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.
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.
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.
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!
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".)
After supper and a nice hot (wood fire heated) shower, it was off to sleep listening to the hyenas.
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!
We had seen a sign at the end of our campground warning about hippos coming out of the water at night, so, being the curious tourists that we were, we went down to check it out at 6 pm - no hippos. We went back at 7 pm - still no hippos. Apparently they don't actually come out until around 2 am and we weren't getting up in the middle of the night to try spot a hippo!
That night, our cook had prepared a delicious, traditional Kenyan meal for us - ugali, greens, lentils, etc. - all very yummy!
Stop number two was at a lookout at the edge of the Rift Valley. Along with the view, we also got to experience our first bit of "local interaction" - i.e. dealing with locals trying to sell us stuff!
We got to our campsite outside Lake Nakuru just before lunch (no-one camps in the park any more because of some lions that apparently ate some rangers a few years ago). We set up out tents, had lunch, and played a round of Uno (which I won!) before going into the park for our first game drive.
Lake Nakuru was beautiful and full of animals. We saw rhinos, water buffalo, warthogs, dik diks, zebras, giraffes, flamingos, impala, Thompson gazelles, rock hyraxes, a black-backed jackal, pelicans, baboons, and an eland! Our old truck worked really well for looking at the animals - we put the seat cushions up on the back on the bench against the windows and sat up good an high! It also worked really well for shifting from one side to the other, since the animals are never on both sides at the same time.
