Author: mc4119

Blogger lesson learned…post each night or at a minimum, journal sights, sounds, smells, tastes.
Once we left Nairobi, connectivity was spotty at best so for this trip, it will have to be a retrospective view. Truth be told, we were so busy experiencing that I forgot to write.

Long post, apologies in advance.

From Nairobi, we headed to 3 safari camps. Camps being a very loose term, think glamping (glamorous camping), not a Bunsen burner in sight, but all 3 strict eco camps where maximum effort is made to minimize the impact on the planet. Bye bye, throw away this, and plastic that, creative use and reuse is the order of the day.  The strategy of choosing these 3 camps was to maximize the variety of animals seen, and more specifically watch the Migration of animals as they make their way from South to North for food.  (oh and the side benefit, all 3 camps were beyond anything I could have imagined) A total of 4M animals, prominently wildebeest, zebra, gazelle are on the move during this time.

Our first camp bordered Amboseli National Park where the elephant “ellies” are king.  And if you leave Amboseli without falling in love with these intelligent and mighty creatures, you need to check your radar.

We met our guides, Eric and Simon at the airport.  And our Tortelis Camp hosts, a Scottish couple Candy and Graham met us at the camp with a Welcome.  We would soon learn that each time we arrived “home”, someone would be waiting to greet us and ask us about our day.

For these 2 days at Tortelis, we went out early in the morning (6:30), and end of day (4pm) to maximize viewing.  Rumbling around in an open air jeep with animals around us on all sides, quite simply doing their thing.  Both of our guides love their job, love their land, and were able to answer all of our questions.  It was a running dialog each day, pauses as we came within feet of something instead of yards, and then we would resume our conversation.  Besides the animals, we started learning about the culture, the tribes, and much detail on the Masai tribe who rule the land we were exploring.  Our guide Eric is Masai and lived the traditional Masai life though now raising his children in a more modern life.  He takes his children back to his village on vacation so they don’t lose their roots.  Could spend a long blog on what we learned about old vs new in the Masai world, but generally new represents education, farming the land in addition to owning cows, monogamy vs polygamy (insert the Mr.s comment here “more than one wife?  I question the reason for one!).  Our tour of a Masai village was eye opening..maybe eye popping is more appropriate, and then hilarious as the exit was through a gauntlet of bead selling women.  (Not to be outdone, a Masai warrior offered Kathleen 20 cows for Katie..and he was serious!)

Back at the camp, we ate buffet style for meals.  My only regret of the trip..how I wish I had written down the dishes we ate, and took pictures!  One meal was better than the next, not glamorous, not froofy, just a a great mix of food and spices.  And dessert!!  After every meal!!  Divine.

The staff could not have been more gracious and kind addressing every request.

Highlight for me at this stop was an elephant within 5 feet of me telling our jeep, “no closer”, and we listened, and on our final night, a Sundowner.

“Sundowner” to uneducated me meant a type of cocktail, instead, it means an event, i.e., we’re stopping for the event of the sun going down.  Our jeeps climbed to the top of a range, and there at the top waiting for us were camp chairs arranged for maximum viewing and cocktail and snack set up.  And alas the bottle of tequila that we risked life and limb for in Nairobi was part of the bar set up.  Not sure that the staff knew what to make of the old white lady who said, “take a load off boys, I’ll make some drinks”.  Hello tequila and some concoction of Kenyan juices.  Many laughs later and the sun long since set, we drove back to camp.

After lots of hugs the next morning, we left for Cottars Camp on the Mara Reserve.  One we again we took a hopper flight, landed in a grass field, were met by jeeps.  Not sure how I am ever going to fly commercial again, let along stay in a Courtyard Marriott!!

Cottars Camp was built in the 1920’s and the camp is still owned by generations of the same family.  Here we stayed in one house together above the camp and looking over the Masa Mara Reserve…oh and the Serengeti.  Our guides were Doug and Ken and house staff was William, Phoebe, Sephora and Bonny.  In a lifetime I may never live this well again, but man for a few days, it was outrageous.  We had 3 days at this location and we did not miss a minute.  Similar schedule, out early in the morning, wake up our animal friends, breakfast out on the range complete with a loo with a view,

lunch at the house, evening game drive, and then dinner.

Doug and Ken have been with Cottars for 14 and 9 years.  They were the perfect hosts and mixed education about the land and animals with easy banter.  With awe, we watched the first Migration cross the Sand River.  Animals in single file heading down and over the river towards the north plains with long grass.  Even Ken and Doug sat quietly and watched.  “This still wows you?”  I asked.  “Of course, its the first of the season, we have not seen it since last year”.  Kind of like the start of football season?  Don’t worry I did not say that out loud.  At full throttle it must be amazing as we were wowed by 3-5K animals on the move.  Due to unexpected but somewhat welcome rains, the Migration is delayed this year.  The animals are not as desperate to find new food sources.  We lucked out seeing what we did as other travelers were not so lucky.

