Home Again

I tried but couldn't get any sleep in the flight to Amsterdam. I had an 8 hours stopover, so was meeting up with a good friend I hadn't seen in over two years for breakfast, but since I arrived two hours before we planned to meet (she didn't want to come to the airport for 5 am and I don't blame her!), I splurged and payed for a shower at the airport. It wasn't cheap, but felt SOOO good!

When it was finally time for me to meet up with her, I made my way through customs. There was no line and the two customs officers sitting there didn't think it unusual that I was meeting a friend for breakfast and then continuing on my trip home.

I met my friend near the train station escalators, though we decided that next time we need a more specific spot to meet! After breakfast at the airport restaurant, we took the train to Haarlem where we had fun walking around the old town and visiting the church. It was great to be able to catch up with each other and spend a few hours exploring a new place together (well, new for me, at least).

We said our goodbyes at the airport and I made my way back through customs, bought a McKroket for lunch (those things are awesome!), and got on my flight home.

Again, I couldn't fall asleep on the plane no matter what I did - 40 hours without sleep! Surprisingly, I had no problems getting through immigration. I was expecting a few questions based on going to Sudan and then a 4 hour jaunt into Amsterdam. This time when I was asked if I was traveling alone, I gave the whole saga - alone on the flights, and who I was with for each part of the trip. His only response was "Wow, you've been busy!" and off I went. I was equally surprised that my bag made it! I didn't have much hope for it, so it sure was nice to see it sliding down onto the luggage carousel.

My parents were there to pick me up and had even brought supper to my place! The kept me up until 7 pm (I think I was now at over 43 hours without sleep) before heading back home. It was a great trip, but it sure felt good to be able to climb into my own bed again!

To Entebbe and back again

It was nice to be able to sleep in, take a shower, and have a relaxing breakfast, but a bit lonely to sit there all by myself after being with friends for the last 4 weeks. I got the hotel to book me a taxi to the airport, and off I went.

My first flight was one I didn't originally plan have to take - a flight to Entebbe, just so I could catch my flight back to Nairobi. When I bought my flights to Africa, I wasn't sure whether I was going to Uganda before Kenya, or the other way around. The flights to Entebbe and Nairobi were the same price, so I bought return tickets to Entebbe with a stop over in Nairobi. When I tried to cancel the Entebbe to Nairobi portion of the flight, the airline wanted to charge me over $900 to NOT take a flight! The flight from Nairobi to Entebbe was around $250 ... guess which option I took!

When I checked in for the flight, I asked if they could check me and my bags all the way through to Canada, but I guess because of the connection in Nairobi the system got confused and wouldn't allow it, so was told that I had to check in again in Entebbe. I had about a 4 hour stopover in Entebbe, so plenty of time to collect my bags, go through customs (if I had to), and check-in for the rest of my flight.

Getting to Entebbe, I found the transfer office (before customs, so I could avoid the US$50 visa). The guy working there looked at my flight information, grabbed my passport, and asked if I wanted to go back to Nairobi on the plane I just came in on. I told him I'd do whatever was easiest for him, and he decided to send me back on the next flight. Since the flight was already boarding I had my doubts about getting on, but, ok! He took me around all the immigration desks and sat me down at the lost luggage desk while he filled-in some papers. I could see my bag going around and told him, so he took me over there and told me to grab my bag and then stay and wait for him while he ran off with my passport and flight info. He came back with another guy who ripped the old label off my bag and took the bag without attaching a new label (hence the "will my luggage ever be seen again?" feeling). We went back past immigration, up some back stairs, and back into the terminal. He left me sitting in a restaurant and off he went (still with my passport) to go and see if he could get me on the flight. After 10 minutes sitting there, he reappeared, handed me back all my papers, passport, and boarding passes all the way to Toronto! As I went through the gate, I was told that everyone was waiting for me, so I RAN down the stairs and across the ramp and into the plane ... where everyone was still slowly putting bags up and other passengers still got in after me!

So, it was back to Nairobi where I got to spend 6 hours sweating in a hot, stuffy terminal, then on to Amsterdam.

Back to Nairobi

Up at 5:30 and out of the campground by 7 - maybe staying up late wasn't such a great idea! We spent the whole day driving down the bumpy roads, swerving around construction areas, getting back to Nairobi at 2:30. We had no problems crossing the border back to Kenya, but of course, I had to get the unusual questions again. It was really loud in the room we were in and the guy was behind glass, so it took me a bit to understand what he was trying to ask. This time it was, "What's the secret?" (me, huh?) "Why do Canadians live so long?" I figured I'd go with "I don't know", got my passport stamped, and got out of there before he started to ask anything else.

