Kenya - Our last days

For what was supposed to be somewhat of a "nothing" day, a day where we were to slowly make our way back to the nation's capital, it turned out to be one of those roller coaster of emotions days that only two weeks of international travel can inspire. We left at around 8am today as we wanted to be in Nairobi at a decent hour.  On the way out of the park while being distracted by a nearby jackal, we all spot something streaking through the forest beside the van.  We are all staring intently at these large black animals that are running very quickly through the forest not 20 feet away from our van.  Finally we reach a clearing and what is revealed was truly remarkable and unbelievable.  Its a small pack of wild dogs on the hunt!  To clarify the rarity of this sight, the day before yesterday on one of George's information sessions he told us that wild dogs used to be prominent in the Mara but that amongst the guides, in the past 5 years or so, not a single one was recorded to have been sighted and the local lore was that they were thought to be extinct!  This was one of those moments were everyone in the van (we were giving a local worker a ride to a nearby town) turned and looked at each other with pure ecstasy and disbelief at what we had just witnessed.  As quickly as they had appeared, the dogs once again returned to obscurity and perhaps even to mythical status because who knows just how long it will be before another documented sighting takes place. Wild dogs do not hunt like other principle predators, they will chase their prey for many miles to exhaust them.  Unfortunately our cameras were packed away in our bags, however, much like our rare sighting of the rhino in Nakuru, I likely would not have had the time, or quick enough reaction, to take a good picture.  I know for me, that moment will be forever burned into my memory.  Had it been in other parts of Africa, this sighting may not be so dramatic, but here in the Mara a kind of scientific experiment with vaccines (for rabbies I believe) took place a few decades ago.  The vaccines were deemed responsible for wiping out the entire population through sterilization.

On and on the drive went, George drives the speed limit so our drive took much longer then expected. Upon arrival into Nairobi we got stopped by a police officer who seemed very upset and George looked very concerned.  They were speaking swahilli but we could tell he was talking about us, or at least mentioning us. After several minutes of this back and forth he was let go.  George later explained "that man wanted to arrest me, if not for you I would have surely been arrested".  Apparently there are all types of licences required for automobiles in Kenya including a license for a radio, no not a CB radio, but the am/fm radio.  The license had expired and this is an enforceable offense.  George was able to plead with the officer telling him he has clients and this would not be fair to us as we had van full of luggage.

Eventually we did make our way through the insanity that is traffic in Nairobi and checked in to our hotel.  It was a very nice modern hotel and we were happy to find a proper bathroom and air conditioning in the room. We laid down to relax a bit and vegg out in front of the TV (something we hadn't seen in a couple weeks!) and to our horror, ALL of the news stations were broadcasting about a terrorist attack that had struck Kampala, Uganda.  We both jumped out of bed with our hearts in our throats wondering what in the world had happened?  Our immediate reaction was that the city must be in chaos because they were speaking about over 80 people being killed by bombs.  The bombs were exploded by suicide bombers from a terrorist organization with links to Al Qaeda, named Al Shabab who operate out of Somalia.  The suicide bombers had targeted popular sports bars who were showing the finals of the world cup match. This was not a good sign.  We quickly ran downstairs and got online to see what we could find out.  The Canadian Embassy had not issued warnings for the area and after reading a few headlines, it didn't appear as though we would be as at risk as we had once thought.  It was obviously very devastating for the city and the country, especially since Al Shabab had promised more retaliation if Uganda did not pull its troops from Somalia.

Later on that day we met with Elizabeth from our tour company who briefed us on the situation.  She had already been in contact with a few people in Uganda who had assured her that flights were not delayed or cancelled and things had pretty much returned to normal, and besides we were not staying in downtown Kampala anyhow...something comparable to say being in Brampton as apposed to downtown Toronto.  Elizabeth assured us our tour would still go ahead and we had nothing to worry about!

That evening we met up with Andrew (Anne's friend) and a few of his other friends.  He treated us as if we were family, picked us up at our hotel, paid for our entire bar tab and the dropped us off back at the hotel even though it was after midnight and he had to work at 6am..oh those crazy Kenyans!  We had a blast just laughing it up and having a few drinks.  It was the perfect way to end our incredible honeymoon adventure!

Last day in the Mara

Today was the first day in a long time that we were able to sleep in past 8am, and after yesterdays insanely long safari adventure, well deserved, in my opinion!  We met up with George for breakfast and we were told he arranged for a local Masai named Solomon to take us up into the hills behind our lodge. It was a great hike and a welcome change from all the driving we've been doing, the views over the plains were fabulous.  We spent quite a long time taking in the view through the lens of our binoculars, watching safari vans drive around and taking note of the locals down below milling about in their everyday fashion.

After listening to George talk endlessly about the local fauna, birds and everything in between both Marlene and I were getting quite tired and a little annoyed with this constant bombardment of information.  Upon returning from our little hike we spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing, reading, and writing.  A perfect opportunity for me to finally tuck into the bottle of rum I had been carrying around the entire journey!  We had been told the alcohol within the parks can be quite expensive and to bring our own booze, to be honest, we had neither the time, nor the energy to sit back and enjoy multiple drinks per night.  I actually ended up just leaving 3/4 of the bottle for the cleaning staff.

And soon the time had come for our final safari!  It was met with mixed emotions because on the one hand it was kind of sad to be leaving the Kenyan plains, if not for ever, then for a very long time. And on the other hand, a once novel and thrilling experience had began to take on a kind of weary, un-enthusiastic aura. Not to sound like a couple of spoiled brats but we really had seen everything we had come to see and we didn't see the point in going out again.  But alas, we had paid for it and George was gung ho to find us some lions. There were many many grazers lying by the watering hole and Marlene and I would have been just fine to sit there and watch these magical beasts in their natural habitat, taking in all of our surroundings for one last time.  But George was determined, he was going to find us our lion!  For the next 2 hours we drove around in circles attempting to cross a creek, each time we were faced with soft ground, we would have to turn around.  On one of these attempts we found ourselves face to face with a very disgruntled, enormous bull elephant.  He seemed to have been cranky to begin with but our presence in his territory clearly tested his patience as he began to flap his ears and even trumpet his trunk as he slowly began the "charge mode" rituals.  This time I was a bit nervous because we had just climbed up a steep, windy, and narrow road and the only way to evade him was to go back the way we came.  George quickly threw it in reverse, vearing off course in the process.  Luckily we managed to get far enough away from the angry elephant that he decided we were no longer a threat.  We all sat back, caught our breath, and watched/listened as the elephant stormed off in the opposite direction, up rooting trees along the way.  We could still see the trees shaking down in the valley long after he was out of earshot.

The Jackyl

When we retired to bed Marlene and I recounted many of the incredible things we had seen and experienced along our 2 week journey.  We decided that 2 weeks was the perfect amount of time and the we were ready to take on Uganda!  We were very excited for a change of pace, and to meet up with some of Anne's friends who promised to treat us to a night of local Kenyan debotchery! 

View of the Masai Mara from above