African Adventures -- Lions and All!

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Visiting Africa and going on Safari for the first time made this portion of our trip the most adventurous and educational to date. Africa is another world: uniquely pure, relativly undisturbed and impoverished. We have a new understanding of survival and life - - both from a human and animal's perspective, after visting Kenya and Tanzania.

With the great recommendation of Arthur Frommer and the fantastic itinerary created by Kenneth Hieber of 2 Afrika.com, we spent 14 days in Africa on Safari in Kenya and Tanzania, with Vintage Africa leading us from Nairobi (home base the Intercontinental Hotel), to safari in Kenya (7 nights in Mt. Kenya, Lake Nakuru & Masa Mara), and then on to Tanzania (4 nights in Tarangire & Ngorongoro Crater).

Nairobi- Welcome to Kenya and the developing world, where basic infrastructure, running clean water, electricity, paved roads, technology, political stability, sound health and active police are not the norm, nor expected. Kenya has the third greatest desparity between rich and poor of any nation, and approximately one-third of Nairobi's 3 million population live in shanty town conditions with no water, housing or clean conditions. Theieves are frequently punished by the community 'mob rule' style and government corruption with officials misalocating funds using almost dictatorial executive powers abounds. So why did we come? Because Africa has truly amazing animal reserves and parks found no where else and the people of Kenya & Tanzania are genuenly warm, resiliently happy and in remote areas, ancient tribal culture still survives (Masai & Bushmen). While in Nairobi, we went to the Karen Blixen museum (whose life story is Out Of Africa), the Rothchild Giraffe Center and met up with family member Farida Saleh (sister of Kathy's cousin's wife Shadia). We enjoyed 13 different types of meats (favorites crocodile & zebra) at Carnivore restaraunt, and an exotic French meal with Somali lobster & fresh pasta at Alan Bobbie's Bistro with Cristin Haggard and friends. We later ddiscovered that we had eaten lunch at the Intercontinental beside Kenya's former Vice President Saitoti. Having recently been ousted by President Moi, Saitoti is the talk of the nation, as many would like him to seek the Presidency during the upcoming election (Kenya's third). Saitoti was having a drink with other Members of Parliment poolside before speaking at a peacful rally across from the Intercontintal, attended by thousands marching, singing and shouting in front of our hotel.

Mt. Kenya Mountain Lodge proved to the perfect first safari stop, given the animals come to see you at a large waterhole outside your room window. This was especially fortunate because Kathy came down with a 24 hour flu (which Neil would catch the following day). By this time we were starting to get used to Kenya's dirt, pothole roads which we would endure our entire 2 weeks in Africa. We spent a day at Lake Nakuru and had our first big game drive where we saw girafes, elephants, rhinos, and the famous flamingos. Over 1.5 million flamingos dot the edge of the lake all year long and make for a beautiful picture.

From there it was off to the Masai Mara National Park -- the most popular area in all of Kenya. It was in the Mara--as the locals call it -- that we had our best days. We saw all of the Big 5 --elephant, lion, leopard, buffalo, and rhino --and many wilderbeast, cheetah, girafes, Grant gazelle, Thompson gazelle, impala, hippos, hyenas, snakes, and lots and lots of birds. While on game drives most mornings and evenings in Kenya and Tanzania, we would see these animals, park our jeep, snap pictures, and be educated by our guides -- Peter in Kenya and Roman in Tanzania. We spent 6 nights in luxury, open-air tents (with animal noises around) and others in safari lodges. The food was included and exellent and the local Tusker beer went well with most meals. In addition to the game drives, we learned about the tribes of Africa and visited a Masai village (where they still live in houses made of cow dung, drink cows blood, and girls are married off at age 14 to a poligamist man 2 or 3 times her age!)

While we had many amazing days on safari, we had one day in Africa that we will NEVER, EVER forget. The day began at 4:30 am when we awoke for a sunsrise, morning hot air balloon ride over the Mara -- a must if you ever go to Africa. On the way home from our morning game drive, our driver suddenly yelled, 'Cheetah!' We couldn't see what he was talking about, but off the road and into the hills we drove. To our amazement, we saw a cheetah kill a baby warthog and watched 3 other cheetahs race around for the kill. We were very close (maybe 15 feet) and it was incredibly exciting to see the cats run. Just when we thought the day couldn't get any better -- it did! We sat in between a group of lionnesses and their 6 cubs for about an hour. The cats were literally right next to our car, and miracle of miracles, we were the only car there. Ok -- yes our day did get even better! Just as the sun was settting (itself a moving experience), our guide, Peter, noted that a bunch of zebra were staring off in one direction looking quite scared. We drove off and witnessed something we will never quite forget and will probably never see again: We saw a lioness kill a zebra! After she had completed her job, 2 other lions and their 6 cubs arrived on the scene to duke it out for the kill. The 2 lion theives won and the more lady who had done the job was left to watch the others enjoy HER kill. What a sight to behold -- lions and their 6 cubs demolishing a zebra with the sun dropping along the Masai Mara. As we slept that evening in our tent that night (with Masai warriors carrying flashlights and spears to guard us from big animals), we heard lions roar, hippos moan, and a waterbuck walk right beside out tent. We were a bit scared to be honest, but truly excited to be in such a beautiful and wonderous place. As we reflected on the day, we were reminded that Africa is truly a land of survival and struggle for both animals and humans.