2017/09 Part 2 Amboseli - Fri Heathrow to Nairobi |
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Dear All,
This is the second part of the journal of our safari trip to Kenya and Tanzania. THE FIRST PART covered our brief stop in England to see family and friends.
Friday September 15th
We were on our way from Ewshot to Africa at 3am! We found that the M3 was closed for an upgrade to a “smart motorway”, technology to allow the hard shoulder to be used as an additional lane. (Sounds dangerous to me!) We negotiated the detours and dropped our rental car off at a closed and dark Enterprise. They’d warned us that we might have to wait 30 minutes for the airport shuttle but the driver must have seen us arrive and picked us up immediately.
We were flying on Lufthansa as they were the cheapest airline, half the price of British Airways, but we had to change planes in Frankfurt. It’s always been a dismal, grey airport and it’s just got larger over the decades. With our connection involving bus and train and endless stairs up and down, we felt like we were competing in a level of the Mario Brothers. Then we met a security officer who insisted on us unpacking every item of electronics: computers, cameras, lenses, chargers, power cords….there wasn’t anything left in the bag!
The flight to Nairobi was comfortable with relatively good food and instead of the usual fragile plastic we had robust metal cutlery, weapons fit for the Vikings. It’s a 4000 mile trip, across the Adriatic and up the Nile valley and takes about nine hours. It was dark when we arrived and staggered down the stairs to the blacktop. The bus driver waited until he had enough passengers for a Guinness world record and then delivered us in a sweaty heap at the terminal. Luckily it was a cool evening, around 20C, 68F, surprisingly cool considering we were only about 70 miles south of the Equator. Nairobi, like Denver, is a mile-high city.
Most of the foreigners on the flight, like us, already had ETAs for Kenya, so we went through Immigration quite quickly. The waiting area of relatives and drivers was in the street outside the terminal; this must be a dry climate. We were relieved to see Nzuki there, brandishing a Hancock sign. We’d read horror stories of travelers arriving and never finding the tour company they’d paid their money to.
Nzuki not only provided transport; he had a bag of goodies for each of us: Tano Safari hats and caps and our air tickets for the five flights towards the end of the trip. He drove us away in the van from the airport’s parking area which is adorned with life size sculptures of Kenya’s wildlife. He told us to look through the fencing alongside the road and, sure enough, we could see zebras. The fencing is along the edge of Nairobi national park, which is now almost surrounded by Nairobi’s sprawl. Then we saw some zebras on our side of the fence. No different really from North America’s urban deer until you think about the lions following the zebras.
Nairobi’s urban landscape was mostly dark but neon and illuminated ads showed evidence of UK and 
American companies. Nzuki drove us into an alley way which surprisingly led to the Ole Sereni’s entrance. Nzuki handed us over to the hotel’s staff, promising to be back early next morning to collect us. We had to go through a security check to get into the hotel, including a scan of us and our bags. Inside though it was clear that this is a luxury hotel and we appreciated the wildlife art which adorns every wall.
We soon learned our first word of Swahili, “Jambo”, which means “Hello”. The second was “Salama?”, “OK?”. Luckily you can just repeat these words back.
With two more hours of jet lag, our bodies thought it was midnight, UK time, and we didn’t bother with eating and we collapsed into our very comfortable room, setting our alarm clock for before dawn.
Saturday September 16th
We were up early and bleary eyed, hoping that the rest of our days would start a bit later but that didn’t happen. Kenya and Tanzania are very close to the Equator and we were traveling very close to the Equinox, so every day had just 12 hours of daylight and a few minutes of dusk or twilight. To take advantage of that daylight we were up at five-something most mornings.
The breakfast buffet was served in a large airy restaurant with a view out across Nairobi national park; the hotel is right on its boundary. There wasn’t much to see except acacia trees, but the potential was there. It was a shame about the power lines. We ate just inside as it was bit too cool for the balcony.