Kenya 2008, April 5th - April 18th
This promises to be our greatest adventure to date.
After months of preparation and anticipation we are on our way to a Safari vacation in a country that the State Department pulled the Peace Corp workers out of.
The political unrest that followed the December elections was a bit disconcerting – 1500 people killed in tribal violence, 300,000 displaced. Say what you will about the elections in the USA but disputes are handled in the courts, not with a machete or suicide bombing like in Pakistan.
President Mwai Kibaki from the Kikuyu tribe was reelected under a suspicious vote count. His opponent Raila Odinga from the Lou tribe called “Foul!”
This link will help explain some of the tribal differences;
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/blog/2008/01/kenya_playing_t.html
When two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.
The irony of this is that we chose Kenya because it had one of the most stable democracies in Africa, until it was election time anyway.
Our Northwest flight departed on time from Orlando bound for Detroit. Martha and I were in the screaming babies section. Two siblings were in a competition to see who could scream the loudest. The parents seemed unconcerned and did little to comfort the noisemakers. In time it settled down, sort of.
Note to self: Flights to or from Orlando will have a high number of children on them, many of them wearing plastic mouse ears and clutching stuffed animals.
Detroit to Amsterdam on KLM – Flight left on time, complementary drinks, and decent food, on demand entertainment via a screen in the back of the headrest in front of me with a leashed remote control in the armrest.
Amsterdam Airport – Arrive at 5:30 am. The Duty Free shops open at 6:00. I picked up a bottle of Chivas. In retrospect I should have grabbed two.
The hurried KLM flight attendants were tall, leggy and blond. This is not typical for the other airlines.
The terminal shuttles were silent and fast, move or get run over. This was a subtle harbinger to what was to come, less the silent part. I did not see any small silhouettes of humans pasted to the side of the shuttles though.
Constant Public Address system announcement “Passengers Smith and Jones you are delaying your flight to Rome, Immediate boarding or we will proceed to offload your luggage.” A lot of people were missing flights.
There were women cleaning the men’s restrooms while they were in service, not something you see in the states. Nobody seamed to mind.
We stopped for a coffee, it was 6am local time.
Anxious smokers asking clerks where the smoking area is. “Smoking was banned in the airport effective January 1st.” They check their watches to see if they have time to leave the airport for a fix.
We had another security check. I had to relinquish my newly purchased water. Martha drank her all of her water in order to keep the empty bottle. She had to pee with a great sense of urgency once we were on board the KLM Boeing 777-200.
The leggy flight attendants that I saw in the terminal were not on our flight. Maybe they were on the other side of the curtain.
We were delayed for over an hour to wait for a connecting flight that was late. Everybody took it in stride.
There was pretty good onboard entertainment on this flight also. It included a flight path monitor. This was extremely empowering.
Lunch had an option of fish or chicken. I chose the chicken. The remarkable thing was that we were served with metal utensils! I unwrapped the package, went to the dinner knife, and gently ran my thumb across the barely perceptible serrations on the front of the flat blade. I had an image of somebody running up the aisle, knife in hand, to the secure cabin door yelling “Allah Akbar!”
That would flush out the sky marshals.
This reminds me of video clip that I saw online called “Bat Day” by the kid from Brooklyn. The idea was to give all the passengers a small bat like they do at some baseball game promotions. The premise is that this would discourage any high jacking attempt if 300 people had a bat and they would pummel anybody trying to take over the plane.
It was a good thing that I did not try to bring a set of fingernail clippers on board.
Yes, I will have a Heineken with my dinner. Thank you.
As per my flight tracker, we were flying over Khartoum in The Sudan. I just read an article in Nat. Geo about a journalist that was captured and moved from camp to camp for some time. (Nat Geo April 2008) in the area. It was not a pleasant Africa experience.
We fly over Darfur where people are living in a hell that I cannot imagine.
Here we are at 30,000 ft traveling at 600mph and being served dinner and drinks, again.
“A rum and coke for me please.”
Our engines preformed flawlessly. I was glad that we did not have to initiate an emergency landing.
Nairobi Airport – Visa entry - $50.00 gets you a nice stamp in the passport. The smiling clerk urged us to vote for Obama. The cash was dropped into a cigar box.
The luggage carousel was a gaggle of men, women, children and baggage trolleys. One little boy was almost crushed but sidestepped the madness. His father seemed unconcerned or confident that he could handle the situation.
