When we got into the Rift Valley on Thursday afternoon, I felt like I had finally arrived in Africa. The Africa that my mind knew, at least. After 8 days working in the middle of the slum villages, surrounded by poverty, disease and milky white rivers, the vast open space of the Valley was a (selfishly) welcome sight. Thursday morning we piled into three safari vans, white vans with three rows of bucket seats, all with a window, and a roof that popped up for when we were actually on the safari. I had learned earlier that driving in Nairobi is harrowing, but the big bus we had been in for the previous week had kept us safe from the small, darting maneuvers that made the traffic even scarier. These vans, however, were small enough to be nimble in traffic, so the first hour or so I cringed in anxiety as we drove out of the city and towards the valley.
An hour or so out of the city, we began to see more lush vegetation and open roads. We began a gradual climb up a small mountain, and then down the other side, and baboons began to cross the road in front of us. This is REAL Africa! I thought to myself. We came to a rest stop at the beginning of the descent into the valley, with an amazing overview of the whole valley below. It was baffling how much open space there was here to see. Literally, as far as my eye could see was open space. Some green trees, but mostly a grayish-green grass, small hills and mountains in the distance. It was beautiful- until the people at the stop came up and began hawking their wares to us…. Maasai drums, Maasai blankets, Maasai sticks, and all the same trinkety things we saw for two days earlier at the open-air markets. It’s very clear to me now how most African people struggle, and have caught on to the tourist industry as a way to make their daily money. They even harass you for a tip in the bathrooms- a tip to show you appreciate the hole in the ground, maybe, or the water they swished around the ground in front of it? Needless to say, I was a bit jaded and returned to the van quickly.
About five hours and a bumpy dirt road at 100kph later, we arrived in the middle of nowhere. The earlier baboons I thought were just the beginning to our safari were really just a teaser; the only animals we had seen since then were anorexic cows, small sheep and goats, and a few dogs with the Maasai people wandering through the open space that is their home. Towards the end of the drive, we did happen to see a few more baboons, and even two giraffes and a zebra wandering aimlessly through the shrubbery. Although I thought this was totally the way it ‘should’ be, I found out later that these animals were very far from the park that is their home, and were most likely lost and in danger.
Our camp was amazing, to say the least. We pulled into a dirt round-about, and ten or eleven Maasai warriors (and I mean skinny, tall, stinky boys with stretched out earlobes, bright red Maasai garb and tinkley jewelry) came to our vans and unloaded our luggage faster than any bellhop I’d ever seen. We walked through the main entrance of the reception lodge, welcomed by a cold towel and a small glass of apple juice. We quickly got our room assignments, grabbed our luggage and set down the rock path through lush trees to find our tents.
I was with Zelda, my roommate from the guesthouse, and we were in tent N-6, a few turns down the path. Our tent was huge, on a large wooden platform, and had two windows on either side and door bigger than my front door at home. Upon unzipping the door and stepping in, we were greeted with gorgeous, cherry hardwood flowers, two twin beds with a taupe fur comforter, and a tile bathroom with two sinks, a hot water shower and (gasp) a FLUSHING toilet! We were in absolute heaven! Zebra, I said (we called her that, because the kids did when they couldn’t say Zelda), Zebra, we can walk on the floor without our flipflops!! We were in African heaven. This was exactly what I was hoping it to be!
We met back in the lodge, got a quick orientation on the place, sat down for a late lunch and then had free time until four, when we met back up again for our evening safari ride. The evening safari sounded very exciting to me, and I was happy when we saw our first few gazelles and impalas wandering around. The term safari had a loaded connotation to me; I pictured open air jeeps, bouncing through tall, dry grass and dodging animals left and right, giraffes spotting the horizon and acai trees with lounging lions underneath. Our night ride proved anything but…
We drove out towards the open space for about an hour, through the tiny Maasai town consisting of a few tin shanties, wandering dogs and circular compounds containing homes. (The Maasai homes are surrounded by a large circle of tall, thick sticks or grass, I think to create a protection-barrier from wildlife at night). We drove around in the vans with the tops popped, creating a space where we could all stand up and see out 360 degrees. We began to see the gazelles and impalas wandering the countryside, and then saw a few baboons around a river. Each time we saw a new animal we told Benson our driver to stop so we could take pictures and enjoy it. We even came to a watering hole type place and were able to get out and see a few hippos in the water. This was the most exciting to me- I didn’t think we would see hippos!! We traveled a bit longer in the vans, seeing two solitary male cape buffalo, and then turned back toward camp once the sun began to set. The sunset was beautiful, although tame because there were rainclouds throughout the sky, which reminded me of the skies in Colorado. Once we got back to camp, the rain let go into a quick, gentle downpour and I am now able to say I’ve seen the rains down in Africa…
In the morning we got up, had our now-familiar buffet breakfast, and set out for our day ride at 8:00am sharp. I have forgotten to mention that this whole time, my roommate Zebra was sicker than a dog with the stomach flu, and had been almost not able to come to the safari, so when I saw her on a van this morning I was happy for her. And secretly hoping I would not catch her scary stomach flu.
