Kenyan experiences

A little over a week into my trip now and I feel like I've left everything behind and am really enjoying not knowing what day it is or thinking ahead much more than what I'll be eating for my next meal. There is a lot to share from my experiences so far, but as I'm at a slow internet cafe in Stone Town, Zanzibar, Tanzania I'll have to summarize a few key points and then try and fill in the gaps at a later time.

Nairobi
I passed through Nairobi for my first night in Africa and again for a brief few hours when leaving Kenya on my way to Tanzania. I didn't see much during the one night I was there, but did find it interesting that every ATM in the city has at least one guard posted by it all night long. I had to try 4 ATMs before I could find one that accepted my card and was working and at each one the guard just sat there quietly while I conducted my transactions. It was a bit of a strange experience, but was comforting in a weird sort of way.

On my way back through Nairobi I visited the Giraffe Center and the Karen Blixsen museum. The former is run by a non-profit to raise funds for animal welfare and to provide education mainly about giraffes. They have about 6 Rothschild giraffes there (an endangered subspecies of giraffe) which have largely been raised in captivity. The highlight is that you get to grab a handful of feed pellets and hand feed the giraffes. It is a fun experience, though I have to say that giraffes salivate a bit when eating so the nearby handwash station was well positioned. I passed on the "kiss" experience which is to put some food pellets between your lips and have the giraffe lick them from there. Ummm...can you say I want to wash my face?

The Karen Blixsen museum was interesting especially as I didn't know much about her at all. She was the author of Out of Africa and used the pen names Tania Blixsen and Isak Denisen in addition to her own name. The museum itself is in her former home and is largely a reproduction of it when she was there. Some of the decorative and furniture pieces are original and others are from the movie. It was good for a short visit, but I wouldn't classify it as a must see in Nairobi.

Il N'gwesi
This was my first real stop on my vacation and it was spectacular. This is a real gem of a place that I would add to my list of places to return to. Although it is very remote (1.5 hours from the main airstrip over a bumpy dirt track) once you are there is well worth it. The location is on a hillside overlooking about 20 miles of relatively untouched forest and the view is outstanding especially at sunrise. There are 6 bandas (bungalows) and I had #1 which is supposed to be the best one. I was told that Prince William, the eldest son of Princess Diana and Prince Charles, has stayed in that banda on a few occasions and I can see why. There is a wooden deck which extends out over the hillside a bit and overlooks the water hole where animals come to drink. It is large enough that upon request the staff will move the queen size bed from within the room to the deck and you can sleep under the stars (with mosquito net of course due to the malaria risk).

I had them do that and slept under the full moon on a nearly cloudless night. It was an amazing experience. The last night I was there as I went to sleep I heard the elephants feeding about 50 meters down the slope from me and saw a few waterbucks drinking at the watering hole and then awoke to a concert of birdsong.

There weren't many animals at Il N'gwesi, but you go for the setting and not the game. From the hillside though you can look down at the animals in the forest and can see a huge area which gives you the ability to spot what little game there is much more clearly. I kept thinking it was like the overhead forest view shown in the movie Jurassic Park because it was a little bit other-worldly.

If you are coming to Kenya I would put this on the must see list if you want something quiet, relaxing and peaceful. Likely it will be found soon enough and in 10 years you might read about this place in a top 100 list somewhere.

Basecamp Masai Mara
This camp was completely different than Il N'gwesi. It is an eco-tourism lodge that prides itself on its extreme measures for low impact tourism. I would say that they are doing a great job in this regard and highly commend them. For me the highlight was going to the Mara and seeing the game though.

I was there for 3 full days and during that time saw a large number of animals. Admittedly the animals are so used to people and vehicles that one has to wonder whether the experience is "real" or not, but it was still interesting. The key highlights were:

• Watching a lionness dragging a wildebeast kill into the trees. Later we returned to find 3 lionnesses and 4 cubs sleeping in the same area and believe that they had just fed on the kill.
• Watching a female cheetah stalk a gazelle only to give up when another jeep approached and scared the gazelle away.
• Watching the crossing (migration) of zebra and wildebeast across the Mara river in both directions at the same time while crocodiles lazily slept nearby. Then seeing a baby wildebeast return to the river when it realized its mother had not crossed and seeing it risk crossing back to return to its mother.

I saw lions each day and had numerous sitings of gazelle, impala, buffalo, elephants, giraffes, warthogs, and cheetah. There was also a leopard siting in the river directly below my tent, but it was at night and dark so I only heard the leopard calling and didn't see it.

Stone Town, Zanzibar
I've had only one day in Stone Town as I arrive late last night and leave early tomorrow morning. It is a very touristy location and there really isn't much here to see, plus it is relatively busy compared to the parks and reserves that I've been staying in. I really can't wait to move on to Pemba tomorrow where I'll be staying on a small sailing yacht just off a beach. I guess after a week in Africa being in a small town already seems stressful and hectic to me. I have to wonder what it will be like to return to the city after this trip.