Africa Trip Part 6 – back in Nairobi

We spent our last night in Africa in Nairobi at the same hotel where we started – the Fairmont Norfolk. It was nice to get back into civilization again with a working wifi system, a TV, and a lovely place to have dinner. We retrieved our luggage containing our city clothes that we had stored there, and immediately sent a big load to be washed.

The highlight of our stay in Nairobi, and probably one of the main highlights of our whole African trip, was meeting a young Nairobi man, Pascal, for breakfast the next morning. I had heard about him through my friend and writing instructor, Ellen Bass, and our tour director, Anastasia’s Africa, helped arrange the meeting.

My husband Bob and I spent an hour with him talking about the Kenyan orphan situation – out of 30 million people in Kenya, 1.3 million are orphans caused by HIV/AIDS and cancer deaths of the parents – the economy, the Chinese poaching, and the corruption in the Kenyan government. After breakfast we walked into Nairobi’s already crowded and hot business district near the hotel as the shops were just beginning to open.

Pascal and I also exchanged information about our writing lives. He’s been writing since boyhood, and he recently had some short stories and poems published. One won a prize, which appears below. Because of his brother’s suicide death ten years ago he has been writing to heal – a subject near and dear to my heart. It always amazes me that no matter where I go or whom I speak with, I find they have or know someone who has suffered a similar loss as mine. Now I’m happy to say Pascal and I are sharing our writing and continuing our conversation through email.

Pascal is the CEO of G.R.A.C.E. Grassroots Alliance for Community Education., a not-for-profit organization that provides programs in early childhood development, orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) education sponsorship, agricultural development at its ten-acre farm in the Nanyuki district in the Mt. Kenya region, legal and social justice, and technical and financial assistance to their grassroots partners. When I first found out about this organization through Ellen about a year ago, I gave a little donation. Please join me. Here are some its donor partners in the United States.

Here is Pascal’s award winning poem:

The Flags are tattered

by Pascal Masila Mailu

Winner of 2011 Hay Festival poetry contest

The flags are tattered and stained, brethren

From Cairo to Jo'burg, Tunis to Addis.

Should we take a break from the tweeted riots

To revisit the blurred transition from OAU to AU...

From Gaddafi to the rebels......or is it NATO?

The flags are in tatters, mother

For in SA, they openly discuss the price

of old Madiba's casket

While the old icon sadly smiles

Weighed down by the impossible food and fuel prices.

And the wind…O what happened to the wind?

The powerful, revolutionary wind of change

That blew across the then green continent

in the rolling 60's and coup-infested 70s and 80s?

Have we finally replaced the Kalashnikov

with facebook?

The AK 47 with twitter?

The flags are tattered, elders

For today's youth swim in alien terminologies

coated with violence – pre and post election

tribal and clan-based

Sometimes hanging out or in

Eternally glued to giant screens,

Dying of state-induced idleness and self pity.....

The flags are tattered, children

for I anxiously await my exit - surrounded by sinking nations

Torn apart by negative ethnicity, oil-coated imperialism,

hollow political pledges and dusty manifestos

While slums mushroom in every open space....

Brother – what happened to the land we fought for?

Who stole our land and future

Leaving us cramped in Kibera, Soweto, Kawempe and Kechene?

Let’s take time brethren

To slowly mend the flags in between disputed elections

And re-inject authenticity to the national anthems

Lest the continent implodes from internal bleeding

In her mid fifties

Note we're toasting
with water and tea

Soon after our meeting with Pascal, our tour company arrived with two vans to take us to the airport. One to carry our luggage and the other to carry the four of us. While our travel mates went directly to Paris, Bob and I stopped for about twenty-four hours in Dubai before going  on to Paris for the last four days of our trip. What we all call the nadir of our trip was waiting for our flights out of Nairobi in the so-called business class lounge – hot, uncomfortable tents with porta-potties next door. It looked like the Nairobi airport still had a way to go to recover from its recent fire.

But I don’t want to end my tale of our African trip on a sour note. Again, I have to say it was a trip of a lifetime. I recommend it to everyone whether adventuresome or not. The people, animals, birds, and landscapes are breathtaking. One of these days I’m going to put out a picture book that will show you what I mean.

