SAFARITIME!

Last weekend we were finally able to go to Masai Mara National Reserve that is located about 250 km away from Nairobi next to Tanzanian border. The same national reserve is called Serengeti on the Tanzanian side of the border. We booked the safari from a tour agency called Basecamp Explorer and I have to say that I was surprised how well everything went! This might have been the first thing here that has actually gone as planned.

A driver picked us up from Juja Saturday morning and we drove to Masai Mara with a mini bus. The 250km drive took 6,5 hours and the last 100 km was really bumpy dust road. The road was in the middle of nowhere and there where only some small villages along the road. There were a lot of shepherds with their cattle, sheep, donkeys and goats, children playing on the roadside and people wearing colourful robes and clothes. I wish I could’ve filmed the whole drive there, there was just so much to see.

The biggest surprise was when arrived to the camp. I was waiting for a campsite with average  safaritents but in fact it was a really fancy lodge that had huge safari tents with electricity, big beds, hot showers and normal toilets. We stayed in Obama tent where Obama himself had stayed. So yes, that was a pretty great safari tent. Never did I believe that I would stay in a tent like that. If you can even call it a tent.

We stayed there from Saturday to Monday and the days we spent on game drives at the reserve. Our driver was called Joseph and he clearly knew a lot about the animals, too bad he had such a strong African accent that it was really hard to understand him. Anyways we saw soo many animals and I think I haven’t seen that many even in a zoo. We saw the big five; elephant, lion, buffalo, rhino and leopard in two days, which was apparently pretty rare. So I guess we were pretty lucky! We also saw a lot of zebras, wildebeest (the bastards that killed Mufasa), hyenas, jackals, giraffes, baboons, monkeys, crocodiles, hippos, so many different birds, Timons and Pumbas. The whole place made me think about lion king.   I didn’t have a proper camera with me so most of the photos are pretty shitty, but they’re better than nothing for sure!

We also visited a Masai village which was a really weird place. There where Masai men and women dancing, singing and welcoming us and showing us the village. Obviously the reason why they do that is to get tourists pay a lot of money for the visit. It was nice to see the village and the culture but no need to go there again.  

All in all it was one of the most awesome trips that I’ve done so far! It was pretty expensive so now the rest of the trips have to be done with a smaller budget. But I think it was worth it! 

Issikka approves!

And while I am posting something here’s some random things that’s been happening here:

·      I was supposed to have my first lectures last Thursday 7 am. Nobody showed up, not the teacher nor the students. So I went to the pool in stead. And got sunburnt. 

·      I found a Cyber Café in Juja that’s supposed to have skype access. It costs about 40 cents per hour.

·      We went to the notorious Westgate mall in Nairobi and had super delicious burgers. Now we are at a Java house in another mall in Nairobi, the first place where the internet is actually working.

·      I booked flights to Ethiopia 19-26.10!! J

Love, Iisa