Libby in Africa

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July 11, 2006

Jambo

Jambo! (Hello!)

I spent the last three days at a beautiful lodge out in the middle of the Masai Mara National Reserve. I’m sure you have all pictured what a safari might be like. I had too: an old beat-up khaki land rover with a big sun roof, khaki safari jackets, big thick canvas tents, and lots of dry savannah grass. The whole idea seemed really hot, stuffy and tan to me before, but I found after three game-expeditions that an African safari has more color and variety than I had ever imagined. For each adventure we left at a different time of day (certain animals are more likely to be seen at different times of day), and drove off in a different direction away from the lodge. The game trails blazed through tall grasses that were more like shimmering gold than brittle khaki.

And much of the hillsides were still very green and lush.

The acacia trees were a lot like they look in typical African sunset pictures, knobby and flat-topped. Everything was beautiful.

On our first outing we saw giraffes,

zebras,

wildebeest, rhinos (which are very rarely seen, our guide says),

cheetahs (hunting! Cheetahs are also very rarely spotted), and lions with cubs (plus we saw lions mating, which our guide said you only see maybe once every five years).

By the next day we had seen several herds of elephants,

gazelles, buffalo, hyenas, plenty of exotic birds,

and hundreds of amazing views. It was just my mom and I being shown around in the safari van, so we had the whole thing to ourselves.

The whole roof lifted up so you could just stay standing as the guide drove around on the trails, listening over his radio to hear if other vans had spotted animals. As we tumbled over rocky terrain and bumped along dirt trails or through grassy plains, all I could think was, “I am in Africa, and this is the most amazing thing I have ever done!”

I know it’s a pretty simple and obvious thought to have, but it just kept popping into my head. I will never forget going on safari.

The lodge where we stayed was really very nice. There are some safari camps where you stay in tents (though they are nice tents from what I hear), but this place was sooo nice. All my life we have gone on vacations and always gotten the medium or lower end accommodations so that we could go at all—but this was the “go all out” version. Everything was covered, no detail wasn’t already thought through for us, it was pure luxury! Plus, Kenyans are incredibly courteous, thoughtful, and gracious. All the staff at the lodge were amazingly friendly. Anyway, the architecture in the main building was so detailed and unique—there was always something new to see. I kept thinking it was like being at Disneyland—only real, and waaay better! In the back of the lodge, there was a walkway that went up and out over a pond/swampy area. At the end of the raised walkway there was an observation room with a bar that overlooked a hippo pool where I counted at least nine hippos. The whole area was lush and green, full of papyrus, palms, other bushes and big trees full of little basket-weaver bird nests. It was fantastic.

There were so many times out seeing things that I thought of Baja. I thought, if Rafe Payne could see this, he would die of excitement. I could just see him getting all excited over all the birds and bushes of the African plain. Look! A lilac-breasted roller! A whistling Acacia! A fever tree!

A little Thomson’s gazelle! A sausage tree! A termite mound! A basket-weaving bird! A Euphorbia tree!

Maybe they will do an Africa Interterm trip…haha!

Probably the only drawback to the safari was the very bumpy, very rough (but really pretty)

six hour drive to get to the lodge. But really, you can’t safari unless you get out into the middle of nowhere, right? So I guess it’s all worth it. Our guide said that they will be repaving the roads within the next three years, so if anyone is considering going, wait a bit :)

On the way back to Nairobi after doing the safari, we stopped at a Masai village and saw the people in their traditional garb (they still live this way, almost completely traditional.

Only now are they starting to make a few contemporary changes like to their diet and schooling). The men wear great red cloth and are easy to spot along the way between Nairobi and the game parks. All the Masai wear tons of beads and earrings (for their often very large earlobes) and other adornments. They are a beautiful people.

It’s been fun learning some Swahili words. Everyone says jambo (hello) a lot. And there is caribu (welcome), asante sana (thank you very much), shida (trouble—don’t ask why we learned that one…), and quhele (goodbye). It’s a neat language.

Tomorrow we are off to Mombasa, the beachfront resort in the picture. It should be a few very leisurely days, and I will try not to read through the few books I brought too fast. I hear the weather is perfect, not too hot, but not cold. Kenya is perfect in the summer.

After Mombasa we fly over to Nigeria (after some careful rearranging and reducing of our luggage, as we have been notified that there is a much stingier weight limit for checked luggage within Africa than there is for flights out of the U.S.). My mom and I are both healthy and very happy. This has been a really amazing experience.

Kwaheri! (Goodbye!)

Posted by libbystokes at July 11, 2006 11:14 AM

Comments

Posted by: barbara at July 14, 2006 04:46 PM

Posted by: Nicole at July 14, 2006 06:03 PM

Posted by: Becky at July 16, 2006 12:51 AM

Posted by: Lindsay at August 23, 2006 01:10 PM