The Road to Storybook Land

Panoramic shot of the Great Rift Valley

The first word that comes to mind with our trip to Kenya is “A-MAZ-ING”!!! It was just like falling into a National Geographic magazine… and just as surreal! Our arrival in Nairobi was flawless and going through customs was extremely fast and simple. As we walked outside of the airport we were pleased to breath the fresh, cool morning air that felt like a welcome stranger. After we met up with Mom and Dad Haberlin we headed northward to Samburu. For those of you who have been to Disney’s Animal Kingdom and been on the Safari ride, you have experienced a ride much closer to reality than you might imagine. Remember those crazy, almost impossible-looking craters in the path of the land rover? Our whole trip was filled with those craters of various shapes and sizes and not once did we get stuck, thanks to the agile driving skills of our fantastic guide Muhammad. So after about six hours of being completely stressed out by the road conditions, we arrived in our favorite safari spot…

Samburu
As we were driving to our lodge we passed lush, green foliage, a rare zebra, giraffes, elephants, some beautiful, brightly colored birds and plenty of other elusive creatures hiding behind the bush. Once we arrived at our tent lodge, we were amazed by how nice these so-called “tents” were. There was a full bathroom with two sinks, a shower and a real, flushing toilet. The beds had headboards that were wired with lighting and an overhead fan. The most primitive part about our tent was that whenever we left we had to make sure the zippers were completely closed and knotted, then covered at the base of the entry area with the welcome mat and a coffee table so the local monkeys wouldn’t get in and steal our luggage! (While we didn’t have any of our personal belongings jacked by some very curious George’s at this time, you will hear a story about a monkey later on.)
On our first game drive, we had the most amazing encounter of the whole trip. We saw the most elusive and gorgeous African animal, the leopard. Let me rephrase that, we actually saw TWO! We were fortunate enough to follow the first one for close to an hour, watching her lap up water from a puddle, hide amidst the grasses of the savannah and pose for literally hundreds of pictures. The rest of our time at Samburu was almost as spectacular as we saw lions, gazelles, more birds, elephants, giraffes and a multitude of other animals.
Now for the monkey story. On our last morning at Samburu, we went for yet another spectacular game drive and came back for breakfast. I had a tomato and cheese omelet made at the buffet bar. When I came back to the table, I set my plate down and as I was walking around my chair to sit… a monkey swooped down, stole my omelet and took off!!! No kidding!! As funny as that is, it gets even better. When the sneaky monkey landed on the table, he looked right at Bryan and as he was mockingly gazing at him, grabbed the food then took off. After the monkey obtained its little treat, it sat up in a nook of the ceiling watching us as it munched on its breakfast and I went back to the buffet bar to get another omelet made. Once we were fully nourished, we were on our way to…

Lake Nakuru
Yes, we saw thousands of pink flamingoes. However, I am convinced that the more common bird to this area was one called the mose-squee-toe. There were millions!!! And yes, they bite! Needless to say, we didn’t spend as much time outside as we would have liked. Aside from the mose-squee-toes (this is the proper native pronunciation of the Lake Nakuru bird) and flamingoes we were able to see water buffalo, white rhinos, gazelles, and other species of zebras and giraffes. We also saw the most beautiful sunset of the whole trip on our drive back from the evening game drive. After our one-day stay at the lake, we were off to the notorious…

Maasai Mara
This was what I was expecting to see throughout our safari. Grassland that spanned out for miles and didn’t look like it could possibly hold hundreds of creatures of all sizes. More elephants, giraffes, lions, cheetahs, wildebeests, a hyena, more lions, topi and even more elephants.
We also had the opportunity to visit a Maasai tribe, who welcomed us with a dance from the men, a competition among them to see who could jump the highest, followed by a song from the women. We were taken into a hut that was made out of cow and elephant dung. It had a central area used as the kitchen, which was surrounded by three bedrooms with makeshift beds. A wall in the hut separated that living area from another area that was dedicated to the goats and cows for a sleeping area, so the predators such as lions and cheetahs couldn’t kill them at night. We ended our visit in their “market”, buying some colorful beaded jewelry and supporting their very small economy.

Nairobi
Our last days were spent in Nairobi. One of the highlights there was “Carnivore”, a restaurant where, would you believe, they served lots of meat. Every few minutes, waiters would come around with a huge skewer of some roasted animal and cut off a fresh slice onto your plate, giving recommendations for sauces to try with each. The meats ranged from plain yet tasty turkey and beef to the more obscure ostrich meatballs and crocodile meat. After the parents left, we enjoyed watching a little bit of cable and shopping at the Saturday Maasai market where we scored some very reasonably priced Kenyan trinkets. And on Sunday we sadly departed back to Lagos, having thousand of memories and pictures to sort through.


So, what’s the moral of this story? Go on a safari and savor every moment just as we did!!! Hope you enjoyed our stories and pictures!