me motivated (even if you can't tell by the slow pace of my postings...) I do kind of wish I hadn't mentioned my novel, though... I was just trying to make a point about my extreme wordiness! But for those who asked, it's (sadly) unpublished. I've had several agents read it and give me positive feedback, but they just didn't think it was commercial enough. So, I wouldn't really say I'm a writer--I just write for fun, and pay my bills by working as a researcher. Maybe I ought to write something about people on safari, since there seems to a built-in audience out there... At least among our little circle here! ;)

Nyamera, I've read your trip reports and know you would absolutely love Elephant Bedroom. The unfortunate thing is the price. If we're ever able to go back to Kenya I would love to stay there again, but I'm not sure we could afford it! We're still thanking our lucky stars that Intrepids overbooked and we got that upgrade. I just wish there were more camps that were like Elephant Bedroom, but without the luxury furnishings and huge tents and giant price tags. Scaled down a bit to be more affordable, but not quite as scaled-down as, say, a pup tent.

Merry Christmas, everybody! Here comes the next installment...

PART 6 – “A Mechanic in Isiolo and a Little Bit of Joy” (Sept. 27th, 2007)

Last night the wind howled so fiercely it shook our tent and made the canvas flaps billow inward, showing eerie glimpses of the black night outside. I kept listening for elephants but they didn’t return. And I had a hard time sleeping, just feeling very uneasy for some reason. In the morning on the path outside out tent, we found some large cat tracks crisscrossed with smaller tracks that might have been a genet. Those bigger tracks were lion, James said when we showed him a picture later. So maybe that’s why I couldn’t sleep! Perhaps there’s some sense that wakes up in the dark recesses of your brain when a big predator is around.

After another delicious breakfast attended by six or seven superb starlings, it was time to say goodbye to Elephant Bedroom and its wonderful staff. We were especially fond of Alex, a soft-spoken guy who introduced each meal by saying, “I would like to tell you, please, about the special treats for today…” Everyone here was so kind and the camp was like a paradise – enough so that we worried all our other lodgings might be a letdown! While we were loading up the ice cream bus I asked the camp manager if anyone else would be arriving that day, since the four of us who’d stayed the previous night were all on our way out. “Oh yes,” she said. “If not, we would not let you go!” I hope that this camp is very successful, and that many more people are able to enjoy their hospitality and beautiful setting.

So, from paradise back into purgatory. We headed out of the park and braced ourselves for the rough road south to the Equator. At the park gate we picked up a local guy named Peter who needed a ride to Isiolo. James asked us if we minded, and we were happy to give him a lift. He was very friendly and spoke better English than we did Swahili, so we were able to have a conversation of sorts despite that noise and bounce of the road. As it turned out, he was coming all the way from Baragoi in the north, which is much, much farther than we’ve traveled so far! We shared our water with him and gave him a few bottles for his trip, marveling that he was bundled up in a sweater while we were sweating it out in t-shirts and shorts. Not far from Archer’s Post, we passed a little boy with a herd of goats who held up a tiny black kitten and waved to us as we drove past. We saw him, and the Samburu houses set back from the road, and the wide open stretch of scrubland, through a haze of grey dust that filtered into the interior of the minibus and surrounded us outside like fog.

Somewhere between Archer’s Post and Isiolo, we heard a loud CLUNK! and the ice cream bus began to make a horrible rattling noise. Oh no. We’d heard many stories of flat tires and mechanical problems on these wretched Kenyan roads, but of course we’d been secretly hoping that we would be among the lucky ones who managed to avoid that kind of trouble. James kept assuring us that it was nothing, “no big deal,” but Peter looked grim. James began driving much slower and the sound kept grinding away, and all I could think was, “Well, he’s trying not to alarm the tourists, but I sure hope he stops soon!”

