A Safari Adventure

I never really understood what the big deal was about going on a safari to see animals because you can see most of the same animals in really good zoos in the U.S. But now I get it. There’s nothing better than seeing so many animals in their natural habitat. It’s beauty at its best.

We left Nairobi on Monday for our first destination: Amboseli National Reserve. But we had a few hick-ups while trying to get out of the city. We went to a shopping centre nearby our apartment so I could withdraw money from Barclays Bank, which is a partner of Bank of America. I withdrew money but the ATM gave me no money and my balance showed that the money had been withdrawn. This particular branch of Barclays could not help non-Barclays customers so we had to go to another location across the city so I could talk to someone up in card services.

In the end, nothing was resolved and I had to wait till later that day when I could call Bank of America in the states. After a few hours delay, we took off in our safari vehicle, which looks like a matatu just with an extendable roof. Muthoga, our friend who picked us up from the airport, was our safari guide. And we also had a driver and a cook.

We arrived in Amboseli National Reserve in time for an evening game drive. Game drives are usually best in the early morning or in the late afternoon before dusk hits.

That’s because most animals hunt at night when it’s cooler and find shade to sleep under during the day to escape the heat.

As we were driving into the park, about 10 giraffes galloped right in front of our van across the road. Right at that moment, I knew why safaris were better than any visit to the zoo.

In addition to the giraffes, we saw elephants, zebras, gazelles, warthogs, wildebeests, a cheetah, buffalo and ostriches. Mt. Kilimanjaro, which is the highest mountain in Africa, serves as a spectacular backdrop for the Amboseli National Reserve. The landscape at Amboseli provides limited cover for wildlife, which allows safaris with greater access to seeing more animals. This park was extremely dry and there was very little grass at all.

After the game drive, we arrived at our campsite and set up our tents. The night sky was absolutely breathtaking.

I heard that the sky seemed bigger in Africa and now I understand. The sky is so vast and once you get away from the city, the sky is speckled with more stars than you’ve ever seen.


Tuesday was spent in Amboseli again. We woke up at 6 AM for a morning game drive. We climbed out of our tent just in time to see a beautiful sunrise.

We saw most of all the animals we’d seen the night before but we also got to see 2 lions- a male and a female- sitting together. Muthoga, our safari guide, told us that meant that they were mating because males and females don’t usually sit together because the female is away hunting with other females.

Females hunt because males have large manes and can easily been seen by predators. Lions mate for one week and during that week, they only drink water but don’t bother eating. That’s why we knew they were mating because if they weren’t, the female would have been out finding food.

Young male lions are ousted from their pride at the age of two or three when they are forced to be nomadic until around five years old when they are able to take over their own pride.


After the game drive, we walked to a nearby Masai Village. The Masai are one of the 70 tribes in Kenya. For a Masai person, their whole life is revolved around the cow.

Their houses are made from a mixture of cow dung and mud and their mattress/blanket is made from cow skin. Cow’s blood and milk are the mainstay of the Masai diet. They also drink mursik, which is made from cow’s milk fermented with cow’s urine and ashes. And lastly, on occasion for a delicacy, they eat the cow’s meat. The Masai people at this particular village greeted us with a welcome dance.

I noticed that both the men and women had gigantic holes in their ear lobes.

It was explained to me that when they are young, a sword cuts a huge hole in the ear lobe and the hole is plugged with a stick so it doesn’t grow back. We stepped inside a Masai house and visited the village’s medicine man. He had a spread of different tree barks that are used to cure and prevent several diseases and pains.

For instance, he explained that the Masai do not believe that malaria is caused by an infected mosquito biting a human. Instead, the mosquito deposits its eggs into the water- the same water that the Masai drink. Thus to cure malaria, the medicine man will boil pieces of a certain tree bark and tell the sick person to drink it three times per week. They had other remedies for back pain, pregnant women and headaches. We watched two Masai men make a fire from two sticks.

Next, we visited the village’s store which was simply each family in the village forming a giant circle with their crafts displayed. We were bombarded to say the least to buy something. I picked out two bracelets and a necklace. I asked how much and John, the Masai man who was taking us around, told us that we would negotiate after we finished the store visit.

From there we were escorted to sit underneath this tree in the middle of their village and began negotiating with several Masai men. At first they wanted US$70, which I said thanks, but no thanks to. They ended up settling for US$4 for the two bracelets. Later that afternoon, we went on another game drive where we saw elephants swimming in the marshy area to cool off from the sun’s fierce heat.

Wednesday morning started out poopy- both literally and metaphorically. We were told to keep our belongings inside the van at night so I woke up, got out of the tent, and walked to the van to get a change of clothes. I returned to the tent to change and as I was leaning down to climb in, I felt a plop on my back. I assumed it was nothing, climbed in and began changing clothes. But then I smelled this foul odor. I looked down and there was a pile of poop on my shirt. A monkey had pooped on me. A vervet monkey in fact.

