Stop #9: Kenya, Africa 

One of my favorite sightings (and photo) in Masai Mara <3

I really don’t want to “pick a favorite place” from our travels (as I know everyone will ask), but I have to say that Kenya might be it!  Even though all the other countries were fun, interesting and full of great memories, the safari in Kenya was mind blowing.  I’ve been on a safari in Tanzania about 15 years ago (which was excellent), but this one was far better.  This could be largely due to the fact that we had a PRIVATE all-inclusive safari tour, so we got to do a lot more than I was able to do with a big group last time.  This adventure was actually our official wedding gift – instead of asking for a lot of tangible items for our wedding, we created a Honeyfund.  100% of the money we received from the Honeyfund, and from cards, was used to pay for this safari.  It wasn’t cheap!  But with your help, we were able to afford it and have the best “real honeymoon” imaginable.  Thank you for making it all happen!

Our journey from Santorini to Kenya went quite smoothly, and we were warmly greeted by our guide at the airport.  He took us directly to one of the best hotels in Nairobi – the Crown Plaza.  Luckily, even though we arrived very early in the morning, they let us check in.  And you know what we did that entire day??  Relax and enjoy the amenities!  After about 6 weeks of straight travelling, it was time to take a “day off” and let our bodies (and minds) recuperate.  We started off with a very fine breakfast buffet, then did a ton of laundry in our hotel room, then worked out at the gym, then I worked for several hours to catch up on emails, then I updated the travel website, and then we ended the day with a very fine dinner.  That may sound hectic to you, but if you know how Lorenzo and I area, we CAN’T SIT STILL.  Staying within the premises of a hotel is “relaxing” to us, especially if we get to catch up on a lot of needed tasks. 

The next morning, our guide picked us up and took us to the Giraffe Centre, where we got to pet and feed baby (and mama) giraffes.  It was the first time I ever got to do this, and we loved it!  Up close, and even far away, I admired how beautiful giraffes really are.  Their fur is soft, their eye lashes are long, and their patterns are very pretty.  The only gross thing about them is their tongue which is black, very long, scratchy and very slimy.  After feeding them, I felt like Slimer slimed my hand.  And next, we visited the baby elephant sanctuary.  This is an organization that collects lost, abandoned and injured baby elephants, and raises them until they are 2 years old.  This is because baby elephants must drink milk up until the age of 2.  Once the babies become 2 years old (and are healthy enough), they are released back into the wild.  It was the cutest experience ever!  We saw two different groups of baby elephants get bottled fed milk… you could hear the sucking and see the happiness in their eyes.  After they ate, they were free to explore.  One of the babies ran right into Lorenzo and me and would hardly back off!  His skin was super rough and hairy, and his head was big and hard.  Luckily, the rangers helped take away the baby.  It was cool though!

The next day, we drove a few hours to Lake Naivasha for a boat safari.  I actually forgot that this was part of the tour package, so it was a great surprise!  We hopped on a little boat and went all over the lake, spotting tons of birds and several hippos.  I’ve never seen a hippo in the wild before, so I was SO excited.  And there they were, submerged in the water with just their eyes poking out of the water, watching us.  Up until now, I didn’t realize how dangerous hippos really are.  I thought they were just fat, lazy animals that cruise around.  But then I learned that hippos actually kill more humans than lions!  They have huge jaws and extremely sharp tusks that would rip you apart.  They are very mean animals; they tend to kill when something or someone is in their path (like going into or out of the water).  I also didn’t realize how huge these animals are.  Even though I mostly only saw their heads, their heads were massive!  If I found a hippo head on the floor, I don’t think I could pick it up.  We did actually see a dried up hippo jaw bone, which even Lorenzo struggled to pick up.

