The Mara...Again...With Ida And Bob

It’s the second week of Ida and bob’s visit and we are now off to the Masai Mara. We are especially excited because it’s the ‘hi season’ there. The wildebeest are migrating! Bob and Ida seem like they are acclimating to the traveling conditions well and I have borrowed a new toy for the drive. A GPS unit. I am now hooked on these things. I didn’t see much point in them in the states but here they are really valuable. The best part to me is if it tells you that you are 10 minutes from town xyz then you really are! And since signage here is really rare this is a good thing, especially if someone has to pee or you want to know how long you have left to put up with screaming kids before you can take a break.

We set out early; take two cars again, the road is far better then the previous trip so that helps. We made our mistake while on the dirt road, guess I just didn’t trust that the gps had all these Kenyan dirt roads mapped in it so I started to ask some of the locals which way to go when we approached a fork. Seems the gps told me we were off course but according to the map even if we were off the road we wanted the road we were on could take us there too so we continued…until the road narrowed so much it looked like a path and it was in the middle of a farm field and no sign of the town we were headed to and there were signs we were about to drive thru what is know around here as ‘black cotton mud’ which is a scary thing to drive in. so we turned back to the fork we made our wrong turn on, it was only two hours out of the way…. Note to self, don’t always trust Kenyan maps or the local passers-by DO trust my gps!














So the hotel was great as usual, our second time there (Kichwa Tembo Tented Camp) and we had the most unbelievable time. The migration was better then expected. SO many wildebeest you can’t imagine; millions of them. And lots of lions that were acting like they had won one of those supermarket shopping sprees at Costco or something. We actually saw a lion stalk and kill a wildebeest; very intense. Apparently a rare thing to witness. Our car was within 20 feet as it happened. The thing that struck me was the whole process was completely silent. The only thing we heard was the lion rapidly breathing thru her nose as she held the wildebeest’s throat closed until, well you know… Before she started… dinning…. we asked the driver to move on. I was not too interested in watching this portion of things; pretty graphic and Max was already wondering what she was doing “getting ready to have her lunch” I told him.

We visited another Masai village. A little touristy for us now but it was fun anyway. They are mostly cattle ranchers. At night they herd them into the center of their compound to protect the cows from being eaten by lions. As you might imagine their compound is covered with cow dung. Max kept warning grandma ida ‘not to step in the cow dang’ and Esther learned to do the famous Masai jumping dance, which does all the time now. I’ll have to video and post it….Lots more photos of our trip.

Lake Nakuru

Our first trip on our own, with no locals to guide us, is to Lake Nakuru game park. We’re a little nervous about being out on our own but feel we can handle it none the less. I have been trying to have a roof rack built for our big-ass SUV, the Nissan Terrano (the one we wish we hadn’t bought) before Grandma Ida and Poppa Bob arrived, but due to lots of different complications it hasn’t materialized. So, we are all going (Bob, Ida, Kayla, two kids in car seats, Pamellah and me) in this car all together PLUS all our ‘stuff’….we’ll never make it!!! But wait, our neighbor Shwan is offering to get us a loaner car from his car dealer friend. Cool! The night before we leave it arrives, the mechanic we all love and trust has checked it out; you really really don’t want to break down on a Kenyan highway in the middle of nowhere, it seems all is well. It’s an even bigger SUV (Toyota) than mine and the next morning we all pile in, sort of comfortably, for the 4 hour ride. Kids are only slightly whiny but all is going according to plan.

This loaner car handles the shitty roads rather well, very peppy too. We’re out about 2 hours from Kisumu, on some of the worst sections of road when the car just starts cutting off, and coming back on…and cutting off and coming back on. We pull over and with that sinking feeling you get when you thought you won the lottery but really didn’t after all I call Naresh our mechanic. “You checked it out, right? Do you think I should go on then?” I ask him. “Oh sure, sure, just go easy” he says. “Go ‘easy’?” I say, is he nuts (yes), on these roads!? Anyway after some debate and a family vote we decide to turn back and just take both our own cars. Later we found the problem was only that the battery had come loose from it’s holder because all the heavy bumping around and was shorting out the electrical system. So our 4 hour drive became 7 hours. It was Kayla’s first time driving on these ‘roads’ and I could tell she was apprehensive but she did great and now she’s an old pro at dodgin’ and weavin’.

The scenery is beautiful too or so I’m told, I can’t really see much as I can only flash my eyes on the roadsides for an instant while trying to keep us from colliding with some bike person or huge bus going by inches from us. As we approached the camp it started getting dark and the kids were way over sitting in a car, lots of screamin’ and cryin going on, and from the kids too. All this is NOT a good thing when you’re really not sure where the hell you are and there are NO lights around you and you’re not sure you should even get out of your car to even check a tire if you need to because of who knows what sort of wild life are around. Anyway we stopped several times to call the travel agent or ask a person walking for directions. Turned around, went that way, turned around again, went this way. It’s now pitch black out and we are LOST! Finally we came on some guy with a flash light who was sent to direct us to camp YEAH!. He got in the car with me (Kayla and the kids where in the RAV) and just as he did his eyes grew wide and he aim his flashlight out the window to show me the reflection of two eyes belonging to a leopard in a bush just out side the car. “LOOK” he said excited. It’s rare to see leopards. No one else saw it. No one else believes I saw it either!! DANG!

The reward for putting up with a grueling journey like this is to experience some of the most awesome and unique natural beauty. Lake Nakuru is a shallow lake rimmed from edge to edge by thousands of flamingo birds that call this home. The park can’t rival The Masai Mara when it come to the amount of wild life but it still has it’s moments. LOTS of baboons and LOTS of buffalo and Giraffe. Fantastic landscapes. The camp/hotel was wonderful, food was great and now that we know where it is we’ll be back. Please visit this link for photos.

Can You Believe Esther Is Two!

We shared the day with our neighbor, Bennie, whose birthday was close to Esthers. We had a bouncy castle thingy and the local camel was there for camel rides. If you’ve ever been on a camel (you haven’t???) you know that it is a little scary when it stands up and sits down but Esther is fearless, she so enjoyed it! Went around all day telling people she has been riding on a camel.
There were three piñatas too, thanks to Grandma Ida who brought tons of stuff with her for the party. Link to photos

Ida & Bob Arrive

LOOK! Up in the sky...is it a bird? A plane? ...How do you know when Grandma Ida and Poppa Bob have arrived for a visit? The Batman and Robin costumes have also arrived, silly! Ida and Bob arrived worn out and jet lagged but safe and sound none the less. We are in for a lot of traveling adventures for the next 2+ weeks; Lake Nakuru and then the Masai Mara. Pictures and entries to follow....

Obama Visits Kisumu/CDC

We had known for weeks he was coming but couldn't talk about it. Obama is revered here like no one else so security was a big deal. People love him so much here I think Kenyans would elect him president for life if they could. He came to visit the CDC here in Kisumu and then bring his daughters to meet his grandmother who lives in a village just outside Kisumu.

One night at dinner, before he arrived, Kayla had the idea to have Obama tested here for HIV. It would really focus on this issue. Personally I thought he'd never go for it. She proposed the idea to his handlers and they all thought it would be great! Go figure. Well needless to say that was all the press and Obama focused on for most of that week, it was all over the international news. Yea Kayla!

I was asked to document his visit photographically for CDC so I had permission to ride in the motorcade as they sped from place to place. What a fun day!

Kayla made the front page of the Kenyan papers one day, along with the side of Obamas’ head. Link To Obama Photos