Before I start writing about the amazing trip in Kenya and Tanzania, I have to say how amazingly blessed we are to be Americans. All it takes is a short drive through the countryside of either country to realize how good we have it in the USA and even in Saudi. The roads are terrible if they are even paved at all. The people mostly still live in one room mud or brick huts with no running water or electricity. We saw countless people carrying jugs of water up from the rivers either on their backs or if they were lucky, with their donkey. Our guides told us that in most homes there is one place for water that both the people and the animals share. There are no
pretty paved sidewalks leading up to shops, no great drainage system if it rains, no air con, etc. We had very few encounters with kids but when you do it breaks your heart. When the kids see white people they start yelling " sweets" because many people bring the kids candy. Our guides told us itwasn't good to give them candy since they have no toothbrush or dentist. We didn't have any with us anyway but we gave some bottles of water and even our empty bottles. It is such a different way life that is hard to comprehend. All I kept thinking was how blessed I was to be born in the USA. Yes, life can still be hard in the USA but you start with such better odds. All I can say is thank you Lord for all our many blessings.
Now on a happier note, our trip was incredible or as some of the British people we met would say "mental". We started out with flying to Nairobi and spending then night at a fabulous hotel called the fairview. I would highly recommend it. We had heard some not so great things about Nairobi so we didn't really venture out. Plus we were being picked up bright and early to start our safari. Our guides, Roger and Douglass, were both born and raised in Kenya. They took great care of us in all of our game drives and moving locations.
On the first real safari day we made the long drive from Nairobi to samburu national reserve. This drive took about 6 hours. We arrived at fabulous tent camp called "Ashnill samburu". Now when I say tent you may think of sleeping on the ground and hiking uphill to the restroom but this is not so our tents all had queen sized beds, concrete floors, showers, granite counter tops, all the luxuries except for heat and air. As we arrived in our first tent I stepped out onto the patio and could immediately see a huge giraffe eating from a tree! What an amazing view.
Samburu was great. Exactly what you would expect when you think safari. Grassy plains, tons of animals, beautiful mountains in the background, amazing sun sets. Samburu is also home to some species of animals that you cant find in the Masai Mara or anywhere south of the equator. The locals call them the "Samburu 5".
- grevy zebra- their stripes are closer together and disconnect at the belly. They grow a little larger than the common zebra.
- Reticulated giraffe- has more defined spots and are also a little larger than most others. The picture above is a reticulated giraffe - Oryx-
- Giraffe antelope
- Somali Ostrich
After 2 days at Samburu we headed for Sweet Waters. Our accommodation at sweet water was very similar to samburu. It was a tented camp with a permanent floor and private shower and bathroom. However, the weather here was very different. Samburu was HOT while sweet waters was cold. It was crazy to us how much the climate changed when we hadn't actually driven that far. There was a watering hole right outside our front porch and looking our from the restaurant which gave us another great view. One night while eating dinner 2 white rhinos walked up to get a drink. Although we did get to see many animals here, the overall feeling of the park was more "zoo" like. If we were to do it all over again we would probably skip sweet waters. But again, we saw amazing animals and I was able to capture some amazing pictures here.
We only spent one day at Sweet water. We left really early the next morning for Lake Nakuru. This place was very different from Samburu and Sweet Waters. It was a much more tropical setting with swamp like areas. We compared it to the place the Simba lives with Timon and Pumba in the "Lion King". This was the only place where there was any mosquito issues. Because of all of the moisture, the mosquitoes were abundant. This was the first place that we slept under a mosquito net. Our lodge here was different from the rest in that it wasn't a tent but an actual room. Funnily enough, it wasn't as nice as any of the tents that we stayed in.
Up until this point we had not really seen any species of the cat family. Micah and I were getting a little anxious to see lions or leopards. Our guides were hopeful that this would be the place for us to see a leopard but sadly this didn't happen. However, we had an amazing opportunity to watch
Lake Nakuru is known as the "pink lake" since so many flamingos hang out in the water. We were able to get out of the car and take a few pictures with the lake in the background (blogger is not allowing me to upload pictures with people....sorry). You will notice a couple of Buffalo's hanging out close by. This made our guide very nervous but they let us out anyway.
After Lake Nakuru we finally headed to the main attraction, the Masai Mara. This "game-reserve" is 583 square miles and is basically a northern extension of the Serengeti. The only difference is which country the land is in. The Mara-Serengeti together make up 9,700 square miles! There is no fence dividing the countries and the animals flow freely between the parks. There is an annual flow of wildebeest and zebras every year that is referred to as the "Great Migration". We were there in time to see the end of the migration into the Masai Mara. We saw THOUSANDS of beasts and zebras. My camera was not really capable of capturing the amount of animals.
At last we were able to find some Cheetah's! The first one was walking through the grass with the cutest cub following. Our second encounter was a cheetah with SIX cubs! The mom was sitting off the the side while her cubs ate their breakfast. They were snacking on a Thompson Gazelle.
On our last day in the Mara we still hadn't been able to get a good picture of a Male lion. I was secretly very upset at the idea that I would return home from an African safari and not have this key picture. Lets just say I prayed very hard the night before and my prayers were answered. We found 2 male lions taking a morning siesta. We spent almost an hour just watching them which allowed me to get TONS of pictures.
I know I'm missing a ton of details so I will post Micah's travel journal to fill in the gaps. I also know that after a trip like this it makes you wonder how anyone can doubt that our world has a divine creator. To believe that these animals in all their amazing color, beauty, and unique biology could have come from a "big bang" or "just be here" seems crazy, and actually impossible. Since I feel like I'm running out of words to truly describe I'm just going to post some of my favorite pictures. At the end I will also post a link to my facebook album if you would like to see more.