We had to grab a taxi to our hotel. Our travel company, Shoor, would only arrange for one pickup at the airport. Our group of six was arriving at three separate times. Bob and Donna had an earlier arrival and won the pick up lottery.
As per our instructions from Shoor Travel we arranged a transfer to the Jacaranda Hotel at the “Authorised Taxi Service” at the airport. Franklin was manning the concession and charged us $30.00, wrote us a receipt and set us up with a cabbie, George. I did not see the “Unauthorised Taxi Service” booth.
We loaded up and took off like a bat out of hell. George pointed out that the roads were in bad shape. This was accurate. We had to navigate around numerous potholes, ruts, detours and a multi-car and truck accident. The posted speed limit was 50kph, we frequently hit 100kph. I check my seat belt once or twice.
After passing through the security gate to the Jacaranda compound we were let off at the front door. George did a fine job of getting us to our destination.
Check in went smoothly and we made it to our room. The first order of business was to find Donna and Bob. We did and it was a happy reunion. We made our way to the lounge by the pool. I asked what a good local beer was and was served a Tusker. Tusker beer was going to be our constant companion on this trip. We made our first wildlife sighting! A cat (felis domesticus) was lurking in the shadows.
We got word that Kim and her Dad, Dan were delayed and would join us in the morning.
11pm local time and I am starting to fade. We retire to our room, which has twin beds. The gap between them was symbolic of the widening gap between us. I hoped this trip would pull us back together but it was not to be. We were little more than roommates for the duration.
Time for breakfast – buffet with eggs to order with typical western fare, sausages, bacon, home fries and lots of fresh fruit and fruit juices. The coffee was a disappointment but it was an isolated incident.
Kim and Dan show up around 7am. They got stuck in Heathrow. A flight was cancelled and the next available was several hours later.
For a little background – Dan joined the trip just a few days before it started. Dan is 74 years old and Irish. I like him already.
They make it to a room, take quick showers, and reappear in the lobby. This is where it starts to get interesting.
Our driver/guide Harrison shows up and needs cash right away.
There was a problem with the credit card billing when adding the last person on short notice. The billing went through the Federated Hotel in Lagos, Nigeria and was flagged by the credit card company and refused. Nobody from Shoor Travel was able to explain this. Kim and Dan were expected to pay for the balance of their trip in US Dollars in 2000 series or later bills. (There were some counterfeit bills passed off a few years ago and the bills were pre 2000 series.) In addition to this there was change in the itinerary due to some road construction and we were rerouted to another lodge. The result is we were to get a refund due to the cost difference. Shoor wanted Kim to reimburse the rest of the group with her cash. The amount to be deducted from what she owed.
So here we are, jet lagged; ready to begin our great adventure and we have to come up with nearly $1000.00 in cash in 2000 series or later bills. We reluctantly complied to get on the road. More on this later.
There was an ATM across the street at a Barclays Bank and a couple of people already went over and were able to withdraw some KSH’s. The city is nicknamed Nirobbery so I was surveying the area. There was a security camera on the outside corner of the bank. The ATM was located in an enclosed alcove next the front door which was in sight of the Jacaranda’s security personnel. I walked over and withdrew 6000 KSH, about $100.00 US. The machine dispensed in mixed denominations, 5 1-K notes and 2 – 500 ksh notes.
We get loaded up in the Toyota van and get on the road. The first order of business is to meet Mary with Shoor Travel at a filling station to hand over the cash. No receipt required. Maybe this is how it is done in Kenya. We give them the benefit of the doubt, for now.
Next stop is a compact 3-story mall. The parking was gated. It had a supermarket, bike shop, furniture shop, electronics shop etc. and several ATMs that dispensed cash in Kenyan Shillings. There was a furniture display in a walkway. Naturally this caught my interest since my background is architectural millwork, cabinets and custom furniture. All of the furniture was made of mahogany. I later found out that this was a domestic wood that was harvested on the coast near Mombassa. While in the supermarket, Donna and Martha found some hula-hoops and proceeded to give a demonstration on their use. I am glad they are coming out of their shells. We stocked up on Tusker beer, bottled water and ice. Four of us made it back at the van wondering what happened to Martha and Donna. As we were getting ready to send out a search party they sauntered out with a bottle of Amarula. A quick check with the driver and it was ok for passangers to have an open container. So the girls opened the Amarula. “Tuskers for everybody!” I needed one to self medicate, after all, I am on vacation.
