Well. It's all over. The guests have gone home, the beer's been cleaned up, the tab's been paid. I'm not really sure by whom, but, hey. No one's knockin' on my door, and that's really all that matters, eh? right? Yep.
In my book, it was a damn good time. Here's kinda how it went....
I got up at 5am, to leave by 5:30am, to be at the airport in time for the arrival of the wageni. Turns out, there ain't much traffic at that hour, so I arrived with an hour to go. Add on the hour delay, and boy was I sorry I didn't dress warmer. Stupidly cold Nairobi.
Finally! Mum and AJ meander through the doors and gaze about. Here I am! Here! Right here!! The one in the mohawk! Yes!! Me! They come over, we hug, they stare and my head, and we make like rugs and beat it.
Do these ladies want a nap? Nooo!! Let's go out and see the world!, they cry. And we do. We squeezed in the Elephant Orphanage, the Giraffe Center, and the Nature Walk, all in one day. I think the highlight of all that was the up-close-and-personal experience with Muilla the Cheetah. A damn close second, Bob/Phillip and Elizabeth, the pygmy hippos.
That night we trained to Kisumu, leaving late, arriving later. Had a groovy time of it, though, with mum taking about 400 pictures on the way. In Kisumu we slept at Kiboko Bay in this platform tent thingy that was super nice. Highly recommended. Also: we highly recommend you bring your own CDs for the barman, unless you happen to be a rockin' ABBA fan (and who isn't, deep down?).
We rode the bodabodas, the tuktuks, we ate fish at the carwash, we shopped at Nakumatt, and we went out to see the hippos. Yahoo!!!
From Kisumu to Kakamega, by taxi. It was bad from the beginning - we left late, the tuktuk driver was too busy trying to get in my pants (in front of my mother, for Pete's sake!!!) to do his job, the KEEP was way further out in the boonies that anyone prepared me for, the road was worse than shitty, and so on. But! The mamas were all Soooo happy to see us and cooked a monsterously large feast. The food was all super tastey, then they sang a bit and the kids performed some drama. I think it went really well, and I hope everyone else agrees.
KEEP itself was pretty cool. We did two walks -one just normal one, in the afternoon, whatever, and then the sunrise walk where you leave at 4am and greet the sun 2 hours later. Try to do that one in the dry season, eh? It's a little... wet... otherwise. It was still groovy. Ask for Gabriel, too, as he is a great guide. Mostly just a fun dude who was super nice.
From the West, we went East, by bus, to Nairobi. Bus sucked, of course. Not much choice, there. But we found ourselves at the right place at the right time. Hot showers, flushing toilets, comfy beds and electricity. All the more appreciated after our 2 nights at KEEP!
In the morning we were picked by the one and only Lobo (actually, there's at least 2 others, since he's got a dad and brother, but, you know. Sounds better.). He was our safari guide from Base Camp Travels. Poor fellow!
We started north in Samburu park. It's up across the equator and into dry, white sandy soil. We slept at the Samburu Sopa Lodge for 2 nights. Beautiful!! Great food, great staff, comfy rooms, nice architecture, . . . . what else? Lot's of animals to see. We 3 were the only ones, so that was really a nice thing. We'd do early morning and late afternoon drives to see the critters.
Then we went south to Mt. Kenya, to sleep at the Castle Hill Lodge. Built for some dude named George. It was pretty and old and COLD. Too cloudy to see the mountain itself, but mum and I took a hike to see a waterfall. Again, try to go in a dry season.
Back south across the equator to Lake Nukuru. Slept one night at the Sarova and it was one night too many. Overcrowded, understaffed with not-so-nice people, food mediocre... rooms were nice, though. It was cool to see the flamingoes up close and realize exactly how many there are. But, even the park felt too crowded with people.
South again, into the Maasai Mara. We paused in Narok for tea and toilets, and I ran into K and her parents. Yay!!! I saw the Shanzu bags and thought, wonder if that's PC? Then I realized it was a familiar bag, attached to a familiar person! They were on their way out, to go raft in Uganda, and told us how much fun they had. What a nice surprise to see her!
The road into the Mara is at least as bad as they say, but fear not- the government has begun roadwork to smooth the situation. I think I saw an estimated completetion for some date 5 years from now. :)
The park itself was really good. We saw some of the juicey bits of safaring, quite literally. There was a pride of 6 female lions chomping away on a zebra, then some hyenas cleaning up a day later. Saw some cheetahs working on a gazelle another day, their faces all pink and dirty. My favorite? The river full of hippos, where Lobo actually let me out of the vehicle to go say hello! I think I counted 24 of them!
Once it was all over, we were sad to say good-bye to Lobo, though I'm sure that wasn't mutual! It took him most of the week to start teasing back, so we felt like we were just breaking him in. Most of our too-personal questions had been answered, although more soberly than planned. I'm sure mum and AJ have a completely different version of this, but that's just because all the Aunties are afraid I'm on the edge of Old Maid status. Their vision is a bit blurred.
Finally, the last leg of our trip. We travelled like queens, flying through the air, to arrive in Malindi and mere hour after we left Nairobi. Our last hotel was the Turtle Bay Beach Club in Watamu. It was all-inclusive, even alcohol, so we lived it up. Nice rooms, nice service, good food with plenty of veggie options, ... on the ocean, with a big, clean pool, ... My only problem is that it is well-known for being kid-friendly. In other words, it was Full of little people. ack. Still a great place, but, I should take that into consideration in the future...
So, now I'm back in Nairobi. I'm stuck here on some personal bullshit. That's all working out okay, I guess. Nothing new anyway. I miss work and can't wait to get back. It feels really weird, though. All that time travelling and living rich has almost made me forget what country I'm in, especially having mum and AJ here. Now that they're gone, it's back to reality. *sigh* Not so sure I like that...
But, hey, I gotta get some work done here and one more year should be just the right amount of time.