Does a long trip take its toll on our bodies?

Since my husband and I are both in our seventies and the couple we traveled with are in their late sixties, I started thinking about how traveling to far away places – especially Africa – can take its toll on our aging bodies. Here’s the precautions and planning I did to counter any possible adverse affects on what would be the trip of a lifetime.

First I needed to get a series of shots required for traveling to Africa – polio vaccine, hepatitis, tetanus, and yellow fever – the yellow fever injection was painful for quite a while. I also brought along a 25-day supply of malaria prevention pills that I started taking a few days before arriving in Africa and continued for seven days after we left. I brought along the original prescription bottle to avoid any questions at the airport.

What to pack for Africa was another issue. We were told to bring crushable duffle-type bags to Africa with the admonition that that bag and any of our carry on pieces should weigh no more than a total of 33 pounds. Space and weight restrictions on the mini twin-engine planes we had to take to get from place to place in Africa imposed that dictum. However, in hindsight I realized I didn’t pack quite enough. I needed a couple of lightweight sweaters for the cool mornings and a couple more changes of lightweight loose fitting slacks. Since I get an allergic reaction to the sun, I was very concerned about sun-protection clothing. I wore mostly dark colored clothing throughout the trip. Sun block was also essential.

The short flights we took within Africa were exciting – we could actually see wild animals from the plane’s window before we landed – but, the planes are hot, cramped, and a little nerve racking – especially while landing on dirt runways. I felt very relieved when we were finished with those.

Late afternoon during a rainstorm 

       Besides flying, we rode in open four-wheel drive vehicles and very bumpy almost non-existent roads while on safari. Because we mostly kept the plastic side windows rolled up we had to take care to prevent getting sunburned, wind burned, and inundated by the dust wafting in off the roads. I had a good solution – a big cotton knit scarf that I wore many different ways. If the morning was cold I wore it wound around my head and neck, if it was dusty, I used it to cover my mouth. And I wore it to protect my back and hands and arms from too much sun. I wore that scarf constantly. However, our guides were good about rolling down the windows and loaning us ponchos during the few rainstorms we encountered. They really knew how to take care of us.

       Also, the seats in the jeeps were very high off the ground. I had to learn to climb in using a series of narrow steps attached to the sides. I had to use those same steps but going backwards on the way down.

At the Ngorongoro Crater wearing 

my ubiquitous scarf

Dietary constraints were another consideration. Since I can’t eat dairy, gluten, or red meat, I let my tour organizer know of these restrictions well before I left home. I was very grateful that most places we visited were prepared to cater to my needs. However, that didn’t stop me or the others in our little group from having some digestive problems. I think those came from eating fresh vegetables washed in regular, unfiltered, African water. We were warned to drink and use only filtered water while brushing our teeth, but I guess they don’t follow their own warnings when handling food. Even so it’s amazing how even while staying in a tent camp, we took showers with running water, and toilets flushed like the ones at home. The staff just has to keep pouring water into tanks at the back of the tent to miraculously make that happen.

The long flights were also a concern. We had to take two separate flights to London with a long layover in between. And on our way home between Paris and Los Angeles, we took three flights with two layovers. We had luggage problems not just associated with packing, hauling, and checking, we had a mis-marked bag that didn’t arrive home until the day after we did.

And what about jet lag? I had the worst ever after this recent trip. I’d heard we are susceptible to a day of jet lag for every hour we’re out of our normal time zone. Well, at some points during this trip we were twelve hours on the other side of the clock. I finally began to feel normal on my eleventh day at home. During my jet lag phase I missed two appointments, made with the same person. I know I’ll never live that down.

I hope I haven’t turned anyone off from taking a trip like this. Experiencing the wonders of Africa was well worth the effort and occasional hardships. Like I said at the outset, it was a trip of a lifetime. Just be prepared if you decide to go.

       This piece (now slightly edited) was originally published at the Aging Bodies website where I contribute a monthly article.

Africa Trip Part 5 - Lake Manyara and Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania

Because we only stayed in Lake Manyara one night and had the same guide, Ray, from our arrival there until we left Tanzania at the Kilimanjaro airport two days later, I’ve decided to lump our days in both places together. Plus, their landscape and weather are similar – dry, dusty, with mostly red clay soil.

