More from Kenya

We have travelled to a couple of Wildlife Parks since Lake Nakuru. Firstly south west out of the Rift Valley to the Masai Mara National Park where we spent 2 full days; secondly, via a night in Nairobi, a couple of nights in Tsavo East. And what a fantastic time of game driving and sheer luxury we've experienced! The Masai Mara is about 1800 sq km in size, located about 150km directly west of Nairobi. To get there we drove out of Lake Nakuru NP via the town of Nakuru [4th largest town in Kenya], then some sealed highway before an unsealed back road where our drivers had some 4WD practice on our way to the town of Narok. The countryside on the back road was spectacular; lush, green, hilly, lots of farms, still spotting eucalypts in abundance, not as many people as it was out of the way, hence few shops, stalls, schools and churches. Children always waved, adults just looked or ignored us. The country side completely changed at the Rift Valley walls, taking in the widest valley plains we've ever seen, incredible! The roads became busier, more people along the way. At the gate to the NP a small crowd of Masai women came knocking on our vehicle windows, trying to sell wooden carvings of animals and 'stick people', beaded bracelets and neck ornaments, checked red blankets that you see the Masai people wear, etc. It was quite intimidating, and it always helps if you are polite but firm, keep smiling, and have a bit of fun with it. Once through, it was a short drive to the 5-star lodge called Keekorok. We thought Outspan [night 2] was special; we thought Sarova Shaba was unique; we thought Treetops was bizarrely interesting … well, Keekorok was wowwwwwww! We knew we were going to staying in lodges, but had no idea just how luxurious they would be. Like staying in a country club/resort: as with every other accomodation [to date in Kenya] you are greeted with moist warm towelettes and a small glass of juice. A little bit of paperwork before we're given a key. You point out your luggage and a porter escorts you to your room, he shows you around before giving him a tip, and then you take in your lodgings, the decor, fittings, etc, orient yourself. At Keekorok we were in half of a small freestanding cabin: a reasonably spacious bedroom, a queen size bed with mosquito nets, with a bath/shower/toilet. Manicured lawns [courtesy of the resident hippos], flower and shrubbery beds, big acacia trees, not far from the pool. A short walk to the main building which houses reception, lounge, bar and large restaurant, which is staffed by many waiters, from whom you order drinks. Meals are buffet style, with many choices of meats and vegetables, curry, fish, salads and deserts. Keekorok had the largest restaurant, and the largest choice of dishes to choose from. Like Lake Nakuru, for dinner they had 2 chefs who would make a stir fry or pasta + sauce to order. At brekky, the same guys would make you omelettes to order. Sheryl has discovered omelettes, yum! At Keekorok they had decked walkways around the edge of the gardens, from which you could wildlife, or sit at a wide deck where teak tables and chairs were set up, or wander further to an enclosed pavillion overlooking a hippo pond. On the first night there we saw at least a dozen hippos in the water, frolicking, flicking their ears and tails, every now and then a chorus of tuba like blasts exchanged between various hippos, probably asking if the nibblies on offer, or water temperature, was better on the other side … There was a big buffalo bull lying nearby, as well as a family of Egyptian geese. Ah, nature. On our last night at Keekorok, a band of Masai men, in full Masai traditional clothing and decoration, quietly arrived after we'd finished mains, and preceeded to sing and step and perform their jumps. It was all throat/mouth sounds, words and chants, in unison; it sounded quite other-worldly, was it 4-part, 8-part, 12-part? Complex rhythms; it seemed like one song/chant flowed into another. It was mesmerising, compelling, so different to the troupe at Lake Nakuru. No audience participation here, just the Masai men. Masai Mara NP is Kenya's premier wildlife park, located in the north of the Serengeti Plains [approx 15,000 sq km in size]. The Serengeti is famous for the massive wildebeest migration, with about 1.5 million of them making spactacular river crossings. During our game drives here we saw great herds of them, as well as large groups of zebras. These two animals often travel together, the wildebeest relying on the zebra's superior senses of sight and hearing. There's nothing pretty about wildebeest, but up close they have interesting striped markings on their forequarters. They make a grunting noise as they move, so when you are next to a herd it sounds like a massed choir of old people trying to get up out of comfy sofas. There is no leader of the herd [unlike the matriarch of a herd of elephants, or a pride of lions], one of the beests steps one foot away from the mob and the rest follow. Very egalitarian. One drive we saw a long line of wildebeests on the left, and 20 metres to the right, a long line of zebras. These lines merged near a track we were on, and they crossed together to the other side. On the way to Nairobi, through the Rift Valley and up the escarpment wall a long line of traffic that were in was held up for a good while: unfortunately a truck had lost its brakes and went over the side. Abraham told us this happens frequently. Well, we saw a completely different view to Nairobi than the one from our arrival almost 2 weeks ago. This time we got a clearer view of how big this city is; the sprawling suburbs, walled estates, and the city centre with its many high rises. I [Pier] was sitting on the side of the 4WD that faced the city parks, and a few high rises up on the hill. Had I been seated on the other side of the vehicle I would have seen a far more dynamic view of the city. Apologies to Nairobiphiles that may have been insulted. Yes, chaotic traffic and roundabouts madness as on our arrival … don't think that will change in a good long time! Yet, no honking, swearing, road rage, rude gestures, everyone takes it in their stride and gets on with it. A part of life that is patiently accepted. We had a short stay in Nairobi, a lunch, afternoon, overnight, quick breakfast before heading off before the chaotic morning traffic the following day. While in Nairobi we had a hectic schedule: on our way to the Giraffe Centre we saw the Kibera slums on our right, amongst the largest slums in Africa, less