The van had a governor on the engine that limited its top speed to 80 kph. This was typical of most taxis and delivery vehicles in Kenya. I wonder how bad it was for such a law to be enacted. The van was also equipped with a snorkel for the air intake. I asked if this was for fording streams – “No just to get it out of the dust.” Something to look forward to.
We passed a van with “Beginning of Ruthless” plastered across the back window and door in 8” high letters. This was going to be a wild ride.
Getting out of Nairobi was an adventure, roundabouts are the rule and they are a gaggle of congestion, honking horns, and trucks belching dark smoke, motorcycles, pedestrians and hand pulled carts. I do not recall seeing any traffic signals.
This is the most aggressive driving that I have ever seen. A honk on the horn means “Move or get run over.” Braking or changing a line was not considered for the most part by our driver.
Our van had some vertical braces running from the floor to ceiling and retrofit grab bars over some of the windows. It soon would be apparent that they were functional and not decorative. Padding would have been nice to.
We made it out of Nairobi and headed northeast to the first place on our itinerary – Sweetwater’s Tented Camp.
The roads were in decent shape at first, paved with lines painted on them.
We passed many euphorbia or candelabra trees. Candelabra trees are found near the equator and in the East Indies and Africa. They live in the savanna biome. The candelabra tree can grow up to 30 to 40 feet (10 m) tall. The branches all grow from one trunk, and look like little cactuses that grow near the top, giving it the shape of a candelabra. It has little yellow flowers in mid-winter.
The candelabra tree is beautiful, but poisonous. If a drop of the white sap from the inner tree comes in contact with the skin a blister will form.
It will blind you if it touches the eyes and even breathing the fumes burns. This sticky poisonous latex along with its sharp spines makes it so animals don't feed on it.
We had to pass through a police checkpoint. It was marked with some concrete parking blocks stretched across the road. The blocks were bristling with sharpened 6” spikes. We had to slow way down to navigate around them. The officer in charge had a machine gun slung over his shoulder. We were allowed to pass without an inspection.
I noticed a sign indicating that we here about the cross the equator. Naturally I wanted to stop and get a picture. The driver complied and we pulled off into a parking lot with several gift shops around its perimeter.
We took the obligatory pictures of everybody under the rusting sign. “Kenya -This Sign is on the Equator” Nanyuki, Altitude 6389 ft.
And now it was time for our first shopping experience at a roadside stand. Many of the shopkeepers came out to great us. We received a lot of attention since our tour van was the only one in the parking lot.
Phase 1 of the selling process;
Shopkeeper “Hi where are you from?”
White guy with camera “USA”
“What state?”
“Florida”
“Miami?” This dialogue or variations of it played out several times in the next few days.
Miami is well known in Kenya.
“How long have you been in Kenya?”
“Just got here.” (What a geek.)
Phase 2:
“Please come into my shop to look, you will bring me good luck. It will cost you nothing.
Phase 3: Once in the shop – The hard sell starts, polite but persistent. The hook is set,
I agreed to buy three wooden animals for 1000 ksh (about $16.60.) The price started at 1800 ksh. I was wheeling and dealing now.
Phase 4: Please come next door to I can wrap them for you and you can pay. So we trot next door to another shop full of stuff. Hmmm.
The gentleman slowly pulls a sheet of newspaper off the stack and carefully wraps the animals one by one.
Phase 5: “Do you have a pen?” he asks
“Why?”
“American pens are much better than Kenyan pens. I will trade you for one.”
I had a ballpoint pen and tried to explain that it was not made in the USA, but China.
As a matter of fact the only things that are made in the US are Japanese cars and Trek carbon fiber bicycle frames.
The perception is that goods made for export to the US are of a higher quality than goods made to ship elsewhere. I never considered this.
I produce a fine point retractable pilot pen with black ink. He liked it. I managed to buy three more animals made of ebony for $10.00 and the pen. It seemed like a good deal.
He wrapped them and I was out of there.
The rest of the crew made a contribution to the local economy also.
We load up and take off down a gravel road. Our driver seemed to be in a hurry.
We arrived at Sweetwater’s Tented Camp, former home of billionaire arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi.
The tents are spacious with a separate bathroom/shower outfitted with granite and mahogany. They are underneath a large thatched roof that keeps them out of the weather.