After a long plane ride to Lake Manyara, Ray picked us up in an enclosed truck with an open roof where we could stand up and take our photos by leaning out through the top. However, since I’m so short, I had to continually climb up and down from my seat so I could get my camera and head out there. Once we arrived at the national park and had our picnic lunch we proceeded to look for game – as we’ve done for the last eight days. And while I was beginning to feel ready to stop this, I began to click away with great enthusiasm, climbing up and down off my seat, and soon as I  saw more elephants, giraffes, and a lion relaxing in a tree. 

We stayed at the Lemala camp at the lake, and though smaller than the others, it was as beautifully appointed. Plus the food was excellent, including a great African buffet for dinner. The two chefs were very happy to cater to my dietary constraints.

Ray took us another game drive after we left Lake Manyara the next morning, and the highlight was seeing four lions looking very comfortable up on the branches of a tree. We also saw the blue monkey, thousands of pink flamingos, a great white pelican, ostriches, and more giraffes. Sadly, we also saw an elephant with one tusk.

Another sadness was the many beggars who came by every time we stopped. Although Ray discouraged us from giving them anything, he stopped the truck several times to give our leftover food to young boys walking along the road. Every village we passed showed this level of poverty. Lots of little shacks where people were trying to sell practically anything that they could: a few t-shirts and dresses hanging from a line, flimsy necklaces, and bracelets. There was a butcher shop and a place to buy medicines – called medics, umpteen curio shops, and beautiful rows upon rows of garden material on the other side of the road. However, everyone was trying to sell the same thing, so no one was buying anything. Except us. Much to our travel mate’s delight, Ray also took us to the best African handicrafts emporium of our whole safari experience during that drive.

We arrived at the Ngorongoro National Park by mid afternoon, and I was surprised and actually taken aback at the amenities it provided: actual toilets, picnic areas, lookouts. It lacked the raw and naturalness of the other reserves and parks we had visited. But then we should have known what was to follow: the Explorean Lodge where we would stay the next two nights. Here we were really back in civilization and a very elegant one at that. Our room was huge – actually it had a both a living room and bedroom – with an outdoor deck that looked out to the lodge’s huge vegetable and flower gardens. The food, however, was not so good. At first we all thought how lovely it would be to stay in this paradise for the rest of our lives, but after we sampled the food, we changed our minds. Going home soon was beginning to sound pretty good.

The next day, on our last game drive to the Ngorongoro Crater, further cemented our thoughts about leaving Africa. We drove and drove and drove up and down hills in a thick morning fog to get to the crater. There we saw wildebeeste and elephants and a few lions – actually a male lion was having his way with a female lion right in front of us – and many birds we hadn’t seen before. However, the red dirt road and so much foliage covered with red dust were what I remember most about this area. Every time another vehicle would pass it kicked up dust such that we were left with a coating of red dust on ourselves, inside ourselves, and upon every thing we carried. I wrote:

I’m satisfied

on this last day of safari.

I’ve seen more animals and birds

than I ever dreamed of – so many more

than Jonah could ever board in his ark.

The geography and weather varied

in each place we visited.

Bumpy hills with bare trees in hot Samburu,

a vast plain with little vegetation

called the Savanna in the Masai Mara,

rolling greens covered with dense rocks

and thunderstorms every evening in the Serengeti,

dust and hot dry air in Lake Manyara,

and now at our last place Ngorongoro

wind-blown red dusty soil that covers

all of me inside and out.

The next morning Ray drove us to the airport just past Arusha, Tanzania. We spent another four hours on a combination of bumpy and newly paved highways. He told us the Chinese designed and built the new roads with labor by Chinese prisoners and a few newly-trained Africans workers. The Japanese paid for the whole enterprise.

Africa Trip Part 4 - Serengeti, Tanzania

After a plane ride, a long drive in a car with a young and sophisticated woman at the wheel, careful and thorough customs checks when leaving Kenya and later arriving in Tanzania, and another plane ride, we arrived in the Serengeti. It turns out the Serengeti is located just a couple hours drive from where we were in the Masai Mara, but because of some kind of feud between the Kenyan and Tanzanian governments the nearby border was closed causing us to unnecessarily spend hours and the big bucks to get to our first Tanzanian destination. 