Back at the house, we had to keep an eye on William who liked nothing more than pouring a stiff drink, Bonny the chef who used his vegetable and herb garden to its fullest (also an amazing baker..if I can ever get the recipe for his Banoffee pie I’ll be a happy woman) and Phoebe and Sephora who kept us on schedule. This stop also included hot air ballooning for some, for others a lazy drive along the Sand River trying to flush out animals.  A walk instead of a drive, complete with guns and spears for safety, and also here is where we ran with the Masai.

The house was spectacular

and Calvin Cottar happened to be in the camp while we were there and stopped up to the house for a drink.  Lots of discussion about changes needed in Kenya and specifically the Masa Mara region so that the best balance of progress and tradition is achieved.  Whole truth…I zoned out.  Too highbrow for me and once Kevin started making me laugh I was a goner and had to discreetly leave the room.  But a worthy conversation none the less.  With progress comes problems, and who and what interests are behind the progressive stance is a landmine in itself.  By all local accounts, corruption is rampant, and seemingly those in the most jeopardy, are those with the least.  See…that’s why I walked away from the conversation.  I want to pretend I live every day with “staff” and lions don’t need to kill gazelle to stay alive.

Again with tears in my eyes we left Cottars.

Highlight here, hmmm…tough to say…seeing the Migration, a run with the Masai, staying at a house like this, swimming in Kenya in a 25 meter pool in the backyard…meeting this amazing group of people…let me get back to you on the highlight here.

On to Mara Plains..a 3+ hour drive in the jeep with safara-ing (is that a word) along the way.  For the final 30 or so minutes, we drove with an armed escort…somewhat disconcerting and we theorized like crazy, but the reality was much more real.  After recent floods, roads and bridges were gone so the path to the camp was re-routed, known by local guides only.  And the gun, well its the wild, everyone has a gun or spear right?

Mara Plains is the standard bearer for glamping.

For 2 nights we were 9 of 14 total guests and all around us, I mean right around us, were animals.  Tony and Cheryl’s tent was next to “hippo highway” with the meaning becoming abundantly clear in the night when the hippos make their way out of the water to wander, and then splash back in during early morning.  This was the first stop that the trip caught up with me.  I fell into bed on night one and missed all the “in the middle of night wildlife sounds” that kept others awake for the night.  And according to the Mr., my snoring rivaled the hyenas laughing, rhino’s snorting, and water hogs rummaging.

Our guides for Mara Plains, Kevin, very studied and serious; and Nick, who never met a Lion King movie line he did not like, and maintained hours of rift that made me laugh until my ribs hurt.  He had voices, opinions, stories (he is Masai, one of 33 children of a father who had 5 wives).

Mara Plains is home to cats…and cats we saw!!  Along with the complement of zebra, wildebeest, giraffe, wart hogs, gazelles.

The highlight for some was surely a cheetah in successful pursuit and catch of a Thompson gazelle.  With 4 baby cubs to feed, a swing a miss was not an option.  I was in the other jeep and missed it, probably for the better.  Much as I would have loved to see a cheetah in full sprint, the kill would have killed me.  I know, I know, its nature.  Watching the cubs feed off the kill was mesmerizing.  And later we drove passed the kill site, nothing left.  Cubs had first dibs, then the mother, then hyena, jackal, and finally vulture.  All very tidy.

At Mara Plains, I started to feel the window closing.  This adventure of a lifetime was soon over.  Our next stop was Nairobi and then home.  We sat by a fire the last night and reveled in the canopy of stars, never has the phrase been more appropriate.  It was like netting there were so many.  And the Southern Cross which we cannot see from here…how cool!!

Monday, we made our last trip to a bush airport and flew back to Nairobi.  I swear every animal knew we were leaving and stepped out to wave goodbye..even a python snake!!

So so so many amazing things that we saw, heard, smelled, touched, experienced.  Cannot recommend this trip more.  And do it now if you’re my age, not for the faint of heart.  Each day is long and the sensory overload is that much more overwhelming.  Someone had said to me, you don’t go to bed, you fall into bed.  True statement.

Periodically the Mr. and I would look at one another and the unspoken exchange, can you believe this…  On the plane ride home, we laughed or maybe cried thinking about our diminished bank accounts and said, where to next.  We wrote our top five picks and then exchanged notes.

Hope to see you along the way.

In random order and many with a cell phone!!  Oy vey this trip required a camera, but we had 2 photographers among us who took well over 3K pictures so if you need more to entice you, let me know.  And birds species…thousands…remarkable!

