When last I left you we were slightly freaked out because the day before we were to fly to Nairobi they closed the Kisumu airport. After a long strategy session and several phone called, etc., we decided to drive our own cars to Eldoret (2.5 hours), leave our cars in a hotel parking lot, fly to Nairobi, do the safari stuff with Kayla’s parents, fly back to Eldoret with parents (evening flight) stay the night at hotel, then drive to Kisumu, whew! What a hassle
[There is a new gallery of photos in the Photo Galleries]
So we drove in the pouring-ass rain all the way to Eldoret the next day, not fun on these roads, flew to Nairobi, met Kayla’s parents and the next day we were off to Amboseli Game Park. We hired a mini bus and a driver to take us which turned out to be a stroke of genius; I didn’t have to drive on bad roads that I didn’t know and we were all together in the same car, plus the drive turned out to be very knowledgeable about the parks and roads.
Amboseli:
A different terrain from the Masai Mara, lots of palm trees for one thing. Not as many animals for another, but we did see many more elephants than we had seen in the Mara, a big herd of maybe 50 elephants, in fact. Plus Mt. Kilimanjaro practically in our backyard. Beautiful landscapes. [photos]
We spent 3 days in Ol Tukia lodge, wonderful grounds, great people, not so good food, well at least for the money it wasn’t. Then on to Tsavo game park. It’s a 3 hour drive on dirt roads, through beautiful countryside, Masai towns and not much else. Turns out there had been some robberies in the area so we added a police escort in the bus, complete with very large and loaded rifle [photo].
Tsavo:
I have only 3 words about this part of Kenya: sky, sky, sky. Amazingly beautiful and sometimes breath-taking sky [photos] and again very different even from Amboseli. We could still see Kilimanjaro in the distance but the landscape was far lusher than anything else we’ve experienced. Mostly saw lots of giraffes, and gazelles with zebra but on two occasions saw the rarely seen leopard [gallery photos].
We stayed at Finch Hatton’s. Five star, excellent everything, tented camp. Has a big pond full of hippos and crocks right in the middle of the grounds, plus it is an ‘open’ camp which means any animal can come walking through at any time! After sundown you had to be escorted from/to your tent by an armed guard, what am I saying this ‘armed’ guard was armed with only a bow and arrow. Now I ask you, what is this guy gonna do with a bow and arrow against a charging hippo or prowling silent lion! [gallery photos]
Whatever, anyway, they don’t allow kids in the dinning room so the kids took their dinners in the tent with the nanny which was actually fine for both the adults and kids. One night, as we were walking back to our tents after one of the 5 course dinners, and being a little ‘toasted’ as well, and following the mandatory guard escort, Kayla and Judy were following the guard, closely, and Mike and I were bring up the rear, all of a sudden just as Mike had finished lighting up a cigarette I hear the unmistakable hissing sound of a large lizard. I see in front of me that the guards’ hands are both straight up in the air (holding the bow and arrow) in motion of surprise and Kayla and Judi are gasping and walking backwards. I then notice by the light of the guards’ flashlight (who’s batteries were about to fail) an enormous Crocodile sitting in the middle of the trail with it’s huge jaws wide open. From here on everything seemed to move in slow motion, my instincts were to get the hell out of here before we all were crock dinner! So I turned around and headed for the hills (or the bar, which ever came first) but instead I just plowed right into poor Mike. Almost knocking him down (he hadn’t seen anything and was more startled by his crazy son-in-law’s actions than anything else) with his cigarette ashes flying and me saying ‘move back, move back’!!!! It was like a keystone cops move. In the end, though, this crock was more terrified of us and just made a retreat back to the pond. It was a little scary at the time but we are all still howling with laughter about it now!