The tents are arranged in a semi-circle facing a watering hole with Mt. Kenya in the background. An electric fence guards the perimeter of the camp from the watering hole. We saw zebra, impalas, warthogs, baboons and birds, birds and more birds. (birdsus maximus) There are over 400 species of birds in Kenya. One impala had some nasty scars on its neck but they were healing nicely. 
We got settled in, had some lunch and were off on our first game drive and a trip to The Chimpanzee Sanctuary. We saw more zebra; baboons, impalas and a waterbuck while en-route.Chimps are not indigenous to Kenya but it was a good location to open up a Jane Goodall sanctuary. Many chimps have been orphaned due to the bush meat trade and loss of habitat.
A guide gave us the tour.
The guide explained that the animals are on birth control otherwise the population would quickly explode. I wanted to know it they trained the males to use condoms. No- the females receive a monthly birth control shot. So this meant that the chimpanzees were having recreational sex. Up until this point I thought only dolphins and humans did it for fun.The chimps live 40 to 50 years. They looked pretty content behind the electric fence that looked like something from Jurassic Park.
Our guide was professional, knowledgeable and had a clean pressed uniform.
It was a good visit and we all stuffed a few bills into the donation box.
We load up and head to the Rhino Sanctuary.
We added elephants, gazelles, a Rothschild’s giraffe and water buffalo to our sighting list on the journey.
The Rhino Sanctuary, The Chimpanzee Sanctuary and Sweetwater’s Camp and game reserve are all part to the Ol Pejeta Conservancy.
A guide takes us off of our drivers’ hands and leads us to a fenced in area to pet a rhino.
Access is through a 7’ high concrete “Z” gauntlet with two walls about 2 feet across. The guide explains that the rhinos cannot make the turn and a gate is not required.
We had to pass a sign first “Morani is a tame black rhino, however all animals may be unpredictable. You approach Morani at your own risk and Ol Pejeta Conservancy will accept no liability for any accident or injury that occurs as a result.”
Tame black rhino – I was having a little problem reconciling this concept.
Morani is Swahili for “Little Warrior.” He was orphaned when he was very young. Masai warriors killed his mom because she was attacking and killing cattle. Under Kenyan law this is legal.
The Masai delivered the calf to the authorities. Morani was introduced to the reserve with the other rhinos. It did not go well. The others attacked him and the decision was made to move him into his current enclosure. Most of his social life has been with humans.
The gamekeeper grabs a tin bowl and scoops up some Rhino-Chow and marches up to Morani. He puts the food bowl down in front of him and he starts to feed. We are encouraged to walk up and pet him. I volunteer to take the pictures since I bought a new Canon Rebel XT with a Sigma 70-300 telephoto lens and 10 gigs of flash memory for this trip.
Donna goes first; she cautiously eases up to him and gently puts a hand on his side. No reaction then a big smile from Donna. Touching a rhino is an unnatural act in anybody’s book. “It didn’t feel like an unnatural act.”
Kim pets the rhino next, then Martha and Bob. I am clicking away the whole time.
I hand Bob my camera and he gets a few shots of me solo with Morani. I notice that the horns are long, sharp and dense. His hide is course and thick. It would absorb a lot of hand lotion.
Then it is pictures of Bob and Donna and Morani. Then Martha, Kim, and Morani. And then Martha, Morani and me.
The grand finale is the girls taking turns hand feeding stalks of sugar cane to the beast.
We head off to the nearby education center. I get a picture of Bob next to a giraffe neck vertebrae display. The seven vertebras have a rod holding them together and they are about six feet tall. We learn that all mammals have seven vertebrae. They are just different sizes. A Rothschild Giraffe skull is mounted on the displayed clearly showing 5 horns. 2 on the top of the head, one in the center of the forehead and two smaller ones behind the ears.
We were shown a model of a portable pasture enclosure for cattle. It would be set up in a location to contain some cattle. The cattle would eat, defecate, and create a natural fertilizer. After a time the cattle and enclosure would be moved to a new location. The old location would be more fertile and grow lush grass. This was a great idea!
Cattle were grazing in areas with wild animals with no ill effect. Make those wild herbivores.
On the drive back to Sweetwater we saw a magnificent sunset.
Back at camp and time to have a scotch and make a few notes in my journal before dinner.
April 8th, Morning Game drive.
