SAFARI

Trip Start Sep 27, 2005

Trip End Oct 09, 2005

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Flag of Kenya Nairobi, Kenya
Friday, September 30, 2005

I had the travel bug so I went to Nairobi to do some networking and since my buddy Tom had a conference, we decided to make for a long weekend and head to the Masai Mara for an amazing safari experience.

Nairobi was amazing. Such a melting pot of people and to me it is a metropolitan place. We stayed at this great resort where the conference was being held and was thrilled to death over simple things like "The Week" magazine in their magazine rack. I am sure I have a few of these by now stacked up in SF. The day in Nairobi was spent visiting various NGOs, the UN and other people I have met over the past few months- a busy day. George, my driver was so great. I invited him to have lunch at Java House, the happening place to eat and he was a bit shocked- probably a little too unusual to eat with a white person you are driving around but I did not care.

Elephants

We only had a couple of looks and I did not care. I was just enjoying watching George eating a huge hamburger with fries. I had this gigantic latte and chicken salad. Dinner was at some of Tom's friends home who have lived in Kenya for many years. The next day we headed for the Masai Mara.

We boarded a tiny tiny plane for a 45 minute flight to a place called Little Governors Camp. It was sad to see all of the slums from above as we were leaving Nairobi but so cool to see all of the wildebeest and zebra running below as we reached the Masai Mara, in the western part of Kenya close to the Tanzanian border. Little Governors Camp was wonderful as well as our 17 yr veteran guide, Samuel. When we arrived we were greeted with a glass of fresh mango juice and informed of the scheduled activities for the next 2 days. Lunch was served sitting out looking over a vast green landscape. Just in front was a large marsh where 10 or so elephants would come out to eat and bathe. Around 3:30 pm., we headed out with Samuel and some German guy that visits every year. We saw giraffes, zebras, wildebeest, elephants and lions. It was simply amazing! The binoculars even made it more spectacular because you could see every element of their markings and just how beautiful they were-especially the set of 3 lion brothers.

There were around 20 or so other guest and we all gathered in the sitting/bar area for a drink before dinner

Giraffe on 1st day

. Dinner was served under a tent, but not game food as some would think but chicken one night an steak the other.

Early the next morning we took a balloon ride - wow is all I can say. Our pilot was an Australian who took the opportunity to work at the camp for a few months and brought his darling family to Kenya as well. The ride was something I will remember forever- especially the landing as most women were screeching as we landed a rolled over sideways. The trucks picked us up and we headed to a huge breakfast spread with everything from champagne to eggs to chocolate croissants. After this, we headed back to the camp to eat once again and then went for the afternoon safari hunting where we saw hyenas, more lions, crocodiles, hipos. The next day was our final day of the safari experience and we had a packed breakfast in the middle of the Masai and then went to visit a village.

The plane ride back seemed longer probably because I was tired from our 5:30 wake up calls. We met more of Tom's friends at the newest sushi joint before we headed to the airport. The airport was backed up because of a cargo crash so we decided to just spend the night in the airport and jump on the morning flight back to Kampala.