I had my own room in the hotel in Nairobi, and it felt great to take a warm shower and be able to stay clean after I got out. A group of us (including one vegetarian) met in the lobby around 5 and headed out to Carnivore Restaurant - an all you can eat meat extravaganza! The restaurant doesn't serve any wild game anymore (they used to serve giraffe, wildebeest, etc.), but we were able to try crocodile (a cross between scallops and chicken), ostrich (very good, we got seconds of that one), and I even ate part of an ox ball (tasted like liver, really chewy, with a tough "skin"). All the meat is roasted over a pit in the centre of the restaurant, then delivered to the table on giant forks or swords, and carved with a machete onto your plate. There is a stand with various salads and dipping sauces in the middle of the table, and a flag on top of the stand. When you're done with the meat, you tip over the flag and they bring a desert menu. I had a delicious piece of chocolate cake for desert, then we finished off the evening with drinks near the pool at the hotel.

Most people had early flights the next day (or were planning to tour around the city), so while everyone else went to be, I went to use the internet for a while. Back at the hotel, we had met up again with our guide from the Masai village in Loita Hills, who also happens to be a trip leader for Intrepid (the company I used for this half of the trip). We had drinks with him and our trip leader, then I saw him again while emailing home - the 100 cows offer was still standing! I didn't think my dad would go for it (he emailed later that if it had been 125, he would have had a deal ... thanks, dad), made a lame excuse, and headed off to bed.

Ngorongoro Crater

Today we explored inside the Ngorongoro Crater! The place is amazing - a volcanic crater with steep sides and a salt-water lake at the bottom, filled with animals. There was no way our truck could get down the crater, so we did our game drive in 4x4 vehicles with the roof taken off ... so of course, I spent the whole trip standing up so that I could have a good view and came back with an awesome dirt tan!

We saw lots of elephants (including a big old bull who was "happy" to see us), hippos, waterbuffalos, wildebeests, and zebras. Unfortunately we weren't able to find any black rhinos.

We ate our lunch along the lake shore at the bottom of the crater. I stayed in the vehicle while I ate, but some of the others wanted to sit outside with their food. The were back in the vehicle pretty quickly after a bird attacked and stole one of the sandwiches!

The drive up was tons of fun - standing up, hanging on to the frame, racing up the steep and windy road to the top of the crater. And of course, we got a flat tire at the top, where we were shown an easy way to jack up a truck - drive the flat tire up onto a rock, then place the jack under the truck! Way easier than having to lift the vehicle with the jack!

We met back up with our overland truck at yet another souvenir shop ("local interaction" according to our trip leader). We spent the night at a dusty and crowded (every overland company was there) campground/snake park, so after setting up the tents, we went to check out the snakes, crocodiles and turtles.

We had a barbecue dinner at the campground restaurant, had to say a few speeches about the trip, then hung out, chatting until late into the evening.

Oldupai Gorge

We game drove our way out of the park, stopping for lunch at the park exit. We then continued down a really rutted and bumpy road to the Oldupai Gorge (we were told several times that it should be spelt with a "p" and not a "v"). We walked around the small museum, then listened to a dull lecture about the geology of the gorge - I thought they would talk a bit more about the footprints and bones they found in their digs, not the type of rocks they found.

After the lecture (and the use of the toilets that seemed to hang over the edge of the cliff), we loaded back into the truck for the rest of the bumpy road to the Ngorongoro Crater. We stopped at the edge of the rim to take some pictures, then made our way to the campsite a bit farther along the rim - the camp had a great view! After setting up our tents, placing them to try and avoid the large amounts of animal droppings, we set off to find some plugs to recharge camera batteries. With a crazy combination of extension cords and adapters, everyone managed to get their stuff partly charged.

While we were eating supper around the campfire, two dogs decided to come and visit with us. As we were eating, we heard some rustling in the bushes behind us and the dogs suddenly stood up and looked alert. When we saw the two large elephants making there way around the campground, our leader suddenly jumped up, yelled "Take care!" and started to chase the dogs away. His yell caused all of us to jump up, camp chairs flying everywhere, all wondering what was about to happen! It turns out that the elephants themselves aren't too dangerous (as long as you leave them alone), but the dogs sometimes start to bark and scare the elephants, which makes them charge. After the excitement of the elephants, we sat around listening to the leaders tell stories from other trips - some good, some bad, some downright scary!