The ride began slowly- a few impalas and gazelles, then a few little warthogs that are amazingly cute in their own little ugly way. We then saw a few topis and waterbuck, which were like African elk type things, two different kinds of antelope said Benson the driver/tour guide. We then saw a few zebras here, there, everywhere, and even a few vultures in the trees (which give me major willies). We were about an hour and a half into the drive, and selfishly I was thinking to myself that I would be very disappointed if all we were saw were African elk and zebras and little Pumbas. However, no sooner did I think this then Benson drove screaming off into the distance, flying by a herd of elephant on our right. Stop, stop STOP! Yelled all the girls on the van. Benson did not and explained he was taking us somewhere special. We pulled up to a bush surrounded by our two other vans, and maybe three others- seven vans with people spilling over the top, camera lens’ the length of my arm, all looking into the bush to see…. Nothing. I could see nothing. About five minutes into staring into the grass, and hearing us all complain about missing the elephants, a slight swish of white in the bush led Benson to say proudly: See! I told you something special- the African Cheetah!! Hooray! We had seen a cheetah! Or wait, what?! I hadn’t seen anything. My picture shows just as much- perhaps if you squint you can see the faint outline of a head? Or maybe that’s just my optimism.
The ride continued- we found the previous herd of elephant, and also found 8 lions, 2 giraffe, tons and TONS of zebra, gazelles, wildebeests and cape buffalo. We also saw a black rhino in a bush, a leopard sleeping in a tree, buckets of hippos in a large river, a crocodile in the same river, tiny little monkeys in the trees by the same river, and lots of dead carcasses. We also came to the border of Kenya and Tanzania, where Christa, Steve and I found wildebeest teeth on the ground and pocketed them as souvenirs. We ate lunch under a tree around 3 or so, then traveled more to see more elephants, lions and zebras. Also, ostriches popped up a few times, and birds that had funny names like the secretary bird and the white bellied bustard. We arrived back at camp around 4:30, having seen literally everything we could think of but a hyena and what I really wanted to see, a lion kill. But, all in all, I was ecstatic and happy with the day, and was in awe the whole time just looking at the vast expanse of land that was Africa. It was gorgeous in so many ways.
We had dinner, watched the Maasai warrior men (again, just tall, skinny, stinky boys) do their traditional dances and songs for a few minutes, which sounded cool but disappointingly enough, was actually very campy and cheesy, and I found out that they were even trying to sell their sticks and props during the routine to a few of our men that they pulled into the dance. It was cool, though, to hear their voices chant and make weird, guttural sounds; it was also fun to see them laughing and just being silly together. It was obvious they do this often and are really just taking advantage of the silly tourist that come out to get the ‘real’ African experience. Before dinner, we also sat around the campfire and had a great closing talk with the whole group- it was very surreal to sit around the firelight and realize how close I had become with every single one of these folk that I had never met two weeks earlier. God is amazing. (Note: this campfire time was also where I got my first and only bug bite during the whole trip… I was pleasantly surprised with the lack of creepy crawleys that I did not see).
Early Saturday morning we got up, had breakfast and packed up to leave- the safari camp and Africa. Our seven hour journey back to Nairobi began our 40 or so hour trek home. We arrived in Nairobi at a missionary house, took showers and ate dinner, played a quick game and then left for the airport around five thirty to board our ten ten flight to Amsterdam. The trip to Africa had come to a close.
And so it was.
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