The African adventure ends in Kenya

Saturday, August 10, 21:00

Nairobi to Nanyuki

In spite of the long delay, we made it to Nairobi and slept in a very nice Crowne Plaza Hotel near the airport. Yesterday morning we had a driver (Stephen) take us to Nanyuki, and here we are at the home of our friend Tom and his daughter Annee (and his other daughter Tricia who is here on weekends and at home caring for chimps during the week).

(L‑R) Tricia with her dog Pickle; Tom, and Annee with her dog Oliver

Annee has planned a very full week of activities for us.

I’m looking forward to our last few days here in Kenya. Including any and all game drives yet to come!

Back when we were in Botswana, when we were preparing to embark on, I don’t know, maybe our fourth or fifth game drive, I thought to myself, Another game drive? Haven’t we already seen everything there is to see? What more is there?

And every time, it turned out there was still so much to see.

Of course, we have seen countless impalas, Many African fish eagles and blacksmith lapwings. Probably over a hundred elephants, and even 22 lions. But each and every excursion, there has been something new and different and wonderful.

Ol Pejeta Conservancy

Today at Ol Pejeta Conservancy we saw black rhinos and southern white rhinos, plus several new antelope and bird species. It’s all still just as thrilling as the first time I saw zebras or giraffes or elephants or impalas.

These are black rhinos. The picture at the top is a southern white rhino. Ol Pejeta also has the last two northern white rhinos in existence, which we didn’t get to see. They are both female, so that species is on the brink of extinction. But our guide told us that they preserved sperm from the last male, and there is a plan to implant fertilized eggs into other rhinoceros species in the wild. It’s an ambitious plan, but it would be amazing if they can save the northern white rhinos.

Red-billed oxpeckers on the back of a rhinoceros

Grey-crowned crane, the national bird of Uganda

Thomson’s gazelle. Note the white pattern under the tail.

Grant’s gazelle. The way to tell them apart from Thomson’s gazelle is that the Grant’s gazelle has a white butt that extends on and above the tail.

Ankole cattle aren’t wild. They, along with more traditional cattle, are allowed to graze in Ol Pejeta alongside the zebras and giraffes and antelopes.

The giraffes in Kenya are so much more vividly colored than in Botswana.

Yet another leopard! Some people go to Africa and never see a leopard. This was our third.

This black rhino, named Baraka, is blind and is kept in an enclosure for protection. We got to feed him.

Monday, August 12, 20:00

Samburu

We’re back in Nanyuki after an overnight at the Elephant Bedroom Camp in Samburu National Reserve.

Obama the elephant is a regular visitor at the Elephant Bedroom and gives the camp its name.

We did two game drives, one last night and one this morning. I almost decided to skip this morning’s drive because, in spite of what I wrote above about how there’s something new on every game drive, I thought I was done. I thought I might prefer to hang out in camp and just do some bird watching.

I’m so glad I decided to go!

It’s hard to believe how many new animals we saw including two antelopes we’d never seen before and a whole slew of new birds.

Night drive

I don’t think I’ve posted any pictures of insects, so here’s one. It’s an amantis.

We got a glimpse of a leopard high up on a hill. This is #4.

And this is the traffic jam caused by that leopard. This is the difference between the private reserves where we went on game drives in Botswana and a public reserve where the number of visitors is not controlled.

A bit of the scenery in Samburu National Reserve. Kenya has a more interesting landscape than Botswana, which is entirely flat.

Morning drive

Like the giraffes, the zebras in Kenya seem to have more vivid markings than in Botswana.

Marabou stork. Here you get a good idea of why it’s considered one of Africa’s “Ugly 5.”

After we got back this morning and had breakfast, it was time to go. Out driver, Stephen, picked us up to take us to an elephant orphanage where we were scheduled to help feed the baby ellies.

Unfortunately, it was not to be.

Stuck

We drove another hour-and-a-half north (Samburu was almost three hours north of Nanyuki, so now we were 4 1/2 hours away) and turned off onto a dirt road. A couple of miles along, we got stuck in the sand. And remained stuck for 2 1/2 hours before someone from the elephant orphanage came and pulled us out.

I was pretty pissed off. Stephen’s vehicle doesn’t have four wheel drive. It was really not smart or safe to take us on that dirt road in that vehicle.

But we didn’t die there, so I’ll try to stay positive. Still, it’s interesting how that experience almost succeeded in nullifying the high I was on after the awesome time we had at Samburu.

Stephen is supposed to take us back to Nairobi Airport on Wednesday. There is an option to fly, but it’s expensive and inconvenient. It flies to a smaller airport in Nairobi and it goes at 11:00; our flight out doesn’t depart until 22:30. So I’m thinking I’ll bite the bullet and ride with Stephen.

Once we finally got back to Nanyuki, all I wanted was a hot shower and a change of clothes. That accomplished, and after a fabulous dinner cooked by Annee, it is easier to focus on the thrills of the entire trip and forget about the awful 2 1/2 hours we were stuck in the hot sun.

Tomorrow

Annee had planned a trip to visit a waterfall tomorrow, but something came up for Tricia, and she’s the only one with an appropriate vehicle. So our last full day in Africa will be a day to relax. Maybe a little shopping, and we’ll go out for lunch. And that is okay with me.

Wednesday, August 14, 20:45

Here I am at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, waiting for the first of three legs to home. Here to Dubai, then to Houston, and then to Guadalajara. All told, with layovers, it will be about 34 hours until we land at GDL.

The last two days were uneventful and relaxing, which was a perfectly okay way to end this amazing experience. I don’t know if I’ll ever do a trip like this again, but it was full of so many special moments and thrilling activities that I’ll never forget. I can’t begin to guess how many photos I took, the majority of which I deleted. When I get home, I will I have a big task of organizing them. This should be a chance to relive it all.

And I will transcribe this journal into my blog, which also, I hope, will be a labor of love. [Author’s note: it has been.]

And in just seven weeks I leave on my next big adventure!

About this post

I didn’t blog during this trip, but I kept a journal. This and all my posts consist of journal entries I wrote during the trip and transcribed into this blog after I got home, with some editing and embellishing.