As we made our way back to our tents for the night, we had a few more animal sightings - a herd of zebras near some of the tents, a hyena near the bathroom, and a bush pig running along the bushes. There were a lot of animal noises that night and I think the herd of zebras ran past our tent shortly after we got in there. Based on the amount of animal droppings outside our tent in the morning, there was a lot of activity going on! It was a cold night, but I slept great and again I was thankful that I took my nice warm sleeping bag along!

Serengeti Sightings

We started the day with an early morning game drive then went back to our campsite for lunch and a few hours of rest in the shade before heading back into the park for another game drive later in the afternoon. The main difference that I noticed between the Serengeti and Masai Mara was that the Masai Mara had more herds of grazing animals (and therefore seemed really full) whereas the Serengeti seemed emptier, but we got to see lots of cats and elephants!

The highlight of the day was seeing a cheetah chase down and capture a gazelle! It was quite a ways away from our vehicle so I couldn't see all the gory details, only a cloud of dust as he made the kill, but it was amazing to see him sprint across the hill in front of us (they run at 120 km/hour). It's one thing to know they go fast and to see it on TV, but to see it in real life was awesome!

We saw some more lions along the side of the road (causing a massive traffic jam), a few leopards sleeping in trees, a serval (another type of cat), and lots of elephants, including a baby.

We had a fire that evening, and it was fun to sit around, telling riddles ... especially when someone tells the riddle and then can't remember the answer! Unfortunately, I didn't feel well that night (why here?), so had to wake up my tent-mate and collect our group leader to walk with us to the bathroom - it was only 25 m from the tents, but we were glad we took him with us. Between us and the bathrooms, we met a large hyena - the top of his head was probably the height of my chest and he was big! (I never realized how big and scary looking they are until then.) We shone our lights in his face and our group leader threw some stones at him, and off he ran.

Into the Serengeti

After packing up our tents (and showing all the newbies how to pack up theirs) we headed to the market in Musoma so that our cook could buy the food we needed for the next few days. Then it was off to the Serengeti!

We had lunch just outside the park gate, with a group of baboons watching our every move, waiting for us to leave (surprisingly ... we were expecting an attack) before coming to search for any scraps we may have left. We then headed into the park, game driving our way to our campsite IN the park! Of course, about 5 minutes down the road we got a flat tire. The guys quickly changed the tire while those of us in the truck kept a good lookout for lions or anything else that might want to make a snack of them. As for animals, we added to our list a leopard up in a tree (which made a mad dash for the bushes as we stopped beside it) and two male lions sleeping in the shade of another tree.

Our campsite was simple with flush-squat toilets and cold showers. There were no fences and no guards to protect us during the night, only a sign at the entrance saying "Do not leave the campsite, animals can attack." We ate supper in the dark - head lamps are awesome!

My tent-mate was always worried about being eaten at night, so when we saw a set of eyes behind our tent (obviously a small animal because the eyes were close together and low to the ground), she ran for our group leader to identify the animal. Turns out I was right and it was a jackal! He ended up walking along with us and our bus driver to the bathroom and half way there said "There's a leopard!" We assumed he was joking with us until he and the driver both shone their flashlights on the same area and we saw him making his way through the tall grass. Not something you want to see just before climbing into your tent!

That night I just HAD to pee (why does this always happen to me?) so had to wake up my tent mate so she could be on the lookout for animals while I marked my territory beside the tent. Later on that night, something walked between out tent and our neighbours' ... a hyena?

Country #20 - Tanzania!