However, all was forgiven when our guide Nathan met us at the airport. Throughout our three-day stay there, he took us on what I thought were the most interesting game drives of our entire time in Africa – imagine seeing a mother and baby rhino before we even arrived at our next tent camp, the Olakira.

On that first drive we also saw two kinds of vultures, storks, hippos, elephants, and Masai giraffes. But the rhinos were the find of the day – perhaps even of the whole trip. Even Nathan hadn’t seen any rhinos in months.

The Olakira camp is much more traditional – without the elegant appointments of the Elephant Pepper camp. However, it does have running water into the sink making it much easier to wash out undies, a curtain separating the bath from the bedroom, and a large screened in living room outside of the bedroom. The food, however, was way worse.

As we traveled around the Serengeti with Nathan for three days, we began to call him a tracking genius. We saw leopards, lions, the Agama lizard that looks like Spiderman, many more kinds of antelopes, a very pregnant zebra, and more gorgeous birds including the woodland kingfisher, the lilac breasted roller, the gray heron, the yellow throated long claw, the gray headed social weaver, the little bee eater, and the marabou stork. 

Nathan also taught us some more Swahili words (Swahili is the language of Tanzania whereas the Kenyans speak English). “Twende” means let’s go and “Semama” means stop. Also “Pole-pole” means slowly, slowly. We used those words a lot while we were driving around. He also had his own language for asking us if we needed to stop to pee. “Do you need to “Pick a flower?” he’d ask ,and if we did he’d find us a suitable bush to hide behind.

The most exciting part of our Serengeti stay – aside from the rhino sightings – was watching the wildebeest and zebra cross the Mara River from the Kenya side to where we were in Tanzania - called the Migration. Nathan was intent. He took us back to the crossing point several times and finally when we were about to give it up we saw another game driver racing a ways up on the road we were on. Nathan followed at about 60 mph with the four of us in an open land rover without seat belts. But it was worth it. We got there just in time to see the wildebeests and a few zebras – about 500 animals in all – cross. It was like a stampede. Some were on each other’s backs. They filed down the cliff on the Kenya side, got into the water, swam, climbed over rocks, swam some more until they got to our side, and climbed out. A couple had trouble. One made it and was the last one out. The other appeared to be stuck between two rocks and couldn’t figure out how to back up to get out. Instead it kept struggling until exhausted. The croc hovering nearby never attacked. It just waited patiently for the wildebeest to die on its own. It was so sad to watch that we left before the croc got its dinner.

That afternoon, on our ride with Nathan, he miraculously found us another rhino. Out of only forty-five rhinos in the whole area, we were lucky to see three of them. And then it absolutely poured down rain the rest of the day.

Stay tuned for the next installment about Lake Manyara and the Ngorongoro Crater, also in Tanzania.

Africa Trip Part 3 - Masai Mara, Kenya

After our two nights in Samburu, we flew to the Masai Mara region in the southeast corner of Kenya. Here at 6000 feet altitude, the weather was cool. And each night while there we experienced enormous rains, such that our guide Simon insisted on rolling up the sides of our jeep and giving us ponchos to wear.

However, the animal and bird sightings there were spectacular. Even in the air before we landed we saw wildebeest, zebras, and giraffes below  - though in Masai Mara the giraffes, instead of being reticulated with patches of color outlined in white, are spotted. The zebras, the common Burchel, are smaller with wider spaced stripes than the Grevy's (my favorite because of the swirly look). Every zebra has unique stripe formations. 

Simon picked us up at the airport and was our guide during our stay. He also took us on a game drive as soon as we landed over a landscape called the Savanna – large plains with sporadic trees, mostly Acacia. And almost immediately he showed us lions – many lions – in families of thirty or more or just a few at a time. We also saw (to name a few) families of hippos in the Mara river and sleeping on the river bank, crocodiles, an attack by two cheetahs foiled by a horde of wildebeests, male water buffaloes with huge white horns that remind me of the wigs worn at the British Parliament, olive baboons, male and female ostriches, eagles, rollers, secretary birds, and the graceful gazelles (FYI, the Grant’s gazelle has a patch of white above its tail, the Thompson’s patch is underneath the tail.)