That evening, we stayed at a very nice resort by the lake called Simba Lodge.  We had our own cabin, which sat in front of the wild.  The place was surrounded by wild animals, so we weren’t even allowed to walk past the fence near our cabin… but of course, we wanted to.  As we approached the fence, a security guard approached us.  He offered to take us past the fence to check out the wild, which we gladly accepted.  Out there, we saw several hippos, tons of zebra, buffalo, birds, and giraffes!  The guard was SO cool – he took us right up to the giraffe so we could take pictures.  It was a really funny scene, because one of the giraffes was directly facing us, as we took a bunch of selfies.  He let us get real close and didn’t even move.  Getting up close to giraffes in the Giraffe Centre was really cool, but getting up close to them in wild was far more exciting.  I love giraffes!  That evening, we enjoyed a very nice dinner (food and wine in Kenya is EXCELLENT), and rested up for our big journey…

The next day was the Big Day – the long drive to the Masai Mara (approx. 7 hours).  Masai Mara is one of the larger game reserves in Africa that is connected to the Serengeti.  The Serengeti is very famous, but they say that since the Masai Mara is smaller, it condenses the animals more (and you can see more).  And it was completely true because we saw WAY more animals that I ever expected!  I really don’t remember seeing this many animals during my last safari in Tanzania.  One things that may have contributed to this fact is the time of the year.  It is currently Springtime where we were, so there was lots of water, fresh green grass, and tons of babies everywhere!  The plains looked far more green than we expected, which was really beautiful to see.  Last time, all my photos had brown backgrounds, but this time, my photos have nice color in them – all shades of green.  Even though July (next month) is when the Great Migration is, we still got to see tons of animals grazing throughout the reserve.  If you only get one chance in your life to go to a safari, I would recommend the Spring time (right after the rainy season).  Again, the scenery is prettier, there are many animals around due to the fresh food, lots of babies, and the weather is cooler and extremely refreshing.  We lucked out!

When we got to the place we were to stay for the next 3 nights, we were extremely impressed.  The place is called Mara West, and located up in the hills, overlooking the Masai Mara.  The views were gorgeous, there were lots of animals everywhere, and our cabin-tent was so incredibly cute!!  The cabin-tents are basically wooden platforms in which a very heavy duty (and very large) tent is fixed on.  They are very spacious and are even connected to a private bathroom and shower.  I loved it!  I would much rather stay here than in a fine resort, as it is far more natural and exciting. The only thing that was a tiny bit inconvenient was that we were not allowed to leave our tent passed sunset, without a security escort.  The reason for this is because the resort was located in the wild, surrounded by all types of animals, including hyenas.  The first night that our escort walked us to dinner, he pointed out what a hyena sounded like because they were everywhere.  It was super creepy because they sound like nasty little clowns, giggling to each other and planning their next kill.  Once the escort showed us what hyenas sounded like, I heard them all night long!  Needless to say, that night was the most terrible night of sleep I had on this trip.  I thought I went into the wild to enjoy peace and quiet, but actually, the wild is extremely noisy at night… birds chirping, bugs buzzing, animals walking, and hyenas laughing.  I tossed and turned all night long…

The next day was the day we came to Kenya for – an all day safari out in the Masai Mara.  We spent 7 hours driving allll around the reserve, and saw more animals than you can name!  Here is a list of most of the animals we saw (please forgive my spelling on some of them) - Monitor Lizard, Spotted Jackal, Zebras, Harte Beast, Hippos, Elephants, Warthogs, Wildebeast, Cape Buffalo, Topi, Black Rhino, Lions, Cheetas, Hammer Kob bird, Secretary bird, African Fish Eagle, African Grey Crown Crane, Ingrid bird, Banded Mongoose, Egyptian Geese, Olive Baboon, Common Ostrich, Saddle-billed Stock, Yellow-billed Stork, King Fisher, Nile Crocodile, Thomson Gazelle, Impala, Dik Dik, Wattled Plover, Spur-winged Plover, Thickme, Masai Giraffes, Chanting Gosh Hog, Black-bellied Bustard, Ginea Fowls, Southern Ground Hornbill, Waterbucks and a couple of dung beetles rolling a ball of poop.

