 |
| Glenn's Journal for 10-18-02 - Masai Mara We were up early as the driver was due to pick us up around 8:30 am. I also needed to leave a note for Mary apologizing for not being able to meet with her this morning. We showered and were downstairs around 8:00 am to grab some breakfast before taking out. Upon our getting downstairs our driver, and Mary, were already waiting for us. I quickly apologized to Mary before loading into the car to take us to meet up with the tour group. We arrived at the main office, completed some paperwork, and even had time to by water and other supplies for we would be ready to leave. We also bought a few groceries for breakfast which we ate while we were waiting. We finally departed around 10:00 am after waiting for all of the others travelling with us to arrive. Our other travel partners included Christian ( a young man, born in Gabon, but from southern France who smoked weed most of the time and had difficulty with English), a couple (he from Germany, she from Italy) who had been travelling for the past 2 years, and Rachel, a young lady from the UK who was here in Nairobi volunteering for an organization that helped "street children". She had been in Nairobi for a month and was planning on being here for at least 2 more months. We actually picked her up on the way to our first stop. The itinerary was for 13 days and included the following: Day 1: Nairobi / Masai Mara Day 2: Masai Mara (full day) Day 3: Masai Mara (full day) Day 4: Masai Mara / Naivasha Day 5: Naivasha / Nakuru Day 6: Lake Baringo / Lake Bogoria Day 7: Nakuru / Samburu Day 8: Samburu (full day) Day 9: Samburu / Mt Kenya Day 10: Mt Kenya / Amboseli Day 11: Amboseli (full day) Day 12: Amboseli / Tsavo West Day 13: Tsavo West / Nairobi The ride to the Masai Mara took us a while which gave us time to get acquainted with our travel partners. We all had different agendas and we were the only ones that had our agenda. We arrived to the park around 4:00 pm for our first of many game drives. We entered the Masai Mara Game Reserve and in our first few hours saw lions, zebras, wildebeest, gazelles, dik-dik, giraffes, and elephants. What a start to our safari!! Erin was pretty excited at this point. After the game drive we took a 30-45 minute drive out of the park to the camp site where we would be staying for the next 3 nights. Now Erin was less then impressed. The accommodation was less than we had hoped for but it did include your own bathroom at the back of the tent. But no hot water and no lights until dark when the generator came on. By the time we arrived to the camp we were more than ready for showers. I took a cold shower while Erin carefully splashed herself when required to bathe. The beds were somewhat run down and they did not provide mosquito nets (so bring your own). Dinner was actually pretty good and the camp was extremely quiet tonight as there were only 2 other people in camp besides the 6 of us. The day was long so we crashed early as we had a long day planned for tomorrow. |
| A stormy sky greeted us as a perfect backdrop for the common zebras |