than 10 kms from the city centre. The Giraffe Centre is a rehabilitation and education centre for giraffes, and has been featured on 'Getaway'. Here we were up close and personal with about half a dozen tall adult female giraffes, and 2 shorter young ones. We were given pellets to feed them, so you could even put your arm around their neck, some tried to gently headbutt you. All this on a deck maybe 3 metres up. You had a good sense of how tall these animals were. You could also put a pellet between your lips, and the giraffes would kiss you as they took the pellet from you with their 18 inch blue tongues. Sheryl had a go, I took video and photos. My personal favourite was the young male, Barney, who was about 7 foot tall. Just beautiful and gentle. We were shown Jock, a male who is not 'wee' at all, at about 18 foot high. Dark chocolate markings, we shorties came up to the top of high rear leg. It was an amazing sight to see his head slowly swing down from the heavens at the end of an impossibly long neck, to take pellets from our hands. An unforgettable experience. Driving through the exclusive, rich suburb/area of Karen, we next visited Kazuri handmade beads factory/shop, where we were given a short briefing about the establishment, also a tour of the factory, followed by some retail therapy. The beads, and other ceramics such as teapots, cups, mugs, bowls, small animal figurines, etc, are made by single mothers who have disadvantaged backgrounds. Kazuri provides the women with training, and a safe, cooperative, positive environment, well-set up workshops and factory in which they create beautiful jewellery and ceramics which are exported world-wide. They have a couple of outlets in Australia too. Following this, we had dinner at a meat restaurant called Carnivores, where food waiters wander around the restaurant serving you roasted meats such as beef, pork, chicken, turkey, as well as ostrich meatballs and crocodile meat. It was a bit too much for most of us, we would have preferred a light dinner at the hotel and some rest, as were had a very early start the following morning for a long and tiring drive to our next destination, Voi Wildlife Lodge, next to Tsavo East NP. Voi Wildlife Lodge is located near the town of Voi, southeast of Nairobi, about 150 kilometres from Mombassa. It's maybe 50 kms from the Kenya-Tanzania border. The country was similar to that of the Tsavo country, undulating plains, scrubby, quite dry. The Lodge itself was like a dry oasis, rocky low mountains nearby, pretty in a stripped-back, austere kind of way. Again a very warm welcome; we enjoyed our interactions with the chefs and a manager there, Hillary, who was a genial host with a syrupy Lou Rawls voice. The Lodge could house 300, but there were 80 booked in during our time there. Even though the atmosphere may have lacked a buzz and intensity, we enjoyed the fact we didn't have to queue for anything, we pretty much had the place to ourselves, it wasn't crowded; it was the same for all our game drives wherever we've been in Kenya. We couldn't imagine the dust, chaos, jostling and pushiness of attempting to get a view of an animal versus 40 vehicles, when we sometimes had a dozen or so at most for the cheetah, leopard and lions being the most highly sought after of the Big 5 [the others being rhinoceros and African buffalo]. We felt very sorry for the staff — drinks waiters, porters, laundry, reception, etc — who rely on tips supplementing their low salaries through tips. The troubles following the Kenyan elections have certainly put a huge dent in tourism numbers in Kenya, and in Tanzania as a flow-on effect. So those of you contemplating a safari tour in Africa, just do it, you won't regret it. The spirit of welcome has just be awesome; it has taken us by surprise, and we love it! By far better than our experience in Italy in 2004. Back to Tsavo East NP. Much the same animals as the previous NP's, except Samburu. In Samburu there are animals there that you can't see in other NP's, so definitely recommend you go there as one of the Parks to explore. At Tsavo you must stick to the tracks, you can't just drive off anywhere you like. Except for toilet stops somewhere deemed 'safe', you can't leave your vehicles. The highlight of our time at Tsavo E was visiting the Mudanda Rocks, colloquially known as 'strips of drying meat'. These are weathered Precambrian basement rocks c.570–4550 million years old. It's an outcrop about 1.6 kms long, maybe 30m high at most. We left the vehicles and climbed up, a tiny version of Uluru, admiring the weathering, colouring and striations of this ancient rock, having visions of dinosaurs having walked this way, or perhaps and ancient version of homo somethingorotherus, the Rift Valley being the Cradle of Humanity. Had a wonderful view across the plains to the Yatta Plateau in the distance. Another highlight was seeing a male ostrich walk his 9 chicks up a road, his mate walking in the nearby scrub. Wonderful to see this huge bird with the tiny ones darting about in his wake. A note to Eastwood teachers and students: we noticed a primary school in Voi town that has a hearing impaired facility. Perhaps you could look it up on the internet, it's called Mwanyambo Primary School. Perhaps Eastwood PS could form some kind of relationship with them Sadly we said our goodbyes to the staff at Voi Wildlife Lodge that made us feel so much at home on 7 September, driving west to Tanzania via the border at Taveta. We didn't realise there is a 1–2 km space between the actual borders of Kenya and Tanzania, a kind of no-man's land. On the Kenya side we had a mix-up with our passports so that Sheryl went through as Pier, and vice-versa. Pier was sure the official had a good look at the photo page of Sheryl's passport before stamping it and waving him through. Phew, international embarrassment averted, no bribery required! An easy passage through the Tanzanian border checkpoint.
Our next stop is Moivaro hotel, some 8 kms from Arusha, home of our driver Abraham, and a chance for him to visit his family — as well as The School of St Jude's, which we have both been anxious to tour, which happens tomorrow morning. The road from the border to Arusha has been amongst the best that we've travelled on, smooth, unpatched, beautiful, no potholes, and the houses and shops off the road look well-maintained and loved, so we have a very positive impression of Tanzania so far. Next blog will be about our 4-day visit to Tanzania. In the meantime, take care of yourselves, we miss you.