And we got to see all these wonderful animals from our private safari jeep, which had a roof that popped up, so we could stand up and watch everything without any obstructions of our view.  I loved this feature for the fresh air, and Lorenzo loved it because he loves to stand in or on the side of a vehicle during off-roading.  And plenty of off-roading we did!  The ride was quite bumpy, but very exciting.  We pretty much stuck to the legal dirt path for the most part, except when we finally spotted a cheetah and broke the boundaries.  We actually followed the cheetahs into Tanzania, which was definitely off the legal road.  Lorenzo and I were extremely happy because we go to see two (male) cheetahs up close and personal, but our driver was not happy because he got busted by the ranger.  That darn ranger came out of nowhere!  He came right up to us, pulled us over, and had Lorenzo and I step out, while he had a private discussion with our driver.  I’m not sure what exactly happened, but supposedly our driver got off the hook.  He seems bummed about getting caught, but still very excited about the whole cheetah experience.  Intense but fun!

One of my favorite stories in the Masai Mara has to do with elephants.  We were way out in the boonies with no other cars in sight, and we ended up behind a large herd of elephants who wouldn’t get off the legal path.  But we didn’t mind at all, we were more than happy to follow this herd and watch their behavior.  It was a bunch of mamas with their babies, and maybe one or two males.  We were so close to them!  When the whole herd stopped, we would stop, and when they started walking again, we’d drive up a bit. There was one point where we were driving a bit, and a mama turned around quickly and threw open her ears (a sign that she’s planning to charge).  At first, I could tell that our driver thought about driving away quickly, but then he decided to just turn off the car and wait.  He said if we kept quiet, she would feel no threat, which turned out be true.  So then she continued to walk again.  And since the herd wouldn’t get off the path, we had to continue following them.  A little while later, a baby elephant turned around and faced us, staring at us with eyes that said “what the hell is that thing??”.  We thought he was just curious and would go away, but actually he continue to approach the front of our vehicle and throw his trunk violently from side to side.  His ears were flapping around and he tried stomping his feet… we couldn’t stop laughing!!  This tiny little elephant was trying to scare us away.  Eventually, the mother turned around to see what was going on, and started to come our way.  So we turned slightly off the road to go away.  And as we did that, the baby elephant honked at us like he was saying “Yeah that’s right!  Get out of here!!”.  He stood beside his mother with such great pride, like he just defended the herd from danger.  It was so darn cute!!

This little guy got in our way and started punking us!

We had 3 sightings of lions during our 3-day safari.  The first time was just a bunch of lionesses laying around a bush.  The 2nd time, we saw 8 lions trying to eat a dead hippo lying in the mud.  Actually, 7 lions and lionesses were laying around while one female was standing on top of the hippo, trying to break the skin open.  Apparently, hippo skin is extremely thick, but when left out in the sun long enough, it cracks.  Unfortunately, the lioness was struggling to break open the hippo (and taking forever), so we never got to see the guts.  The 3rd time we saw lions was on our way out of the Masai Mara… 4 lionesses and about 8 cubs were crossing the road.  We were so fortunate to see them very up close.  The babies were so cute!!  After seeing these beautiful creatures several times, I’ve learned to love them even more, and respect them.

I could tell you stories all day long from what we experienced in the Masai Mara, but I’ll just tell you one more.  This involved another big herd of elephants.  As we were driving along, minding our own business, we approached this river which had many elephants on the other side.  At first, there were a few other cars watching the same scene, but then they got bored and left.  Then as soon as those cars left, the entire herd of elephants decided to cross the river and head exactly in our direction.  We just sat in the jeep with the roof open, and watch them miraculously cross the river.  The water was too deep for the babies, so they used their trunks to hang onto the tails of their mamas.  We could watch the river water pulling them downstream, but all the mamas worked together to help the babies make it to the other side.  It was incredible to watch!  With great team work, the entire herd made it across the river, and walked straight towards us.  A couple of the mamas used their trunks to pick up dirt and through it on their heads and backs (to stay cool?)… and then the babies did the exact same thing 😊  It was amazing to watch nature… seeing how animals work together to help each other succeed, and how babies watch and copy their parents to learn new skills.  Simply amazing.

