Time flies when you're having fun! And June sure did fly by :)
The last week or so of Peter's visit was super fun with trivia night at the Canadian High Commission (ok, so we're not as smart as we thought!), impromptu dinners with the flatmates, and of course safari! I mean, you cannot come all this way, to KENYA, and not go see the animals, right? So off we went to the Maasai Mara for a few days.
We splurged a bit and flew instead of driving and we stayed in a lovely hotel, the Mara Serena. The hotel had a pool, spa, bar (the works really) but was nestled away on a hill top with a spectacular view - the animals were right outside our window! The rooms were very cute - I felt like I was in the Flintstones. However, I do think staying in a tent (ahem, a luxury tent) is still the way to go.
Up early (this was to be the theme of the next three days) and took a tiny plane from Wilson airport to an even tinier airstrip in the Mara. And thus our adventure began!
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| The beautiful vista as seen from our itty bitty plane |
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| Ready for our vacation! |
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| The lobby with amazing view |
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| Some of the animals we could see from our window - buffalo and giraffes |
Day 1 - lunch, rest, afternoon safari, dinner, documentary about cheetahs, bed.
On a side note, I refuse to call going to look at animals a "game drive" as this implies hunting which I in no way condone. A lot of people would say safari also means hunting animals however the word actually means "journey" in Kiswahili.
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| Cheeky baboon |
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| Croc |
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| Oh look, there's a Hippo too |
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| I will never get tired of acacia trees |
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| Highlight of the day - 3 lionesses and about 8 cubs |
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| Cool birds - egrets maybe? |
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| Elephants in the rain - so many of them! |
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| Lots and lots of buffalo |
Day 2 - get up early for morning safari, look for cheetahs (obviously!), have breakfast with HIPPOS, nap, lunch, afternoon/evening safari, dinner, Massai warrior performance, fire pit, bed.
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| Sunrise |
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| More elephants (and a baby!) |
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| We're going in there?! Our driver, Dedan, was awesome |
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| Black rhinos |
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| Male hippo just walking around |
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| Found the lionesses again...without the cubs |
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Champers for breakfast? Yes, please!
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| Well worth the early start |
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| Beside the hippos?! Awesome |
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| I love the lone tree! |
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| Oh! They were a huntin' (munching on zebra carcass) |
Day 3 - get up early for morning safari, look for the Lion King (for real, we looked forever for the male), look for more cheetahs (very elusive, apparently crossed over into Tanzania so we could not follow), breakfast, pedicure, chillax by the pool, check out the steam room and spa facilities, hop on a plane home.
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| Sunrise #2 |
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| Tracking big cats... |
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| All the way to Tanzania! (But didn't cross the "border") |
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| Thomson's Gazelles (and baby!) |
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| Impala |
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| Hyena |
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Buffalo! They follow you like cows...creepy
I fortunately had the next three days off work so Peter and I spent every waking (and non waking) moment together and prepared ourselves for a long three months apart. I think the highlight was taking a matatu into town (CBD or central business district) and just walking around like silly tourists. The matatu journey in itself was an adventure I had yet to work up the nerve to do in my months prior - it really cannot be explained for those that have never been here but check out YouTube to see what I'm talking about.
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| A matatu |
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| Being a good tourist, taking pictures of random buildings |
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| Stopped to have a drink - introduced Peter to the shandy! |
After walking around the dusty streets of Nairobi trying not to get pick-pocketed (one cannot be too careful!) we treated ourselves to some fancy cocktails at the Sankara hotel in Westlands. Very ironic to rock up to a swanky hotel all sweaty and gross having just gotten off a matatu that cost us 50 KSH each (about $0.75).
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| Me and my boy :) |
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| Mmmmm drinks and nibbles and the Sankara roof top patio |
And before I knew it Peter was back on a plane to Toronto and I was sitting in the apartment all by myself :(
Of course I'm very sad but also looking forward to what the next 3 months have in store for me!
