Mzuri Safari

Swahili for Good Journey. We had a great time on our journey. We started early Wednesday morning when John, our driver and tour guide, picked us up at our apartment. Our first destination was Tsavo East National Park. There we were greeted by a man selling safari hats at the entrance gate. He was a bit pushy but not too bad. We didn’t buy safari hats. We were, however, in for much more ferocious sales people at all of the other gates. We entered and exited National Parks a total of six times, and each time our van was swarmed with people selling carvings, and beaded necklaces, and all kinds of things. We did buy a small spear from one of them. It started at 1,000 Ksh and was finally sold for 200. Then the same man came back telling us we needed another one in our collection for just 150.

They may not be able to read, but they know numbers...even backwards. Our salesman was writing on the dirty window!

After Tsavo East we drove to Amboseli National Park and then Tsavo West. At each of the parks we stayed at very nice lodges. The temperature was nice and cool as we were quite a distance from the coast. It was so great to be not sweating all day long!! We were even able to take cool refreshing swims at lunch time. The food was great at the lodges; we always had a great buffet to choose from and very nice dining areas. The wildlife was always close to us even at the lodges. In fact our first morning a baboon opened the door to the dining room, jumped onto a table, stole some food from a woman’s plate (who was not absent form her setting) and ran back outside. Two of our lodges had watering holes near the dining area so we could see the animals as we were eating and at Amboseli National Park we had a great view of the snow-capped peak of Mt. Kilimanjaro. It is often covered by clouds but we were lucky enough to get a peek as we left in the morning.

The view from our room in Tsavo East - Voi Safari Lodge at sunrise.

A big, clean bed! Amboseli Serena Lodge in Amboseli National Park.

Home Sweet Home! Kilaguni Serena Lodge had the best flushing toilet in Kenya!

We started our game drives off on the right foot. About 2 minutes into the first park we saw a big herd of elephants, several giraffes, and then just down the road was a family of three lions laying under a bush right next to the road. They had just feasted on some animal a bit lower on the food chain and they were just lying around being the kings of the jungle. It was very cool to be so close to them and so many other animals in their natural environment. We learned a lot from our tour guide and had a great time getting away from work. We really enjoyed our little vacation.

The Militelly Style! A full King of the Jungle. This "little one" is 3-4 months old.

The lions are already full, so we are safe! John, the greatest guide in Kenya!

So here is the list of animals we saw in (rough) order of appearance (just skip to the next paragraph when you get bored):
Reticulated giraffe (red), kongoni (hartebeest – a deer like animal), red elephant, Somali ostrich, lion, warthog, African wood owl, white bellied buzzard, corrie buzzard, hippo, common zebra, African buffalo, secretary bird, great spotted eagle, long crested eagle, lilac breasted roller bird, difesa (water buck), cheetah, dikdik (a tiny little deer – like as big as a house cat), mongoose, baboons, silver backed jackal, spotted hyena, crowned plover (bird), guinea fowl, wildebeest, vervet mokey, gazelle, impala, Egyptian geese, superb starling bird, Malibu stork, maasai giraffe (black), eurasain roller bird, yellow neck spar fowl, blacksmith plover (bird), crocodile, and some fish.

Hippos & Gazelle in Tsavo East. Our favorite tree - the umbrella acacia.

Mt. Kilimanjaro. A cheetah enjoying the rain. In Kenya there are Zebras at the end of the rainbow!

Our safari was four days and three nights. On the fourth day we made our journey home and it was good to be back in a familiar place. Of course you know already know about my getting sick and our visit to the hospital and all that. Here I am still sick and Emily is making me write all kinds of blogs before I can go to bed!! She’s harsh, but fair.