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| Glenn's Journal for 10-20-02 - Masai Mara Today we were up at 6:30 am, breakfast at 7:00 am, and departing around 7:30 am (o.k., closer to 8:00 am) for the park. Today was a little confusing as our original driver was taking a few of our travel mates off in a new direction while Rachel, Erin and I stayed in the Masai Mara an extra day. Finally, after some confusion, we managed to find a driver with enough room in the van for us. Rachel joined another van for the day, but no worries as we all would end up back at camp tonight. The game drive today was not as eventful as yesterday but we continued to see some wonderful animals throughout the day. We even got rained on during lunch but that did not dampen our day. We joined a bunch of guys that were from Mexico but living in Nairobi while studying theology. They were preparing to become missionaries. Interesting!! We arrived back at camp around 6:30 pm to a decent dinner. We skipped the camp fire tonight as they were providing dancing and storytelling but at a charge of 300 shillings per person. We knew we would see some dancing tomorrow when we stopped in to the Masai village that we had signed up to see. We were pretty tired so bed was around 10:00 pm. Tomorrow we are off to Lake Naivasha while everyone else would be heading back to Nairobi or home. 10-21-02 - Naivasha All right!!! The usual!!! Up at 6:30 am, breakfast at 7:00 am, and depart camp around 7:30 am. We would start the day with a game drive before heading back to Narok, where we would split off into our appropriate vans. Our first event of the day included a broken spring on the van that we were riding in yesterday. After about an hour to fix (rig) that we were on our way. By now we did not enter the park until 9:00am, which only left us an hour or so in the park before taking off. After the shortened game drive we stopped into the Masai village. We knew that it would cost 500 shillings per person but I did not realize how "business like" it had become. My last trip to Kenya we enjoyed meeting the Masai people, playing with the kids, and trading things. This time they performed on cue and then quickly returned to their homes. No real interaction time. We were quickly shuffled into the Masai house and then on to the added shopping area where the prices were outrageous!!! Even after paying 500 shillings to get in they asked for freebies. I was truly disappointed. We had to visit so Erin could see it for herself. She enjoyed it!! After the Masai village we took off for Narok where we would split up into our appropriate vans. By the time all was said and done we were in a van by ourselves with Richard as our driver. We did not realize until later that we would be on our own for the remaining 10 days of our safari. We arrived in Naivasha a little late to meet our original schedule so we shuffled the schedule around for tomorrow and headed off to our accommodation. It was listed as a hotel but we ended up staying at a camp along Lake Naivasha. The accommodation was changed by Richard, as he thought the town would be packed with celebrations as today is Kenyatta Day. It was probably more peaceful here than in town and the room we had included beds with mosquito netting. We spent another night without hot water and that was getting to the both of us. We enjoyed a good meal and returned to our room to read and sleep. We crashed around 10:00 pm. Well, around midnight our next door neighbors decide to return from the bar and continue a very loud discussion. After ten minutes of this I got up, knocked on their door, and asked them (somewhat rudely) to "shut the h_ll up". Luckily for us they headed off to bed and the rest of the night was quiet. |
| The sun setting across Lake Naivasha was a glorious scene even from our van! |
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| The Cape Buffalo were gigantic! |