March 5
We arrived at our hotel in Nabrobi an hour late because our plane was delayed for mechanical problems. Glad they were able to fix it quickly.
The Norfolk hotel is the oldest in Narobi, very colonial and very nice. Everyone was quite thrilled with it. We get to stay there again so that is nice. Hopefully we have a little more time to appreciate it. We got to our room about 12:30 am and had to be up and ready for breakfast by 7:00
Our driver is Edward. He is very patient and has been doing this for years he says. Thank god he knows his stuff. Driving on the roads here is worse than in China. At least in China they have decent roads. Here you are on pavement then dirt back to pavement with potholes big enough for our grandkids to swim in. There is a lot of road improvement going on - if we couldn’t get through Edward would just go out on the shoulder
And onto the dirt, up and over huge mounds of soil. The soil here is red, sometimes light and other times very dark red. Like PEI! There are also many diversions (detours) and they are invariably dreadful.
They all drive like they have a death wish. If it is 2 lane traffic they use the centre as a third passing lane and once they get out there they stay as long as they can . It seemed like they were playing chicken to me.
As we drove along from Nairobi to the Samburu the agriculture varied, each area had its own crop. There was pineapple farming, mangos, corn, potatoes, charcoal production, wheat and barley ( the landscape looked just like the Canadian prairies) . All along the highway people had goats tethered, usually only one goat and someone would be there tending it. Same with cows. Some animals were quiet thin and others very robust and healthy. A person would be walking along with their cow or cows. Lots of donkey carts, they look so cute. We haven’t got a picture yet. It is not easy to take a picture out the window of a safari vehicle that is barrelling down the highway at 80km. There are lots of stalls with people selling their wares out in the middle of what seemed like nowhere to us. Coke signs everywhere (the bottles are the same as at home). The homes look so poor but the people look so well dressed and healthy. Children walking to school in their brightly coloured uniforms without shoes on their feet.
It was a long day. We didn’t get to the Samburu game reserve until about 4:00 Then they popped up the roof in our van and we went on a safari drive. The first animal we saw was a Gravy’s Zebra. I may not have the spelling correct as our guide’s English is heavily accented. WOW! We were so close to them. We saw many giraffe’s and lots of elephants. We got so close to one group that we felt that we could almost touch them. A baby was nursing - sweet. At about 6:20 our guide announced that we had to get to our lodge as we couldn’t be in the reserve after 6:30 or he’d be fined. Off we went at high speed over the roughest road I’ve ever been on. It was good that he had told us to sit down in our seats. We had been standing looking out the roof and would really have got a tossing around. I am glad we are able to stand and look out but sure wish I was a little taller .
The lodge is very nice, rustic - the power comes courtesy of a generator that only runs for a short time morning and evening. There is a pool but we opted to rest in our room this afternoon. Roy has got the cold I had before we left and is not feeling too good. We go on an evening game drive at 4:00 this afternoon.
We were in the van at 7:30 this morning and oh what a morning it was. Yesterday was exciting - just being on the savannah and seeing the scenery was terrific. First we saw a warthog family, then stopped to take pictures of an ant (termite) hill. Then the battery in our vehicle died. We are in the middle of nowhere!!!
Our driver pulls our a cell phone and one of the other cars comes and gives us a push. Imagine - cell phone coverage. We are miles and miles and miles from what we call civilization. (his radio is broken and he can receive but not transmit). While we are waiting we see many baboons along the river. We saw more giraffes, elephants, lots of little dik diks ( antelope family), they are tiny and so cute. We saw lions -Mating!, we saw orynx, gazelles, cape buffalo, gerenyk, I can’t think of all the names, Roy will help me when he wakes up. It was very exciting to see all the animals in their own home, They don’t seem to even notice the vehicles but we are told not to get out of the car at any time as they do notice individuals. We also have to be escorted to and from our hut at night and when the power is shut off at night we have to flash our flashlight for a quard to come and get us if we need to go out of our hut. Leopards wander through here all the time.
