Where heaven meets earth

This will no doubt be the most difficult of blogs to write.  With all my thoughts and memories for an entire week emerging on to one page it will be difficult to pick and choose the stories that might be most interesting for you.

We arrived at the airport in Nairobi in the early hours of the morning and were greeted by two very tall dark men (Martin, our key contact in Nairobi and one of his employees) who drove us to our hotel in downtown Nairobi.  Were we crazy wandering off with two strangers in an unknown city in Africia?  Probably but hey, I do like an adventure!  We arrived at our budget hotel (to say the least) and Joanne and I laughed as we entered our tiny little room with two twin beds surrounded by mosquito netting. What the heck were we doing in the middle of Nairobi at 2 am in a budget hotel where the best security was my overweight suitcase wedged up against the door.  And so our Kenya experience began.

Four hours of sleep was not quite enough but we rose early to have a good breakfast in the dinning room which overlooked a small park next to the hotel. Everything looked so much better in the morning and I was surprised how lush and green it was. Martin was waiting to introduce us to Daniel who would be our guide, companion and body guard for the week.  The ride from Nairobi to Maasai Mara would take us 6 hours and as we drove out of the city center toward the Rift Valley, I noticed that Nairobi is quite modern although there are pockets of low income and slum housing.  Nairobi is home to the 2nd largest slum in Africa known as Kibera...over 1 million people are said to reside there in conditions that you and I can't imagine.

Rift Valley

The view of the Rift Valley was breathtaking.  Mountains, trees and small villages here and there on the valley floor.  The valley runs from Jordon to Mozambique and in the background are dormant volcanic mountains.  What a beautiful country!

As we leave the viewing area we see baboons cluttered along the highway...our first sighting of African wildlife...and the euphoria cactus trees line the highway which winds down the side of the mountain.  The valley floor is cluttered with acacia bushes (thorny bushes which the giraffe's love to eat) and we see many gazelle's, zebras, bustard birds, cattle and goats being manned by shepherds dressed in traditional Maasai clothing.  We were headed for the Masai Mara which is located on the north of the Kenya Tanzania border and is part of the Serengeti ecosystem.

Further into the Maasai Mara region, the land becomes very dry and rocky.  There are still patches of grass where you see wildebeests and zebras grazing but for miles in every direction it is flat. The roads were very rough for 4 of the 6 hour drive and for a good deal of the trip through this region we drove off the main paved road which was too rough for vehicles.  Only in Africa would you have to drive beside the highway to avoid fatal pot holes!  Needless to say we arrived exhausted and sick to our stomachs.  Nothing a bit of fresh air and some lunch didn't cure.

Our first side trip would be to the Maasai village just outside the main reserve gate.  Unbelievable. 

Three Maasai warriors 

The villages are built in a large circle with huts lining the outside and a large open pen area in the middle.  Thorny brush lines the outside of the circle which is used to keep wild animals away at night.  The inner circle is used to keep the cattle which are out grazing during the day.  A very primitive society to say the least. 

Maasai cow dung hut

Beliefs in polygamy (men having up to 20 wives with 8-10 children each), drinking of fresh cows blood and milk as a means of survival in the wild goes well beyond my comfort zone.  But I must say that stepping inside the hut (which by the way is made from cow dung, not mud) was a rude awakening.  I couldn't see for the smoke from the smudge inside stinging my eyes and it was almost completely dark but for the small round hole at the top of the wall to let out smoke.  In this small hut would sleep upwards of ten people along with a few calves which were not safe in the larger pen at night. 

Maasai woman

Maasai warrior sitting by hut

This particular village had 399 people - 1 King, 20 wives and the rest were children, some of whom had started their own families with wives from neighboring villages.

Our safari rides were wonderful!  Our van was equipped with a pop-up roof which was open all the time.  I tended to stand while we rode along to avoid the motion sickness and I loved having the wind blowing in my face and the sun shining down on me.  I joked with Joanne that I looked like a dog hanging it's head out of a car window. 

The view out on the Mara plains was spectacular....the largest of skies and smokey grey mountains off in the distance in every direction.  Complete freedom unlike any I've ever experienced before.  It was the only time I've ever truly been at peace and I'll never forget that little piece of my heart I left there that afternoon on the Mara plains.  

We saw many animals (over 25 different animals and countless birds) and of course all but one of the big 5 (the leopard eluded us).  My favourite to watch however were the giraffes and the lions. Both such majestic and elegant animals.  But some of the most fun to watch were the wort hogs that ran in small groups usually consisting of a dad, mom and many babies. We were quite fortunate as well to see a herd of 39 elephants.

Male lion catching some shade

Giraffe's on the plains near Mara River

After a bottle of South African red wine (we sampled many through the week since work was over after all and this was now vacation) we settled into our tent for a good nights sleep.  Unlike Ghana with the hard beds and pillows, I sunk down into my bed with soft white linens and pillow-top mattress that had been warmed by our steward with a hot water bottle.  I'm in heaven...I'm sure of it, I thought.  And as the sound of crickets ecoed in the night I could hear the rolling thunder in the distance and shortly afterward the tapping of rain on our roof.  The last I remember were the tears running down my checks and the feeling of complete peace...it was the best night's sleep I'd had in months.

Our mornings started early with a big breakfast and then out for more drives.  In subsequent days we visited Lake Nakuru and Lake Naivasha which were also wonderful and provided a completely different view of Kenya with pelicans, flamingos and hippos. 

Lake Naivasha

Pelicans at Lake Nakuru

 Our 2nd last day was spent boating around Lake Naivasha and hiking in Hell's Gate.  Again, such a diverse landscape and the rock formations and gorge at Hell's Gate were completely unexpected.  We were guided by a Maasai worrier (they're everywhere!) and Joanne and I joked with this young lad (he called himself George of the Gorge) about why the Maasai women didn't have many husbands instead of the other way around and he said that was strictly forbidden...I told him it was just a matter of changing their frame of mind :-).  Might it be possible for Joanne and I to alter the rituals and beliefs of this ancient and primitive tribe?

Hell's Gate Gorge

Feeding giraffes at sanctuary

Our trip back to Nairobi the next morning was smooth sailing and I wrote in my journal most of the way and reminisced about the our week of adventure.  The day in Nairobi was fun and I thoroughly enjoyed the elephant orphanage and the giraffe sanctuary. We saw 18 orphaned elephants less than 29 months old who would be cared for before being returned and integrated back to the wild at around 3 years of age.  We were close enough to touch them and watching them play and eat was quite cute.

Elephant orphanage

Joanne and I with Daniel

Our accommodations and itinerary were fabulous and we have both Martin and Daniel at African Veterans Safari to thank for our experience. As two women traveling alone through Kenya, we never once felt unsafe with Daniel.  A big brute of a guy, he was actually such a teddy bear and we thoroughly enjoyed his stories and his company. We spent the last hours together with Daniel and Martin in a downtown coffee shop sharing our stories and laughing at the many challenges along the way (flat tire, mud, rutts, broken safety plate under the van, broken radio, chasing baboons from our picnic lunch, smashed cell phone and finally Daniel coming down with Malaria).  You can't control the things that happen to you but you can control how you react to them...we (yes, even Joanne, the ultimate nervous Nelly :-)) embraced each and every one of our small challenges with a whoop and a holler and later a good laugh.

As much as I thought Ghana would be a life changing experience...and it was...Kenya was where I found myself again.  Where I truly felt at peace for the first time in over a decade and where I fell in love with this beautiful country and it's people.  I promised myself that I would visit here again....this place where I left behind a piece of my heart and where heaven really does meet earth.

Where heaven meets earth