One of the reasons we traveled in late August and September was to witness the great migration of wildebeest and zebra across the Mara River. So we spent most of our last day at the Masai Mara waiting around the banks of the river for this great event. We did see a few zebra cross – a crocodile tried to take a bite out of one’s hoof, but the zebra managed to get away and complete the cross. This was not, however, the migration of thousands we had been told about. Those hordes of wildebeests and zebras stayed on the shore looking like they were having a meeting about when, where, and if they should go. Here’s a little poem I wrote about it:

Migration

Zebra and wildebeest

march toward the Mara River.

It’s time to cross

from one side to the other

as they do every six months

in their quest for more water.

They come in droves.

hundreds of them in long straight lines.

And as they get to water’s edge

they stop, look.

A few take the chance

and swim to the other side,

outracing the waiting crocodiles.

The others discuss

in shriek-y honks about when

and at which point to go.

Even though they don’t speak

the same language

heads nod in agreement

as they walk en masse in one direction

then to the other,

deciding which is the safest spot

to outwit crocs awaiting their prey.

A few zebras,

the nominal leaders,     

step toward water’s edge.

They turn, they walk back and forth,

back and forth, and the others follow.

They return to starting point one.

to wait out the crocs again.

Another adventure was a visit to the Masai Mara Cultural Center. This was pure entertainment, for a $20 fee each. The native adults and children performed for us, showed us a typical mud hut with a fire actually burning in the kitchen area, and we saw how they build a fire with a block of wood and a stick They also gave us a huge opportunity to buy their beautifully carved and beaded handicrafts. But, alas, Our tent camp manager, Patrick, said most natives don’t live like that anymore, that this center is really just for show, like a museum.

For our three days and nights at the Masai Mara we stayed at the Elephant Pepper tent camp. I would call that experience living in primitive elegance. Upon arrival Patrick warned us about keeping our tents zipped up at all times and any prescriptions and vitamins secured in our luggage or else the monkeys would steal our clothing and eat our pills. He also taught us how to take a shower to conserve water: turn the water on as soon as a staff member standing behind the tent calls out that the shower is ready, get wet, turn the shower off, lather up, and then turn the water on again to rinse off.

The tents at Elephant Pepper are beautifully appointed with fine wood furniture and bathroom counter tops, fine metal sinks and water pitchers – one for hot and one for cold, but for me it was hard to get used to no water coming out of a faucet in the sink and only so much warm water as allotted coming out of the shower head. Plus, we had very low lighting and no heat at night, but thankfully blankets galore. Again dining together with all the tent guests was a high point of camp life with a long table set in a way that would make Martha Stewart proud. Elephant Pepper camp also had a very homey feel. Patrick, his wife Sophie, and their baby Alexi made it so.

(By the way, in case you’re wondering about Wi-Fi and electronics), Elephant Pepper had Wi-Fi sporadically in the dining and lobby tents, and Patrick took care of charging our equipment every night in his office. However, though we had charging capabilities at the other tent camps we stayed at, we were without Wi-Fi for about a week during our Africa tour. That turned out not to be so bad.)

Africa Trip Part 2 - Samburu, Kenya

We left our Nairobi hotel bright and early on Sunday morning, September 2, and flew via Air Kenya to our first safari stop, Samburu, Kenya. The flight was approximately one and one-quarter hours, and every seat in the twin-engine plane was full. We landed in Samburu on a dirt runway and as soon as we deplaned we met our guide, Bon-i. Take a look. No words could describe his wonderful African costume and beaded accessories.

Almost immediately he piled Bob and me and our traveling companions, Joel and Susan, and our duffle bags, various backpacks, jackets, hats, scarves, and camera equipment into his open-sided four-wheel drive vehicle, and we set out on our first game drive.

Bon-i, who is very knowledgeable about the game and birds and landscape of the Samburu reserve, told us right away his goal for us was to see the Samburu special five: Grevy’s zebra (a larger animal with narrower stripes than the plain zebra), Somali ostrich, reticulated giraffe, gerenuk, and the beisa oryx. Of course he promised we’d see other wonderful animals and birds as well.