We had a talk by a Samburu tribesman at noon today. Very interesting. I will write more later as my back is getting tired from the position I am in and there isn’t much choice
We arrived at our hotel in Nabrobi an hour late because our plane was delayed for mechanical problems. Glad they were able to fix it quickly.
The Norfolk hotel is the oldest in Narobi, very colonial and very nice. Everyone was quite thrilled with it. We get to stay there again so that is nice. Hopefully we have a little more time to appreciate it. We got to our room about 12:30 am and had to be up and ready for breakfast by 7:00
Our driver is Edward. He is very patient and has been doing this for years he says. Thank god he knows his stuff. Driving on the roads here is worse than in China. At least in China they have decent roads. Here you are on pavement then dirt back to pavement with potholes big enough for our grandkids to swim in. There is a lot of road improvement going on - if we couldn’t get through Edward would just go out on the shoulder
And onto the dirt, up and over huge mounds of soil. The soil here is red, sometimes light and other times very dark red. Like PEI! There are also many diversions (detours) and they are invariably dreadful.
They all drive like they have a death wish. If it is 2 lane traffic they use the centre as a third passing lane and once they get out there they stay as long as they can . It seemed like they were playing chicken to me.
As we drove along from Nairobi to the Samburu the agriculture varied, each area had its own crop. There was pineapple farming, mangos, corn, potatoes, charcoal production, wheat and barley ( the landscape looked just like the Canadian prairies) . All along the highway people had goats tethered, usually only one goat and someone would be there tending it. Same with cows. Some animals were quiet thin and others very robust and healthy. A person would be walking along with their cow or cows. Lots of donkey carts, they look so cute. We haven’t got a picture yet. It is not easy to take a picture out the window of a safari vehicle that is barrelling down the highway at 80km. There are lots of stalls with people selling their wares out in the middle of what seemed like nowhere to us. Coke signs everywhere (the bottles are the same as at home). The homes look so poor but the people look so well dressed and healthy. Children walking to school in their brightly coloured uniforms without shoes on their feet.
It was a long day. We didn’t get to the Samburu game reserve until about 4:00 Then they popped up the roof in our van and we went on a safari drive. The first animal we saw was a Gravy’s Zebra. I may not have the spelling correct as our guide’s English is heavily accented. WOW! We were so close to them. We saw many giraffe’s and lots of elephants. We got so close to one group that we felt that we could almost touch them. A baby was nursing - sweet. At about 6:20 our guide announced that we had to get to our lodge as we couldn’t be in the reserve after 6:30 or he’d be fined. Off we went at high speed over the roughest road I’ve ever been on. It was good that he had told us to sit down in our seats. We had been standing looking out the roof and would really have got a tossing around. I am glad we are able to stand and look out but sure wish I was a little taller .
The lodge is very nice, rustic - the power comes courtesy of a generator that only runs for a short time morning and evening. There is a pool but we opted to rest in our room this afternoon. Roy has got the cold I had before we left and is not feeling too good. We go on an evening game drive at 4:00 this afternoon.
We were in the van at 7:30 this morning and oh what a morning it was. Yesterday was exciting - just being on the savannah and seeing the scenery was terrific. First we saw a warthog family, then stopped to take pictures of an ant (termite) hill. Then the battery in our vehicle died. We are in the middle of nowhere!!!
Our driver pulls our a cell phone and one of the other cars comes and gives us a push. Imagine - cell phone coverage. We are miles and miles and miles from what we call civilization. (his radio is broken and he can receive but not transmit). While we are waiting we see many baboons along the river. We saw more giraffes, elephants, lots of little dik diks ( antelope family), they are tiny and so cute. We saw lions -Mating!, we saw orynx, gazelles, cape buffalo, gerenyk, I can’t think of all the names, Roy will help me when he wakes up. It was very exciting to see all the animals in their own home, They don’t seem to even notice the vehicles but we are told not to get out of the car at any time as they do notice individuals. We also have to be escorted to and from our hut at night and when the power is shut off at night we have to flash our flashlight for a quard to come and get us if we need to go out of our hut. Leopards wander through here all the time.
We had a talk by a Samburu tribesman at noon today. Very interesting. I will write more later as my back is getting tired from the position I am in and there isn’t much choice
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