Sunrise highlighted a water buffalo cow and calf. I am not one to get mushy over every damn baby animal but the calf was cute. It peaked around the left side of the mom to check us out then eased around the back to peak at us from the right side. The stubs of horns were pushing through the scalp. Mom just chewed her cud and watched us.
We saw three warthogs trotting along too. The tails were pointed forward and the fine mane hair was blowing back. They are Donna’s favorite animals. “So ugly they are cute.”
A shinny nosed water buffalo was checking us out as we drove by.
We rounded a bend and saw two Oryx’s squaring off and getting ready to fight. Two large antelopes with a distinct white and black pattern on the face and long straight horns.
African Oryx, gemsbok, beisa - ORYX GAZELLAThey would position themselves two to three feet apart, drop heads and charge! Bam!
For the most part it seemed like sparring but on occasion they would really mix it up. I am surprised one of them was not impaled by a 30” horn. After a bit they took a break.
One relieved himself while the other grazed. Back on the clock and more head banging. I took 25 shots of this sequence. It was a treat, digital photography is nice. I wonder if I can get an Oryx steak for dinner.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oryx
We spot a hartebeest next, another large grassland antelope. Fawn colored with horns pointing backwards. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartebeest
We spot two East African Crowned Cranes standing on some tree branches.
http://www.livingdesert.org/animals/east_african_crowned_crane.asp
These birds are beautiful, tall and elegant with black, white and deep red wings. The neck is gray with a white and black head topped with a plume of tight gold feathers.
They do look angelic. I wonder what they taste like.
We spot some rhino in the distance. I asked for volunteers to pose with them. No takers. I assure everybody that I would be ok. The driver said, “Nobody gets out of the van.” I open a Tusker and pass it around. We drive by some elephants, zebra and a giraffe on the trip to camp for breakfast.
Starched napkins and champagne adorned the table. The menu was eggs to order with a buffet of pork and beef sausage, potatoes, beans, a variety of breads and lots of fresh fruit and juices. The dinning area faced the watering hole. We watched zebra, warthogs, impala and gazelles while we dined. There were also some crested cranes and ibis at the watering hole. A curious Marabou stork was on the patio and tried to poke it’s beak in and get an easy meal. We slid the glass door shut on the large ugly bird.
Kim had her laptop so we were able to download and view my pictures. This took several minutes using the USB cable. Note to self: bring a card reader next time.
Some of the photos were keepers; the new camera was pretty smart! I will work on developing the user interface.
The front desk had a plug adapter we could use to recharge the computer and camera batteries. Martha brought one but the main receptacle was recessed and would not work with the flush plugs chargers. Note to self: field-test all equipment before going into the bush.
From Sweetwater our driver offered to arrange a side trip to Samburu Park, which would be off the itinerary. We were to pay him directly and keep it a secret. This would not have benefited us at all. The trip would have been an out and back so this would put us at the park in the middle of the day. The best game viewing is in the mornings and late afternoons. We had already paid for two game drives at Sweetwater and he wanted us to pay extra plus 2000 KSH for him to go to Samburu. What if we had a mechanical failure on the road? Was he going to demand money for the repairs since it was a bandit trip?
We rejected the bandit trip.
We subsequently did change our itinerary to include a night in Samburu (legitimately.) It was a long rough drive. I am glad that we did not do the out and back. I am disappointed that our driver would subject us to that just to get a few extra shillings on the side.
Time to chill out until the afternoon game drive. There was always some activity at the watering hole so I always had my camera at the ready. I shot a pretty good sequence of some wart hogs “makin’ bacon.”
On the afternoon drive it started to drizzle but we had a good sighting of a giraffe tree, an elephant with a tracking device strapped to it’s head and a kingfisher huddled on branch.
The rain let up and we saw a young waterbuck, some zebra and a rhino with some bird hitchhikers on his neck and back.
We make it back to camp for a quick dinner and then we are off for a night game drive with the staff from Sweetwater. There was a driver and a spotter with a high-powered light. We saw a bush baby, a silver backed jackal, a serval and a white tailed mongoose.
We also saw some elephants and water buffalo with calves. A pee break was in order. After some discussion the driver stopped in an open area to minimize the chance of ambush by a predator. Four or five of us took advantage of the moment. All in all it was a pretty good ride.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7279149.stm
http://allafrica.com/stories/200804210638.html