But it gets better, there were between 20-30 monkeys surrounding our campsite since they learn where easy pickings can be found around campsites and lodges. And they were pooping all over the place. Someone would walk by and down comes a pile of poop landing very close to them. It was almost as if they were purposefully trying to poop on us. Who knows….maybe they were. We left Amboseli reserve after breakfast and started the all day journey to Masai Mara National Reserve.

It took about 12 hours to get there traveling through the Great Rift Valley. I know I had previously posted on my blog that a road I took to get to Kitui (where the Nyumbani Village is) was the worst road I’ve ever been on but I take it back. The road to Masai Mara is by far the worst road and anyone that has experienced that road to Mara, I have no doubt would agree.

Most of the road wasn’t paved, potholes covered the road, dust was flying everywhere and construction signs were constantly rerouting you different directions. Our guide, Muthoga, explained that the decision to keep the road to Mara so terrible was political because the hope was that if the road was so bad, people will pay to fly to Masai Mara and then still have to pay for a driver to drive to Mara and drive you around the park. Apparently, construction has started to repair the roads. Time will tell. But after that hellish ride, I was exhausted both mentally and physically. Thankfully, we got a treat: a permanent tent with two twin beds! It was amazing not to mention the hot shower.

Thursday was spent all day in Masai Mara National Reserve, which is by far the most visited national park or reserve in Kenya.


It’s much more fertile than Amboseli providing more vegetation for the herbivores and thus more potential kills for the carnivores.


We saw zebra, wildebeest, elephants, warthogs, giraffes, bushbacks, eland antelopes, waterbucks, buffaloes, topies, Kirk’s dik-diks, impalas and gazelles.


I thought the impalas and the waterbucks were so graceful and beautiful. We visited the Mara River where we saw crockadiles and tons of hippos. I learned that a hippo can stay underwater for 10 minutes without taking a breath and at a weight of 1000-2000 kilograms, they are the second largest mammal after elephants.

Down by the river, we saw hundreds of dead rotting wildebeests. Our guide explained that each year during the migration they try to cross the river but end up getting killed by the crocodiles and wash up on the shore. The smell is something you will never forget.


Later, we saw a cheetah resting under a tree but couldn’t convince him to get up and run for us!

But thankfully we were lucky and saw lots of lions. We found a pack of about 10 lions (a mix of lionesses and their cubs) under a tree near a river. One of the lionesses and her cub were feasting on a wildebeest.

We were go close we could see the huge teeth crunching down on the flesh. We could hear skin being torn off, the bones crackling, and the muscle being pulled away from the bone.

It was a remarkable sight to see! Later that night after a delicious traditional African meal, I joined an American couple for a bottle of wine around a campfire. They were currently living in Yemen because Stewart, the husband, had been contracted to repair Yemen’s water pipes. His wife, Stephanie, was a fascinating person and had so many stories to tell me of the different places she’s lived in her life due to her husband’s traveling job.

Friday, we got up and drove to Lake Naivasha. Our campsite, Fish Eagle Inn, definitely had that friendly backpacker’s feeling to it- where people bring up casual conversation in the bathroom or wander over to neighboring campsites to say hello. That night our cook talked to us about how poverty was such a problem in Kenya. He complained how the price of a loaf of bread and the price of wheat flour had recently gone up and now times were harder for his family. I know that as a journalist I’m never going to make the big bucks but I’m almost certain that a loaf of bread going up in price would not affect me. But to some people here- well actually most people here- it’s everything.

Saturday, we woke up early, rented bikes, and rode to Hell’s Gate National Park. This is the only national park in Kenya where you can walk or cycle unguided across its breadth.

There’s something so fascinating about biking past zebras, buffalos, warthogs, gazelles and eland antelopes. A picture of the scenery here doesn’t do it justice.

Looming cliffs stand high throughout the park in between the stretches of savannah grasses. Farther into the park, lies a natural hot springs and several waterfalls. At certain places, the water is boiling.

The steam from this hot water makes electricity at the nearby power plant, which provides electricity to 30% of Kenya’s population.

Later that afternoon, we drove to Lake Nakuru- home to millions and millions of mosquitoes. They’re attracted to the salty lake. By the time we arrived at the guest house we were staying in, I was a little under the weather due to my allergies acting up over the dust and all the grass I’ve been near this past week. So I curled up under my mosquito net and went to bed early.

Sunday morning we headed out for our last game drive through Lake Nakuru National Park.

This park is home to 1 million flamingos that surround the lakeshore. It’s a pretty unbelievable sight. The flamingoes flock here for the lake’s green algae, which is actually what turns them pink. In addition to the flamingos, we saw zebra, baboons, impalas, buffalos, giraffes, pelicans, a hyena and a white rhino.




Seeing a white rhino was a special treat because they are native only to South Africa. A few have been brought to East Africa but it’s very rare to see one.

The difference between the white and black rhino has actually nothing to do with their skin color. The difference is only their overall size and the size of their mouth, which the white rhino is larger in both aspects. Later around 10AM we headed back to Nairobi to mark the end of our safari.


It was an adventure and definitely a week I’ll never forget. And I’m thankful for the chance that we got to see other parts of Kenya other than Nairobi.