More game drives. I am starting to get more than a bit grumpy because I am not used to driving in a vehicle for so long, essentially in a six hour circle, and not doing something.
Yay, giraffes. Woo. Yay, more impalas. Great.
It doesn't help that I don't get any sleep because a) I somehow found a rut to put my sleeping mat in and b) my tent mate is snoring and sleeping off half a Texas mickey of vodka.
We also heard lions and hyenas all night long.
I nap as much as I can on the drive because I am grumpy and tired (and a bit bored).
Heard of Cape Buffalo
As with any place that is known for wildlife, if there are vehicles stopped, they are stopped for a reason.
It took a second to figure out why, then we saw it; a lioness under the tree!
Like most cats she didn't do much but sleep so we drove on.
We didn't get much further before this young male lion came out. Magnificent.
I could easily tell you that he was roaring at us but he's actually yawning. Apparently we disturbed his being a cat laziness.
Not the same lion.
We drove on a bit more but had to come to a stop. It was time for elephants to cross the road.
As the only Canadian on the tour, I was the only one looking for a spider web.
In the middle of the picture is the matriarch. She decided it was time for lunch on the other side of the road. There were probably about 60 elephants in total so we had to stop and wait for them to let us drive.
Baby elephants!
Hungry elephants
James and the elephants
We were more than a bit close to them.
The tour guide was amazed that I knew how to tell African elephants from India elephants. It is their ear shape - African elephant ears are shaped like Africa and India elephant ears are shaped like India. I know this because my Mom raised me to read all the signs and this was on a sign at the Calgary Zoo.
All we do in Serengeti are game drives.
The roads are dry and rutted and bumpy; we are bouncing out of our seats. I chip a tooth. Our guide tries to put a positive spin on it and call it an "African massage", but really it just jars your teeth loose.
We have to replace a shock on the bus.
We see a lot of animals, which is amazing.
Zebras
Topi
Young giraffe
He kept looking at us.
Cape Buffalo
Hippos. You smell hippos before you see them.
Banzai and Shenzi (from the Lion King).
James at Pride Rock
Accommodations for two nights.
The sky in Serengeti is unlike anything. It is so clear and clean. The stars go on forever, countless wishes to be made. The sunsets and sunrises are awesome and would be more so if they weren't so damn early; we are almost exactly on the Equator so days and nights are equal. Our tour guide is a morning person too, which doesn't help anything. We are up at 0530 and on the road by 0645. Kill me.
We stop at a soapstone carving collective outside Kisii. We learn that they mine the stone from local quarries. The artists then wash, sand, polish and carve the stones in to all kinds of items ranging from key chains to intricate chess sets, which these belong to.
This is the first place we learn that if you plan on buying anything in Kenya or Tanzania, you have to negotiate for it. You don't pay the first price they name. In the end, expect to pay at least 60% less than the first price. I did remarkably well at this, despite the slight educational guilt trip they gave us by taking us on the tour and explaining the process and meeting the artists. Other people in the group ask me to negotiate for them. (No, nobody got a chess set. They are many pieces and about $1200 USD after negotiation.)
We drive on to Isebania, one of the land borders between Kenya and Tanzania.
This border is serious business. There are men with AK-47s and bandoliers of bullets everywhere. We are not fully sure where to go or what to do because our guide is busy helping people who got their visas in advance. I did not do this because a) it was a LOT more expensive and b) I would have had to send my passport off. No thank you.
We eventually get some guidance and fill out the right forms. We have to get our temperature taken, exit Kenya and then cross the street to enter Tanzania. We get our temperature taken again (because we may have caught immediate onset airborne Ebola in 50 feet), give the nice border people our passports and money and are stamped to enter Tanzania. Eventually we are given clearance to get back on the bus.
Tonight we sleep at Lake Victoria. There is a tree with a heap of orioles and their nests. It is alive with activity.
The small, yellow birds make a tremendous cacophony.
There are also cormorants and herons on the lake; no roosters, thankfully.
We follow our guide in to Musoma Town market. It is cramped and crowded and smelly and exactly what you would expect an African market to be. I am fascinated because this is a <i>real</i> farmers market, with people who grew and picked the products available. The one here in St. John's is primarily craft based which is okay but not why I go to a farmers market.
We spend the night on Lake Victoria, one of the largest fresh water lakes in the world.
Thunder rolled in with big, looming clouds but it did not produce anything.
I somehow managed to get a WiFi signal on my tablet from here and nearly cried with joy.
Nobody told me travelling like this would involve very early mornings. We have to be out of the rooms for 0630. In the morning. Gross. We are on the road for 0700. In the morning. Even more gross.
Our first stop is in the Great Rift Valley, which runs from Lebanon to Mozambique. This is huge and a great source of geothermic energy.
About half an hour later, we blew a tire. This turns out to be an open, but that will come in to play soon enough.
The tire is fixed quickly enough in the blazing heat and we are on to Kisii.