Tonight I ran with Masai warriors..

Brought my running stuff with only hopes of getting in a few runs but I had promised the Mr. no adrenaline runs that included me and a lion, hyena etc. As it turned out, our safari guide, Doug, is a runner and he arranged this special run.

Attached below are a few quick snaps enroute and post run.

The pictures don’t show it but Masai wear shoes made from re-purposed motorcycle tires, somehow rigged with straps.  And I should clarify, they don’t run, they float.

After quick introductions we got underway, Cheryl up front, Katie and I hanging in there.  The Mr. ran with our safari guide.  The Mr. is not stupid, he knew who was carrying a gun.

I’ve run in many places on this planet, but never with zebra and wildebeest grazing, elephants trumpeting, and a guide with a spear, surreal to say the least.  We had talked loosely about how far we would run, wouldn’t a 5K be great, “we” being the English speaking idiots, but certainly no communication to our guides in Swahili or better yet the Masai language.  Lots of smiles and bows at the outset (yup me bowing, where was I Asia suddenly?)

Sometimes the lost in translation conversations lead to the most hilarious travel stories, but for an out of shape runner, this disconnect on distance had shades of train wreck written all over it.  I had a general idea of where we were and where our camp was, but at mile 4, we had made no move to circle back.  I looked over at Katie and her face read my sentiment…what the what??!!

I grunted some noise of “yo”and one of the human clouds floated back to me.  “How far are we planning on going my friend?”  He smiled and we kept running.  At 5.5M, we saw salvation in the distance, a jeep.  Cheryl sprinted to the jeep, not missing a chance to say she had dueled with a Masai.

Katie’s “Aunt Chris I don’t think that is a jeep” comment was lost on me as I dreamed of a shower and cocktail.  And indeed 19 year old eyes are far better than 50+ year old eyes.  The “jeep” was 3 old barrels.  In fact we were at an old airstrip and that vast cool feeling when we arrived by plane, suddenly had the holy shit we are in the middle of a nowhere feeling.  My only salvation was Katie…I knew her mother would not let us be gone for too long before she sent the National Guard.

At this point I went into pantomime mode, “is a jeep (hands outstretched at 10 and 2, gripping a steering wheel) picking us up?”  Smiles from Masai man.  And then more pointed, “what’s the plan here man?”  “We run back.”  In my head I am screaming wtf, but at the same time, cursing myself for blithely jumping in and not cementing the details.  Also wanted to be upbeat for Katie who had no plan to run more than 2M, 3 at most.  We were staring at a run back that included hills.  Cheryl is a beast, fit for days, I knew she was up for the task at hand.

Nothing to it, but to do it.  Sunset is upon us, lets not waste time.  And we started back.

About a 1/4 mile up the road, “Aunt Chris, I think that is a jeep”.  And sure enough it was.  Cheryl and Katie blazed toward it, this old gal was d-o-n-e, and ambled in.  Reaching the jeep, my Masai friend had a devilish smile that would make a leprechaun jealous.  Between English-Swahali-Masai, he knew exactly what was going on and had a fun time at my expense.  I punched him and his buddy and they laughed out loud.  Truth be told, even if we had run back, I would have felt safe.  The Masai know their land and their animals.  They would have kept us safe.  Would love to hear the story being told in their village…yea so this one old white lady who shook the ground with every stride…

A running experience of a lifetime.

On we go.

Hope to see you along the way.

Your writer payed the price for her Monday night shenanigans, in the morning..I was green.  Something did not agree with my stomach and let’s leave it there.

But this was moving day…bye bye Nairobi and hello what we came here for…safari.  Back to the airport for a small hopper flight to the bush (don’t I sound like I know what I am talking about – insert sarcasm here).

You know the scene in movies when the actor strides out onto the tarmac with a badass strut, that was me.
Upset stomach be gone, I fancied myself a rock star picking up my 16 seater and headed off for adventure. Not everyone in the group was so enamored with the idea of a small flight, but quick prayer and we were air-born.
And 45 minutes later, we landed at an airstrip that had an acacia tree as a terminal and painted white rocks as the runway lights.  Vast…quiet…2 jeeps waiting for us. And a diet coke…wahooooo

More later

Hope to see you along the way

I’m a gal who loves words and these last few days have found me speechless, or maybe worse, pretending I speak Swahili…
Last we chatted our Monday plan was local sites in Nairobi. And so after a great buffet breakfast (good mix of local and traditional choices) we headed out to an elephant orphanage. As the pictures will show, we were right up close…a small rope separating us and 10 baby elephants. The orphanage helps babies without families due to natural (drought/famine) and not so natural (poachers) reasons.  The care given to these elephants is extraordinary.  Each has a handler who stays with them until they are ready to go back into the wild..and when I say, “stays with them”, the meaning is literal.  Handler and elephant sleep together.  The Mr. was very moved, maybe not moved enough to move into the shed, but impacted no doubt.  In some ways these small orphan babies make out better than their human counterparts as they are fed, housed, and cared for; not a daily certainty for some citizens of Nairobi.  Before I go deep, on we go to a giraffe sanctuary.