Three days in Tsavo then back to Nairobi, had lunch at a restaurant called Carnivore where we sampled the usual fare like Cow and Chicken but also Camel and Crockadile (tastes like Chicken) then off to the airport to our flight to Eldoret. The flight was uneventful and quick. We stayed the night in an Eldoret hotel which by Kenyan standards was good but after Finch Hatton was only tolerable. It was clean and the staff was very nice. Early the next morning we headed out in our cars to Kisumu, 3 hr drive and then run around preparing for Maxs’ birthday party! [gallery photos]
[There is a new gallery of photos in the Photo Galleries]
So we drove in the pouring-ass rain all the way to Eldoret the next day, not fun on these roads, flew to Nairobi, met Kayla’s parents and the next day we were off to Amboseli Game Park. We hired a mini bus and a driver to take us which turned out to be a stroke of genius; I didn’t have to drive on bad roads that I didn’t know and we were all together in the same car, plus the drive turned out to be very knowledgeable about the parks and roads.
Amboseli:
A different terrain from the Masai Mara, lots of palm trees for one thing. Not as many animals for another, but we did see many more elephants than we had seen in the Mara, a big herd of maybe 50 elephants, in fact. Plus Mt. Kilimanjaro practically in our backyard. Beautiful landscapes. [photos]
We spent 3 days in Ol Tukia lodge, wonderful grounds, great people, not so good food, well at least for the money it wasn’t. Then on to Tsavo game park. It’s a 3 hour drive on dirt roads, through beautiful countryside, Masai towns and not much else. Turns out there had been some robberies in the area so we added a police escort in the bus, complete with very large and loaded rifle [photo].
Tsavo:
I have only 3 words about this part of Kenya: sky, sky, sky. Amazingly beautiful and sometimes breath-taking sky [photos] and again very different even from Amboseli. We could still see Kilimanjaro in the distance but the landscape was far lusher than anything else we’ve experienced. Mostly saw lots of giraffes, and gazelles with zebra but on two occasions saw the rarely seen leopard [gallery photos].
We stayed at Finch Hatton’s. Five star, excellent everything, tented camp. Has a big pond full of hippos and crocks right in the middle of the grounds, plus it is an ‘open’ camp which means any animal can come walking through at any time! After sundown you had to be escorted from/to your tent by an armed guard, what am I saying this ‘armed’ guard was armed with only a bow and arrow. Now I ask you, what is this guy gonna do with a bow and arrow against a charging hippo or prowling silent lion! [gallery photos]
Whatever, anyway, they don’t allow kids in the dinning room so the kids took their dinners in the tent with the nanny which was actually fine for both the adults and kids. One night, as we were walking back to our tents after one of the 5 course dinners, and being a little ‘toasted’ as well, and following the mandatory guard escort, Kayla and Judy were following the guard, closely, and Mike and I were bring up the rear, all of a sudden just as Mike had finished lighting up a cigarette I hear the unmistakable hissing sound of a large lizard. I see in front of me that the guards’ hands are both straight up in the air (holding the bow and arrow) in motion of surprise and Kayla and Judi are gasping and walking backwards. I then notice by the light of the guards’ flashlight (who’s batteries were about to fail) an enormous Crocodile sitting in the middle of the trail with it’s huge jaws wide open. From here on everything seemed to move in slow motion, my instincts were to get the hell out of here before we all were crock dinner! So I turned around and headed for the hills (or the bar, which ever came first) but instead I just plowed right into poor Mike. Almost knocking him down (he hadn’t seen anything and was more startled by his crazy son-in-law’s actions than anything else) with his cigarette ashes flying and me saying ‘move back, move back’!!!! It was like a keystone cops move. In the end, though, this crock was more terrified of us and just made a retreat back to the pond. It was a little scary at the time but we are all still howling with laughter about it now!
Three days in Tsavo then back to Nairobi, had lunch at a restaurant called Carnivore where we sampled the usual fare like Cow and Chicken but also Camel and Crockadile (tastes like Chicken) then off to the airport to our flight to Eldoret. The flight was uneventful and quick. We stayed the night in an Eldoret hotel which by Kenyan standards was good but after Finch Hatton was only tolerable. It was clean and the staff was very nice. Early the next morning we headed out in our cars to Kisumu, 3 hr drive and then run around preparing for Maxs’ birthday party! [gallery photos]
3 comments:
What a crock & bull story! I would have had to change my shorts for sure!
Great croc story! I would like to have heard Mike's comments.
Sounds like your instincts kicked in when you saw that croc. I know the feeling. It's like, I'm getting the f--- out of here. Like the time I went in the field at my moms when there was a huge bull.
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