Five of us decide to walk from our accommodations to Kisii Town. There are people, cars, cows, goats and chicken everywhere. People are shouting "Mzungu!" from the streets at us. We all smile, wave and call back, "Jambo!" (hello!). They are laughing at as when we scream a bit crossing the street (it is scary!) and take pictures of us.
We are laughing at them and taking pictures of them taking pictures of us.
Troy showing a local pictures on his camera.
As we are making our way back to our accommodations, we come on a group of kids selling sweets. One person in our group turns the camera on his phone so the kids can see themselves.
They love this! We eventually make it back to the accommodations. The kids could see us and waved and jumped to get our attention. We kept shouting "Jambo!" back and forth until it was time for dinner.
.5
I get through the organized chaos of the airport to the hostel and am surrounded by white people.There is also a dance party on the lot next door that may as well be in our dorm and then, the rooster. The damn rooster is crowing for the remainder of the night that there is no dance party. I want to throttle the rooster.
One
I walked down the road to my hotel with very little problem. People are offering to take me in their unmarked taxis, but it is a 4 minute walk. I decline and point to where I'm going with a smile.
I get to the hotel and there is no sign of anyone from my tour. Eventually my roommate shows up. I am tired of being cooped up and decide to go for coffee.
There is very little in life that prepares you for the opposite. In Canada, I am basically the majority; I am a white female. A few times in my life I have been in the minority - at Fowler, anytime I was in Northeast Calgary. These weren't so bad because while I was a minority, I wasn't alone. I always had other white people with or near me.
In Nairobi, this is not the case. I had no other white people with me. I am used to attracting attention when I walk at home. I have purple hair. In Nairobi, I attract it because I am the only white person. It is a little unnerving, though I don't feel unsafe.
There is no rhyme or reason to the roads. It is chaos. I figure I can just cross when everyone else does. This works. I don't find coffee because it is way too crowded to find anything. I go back to the hotel
After meeting the group, five of us need to get things from the store. We catch a cab and go to a 24 hour mall type place. We have to go through metal detectors to get in. After we leave, our cab is late in returning for us and children approach s for money, watches, my Canada maple leaf luggage tag on my purse, anything we have. They won't leave us alone. They are touching us as well. Their mother/guardian is trying to get money from someone in the group. The cab eventually returns and we go back to the hotel for dinner and bed.
I started my day knowing I had to go to the bank. The weather gods decided that now would be a great tie for my first thunder and lightning show here in St. John's. Pissing rain. No big deal., I think. I'm going to be climbing a mountain in Tanzania very soon so complaining about a little rain (a lot of rain) really doesn't do much.
The thing I regret was not getting out of my damp socks when I got home. I wore my hiking shoes to the bank and then on the plane. I really should have changed my socks.
I had been having trouble with WestJet's online check in because my flight was mostly with KLM (a partner airline). I couldn't check in with KLM because my flight started with WestJet. I called the call centre and got everything figured out. When I got to the airport, the check in kiosk told me to go to guest services. Apparently I had to get them to print my boarding pass, which is perfectly fine.
YYT-YYZ is uneventful.
The wifi in the ipad infested, lack of seating hellhole that is T3 at Pearson would not connect. Whoever designed this terminal is an idiot. Nearly all of the seating has been removed and replaced with four top tables featuring permanently mounted ipads. What a mess. This is a very bad impression to give international travellers who may have only this transfer as their experience in Canada. Airport design is consistent for a reason. Travellers know what to expect at gates and we appreciate the sameness. The place for airport design innovation is not at the gates (unless the innovation is more plugs).
YYT-AMS
YYZ-AMS is also uneventful as far as the actual flying goes.The service is another thing. Amazing. the in-flight entertainment system wasn't working for a while. Not a big deal; they rebooted it a couple of times and it eventually worked. When we disembarked, they gave us a voucher for miles/travel credit as compensation. There was even a hot towel service before the meals! In economy!
Two meals! The food was equivalent to business class in Canada. the trays and packaging looked like the Delft plates, even though they were all disposable. Someone was coming around every hour or so offering drinks. As one would expect from KLM, everything was in Dutch and English - no French. In AMS, I managed to find the JW missionaries going to Kenya.
AMS-NBO is also uneventful except the service.
The remote control for the TV on KLM. It waits in the armrest and on the other side is apparently a phone
NBO is different. The jetway doesn't connect so we have to walk downstairs and on to the tarmac to waiting buses to take us to the immigration bunker.
We all walk single file through the infrared Ebola scanner to take our temperature. Of course I'm constantly running a couple of degrees warm so I'm pulled away for questioning. It doesn't take long after I explain my kidneys and show them my scars, my Ebola free passport and equally Ebola free itinerary. I'm allowed to go on.
As is the norm, there is little to no direction for visa acquisition. We all pile in the line corral and wait. it isn't very long but it is long enough as I have to pee a lot. $50USD later, I allowed in to Kenya!
This was written at the hostel before I knew what was ahead of me. It was next door to the hotel.
