Well it's Christmas Eve and we're leaving for our Safari at 7am! We headed out of Mombasa on the Mariakani Highway, which is a 4lane (2 each way) highway that heads towards Niarobi. Alice (our in-country contact for i-to-i) and her 9DAY old baby, Niyla decided to join us. Along with our guides, Anna and Robert (R.Kelly on the two way radio!) Anna's 2 daughters, a woman and her 3year old son (I believe named Didi?) and another woman. I've obviously forgotten their names!
Our first stop was at Tsavo East on our way through to the lodge. We saw warthogs, impala, giraffe & elephants. We also spotted a cheetah, but unfortunately my eyes were better than my camera & the photos aren't great. :( We arrived at the lodge, had lunch and a shower and then headed out for a 4pm afternoon/evening game drive.
We stayed at the Red Elephant Lodge. They had a nice buffet of food and it was quite an ordeal ordering a bottle of wine! It was a screw top bottle, which the manager insisted on trying to open with a cork screw, then insisted it was bad b/c there was no cork! After about 30 minutes of watching this debacle, we finally got our wine unscrewed & were able to enjoy a few glasses of a sauvignon blanc from South Africa.
December 25th, 2010 - Merry Christmas!!!
Woke up at 6am for the morning game drive through Tsavo East again on our way to Amboseli. As soon as we arrived at Amboseli our van was surrounded by Masai people trying to sell their jewelry, it was a little scary as they kept tapping on the windows & were all around!
Right away Robert heard something on the radio, I caught "simba" which means lion in Swahili and boy did we see a lion! It walked RIGHT in front of our van!! Caught some amazing photos of this guy, he was HUGE! We also saw lots of elephants, giraffe, baboons and buffalo.
We checked into the Sentrim lodge, WOW! This place was amazing!!! It sits right at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro and was just beautiful. You stayed in "tents" but the tents were large buildings with built in bathrooms, closets, etc. The only thing that resembled a tent was that the door zipped open & closed! Enjoyed a 3 course meal for lunch before relaxing in the shade next to the pool before our afternoon game drive.
We got stuck in a dust storm on our afternoon drive and experienced a mass elephant crossing RIGHT behind our van. Again, lots of awesome photos!! On the way back we got an up close look at a baboon and her baby sitting right in the middle of the road!
Enjoyed another 3 course dinner with roasted pork, steak & fire roasted pizzas! This was the first "cool" weather I've experienced since I've been in Africa. It was probably close to 60degrees at night and when we woke up in the morning. The view of Kilimanjaro in the morning was incredible as was the sunrise!
December 26, 2010 - Happy Boxing Day!
Today we leave Amboseli to head back to Mombasa & it's an EXTREMELY long trip! We'll leave at 7am and not arrive home until about 5pm.
We stopped on the other side of Amboseli to visit a Masai village. The Masai are one of the few still existing nomadic tribes in Africa. They rely on herbal medicine and traditional practices, including building their homes out of sticks and mud. They performed a welcome song and a prayer, which was neat. They showed us how they make fire using donkey dung, and pieces of hard & soft wood. The medicine man's son also showed us their traditional medicines, which all looked like sticks to me. But apparently they boil them or treat them somehow to extract the medicine. Then we experienced their "store". Let me tell you, these people are very smart! They created the most high pressure sales environment that I've ever been in. First, they explained that most of the people did not speak english, so we had to be accompanied individually through the "store". The store consisted of 2 rows of blankets lined up w/people sitting behind them selling their wares. Then they lead you, EXTREMELY slowly past each blanket, picking up items and putting them on you in an attempt to get you to buy them. They controlled how fast you walked by always walking in front of you. Then at the end, if you'd picked out some items they would negotiate by writing their price on their arm. BEWARE!!! They completely overcharge! Like 12x's what you can buy the same items for in the markets. I have to say, I was totally intrigued by their culture and way of life, until I experienced the "commercialization" and their attempt to take advantage of tourists that come through. I can't blame them for trying to make a living, but if you ever visit, be smart & know that you can buy the same things, made the same way, for MUCH less!We arrived back in Mombasa at about 5:30pm and met Meng & Andrew (Meng's home stay father) to head to a club. Andrew's son, Clinton, was performing with his dance team at a club called Florida. It was a really neat club, which had water pools and sat right on the ocean. It was odd however to see young children there dancing. When I say young, I mean like 10-11years old. Apparently they're allowed, but are made to leave at 8:30! We then stopped at a local bar for a beer, yummy Tuskers before heading home for the night.
No comments:
Post a Comment