Our first stop of the day was a a stone carving cooperative just outside Kisii - here we were shown how the soapstone was carved, polished, and painted before being shipped off to Ten Thousand Villages stores in North America. (I've been to the store, so it was neat to see the people who actually made the stuff!) I bought a stone elephant which they carefully wrapped up for me (and it actually made it all the way back to Canada in one piece!). The next stop was at the border with Tanzania. We left most of our stuff on the truck, and walked with our passports to the Kenyan customs office to exit the country. The officer I talked to only seemed interested in knowing if I (or anyone else in the group I was with) was from Nunavut! Then we walked across the border into Tanzania and went into the customs office there. I had bought my visa in Canada so didn't have to buy one there, but the few people in our group who needed a visa didn't have any hassles getting one. Then it was back on the truck and off to the shores of Lake Victoria where we spent the rest of the day. After lunch, some of the group did a bicycle trip through the neighbouring town, but I decided that I'd seen enough African markets, so didn't feel like paying someone to go see another one. Instead, I found a comfy spot to sit and relax while reading my book and listening to the waves lap against the beach. (There's nasty things in the water, so no swimming) The others got back form there bike ride at sunset, which also happened to be the same time a massive thunderstorm rolled in. We all made our way to the bar at the end of the beach, and sat around chatting in the dark (the power went out) for at least an hour. Then it was back to the cook shelter where we all squeezed in around the massive wood boiler for supper. We then had a hot shower and were in our tents by 9:30.

Kisii

Because we were so used to getting up early, even when we had the chance to sleep in, we were up early! After breakfast, we walked into town to the post office so we could mail our postcards, then we stopped by and internet cafe to send a few emails home. It was super cheap internet (lowest price I've ever seen!) - 1 shilling/minute ... or in Canadian dollars, 13 cents/10 minutes! Then it was back to the hotel, were we spent some time watching a confusing movie (we never figured out what was supposed to be going on) before meeting the rest of our group and heading west.

It was a beautiful drive - rolling hills with tea plantations, banana plantations, and maize fields ... and a lot of "Hotel and Butchery"s ... not sure I'd want to stay at one of those :S We had lunch at the side of the road where we got to teach the newbies how to wash their hands and dry dishes (all with a group of school kids looking on). We spent the night at a Catholic Mission Guest House - 2 people to a bedroom with the shared bathroom and shower stalls down the hall.

Narok

Another early morning wake up time (out of the campsite by 7 am!) - most of the group was driving back to Nairobi, so they wanted an early start. After 3 hours driving we reached Narok, where I was left with a few other girls from the group to try to entertain ourselves until the next morning when a new group (but same cook and leader) would join us for the second half of the trip through Tanzania.

We had an "interesting" hotel - the shower wasn't working (it wouldn't heat the water), the sink drain pipe came off, and the sink came part way off the wall when an bit of force was put on it! We had lunch in the town, then did some souvenir and snack food shopping. Back at the hotel, I wrote a few postcards, watched a soccer match, then we had supper as a group in the hotel restaurant. It wasn't the most exciting town to be stuck in for a day!

Hot Air Balloon Ride over the Masai Mara

6 of us woke up at 4:30 am (before the electricity or water came on!) for a 5 am pick-up to go ballooning over the Masai Mara! We got to the launch site before sunrise and watched as the balloon slowly filled with air and and elephant followed by a herd of wildebeests marched by. We climbed in the basket while it was still on its side, scooched our butts right down to the seat, then hung on as the balloon lifted us upright so that the older French group could climb in ... they weren't quite as agile as us! We stayed seated for the lift off with our bags on our laps, but as soon as we were airborne, we were standing up leaning over the edge to check out the view. It was an overcast morning so we didn't get to watch the sunrise and it also meant that I didn't get many good pictures (my camera doesn't do well in low light conditions). But it was still amazing to see the expanse of savannah, the giant herds of wildebeests and zebras heading south, and the incredible amount of poop on the ground! Along with all the wildebeests and zebras, we also saw hyenas, warthogs, elephants, giraffes and lions. The first two lions we saw were sleeping and the another group of four lions (one female and three males) was wide awake and wandering around by the stream. One of the males looked right up at us as if to say "what are you doing up there?" We also got to observe two lions "copulating" ... it only took about 3 seconds! We had a soft landing and were able to climb up out of the basket while it was upright, then took a group picture with the basket before walking over to where breakfast was set up. There was champagne, orange juice, croissants, apple pastries, fruit, hard boiled eggs, sausages, quiche, yogurt, cereal, and tea and coffee. It tasted great! After we finished eating, our balloon pilot pointed out the lion on the hill behind us. We quickly used the "bathroom" (a jeep with a tarp strung up so no-one could see our bums when we squatted), then loaded into our open sided SUV for the ride to meet up with the rest of the group. We were expecting just a drive to the meeting spot - we ended up getting a hour and half game drive! Just after leaving the breakfast spot, two male lions walked right past us - it was a bit uncomfortable having a lion less than 8 metres away from me and walking towards me when there was NOTHING between us ... no car door, no window, no fence, etc.! We also saw a lot of cute little baby animals and some vultures tearing apart a wildebeest before meeting up with our group at a fancy lodge in the park. We continued the game drive with everyone else in the truck, stopping for lunch at the Mara River (the border between Kenya and Tanzania, and the Masai Mara and Serengeti parks). It's one of the spots where the wildebeests and zebras cross the river in their migration, so it smelt a bit like rotting, dead animals, and there was a large group of hippos on the opposite bank so we couldn't go near the water's edge. (There were probably crocodiles there too, but we didn't see any.) It was pretty hot, but we couldn't sit under the trees to eat, because that's where the lunch-stealing monkeys hung out! They managed to get one lady from our group's sandwich and from the shrieks some of the people in other groups were making, probably managed to grab a few more lunches! We drove a few more hours, bumping down the road (I managed to bash my head pretty hard on the ceiling after one bump!) and adding a mongoose sighting to my list of animals, we were back at camp for our final supper together. We had traditional Kenyan food again, then all had to stand up and make a speech about our experience on the trip. A group of Croatian guys was having a great time watching the spectacle - even turning their chairs to watch! They also asked if they could video us flapping our dishes (the method we used to dry them) ... of course, we were pretty entertaining since we had made up flapping songs to flap/dance to!

