Nairobi and Safari Day 1

John and I went to Kenya on safari at the end of September. It was the holiday of a lifetime, definitely something we will never forget. Every day offered something amazing.

We had a nice flight out to Kenya, apart from a young woman in the row behind us and down a few seats who was screaming and throwing a fit in her sleep. I felt sorry for her when I realized she must have been having a night terror, but it was very alarming to be awoken on a plane in this day and age by someone screaming. Anyway, I don't know what ended up happening to her because her night terror seemed to keep going on and off for a few hours, and she left her seat and went goodness knows where for the rest of the flight. We never saw her again.

The flight was overnight, so we got to our hotel in Nairobi around 10 am. We went to visit a few sites there. The first was a bead factory where they employ exclusively single mothers. After that we went to Karen Blixen's house, from the book and film Out of Africa. It was a neat house/museum. They said she used to wear two hats when she went out of the house because she thought the sun would melt her brain. After a couple of days in the Kenyan sun out of the shad, I completely understood that line of thinking. Anyway, she was originally from Denmark, and John and I remember hearing about her at a museum in Copenhagen. Then we went to a giraffe rescue center, where we fed giraffes right from our hands. John put a food pellet in his mouth and the giraffe kissed him to get it! And I fed a warthog by hand.

The next day we left at 8:30 am. We headed off for our all day journey to Somburu. The safari vans hold 6 people, designed so each seat is a window seat, but we were only put in a van with one other couple. They were a very nice honeymoon couple from Birmingham (England) called Emily and Alan. Luckily we all really enjoyed each other's company, because in the end you spend every long journey, game drive, meal, and basically waking minute with those in your van. All the people in our larger group, about 17 in all, were fantastic people and we would have been happy sharing with any of them.

About 45 minutes into the journey our van got a flat tire. We stood on the side of the road while it was repaired. The drivers of the other vans from our group turned around to help, and it didn't take too long to repair. The whole time I was watching for a big snake to slither up to us, but luckily that fear was never realized.

We had lunch at a trout farm where we saw an animal I'd never even heard of called a hyrax sleeping in a tree. It was like a big guinea pig. There were also black-and-white colobus monkeys, which some people, including John, fed by hand. They got a little excited and one of them either bit or scratched one of the women from our group. She didn't seem very upset about it, but I would have been pretty worried if a monkey had caused me to bleed... in Africa.

After lunch more unbelievably bumpy roads to get to Somburu. We got to the game reserve at about 4 and went on our first game drive. They lifted up the roof and we all stood up during the ride.

Straight away I spotted some giraffes. Then we saw some zebras and impala. Then we came across a big herd of elephants. We couldn't believe how close they were. There was absolutely no need for binoculars or camera zoom, they were just right there eating away. There were loads of them, including some little ones. When a safari van stops for a while to watch something, it attracts other safari vans, who attract more vans, so there were a lot of vans admiring these beautiful elephants. Then we saw three cheetahs from a distance (compared to the elephants, although it was maybe 30 meters away). Then at the end of the drive we saw a pride of lions! They were spectacular. Again, there were loads of vans watching them. There were adult female lions, cubs, and growing males. No big males with manes. We saw them very up close, they even crossed in front of our van in order to lay in the middle of the dirt tracks. We had to drive round them to get out of the park!

The drive ended at 6:30. The lodge is in the game park, with no fencing, but the buildings are solid (not tents). We had a nice dinner with the other people from the larger group. Then we had an after dinner drink at the crocodile bar, where there are crocs who are from the park but come up in the evenings on the bank, with only a flimsy fence separating them from the people.

In that lodge everyone has to be escorted back to their rooms at night because of the lack of fencing and the animals roam freely. There was a big elephant just ahead of our room, and the escort had to scare him off with different loud noises. Eventually he moved into the trees so we could get past. But after a short time he came back and we watched him from our porch for a while before going to sleep (even though every time the guards walked past they told us to go into our rooms). We also heard barking. I asked if it was wild dogs or hyenas, but they said they were baboons and they were making so much noise because there was a leopard around.