Elephants are the most emotional creatures, and the best mothers <3

The 2nd night in our cabin-tent was quieter (due to light rain), so we slept fairly better.  But our sleep was cut short because we had to get up at 4:30am to catch a hot air balloon ride!  When I was in Tanzania long ago, several of my friends went on a hot air balloon ride above the game reserve.  I couldn’t go at that time because it was really expensive and I didn’t have much money to do the extra activities.  You could guess how jealous I was when they all came back to tell me about how amazing the air balloon ride was!  From that moment on, I dreamed of coming back to Africa and going on a hot air balloon ride above a game reserve.  It was very high on my bucket list, and I truly wished that it would come to realization.  And here I am, 15 years later, FINALLY getting to that bucket list item!  It was so expensive that Lorenzo and I considered not doing it, but I knew that if we didn’t do it now, I probably would never get to do it in my lifetime.  I lived for over a decade with that regret and I wanted to end it now.  So we got picked up at 5:30am and headed over to our balloon.

There were 3 air balloons going up that morning, each with 12 to 16 people each.  At first I was turned off by the number of attendees, but then I quickly realized how spacious the basket was.  I did a hot air balloon ride once before (in Napa Valley), but the set up of this one was a bit different.  It turned out that everyone had plenty of space to see everything during the entire ride… and what a ride it was!  To see the great plains of Masai Mara from a bird’s eye view was a dream come true… to see how vast the place is, and to see all the groups of animals in different areas.  Our pilot kept the balloon fairly low so we could see the animals closely, which was super cool.  We saw areas of the Masai Mara that no one else could visit, and animals hiding in the wild – elephants, zebras, antelope, black rhinos, hippos, crocodiles and so much more!  The best part about it was that Lorenzo was having a blast. I could see the excited in his eyes and the passion he feels for nature and all the animals.  Lorenzo belongs in nature far more than he belongs in a city; happiness radiates from his soul when he’s put in a natural environment, especially when he can see places that most people will never get to see.  It was definitely a special moment we shared 😊   And if that ride wasn’t enough, we ended up having a champagne breakfast “in the bush” when we landed.  I don’t even know where we were – somewhere in the middle of Masai Mara.  We enjoed a nice breakfast with lots of champagne with the other balloon riders… it was fun!

But our day did not end there.  Shortly after we returned back to camp, our guide dropped us off at a Masai Village.  This is a native tribe that lives in the Masai Mara, living off the land in the most natural way.  Their homes are basically mud huts, made with straw and water, mashed with elephant poo.  The material keeps their homes warm and cool throughout the year.  We got to go inside of one and see their (extremely tiny) kitchen with a small fire and boiling pot of water.  We also got to see their (extremely tiny) “bedrooms”, and the room where they let their cow sleep.  Which cow gets to sleep there?  I don’t know.  The Masai spend most of their time herding animals, educating their young ones and upkeeping their village.  They move every 10 years to allow the land to replenish itself, which I thought was very interesting.  They also move every time someone dies, as the area is now considered back luck.  In the end, the villagers tied to sell us a ton of trinkets, which we weren’t keen on buying or keeping.  But we did buy a few things, as more of a donation.  Lorenzo ended up buying two sticks, which I thought was ridiculous… until the natives taught him how to make a fire with them!  They said that he was the first tourist who could actually do it on his own.  Oh my mountain man <3

Lorenzo participating in the "warrior dance", which entailed a lot of jumping

That evening, we were escorted on a sunset nature walk, which I really enjoyed.  We saw lots of animals and learned more about everything.  My favorite part was watching the sunset amongst the clouds.  I always said that Africa has the most beautiful sky in the world, and I still believe it.  Even though it was very cloudy and not as colorful as I remember, it was still gorgeous.  I’m not quite sure what it is, but somehow the African skies make me feel calmer, happier and refreshed.  That evening we enjoyed one last dinner in the Mara and packed up for our long journey home.  In the morning, our driver took us on a very long (approx. 8 hours) ride back to Nairobi, where we checked into the Safari Club hotel in the City Centre.  We decided to spend the next day doing laundry, catching up on work, working out, and preparing for Dubai.  Although we were very excited to visit Dubai, we actually had no idea what to expect… read about it in the next blog!

PHOTOS OF KENYA