Commence Safari

In picking out what sort of safari to embark on, we spent several hours over a few weeks perusing www.safaribookings.com.  I do believe this is the same site I used 15 years ago, and I cannot recommend it enough when considering or booking a safari anywhere in Africa.  They have over 10,000 safaris you can compare across the continent from dozens of operators and in an extremely detailed and standardized format.  You can filter by country, by cost, by amenity level, etc.  Several people have asked me as we planned for this trip about the cost of an African Safari.  I heard speculations of $12k - $15k - $20k for the trip.  Our cost was a fraction of that.  I encourage anyone to peruse that website, and see how reasonable a safari can be. In fact, price is one of the first filters to apply.  Note, the fees are generally all inclusive (excluding alcohol), and range from camping in basic tents, to resort style lodges, to luxury accommodations.  We ended up with a trip offered by Madukha Tours.

While I typically like to plan out all the details and arrangements of my own trips, I’ve found so far that so much of the sights to see in Africa are its nature and wildlife which is often spread in remote areas across the expansive continent that there is tremendous benefit of leaving it to the experts that have the knowledge of what to see, where to find it, and the equipment to get you in and out of there safely.  As our overall trip to Kenya was decided/planned last minute (about 2 months ago) an organized safari made a lot of sense.  The package we picked was a mid-range small group safari, meaning you can expect to be in a group of 5-6 people. Oddly when we found a safari with the itinerary we wanted, the title, and the picture of the listing didn’t match the detailed itinerary.  It appeared there had been a mistake made when the safari operator submitted the data to Safari Bookings.  We reached out and were sure to clarify that we wanted the safari that matched the itinerary, not one that matched the title and picture (and pointed out they may wish to correct the listing, which they did).  I had a suspicion that given the conflicting information on the site, others had likely not booked this particular itinerary, and we may be the only ones in the group, as we were booking only a few weeks out.  I was correct.

Our schedule had our driver meeting us at 9:00am at our hotel.  We had gotten packed up early and were enjoying a leisurely breakfast.  I decided to run upstairs to our room to grab something at 8:40 and glanced out the window to see the tour company’s truck already in the parking lot.  I ran out to greet our driver, who was named Stephen (interestingly I have noticed virtually everyone we’ve met here has a biblical name), and let him know that we just needed to grab our bags and would be out shortly.  

Stephen greeted us with a characteristically warm Kenyan smile and welcomed us to the safari. While he is a bit more reserved than some of the others that we have met over the last few days (I think his English, while certainly fluent, is less strong than others, which lends itself toward a bit more introversion.  

Nonetheless, as we embarked on the roughly 4 hour drive to Lake Nakuru, he frequently pointed out animals, vegetation, and other points of interest on the way up there.  The trip was on a long 2 lane highway with quite a few large trucks.  Much of the drive is on the edge of the Great Rift valley, and on inclines or declines (or even on flat road) these trucks drive very slow, so driving is a constant game of passing long lines of trucks and getting used to seeing the headlights of trucks in the distance coming at you as you pass vehicles.  In countries with roads such as these, I always find it best to simply breath slowly and look out the side windows as opposed to the front window. Its much better for the anxiety levels.  

Overlook of the Great Rift Valley

An hour or two into the drive we stopped at a viewpoint where we could get out and take in the vastness of the Great Rift Valley in front of us.  It reminded me a bit of standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon, in that your eyes and brain can’t fully grasp the distance and depth of what you are looking at.  Its almost necessary to view it in sections, starting at the very edge in front of you, letting your brain interpret the scale of what you are looking at, then visually working your way down, letting your brain reassess, and down further and further to try and create reference points in the vegetation to determine if what you are looking at in the distance is a small shrub, or a large tree that looks like a small shrub because it is so far away.  (To give the Grand Canyon its due, the Great Rift Valley is a good margin behind it in its magnificence, but it the visual experience is somewhat similar). 

As we stood at the lookout, we ended up talking to a young local for a bit.  In other less developed countries (often described as “the third world”, a term I’m not particularly fond of) you can often sense the difference between a casual conversation and an imminent solicitation. I got the sense that at some point an exchange of money for something may be proposed, but none occurred.  We walked away after a couple of minutes and I felt bad for assuming financial intentions behind the congeniality. 

Before heading back to the van we decided to peek in the gift shop.  Only a few moments later, we found the young gentleman we had just been talking to appear behind us and began describing the items we were looking at.   While this made sense given my earlier suspicions, I did really appreciate the lack of pushiness to get us into the shop.  I will admit we did not escape the shop though before making some fairly heavy usage of our credit card.  (Aimee did  her best to furnish our entire new guest room in one shopping experience.) As we negotiated our final purchase, the owner(?) of the shop came over and said to Aimee “please pick out a gift to take with you.”  We declined saying we had bought enough but thank you.  He clarified, “No, I mean a gift from me to you, not to purchase.”   We now understood and thanked him, and picked out one more item.  I decided to return the favor, and ran back to the van to grab a box of Goo Goo Clusters to return the gesture with a gift of a flavor of Nashville.

Now suddenly with a lot more luggage, we piled back into the van, rearranging our supplies to squeeze in our newly purchased items.

The drive to Nakuru was still a few more hours, and we continued to take in the sites.  Part of the drive

Italian PoW Church

was a road carved into the cliff side with the Great Rift Valley to our left.  Given the “wild driving” (compared to American standards) on this two-lane highway and constant passing, it was even more disconcerting having a cliff to your side that could provide for an impressively long roll for a vehicle.  At one point we approached an old church, and Stephen explained that the church was built during World War II for use by the Italian prisoners of war who also built the highway during that time.