We rattled on into Isiolo, dropped Peter off and said goodbye, and then pulled into a service station where James could talk to a mechanic. The mechanic jumped into the passenger seat and we drove around town for a bit, waiting for the minibus to start making that awful racket again. But nothing happened. “Of course,” James said, “It never does the same when the mechanic is here!” The mechanic just shrugged and hopped out of the car. James headed down a dusty side street to another auto shop, this one little more than a dirt lot with some guys standing around, looking bored. Everyone gathered around the ice cream bus and conferred with James, who was starting to lose his customary cool by now and looking just the slightest bit stressed out. While the guys were working on the bus, we just hung out with the side door open, trying to catch a breeze. A boy came by with a wheelbarrow full of long sugarcane stalks, and James asked if we’d like some. We watched the boy hack away at the green of the stalks with a machete, expertly stripping whittling them down to their pulpy white centers so we could chew on them and suck out the sweet juice. So delicious! I can tell you, if you’re stranded with car problems in Isiolo on a hot day, there is nothing better than the refreshing taste of sugarcane. Incredibly, the bus was repaired in less than half an hour. (We still have no idea what was wrong with it, but I’m happy to say it didn’t give us a lick of trouble the rest of the trip.) The mechanics waved to us as we drove off toward the main road, happy to be on our way again.

We crossed over the Equator again on our way to Sweetwaters Private Reserve, a cattle-ranch-turned-game-park in central Kenya. Sweetwaters had a very different character from Samburu, and we could feel that difference the moment we arrived. The main lodge which houses the bar and dining room was a colonial farmhouse style building, and beyond was a long line of green canvas tents surrounded by colorful landscaping, neat paths, and trim lawn. The front row of tents (including ours) faced a very active waterhole, separated from the lodge by an electric fence that was well obscured in a ditch. We could sit out in front of our tent and have the illusion that there was nothing between us and the waterhole, watching the animal activity and letting them watch us back. All the usual suspects came by while we were here: waterbucks, warthogs, impalas, giraffes, zebras, and all the accompanying friendly birds. We saw dozens of superb starlings flitting over the lawn near the tents. A pair of marabou storks even walked right up to the dining room’s sliding glass doors during lunch, looking for handouts (which, fortunately, they did not get).

Overall, we really enjoyed Sweetwaters, even though it felt like a much tamer experience than we’d had in Samburu. (Hey, come on, we even checked our e-mail here and went online to read the San Francisco Chronicle’s website and see what was going on at home. And it’s certainly a much bigger lodge than Elephant Bedroom.) But the waterhole was particularly cool at night, with giraffes and zebras moving about in the ghostly moonlight, and the morning view of Mt. Kenya from out tent was lovely.

We went on an afternoon game drive that first day, and James showed us some of the diverse landscape of the reserve, which was much larger than I’d imagined it would be. We drove through woodland and marsh areas, and long stretches of wide-open grassland. One of the highlights for today was visiting the chimp sanctuary, where a group of rescued chimpanzees have been relocated from their original home in Burundi. If you visit here, be sure to take some time to read about the individual chimps’ stories; most were rescued from abusive captive environments, and it’s heartbreaking to imagine what they’ve been through. We were able to watch a number of them hanging out on their island—some up in the trees, others taunting a river otter who swam past, and still others just quietly grooming each other or napping. The most entertaining chimp was a hyperactive little baby named Joy, who had been born in the sanctuary despite the keepers’ best efforts to provide birth control. She was named for the joy that she brought to all the adult chimps when she was born, and we could see how indulgent they were with her. We had a ball watching her scamper around the island, building a branch-and-grass lean-to up on a lookout rock, and then swiping fruit from the adults to take up into her “treehouse.”

We saw so many other animals and birds as we continued through the park: saddlebill stork chicks, a huge impala bachelor herd, Burchell’s zebras, buffalos, and more and more elephants (including another mock-charge from a mother escorting her small baby across the road in front of us). Then James turned the bus down a small track that had a sign beside it: “Private—No Admittance.” We wondered what on earth he was doing… until he screeched to a stop behind another minibus and whispered, “What do you see?” There, half-hidden in the greenery, was a large group of lionesses and cubs! There were at least 14 or 15 lions, the mothers stretched out and half-asleep, and the young ones wrestling and playing in little piles. It was impossible in some cases to make out where one lion ended and the next began, just piles of tawny fur, sleepy heads, tails and paws.

