Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Hello friends!

I thought I would update you on the Adventure Kenya 2006. Dayn (my brother) and I got back from the coast on Wednesday, Dec. 20th. We had a day in Nairobi to gather ourselves, find enough sleeping bags for everyone, and then we headed out for our safari on Friday, Dec. 22nd. Dayn and I joined up with one of my roommates, Jen, 4 of her family members who are visiting, and another teacher named Esther. We met our driver at a shopping center near our house, and after “settling the bill” we began our journey to the Maasai Mara.

We loaded up in a 10-seater safari van, fully-equipped with rear wheel drive. It was practically a full day’s journey just to get to the Mara. As soon as we got on the dirt road to go to the park, we knew we were in for an adventure. It had been raining for several days prior to our arrival, and the road that was bad to begin with was nearly impossible to drive on. But our driver was amazing. There were countless places where I thought we would need a helicopter to rescue us (and I was pretty sure those weren’t very accessible in Kenya), but somehow, with a lot of jostling of the vehicle, we would get through. It was a amazing. There was one part of the road that had actually been washed away, and we had to drive through the river. We had a great caravan going on. There were about 8 of these safari vans driving the “road” and we would all get through one tough spot, wait for the others to get through, and the move on to the next. When we would stop and wait, all the little Maasai children would come up to us and say, “sweet?” or “pen?” or “picture book?” or “watch?” I’m assuming these are all things that other people have given them in the past. I tried to explain that sweets were bad for them and that they wouldn’t have such nice teeth if they ate them, but for some reason they didn’t understand what I was saying to them. Go figure.

As soon as we got to the park, we went for our first game drive. It was a beautiful landscape with rolling green hills and abundant wildlife. We saw the usual gazelles, antelope, impala, and zebras. And as we proceeded further into the park, we saw our first lion from a distance. It reminded me of a song... Anyway, it was quite thrilling to see it attacking something in the bushes. We didn’t have much time in the park before dark, so after watching the lion for a while, we went back to our campsite. We stayed in canvas tents that had tin roofs over the top. The camp is run by a group of Maasai people, and they cooked delicious food for us. We met a bunch of other young travelers, and it was fun to hear how everyone ended up in Kenya, and how we all ended up camping together. That night there was a thunder storm, and it rained all night.

In the morning, it was still raining. We had to delay our departure time because with the roads that wet, we weren’t going to go much of anywhere. After waiting for an hour or so, the rain let up and we began our drive into the park. We saw many of the same animals we had seen the previous day. On top of those animals, we saw a large herd of elephants. They were so close that we could see all the wrinkles on their thick skin, and I didn’t have to zoom in with the video camera. It was an awesome sight to behold at least 10 of them altogether - some old, some young. Later on we saw the awkwardly beautiful giraffes. They are by far my favorite animals to watch because they are so unique-looking.

After eating lunch, we spotted a male lion fairly close to the road. We drove up close to him, and he got up and moved. So our driver turned the van around and drove up next to him again. The lion got up and moved again, and we proceeded this way for a good 15 minutes. I took video of a lot of it, and there were times where the lion could easily have jumped up and knocked the camera right out of my hands. It was quite a thrilling experience and rivaled my giraffe-chasing adventure. What a beautiful creature!

We spent the entire day in the park, seeing animal after animal. After my two summers of guiding tours in Alaska, I had grown accustomed to seeing a few bears, a moose, some caribou, and considering that a pretty good day. But the wildlife here was just abundant. I could hardly believe it. In Denali, sometimes we just had bad days in the park where we saw practically nothing. I don’t think you could have a bad day in the Mara. We didn’t see leopards, cheetahs, or hippos, but we saw almost everything else. I’m hoping to be able to post some pictures later on, but because I am now working with a computer from the stone age, Dayn and I are having some technical difficulties getting his pictures on here. But we will find a way. For now you just get to imagine all these things I am trying to describe.

Day 3 of our safari (Christmas Eve), we took a short drive into the park and then packed up camp. We left the camp around 10:30 A.M. and got stuck within the first 5 minutes of our drive. We tried pushing, but we were too deep in the mud to get ourselves out. Our driver called someone to come pull us out, and after about 40 minutes we were back on the road again. We got stuck a few other times, which meant we would get out, push, get back in, and then keep going. We went about 24 miles in 2 ½ hours. Eventually we came to a place where about 10 vans were waiting in line to pass through mud that came up to our knees. Some of our fellow campers had left at 8:00 that morning. Our van had left at 10:30, and we caught up with them at this place. Dayn and I helped push our van. We were knee deep in mud, surrounded by other Kenyans and Maasai people, rocking this van, pushing it, rocking it some more. And then its wheels finally started to roll. What a team effort it was! Dayn and I were filthy, and we still had quite a distance ahead of us. Hooray for Charles, our amazing driver.

We finally made it back to Nairobi at 7 P.M. Dayn and I headed back to my house, and I slept like a rock on our first Christmas Eve in Kenya.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Daylan! I'm glad you survived the mud and the wild beasts. I was worried for a minute there. We just got back from good old Hatcher Pass (a.k.a Contusion Hill). You'll be glad to know no trees were harmed this time, though we did have to take out a couple of the 6,000 snowboarders. They'll get over it in time I'm sure. I have to say, it wasn't quite the same without you, but we managed to have a little fun. Enjoy the rest of your vacation! I know I will.

Debr

Anonymous said...

Sounds fantastic! Its only snowy here. Really snowy. Happy New Year. Miss you tons!

Anonymous said...

Day, WOW, I'm wildly envious of your adventures. I get excited about pheasants and quail while you are up close and personal with lions and elephants among other amazingly beautiful animals. I'm thrilled for you!
Happy New Year,
Ker