Welcome to the plains.

Wednesday, July 20

Today was the real transition between Rwanda and Kenya. Although there were differences between Kigali and Nairobi (size being the main one), they were both fairly modern East African cities. Today, we were finally seeing another side of Africa at Amboseli National Park in southern Kenya. We visited the local airport, where we hopped on a bush plane to fly us 45 minutes down to Amboseli, a national park located just north of the Tanzania border.

Our adorable baby bush plane. Look at the man on the far wing to get

an idea of how tiny it was.

On the way, we could see animals out the window, which got progressively more exciting. At first, right outside Nairobi, there was an occasional gazelle, but as we prepared to land in Amboseli, we saw elephants, wildebeest and zebras wandering the plains. A guide from our hotel, Serena Safari Lodge, was waiting for us at the runway when we landed. We paid our park admission fees and jostled off across the bumpy dirt roads to the lodge. I knew I was being “such a tourist” as I snapped pictures of every wildebeest, zebra and gazelle we passed, but I really didn’t care at that point.

This mama baboon carrying her baby waited at the side of the road

for our Jeep to pass before she began crossing.

When we arrived at the hotel, the staff greeted us with glasses of passion fruit juice and sat us down in the lobby for Mom to fill out her paperwork. That is one thing I have noticed is tremendously different between here and the U.S. – the service! Maybe I just don’t stay at as nice of places when I’m traveling in America, but the staff at the Serena Safari Lodge was unbelievably friendly and attentive. They pulled out our chairs and put our napkins on our laps for us at every meal, they kept our key at the front desk any time we left the room, and every time we visited the pool, someone was there within two minutes to serve us drinks. But the best part was that after you spoke with an employee once, that person would remember you and greet you personally every time he or she saw you after that.

The desk informed us there would be a Nature Walk around the grounds at 10:30 a.m., which sounded like the perfect way to get acquainted with our new surroundings. We helped ourselves to breakfast (another delicious buffet) and returned to the desk to go on the walk. William was our guide, and he also brought Maureen (a university student who's in training at the lodge over the summer) and a Maasai man. They wouldn't tell us explicitly what the Maasai man was there for, so we assumed it was to keep a lookout for lions or other dangerous animals while we were outside the safety of the lodge. Eek.

 I think Mom was trying to surreptitiously photograph the Maasai man.

But she also got my ponytail doing this fun dance.

We saw a lot of birds, a few elephants on the horizon and some very distinct lion paws in the dirt. Quite a few lions walk past our lodge as they move from their nighttime sleeping place to daytime lounging place every day! This gave me hope that might be able to see a little Alphie while in Kenya, but it kind of made my mom nervous. After about two hours of walking, we met up with a Jeep that took us back to the lodge on a rather bumpy ride. The difference between the areas by the swamps and the dry areas was amazing:

These two pictures were taken from the same spot during the walking safari.

I faced to the right for one picture and then to the left.

When we arrived back at the lodge, we ate lunch (of course, more eating) and took a nap (of course, more sleeping). I generally hate napping when I travel because I feel like I'm missing something, but sometimes it is necessary! And we were pretty busy the rest of the day.

At 4 p.m., we went on our first game drive with our guide, Victor. The lodge assigns each guest to a specific driver and specific vehicle for the week, so we shared Victor with another family staying at the lodge. When they first got on, I was prematurely irritated because they had a boy with them who looked to be about 12 years old. (It was a couple and their two children, one girl and one boy.) As soon as they opened their mouth to speak, however, I changed my mind. They were British, so of course they would be well behaved! Isn't it funny how my perception of American boys is so different? Of course I know boys of any nationality can be rude and annoying, but these children really were delightful!

 

At 4 p.m., we went on our first game drive with our guide, Victor. The lodge assigns each guest to a specific driver and specific vehicle for the week, so we shared Victor with another family staying at the lodge. When they first got on, I was prematurely irritated because they had a boy with them who looked to be about 12 years old. (It was a couple and their two children, one girl and one boy.) As soon as they opened their mouth to speak, however, I changed my mind. They were British, so of course they would be well behaved! Isn't it funny how my perception of American boys is so different? Of course I know boys of any nationality can be rude and annoying, but these children really were delightful!

I can tell this blog is getting way too long now, so I'm going to finish it off with several pictures from the drive. We were gone for over two hours, in which time we saw almost every animal there is to see except lions (boo), giraffes and cheetahs. And here's the rundown:

After the drive, we had dinner, watched an interesting documentary about elephants in Amboseli National Park that Maureen recommended (Echo of the Elephants) and headed to bed to get enough sleep for our 6:30 a.m. game drive Thursday morning.

  

   Good night, everyone!