Onward to the grassy plains, and we had another surprise—in the distance, a black rhino! (This was the 5th of our Big 5.) We were thrilled to watch him just standing there looking majestic, swinging his massive head back and forth and scattering the panicked zebras walking by (a mixed group of Grevy’s and Burchell’s, which was neat to see). I had to use my longest camera lens to get a shot of him, but no matter—with our binoculars, we could see the pointed lip that marked him as a black rhino, and we were so excited to see him at all. On the way back to the lodge, as the afternoon light was quickly fading, we stopped in to visit Sweetwaters’ tame rhino, Morani (and his warthog companion, Caroline). It was fun to see a rhino up close and pet his rough skin, especially after just seeing his wild cousin. But Morani was not interested in us at all. He kept wandering away, and his keeper would go into a flurry of panic, crying, “Morani! Morani, no! Morani! Get back here!” We finally bribed him with a bit of sugarcane, and he agreed to pose for a few pictures. We also got a pretty funny video, thanks to the rhino keeper—he took our video camera in one hand and our still camera in the other, and blasted off dozens of photos while simultaneously filming and giving us a rapid-fire version of Morani’s life story. Every now and then the camera would lurch off to one side or go out of focus, or Caroline would scamper by in the background, and all the while the keeper kept firing off facts about Morani with the speed of an auctioneer. We noticed that not many people tipped Morani’s keepers, but we were prepared to do that after reading that suggestion on this chart board, and I’m glad we did. This guy was obviously trying really hard to do his best for us, and fit it all in before dark. On our way back to camp in the near-darkness, we spotted one more new animal—a massive and elegant eland.

Dinner tonight was our first chance to try some actual African food, a delicious roasted nut casserole and a bean mixture called (I think) ghiteri. Both were delicious. Even though Sweetwaters does not have the most atmospheric and intimate dining room (it’s mostly large tour groups at long tables, and could get really loud), I have to give them kudos for actually including some local dishes. At 9pm we bundled up for our first night game drive. A few thoughts about this: First, the spotter and guide from the lodge made us really appreciate James’ skill and subtlety, as they seemed to just rush from one sighting to the next. Worse, the driver tried several times to get a reaction out of the animals by driving the Land Rover right toward them (or their babies)! He did this more than once, with both elephants and a mixed group of giraffes and zebras. Secondly, although the people sharing our vehicle were generally nice guys, they could not stop talking about their disappointment at not seeing lions on the hunt, and it got very annoying after a while. For example, when we encountered a mother elephant with a newborn baby who was just learning to walk, these guys whined, “This is boring! Show us the LIONS!” and later, as we watched some giraffes only a few feet away from the road, one guy kept grumbling, “Aw, it’s just lion food! Move on!” So, these things made us really appreciate having our own vehicle and driver during the day. Anyway, there was certainly no reason to complain about the wildlife we saw tonight: more elephants in addition to the mom and newborn, a hyena loping up the road, dozens of hares hopping this way and that, both varieties of zebras, Thomson’s gazelles by the dozens, a group of giraffes sleeping, another running across the road right in front of us, and a pair of giraffes courting. We returned to our tent and found hot water bottles in our toasty warm bed. We fell asleep so happy to have experienced the thrill of being out in the African night with the starts overhead and the wind in our faces and the night sounds all around in the darkness. Predators? Well, it would have been nice, but they’re not the only show in town!

For some reason, I edited that last post but the changes didn't take. Obviously, that was meant to be "African stars" (not "starts")!

And to be fair to James... he didn't actually "screech" to a stop near those lions, but we came around a corner and there was another bus parked near them, so we had to stop quite suddenly!

Do write a novel about people on safari!