While he drove – with the driver’s seat on the right – he looked on the ground for footprints and dung deposits, and he talked on his car radio communication system to other guides in the area about the whereabouts of the animals. Even though I was bumping around a bit, I was just happy to be there. Any animals out in this vast reserve of grasslands, rugged and rocky hills and plains would thrill me to no end. As we drove we started to peel off our jackets and sweaters. Samburu was the hottest of the five areas in Africa we visited.

First, Bon-i taught us a few necessary words in Swahili (which has forty-two different dialects). Pretty soon we could say, “jambo” for hello, “asante sana” for thank you very much, and “karibu” for you’re welcome with the best of them. One of our favorites that we said over and over is “hakuna matata,” meaning no worries, a phrase made popular in the musical, “The Lion King.”

We spent three hours on this first drive – all in the direction of our lodge, Saruni. Here’s a short list of what we saw: a bustard, many Kirk’s dik-dik (one of the many kinds of antelope in Africa), black face monkey, crocodiles, Grevy’s zebra, female and male reticulated giraffes, guinea fowls, Grater kudu, a cheetah, the secretary bird, gerenuk, oryx, and a white leopard. Bon-i also pointed out huge ant farms, termite mounds (some dormant and some not), the turquoise bark of the juniper tree, the many acacia trees with huge hanging African weaver bird’s nests, and the many dry river beds in the area.

As promised we arrived at Saruni in time for lunch – about 1:30 – and we received the royal safari welcome: a line up of the staff in native costumes, a cold cloth, and a cold mixed drink of tea and juices.

Saruni, though not a tent camp, looks like it belongs to the land. Built on a hill we trekked up many steps to get to our suite. The four of us shared a living room, and each couple had a separate bedroom and bath with an outdoor shower. Did that feel good after our hot drive. Plus the view while showering was spectacular.

And I must say the food at Saruni was the best of all places for me. I was especially impressed with the Saruni staff, most notably Benson and Kennedy (who asked us lots of questions about American politics). Very mindful of my restrictive diet of no dairy, no gluten, and no red meat, they always served me something delicious and healthful.

We rested after lunch and went on another game drive late in the afternoon. This time we didn’t see as much: the skink lizard, cinnamon bee eater, and the augur buzzard, but Bon-i had the makings of nice little happy hour libations that we shared in the bush.

The next morning we left on our game drive before breakfast – Bon-i planned a picnic for us – and we really got into the thick of it. We saw the tiny bush babies up in a tree, more oryx (antelope), the red-billed horn bill, our first sightings of elephants, impalas, more Grevy’s zebra, mongoose, standing gerenuk, an olive baboon family, the Somali ostrich, Grant’s gazelle, and five more reticulated giraffes. While we ate breakfast on the banks of the Ewaso Ngiro (brown) river, we saw marabou and the absolutely superb starling.

On our way back to the lodge we asked Bon-i if it was possible to buy artifacts from the natives rather than the shop there. He called ahead and took us to a little airport area not too far from our lodge where several women in full regalia set up shop – really just stands made out of rickety wood. I bought colorfully beaded necklaces and bracelets – all for gifts to our great nieces – and Bob bought four beaded coasters. The woman who sold me my artifacts gave me a little bracelet, and we took a photo together.

The second day we deviated from an evening game drive. While Joel and Susan rested, Bob and I took a late afternoon guided walk to the Water Dam – about an hour’s trek up and downhill from the lodge. Bon-i was with us, and much to our surprise he brought along a ranger, dressed like a soldier who carried an automatic rifle. I guess those guys are serious about keeping the tourists safe. That was also evident in the evenings after dark. We always had a guide to walk us from our rooms back and forth to dinner, and that guide carried a flashlight and a spear.

We stayed at Saruni for two nights, and ate lunches and dinners with other guests at the lodge. This kind of gathering, sitting at long tables together, was a highlight of our safari experience. It was always nice to meet people from other parts of the world. Everyone told their favorite safari stories and shared about their animal sightings of the day.

And, thanks to Bon-i we saw each of the Samburu special five, and much, much more. Our next goal, however, was to see lions and rhinos. We'd see them at our next safari stop, Bon-i predicted.

The next installment is about Masai Mara and the Elephant Pepper tent camp.