Eventually we made it to the entrance to Lake NakuruNational Park, and stopped at the entry to use the restroom and for Stephen to register our entry. 

Once inside it was a bit of a drive to get to our lodge, and on the way we made frequent stops to look at the wildlife.  We saw dozens of impala, hundreds of pelicans, some baboons, fish eagle and others. 

Impala

Baboon

Zebra

Pelicans (on land) and Flamingos (in Water)

At one point, we saw another safari truck pulled off to the side by some trees. Stephen told us there is a

Lion

lion in there, and we pulled off as well.  Sure enough, though a little difficult to see, only about 20 feet ahead of us under a tree there were a few lions sleeping. I was quite excited, since on my last safari of 7 days in Namibia in 2012, we did not see a single lion, and here on the first day we found some. 

After watching them for a bit, Stephen attempted to turn the truck back on to leave, and it would not start.  Fortunately, much of the engine area is accessible from inside the vehicle, and after tipping back the front passenger seat, he was able to access the battery, where the cable had simply popped off the post.  He reconnected the battery, and we started with no problem.  From there we headed up to the Lake Nakuru Lodge to check in. 

This was a resort with a beautiful pool surrounded by a bar and restaurant with plenty of places to

View from our Porch

lounge.  Our room was down a long path that led to a couple dozen cabins. When the attendees brought us to our room, they showed us the large sliding glass doors in front of our bed that opened directly upon the open African bush in front of us.  The attendees did warn us however that there were a lot of baboons in the area and to check for them before going out (as they can be dangerous/aggressive and also like to steal things).

After dropping off our bags, we walked back to lunch at the restaurant. The staff at the resort were overwhelmingly helpful and friendly, and everyone you walked past smiled graciously and said hello.  Walking into the restaurant, a Kenyan man, with a clear Kenyan accent came out and of a small dining room off the entrance and said hello and asked where we were from.  I said “USA”.   He replied “American!  I am American too! I said “Oh!?  Slightly surprised a.) because we had not seen any Americans since arriving, and b.) because he did still have a strong Kenyan accent.  He followed this with “But we’ll talk more about that this evening.”  Well OK then. “Please come in and enjoy lunch.”

Lunch was a buffet, and we picked out a table, I ordered a Tusker, and we grabbed our food.  Prior to our trip, we watched “Out of Africa” which is based on the Karen Blixen story.  This took place during the first World War when Kenya was under British colonial rule.  As a result of the popularity of her book and the movie based on it (with Meryl Streep and Robert Redford), there is a museum outside Nairobi (in a suburb now called Karen) based on it.  We decided we weren’t really interested in going, as it just seemed strange to go to Africa and go straight to the place famous primarily because a white Danish woman lived there during British Colonial times. At lunch we reminisced on the movie and the images of the British social clubs, and government rule, with the Kenyans relegated to servitude. While my (very remedial) understanding of the true dyanimcs of colonial rule, while it was not slavery as we had in the US, it was likely only marginally better.

As we sat enjoying lunch, with the other guests who were mostly European, the almost overwhelming hospitality almost felt as if it harkened back to that age.  We discussed our own discomfort with this, as we came here to experience Africa and enjoy the culture and meet people as opposed to simply being pampered by the locals.  While the financial dynamic is certainly different today, with tourism generally supporting as opposed to exploiting the economy, the obvious stark difference in income levels still leaves a bitter aftertaste, in my mind, of the colonial times.

After lunch we met back with Stephen for our afternoon game drive.  On the way back into the park we

Lion Relaxing on its Back

stopped by the lions again, and this time were able to get a much better view (though still somewhat obscured by the vegation).  As we ventured deeper into the national park we wandered throughout the many dirt roads and stopped frequently to view the thousands of animals everywhere.  Lake Nakuru is one of the many lakes in the Great Rift Valley.  Much of the area is volcanic, and the lakes are all connected underground.  Based on various meteorological as well as agricultural factors, the water levels may rise and fall.  Since all the lakes are connected, they generally rise and fall together.  Stephen explained that up until 3 years ago, Lake Nakuru which is known for its very heavy population of flamingos would have sections completely covered in flamingos.  However in 2019, the lake suddenly rose and became too deep in many areas and the flamingos left. There are still a few flocks that frequent (which on their own seem like a large population), but not nearly as many as prior to 2019. Here are several of the photos we took, but you cannot truly get a sense of this experience without being there.

Malibu Storks

Rothschild Giraffe

Buffalo

Flamingo

White Rhino

Rothschild Giraffe

"Well hello there!"

After our game drive we went back to the lodge.  We ran into the individual again who had said he was American and talked more with him.  I asked him, “So you are from America?”  He laughed and said, “Well no of course not.  But my daughter is going to University there and is living in Connecticut and was just gifted her green card.”  I congratulated him on that, as I know it is a very long and difficult process. 

Before dinner, a group of six men and women that referred to themselves as the Friends of Lake Nakuru Singers sang a few spiritual songs and danced.  As they danced, they were a bit forward in grabbing the spectators from the bar and pulling them into the dance.  Some of them (Aimee and myself) obliged for a bit, some others were clearly not interested in joining.  We enjoyed the performance and they passed around a tip jar (not unlike your typical Nashville bar at all), however the leader afterwards did become exceptionally pushy in trying to sell his CD.  Aimee had turned him away at one point while I was distracted, but he caught me alone later on, and I caved.  The experience did result in us cutting our evening at the bar short, as we feared further solicitation when we just wanted to relax.

So instead we retired to our room.

Sunset From Our Room