Oh wait, tourists from the orphanage are headed to see the giraffes, who wants to get caught up with that riff raff…let’s detour to an artists cooperative.  Various artists and mediums…wood, beads, fabric, are represented under one roof and as we are learning, everyone shares part of their profits with the community at large.  We descended like locusts and rummaged from room to room.  At one point one of the African ladies sat down, exhausted, clearly we Americans do not understand pole pole..meaning, slowly.  Negotiations complete, maybe a Tusker beer for good measure, we rerouted to the giraffe.

Not sure that my pictures will do it justice, but think Jurassic Park…big trees…and bobbing and weaving amidst the trees..giraffe.  In my opinion, and it is my damn blog, these creatures scream darling.  Those big eye lashes and the sweet face, wild animals no doubt, but I was swooning…and cannot imagine them in the true wild.  

From the giraffes, we split up, some went on to the Karen Blixen museum, some went back to the hotel.  The driver who took we “Blixies” described it as “history stuff” when we asked what was there, and after our tour, Ryan noted, “that’s all you need to get a museum, be a failed coffee farmer?”.  Both hilarious comments and astute analysis.  I’m glad we went, Karen Blixen impacted the community (and a great role for Meryl Streep – not everyone gets to kiss Robert Redford) but the museum is not a must stop.  Clearly time for that drink on the veranda!

Dinner was at a fabulous place called Tamarind; the kind of dinner when you switch seats, interrupt conversations, get loud, sing happy birthday to people you don’t know, and have a waiter who goes along for the ride.  For dessert, each of our plates was personalized.

Mine…enough said.

And again we split up the group for the ride home, some went back to the hotel, some in search of bottled liquor reinforcements for our days ahead.  Let me remind you, it is now 11:30pm-ish on a Sunday night in a predominantly Christian country.  Where in the holy hell did we think we were sourcing booze.  Use your imagination people, comical and crazy to say the least.  The only thing more funny was the translation of, “no, not three shots, three bottles”.

Hooligans safely returned with thoughts of tomorrow.

Hope to see you along the way.

Tonight I was a football fan on a continent far from my own with people that made my heart happy and my face smile. With the Mr. and two of his nephews, we went in search of World Cup viewing. At an eco-lodge with no “screens”, we had to be creative. Asking around I found out the live-in staff had a tv in the community room.
And so there we found ourselves with billionaire guests (clearly not us), staff who have treated us so graciously for the past two days, and our guides who protected us quite literally from lions and other African wonders.
Common denominator, sport, otherwise as disparate a community room as you have have ever seen and we loved it
An unexpected slice of time like this is why I travel.
Talk again soon with many pictures.
Hope to see you along the way.

We’re here!! Arrived late last night in great spirits with various hours of sleep under our belt.

One quick note about international travel, yes yes yes there are all the aches and pains of, are we there yet, but if you allow it, it can actually energize you. At Heathrow we waited for our connection under the big connection board. Listings for Barcelona, Budapest, Mumbai, Prague ..a feast of people watching and wondering…who are they, what is their story, have they been up for hours and do they have the sleepy giggles too??

 

 

 

 

And very fun to be with British air crew when England clinched their semi-final spot in the World Cup. Still a Croatia girl, but good for you England.

I’m terrible with pictures, but wish I had taken one of the woman holding the sign at the Nairobi airport..Fosterx9. We whisked through customs and off we went towards our hotel. Midnight dinner…very cosmopolitan, and then shower … ahhhhh … and bed … complete with mosquito net … don’t worry my favorite mother in law, it is decor only.

This morning, Sunday, very quiet. Feels like a movie set, hotel is beautiful, set amidst very plush trees. We are outside the city, but from what we saw last night, Nairobi looks like many other cities on a Saturday night..a-buzz.

Today we are off to an elephant orphanage .. yes, there is a fear one will find it’s way to PA, we have the space at the 205 right?
And then a museum of some sort…they lost my attention after the discussion of elephants and giraffes.. and then cocktails on the hotel veranda.

Veranda..such a lyrical word.
Doesn’t everyone do this on Sunday evening??

Gotta leave you for a bit, the staff is finding me coffee and surely wondering why this idiotic woman is up at 0’dark thirty.
I’m not missing a minute.

To coffee we go…
Hope to see you along the way..