Masai Mara - Day 1

A lot of the group hardly slept at all, but I slept great! I decided to skip the shower (it was only cold water and the door didn't close properly), so just packed up the tent and had breakfast. After we finished cleaning up, we went back to the cow corral for the warrior dance - of course, since the cows had spent all night in there, there was plenty of fresh manure to step in!

It was really neat to see them dancing and jumping and to hear their singing. Apparently the guy who jumps the highest is the most attractive to the women of the village. They pulled our guys in for a jumping competition, the got the women to join in - we weren't allowed to jump, only dance.

We had time to take pictures with the warriors, then went to check out the stalls set up by the women of the village. (I bought a stripped blanket that I'll use in my guest bedroom - I decided to make it my "Africa room".)

Back in the truck, we drove a few hours to the Masai Mara. The "road" to our campground was pretty rough! After setting up and having lunch, we headed into the reserve for our first game drive. I added topi, wildebeasts (it was the end of the migration back to the Serengeti), lions (sleeping, of course) and a lepord (look closely to find it in the picture) to my list of animals.

After supper and a nice hot (wood fire heated) shower, it was off to sleep listening to the hyenas.

Loita Hills

After eating breakfast and packing up our tents (which didn't take anywhere near as long as the first time we did it), we got back in the truck and headed for Loita Hills. We made a quick stop in Narok to buy groceries, then stopped again along the road at a picnic spot for lunch. There were some tables and benches under a tree, but it was filled with starlings so we had to watch where we sat so we (and our food) didn't get pooped on! We also drove past a colourful market where we waited to meet our guide for the next two days. The road into Loita hills was pretty rough, but we were the only ones at the campground ... just us, the village over the hill, and our two Masai guards who would be staying at the fire and keeping the animals away all night! After setting up camp and relaxing for a while, we were given a quick tour of the village. We were brought into the cattle corral where we were welcomed by the women who had all the women join them in dancing around in a large circle - it's supposed to bring luck to the village, but what it definitely brought was hiking boots full of cow manure!After watching the sunset over the hills and the herd of cows coming in for the night, our guide brought us into one of the houses - they are small mud, dung, and thatch buildings, with only one or two small windows to let light in and smoke out, and keep animals out. Our guide also told us a bit about Masai culture, joking with us about how he wants six wives (one for Monday, one for Tuesday, one for Wednesday, etc., and a rest on Sunday). Each wife has their own house, and it costs about 10 cows to marry a girl. Their traditional food is meat, blood, and milk. I'm not sure how the conversation happened, but pretty soon after he told us that he was looking for his fourth wife, he offered a hundred cows for me! Hmm ... let me think about that for a bit. No.

We had supper in the hut at the campground, complete with cake for desert since it was one lady's birthday. We then sat around the fire with our Masai guide, learning the history of the Masai: They believe that the Spirit God put the Masai, cows, goats, and sheep on the earth at the same time, and therefore, all cows, goats, and sheep on the earth belong to them! We went to bed fairly early and only heard baboons during the night - no lions, elephants or hyenas.