Kenyan Safari

After a week of clinics in Nyahururu, Kenya, we headed up north to our safari location for our last day in Africa. If you missed the first two posts, they can be found here and here. The church held a small ceremony right before we left in order to thank all of us for being willing to come. They called each of us up one at a time to the front of the auditorium and gave us a small necklace with an animal carving on it, and that is one of my favorite souvenirs from anywhere. We then said goodbye to the people we had spent the last week with and started making our way to Samburu.

The drive started out passing through some regular towns until we reached Nanyuki. Nanyuki is a larger town than others in the area, and this is where we stopped to meet up with our tour guide, Martin. We also stopped here for restrooms, which is completely different than a restroom stop in the US. Toilets were holes in the ground, and urinals were pipes along the wall, emptying out into a drain.

The next area we passed through is Mount Kenya Natural Forest. Mount Kenya is the tallest mountain in Kenya and can be seen from very far away. And the scenery gets more and more beautiful the closer you get to it. The forest surrounding Mt Kenya is part of the UNESCO site, though I didn’t really spend much time there other than driving through. The temperature had quickly dropped, and we all had to dig our jackets out from our luggage because it got really cold. Of course we were all riding with our windows down so we could watch everything we passed. While in the forest here, there was a very sweet aroma in the air. Martin explained to us that there are a lot of wildflowers in the area that are used to make perfumes. We did eventually pass some greenhouses where they farm those flowers. It definitely smelled great through this area. We then came into the town of Isiolo, which we learned is a town of Somali immigrants.

This area looked very different from the rest of the country that I had seen so far. The landscape turned from green forests and grasslands to hot, dry desert, and the locals’ clothing became much more colorful. This is also a predominantly Islamic area as well, with the mosque being one of the most recognizable landmarks in the town. We passed through here as the sun was starting to set, and it was a very beautiful scene. We continued driving deeper into the desert as the sky started turning darker. And the areas we passed through started to become very poor. I saw families living in what we would describe as huts, and we learned that they would have to walk for miles to reach the next town turning grocery trips into all day events. The roads became much worse, to the point where it was impossible to take pictures anymore because it felt like we were in the middle of a violent earthquake due to all the potholes.

We finally entered Samburu National Reserve where we would stay for the night. It was pitch black outside as we were driving along this pothole-filled road, and because we couldn’t see anything it was very hard to brace for the next bump. I don’t know how many times I banged my head on the window while on this road. We were literally in the middle of nowhere without any civilization in sight. Lions would’ve been out hunting at this time, but we couldn’t see anything because of how dark it was. We traveled this awful road for what felt like hours until we finally reached a small resort in the middle of nowhere. We got the key to our room and then wandered around until we found it. The room had 3 beds, each with a mosquito net hanging over it. This was my first experience with a mosquito net, and it wasn’t great. There was also no A/C, being this far from civilization, so we had a fan on in the room, but the mosquito net blocked the air from the fan, and I decided that I’d rather deal with mosquitoes than sweat to death, so I just chose not to use it.

The next morning I woke up early for the sunrise. There was a river just across the path from my room, so I walked down to it. I could hear baboons singing in the distance, and the sound got louder as I neared the river. Once I arrived, I watched as the sun rose, and there was a whole family of baboons in the other side of the river. This was very cool to witness in person. I wasn’t able to get a picture as they left pretty soon after I saw them.

I then turned to my right and saw a family of monkeys watching me from a nearby tree. They started jumping around and fighting. It was very difficult to get pictures because of how fast they were. I tried to get closer, but they would all jump to another tree. I ended up chasing these monkeys around for a while before giving up. I then decided to walk along the river for a while before heading back to the room to get ready for the safari. I had to get all of my luggage packed because we were only going to have a couple minutes to grab our stuff after coming back to the resort after the safari. We needed to make it back to Nairobi in time to catch our flight home, so everything needed to be ready to go.

After grabbing breakfast and heading out to our tour buses, we were introduced to the Samburu warrior that would accompany us. He was very tall and thin, and carried a machete and gun in case of emergencies. We started driving randomly around this desert, looking for any wildlife. If you’ve seen Survivor: Africa, there were several challenges filmed in this area along the river. We saw nothing for a while, other than the occasional dik dik (very small antelope the size of a cat which is almost impossible to take pictures of). I started to become a little disappointed because we just weren’t seeing anything. We occasionally started to see guinea fowl, and then antelope started to become more common.

Then someone in my group loudly yelled out “Giraffe!” and we all turned to see a giraffe running across the path in front of us. That was when this safari took a turn for the better. Giraffes were always my favorite animals growing up, so seeing one in the wild was a very exciting experience. It wasn’t long before we saw another giraffe and then another, and soon after that, we took a turn and saw two elephants right in front of us as they were eating! This was so cool seeing them in the wild! We sat there and watched them eat for awhile before continuing on.

We started following the river, and we could see large groups of giraffes and zebras on the other side hanging out together. We then turned into the desert again to see a lot of zebras and oryx, with antelope, boars, and gazelles in the same area. There were just huge herds surrounding us. Martin was a very good guide, telling us all about the different animals we were seeing, and he pointed out a couple ostriches in the distance as well.

We eventually looped around and started heading back toward the resort. Then suddenly out of nowhere we saw a whole family of elephants walking by, and there was a baby with them. The mother is very protective of the family and stays in back as they move around in order to monitor the surroundings. This was probably the coolest sight on the entire safari!

As we approached the resort, our bus got stuck in the mud. Our bus driver and the Samburu warrior got out and started trying to free our tire. They wouldn’t let us get out because this was lion territory. I remember there was a group of Samburu tribal women over by the river gathering water with their herds of goats while we were stuck. They finally freed the tire, and we started moving again. We then passed right by an elephant that was looking directly at us. It started waving its ears as if it were about to charge us, so our bus driver stepped on the gas and got away.

What I appreciated about this safari was that everything we saw was real. Some more popular safari spots will feed the wildlife so they become dependant on tour operators for food. This guarantees that you’ll see more on a safari, but it almost feels like a zoo without fences. In this case, the animals we saw were not dependant on tour operators, which makes it more difficult to find them but much more authentic when you do. We literally just drove around looking for wild animals, and it was so much fun!

We reached the resort again to quickly grab our stuff and started making our way back to Nairobi. The most interesting experience on the drive back happened as we were passing through Isiolo, the town of Somali immigrants. Political tensions were still high because of the events surrounding the recent election, and many were either really happy or mad about the results. As we passed through Isiolo, there was a huge celebration taking place in the streets.

Floods of people crowded the town celebrating Kenyatta’s reelection. Some started trying to climb into our bus as we passed by, so we had to close our windows to prevent them from getting in. Being here for the election was a really cool experience because it’s a side of the country most tourists don’t get to see. You can read headlines at home, but it’s a completely different experience actually being there during those headline events. We eventually reached Nairobi and flew home. Kenya is an amazing country with beautiful landscapes, awesome wildlife, and friendly people. I really enjoyed my time there and hope to one day be able to return. Thanks for reading!