Day One – Kenya – Massai Mara

Jumbo hello in Kenyan – (see, I’ve been here less than a day and I’m already fluent!!)

The journey here was reasonably uneventful……the pilot knew the way and didn’t get lost so all good there.

Once we arrived in Nairobi we were met by a representative of the Safari company who drove us to the local airport to catch our flight to the Massai Mara. There were only 9 other passengers on the plane and unfortunately for them – Jessie was driving (the plane!!) Jessie is my other daughter.
No, she doesn’t have a license, No she has zero experience! and No she has never flown a plane but the driver who was french, took a fancying to her so she sat next to him in the drivers seat. After about 20 mins she was fast asleep!! Hope that’s not normal co-pilot behaviour!!

After about 45 mins we arrived. The other 9 passengers got off with their ruck sacks which enabled us to collect our 5 pieces of luggage!! Apparently you can only have 15kg’s of luggage per person……hahahahahahaha……..the shoes weigh more than that!! We had expected to pay the excess baggage but no one asked us….result!! We had 104 kg between us
.
We were met by our driver Isaac….very biblical especially at this time of the year! Isaac is married with 4 children – 8 downwards. He is Christian, doesn’t drink – and obviously doesn’t have a TV!

We arrived at Il Moran (the Safari camp) and were given a quick explanation of how everything works at the camp and then it was lunchtime.

Main rule…..Once it’s dark you are not allowed to walk around by yourself. There are no walls or boundaries in the Massai so it’s all animal territory. Sometimes at night the Hippos come up from the river and wander through the camp and it has been know for Crocagators and Elephants to have a nose around too.

You are however given a torch!! Useful against a Hippo.!……”Wait Hippo before you charge at me and eat me…let me get my torch!!” Obviously far better for him to see you!

Our rooms are tents!! Really nice and very different..complete with ensuite bathroom and toilet!!..At night you have to zip yourself in – remember those Hippos!!

In the morning your Bulter man (ours is called Jackson) will come in at 6.00am with tea/coffee as it’s time to get up as we have to be at the car by 6.30.- generally about the time the animals all wake up and are ready for breakfast.

Our first lunch we were assaulted by flies….millions of the buggers. In the end, we cut up our food into bite size pieces and ate it whilst the other hand was constantly waving the bloody flies away. Not very pleasant. Lunch was averagely ok, if not exhausting. and then it was time for an afternoon siesta.- well deserved from fighting off all the flies.

Our first Safari drive was due to start at 3.30 – we were on time! Isaac our driver was there waiting for us, complete with picnic basket of wine and beer just in case we got thirsty!

Today we saw Impalas (small deer) a cheetah, a lioness, a giraffe, water hogs, buffalo, mon gooses (or is that geese?) kori bustard (that’s a big bird type thing) hippos, hyenas and a crocogator – not bad for day one.

Once we got back to camp – it was shower time as dinner is served at 8.00pm. It gets dark here around 7.00ish. There are only 2 other families here (10 tents in all) – we have 2. A family from San Francisco have 2 rooms *
(tents) and the other family have 6 kids so I’m guessing they have 4 tents…. and no TV either!

Dinner was fine until the rains started!! All meals are eaten outside – so when the rain started it was just a small shower until it became a monsoon! An hour and a half later it is still monsooning! Fortunately our tents dont have holes in them but I have to say it’s very noisy with the rain banging on our tent! After 2″ fell it stopped!!

So, it’s 11.00pm now and I”m a bit tired now so I will bid you farewell until tomorrow when I will fill you in our next adventure!!

Toodle Pip, Good night….until tomorrow…….

Love

Anna x