Emily in Africa

Well I am happy to report I am no longer ashamed to be a traveller in Africa. Yes, I have finally gone on safari. And the best part is, I didn’t go in a tourist minibus! With the kids out of school for a two-week holiday, Christina decided it was time to get out of the city. And so, we hatched a plan to head for Tsavo East National Park, one of the more remote and less touristed safari parks. Friday afternoon, we hit the grocery store, petrol station, bank, loaded up two 4-year olds, one 10-year old, one nanny, many bags of groceries and hit the road. For 10 meters anyways. Yes, we hadn’t even made it out of the driveway when we got a flat tyre.

But one hour later, we were really on the road - and oh, what a road! Just for the record, the Mombasa-Nairobi highway is one of the worst roads in the entire country – especially the first 60km out of Mombasa where pavement is in short supply and potholes are not. The crashed tractor-trailer trucks that have been left abandoned by the side of the road doesn’t do much for one’s confidence either. It really is amazing to imagine that all the goods shipped in and out of East Africa come down this highway! By sheer luck and excellent driving, we managed to avoid some close calls with trucks, matatus, buses and one goat.

So after 3 hours of driving, some very frayed nerves and one night in a lodge later, we finally entered the park early Saturday morning. The park is huge reaching from the middle of Kenya to the border with Somalia. In fact, the entire north half of the park is entirely closed to visitors due to an increase in illegal Somali poachers with AK-47s. But not to worry, we stuck to the south end and saw lots of animals that first morning. The only one up close was the large babboon that nearly got in through the car window while we were parked outside the range station, but that’s ok! Even if it was far away, we still saw a herd of buffalo, elephants, zebras, ostriches, and one very large ex-lava flow.

After a brief siesta in the afternoon (for me anyways, Tina was busy saving the life of the nanny who nearly drowned in the pool, which is another story entirely). We headed back into the park around 5pm, just in time for prime wildlife viewing. Which is was – the late afternoon light on the plains was beautiful. I think it was the contrast of colours that was the most amazing: red dirt roads, green bush, blue skies, the setting sun turning the lakes pink….it was pretty neat. The big excitement was a lion “sighting”. To be honest, ,it wasn’t more than a grey amorphous shape about 2km away in the bush, but I’m sure I saw a tail! However, that half an hour we spent peering at the lion made us a little late for our expected departure time from the park. Since all cars have to be off the roads by 630pm to avoid being trampled by elephants and/or attacked by lions, we figured we would just put the pedal to the metal and somehow make the gate 80kms away in under an hour. Which sounded like a great idea…until the sun starting setting really fast and we were nowhere near the gate. Not even on the same page in the map.

It’s at these times one makes a “plan B”. Ours was to turn on the headlights and bomb it as fast as possible to the gate while avoiding all trampling elephants and then use our beguiling charm to have the park guards unlock the gate and let us out. So it was all looking fine…until we turned our headlights on. They flicked on and then promptly turned off. In fact, all the lights in the car turned off. So then we were in the middle of a safari park at dusk with no headlights, interior lights, dashboard lights…things weren’t looking good. While some people (like my mother) may think this was cause for panic and alarm, we simply moved on to plan C: find somewhere to sleep..and fast! After a quick peek at the map while convincing the kids in the backseat that of course we knew where we were going and that we driving without lights makes for a proper safari experience, we reversed course and headed for the nearest campsite. We sped along cursing quietly under our breath for nearly 18 kilometers, of which the of very speedy driving and then another 2 of me holding my headlight out the window for light, we finally pulled into the campsite and heaved a big sigh of relief. Besides, was it really our fault that this just happened to be the most exclusive tented camp in Tsavo?

In case I didn’t mention this before, plan C also relied heavily on the fact that we were a carload of women and children who, unfortunately, did not have a reservation for the evening. Luckily a couple from Nairobi hadn’t managed to show up for the night (something about trampling elephants? Just kidding, mom!) so here was one tent left in the whole place. Even more luckily, our accomodation included all meals! Score! Sure, it mean I was no longer on a “budget” for my safari adventure, but have you seen this place? FYI, in addition to a toilet and toilet paper, there was also a sink and shower in our tent.

(ED. NOTE: OK, flickr has done all she can do and is now refusing to upload more pictures..but, do check out the link on the right, if interested)

After an entertaining dinner (imagine 3 screaming children descending on a luxury dining room), it was finally time for bed…for the kids, of course. Christina and I stayed up late drinking Tuskers by the fire and enjoying various impalas and waterbucks that came up just 10m away from us. Amazing. All the tents are placed around a large clearing and a waterhole, which is the only year-round water source in this remote area of the park. During the dry season when all the water in the bush has dried up, you can see elephants, zebras, rhinos, hippos, hyenas and even lions at the water hole just next to your tent. Which is also why they keep armed azkari (guards) patrolling the site. But alas, it was the rainy season and so the only animals we saw that night were impalas, antelopes and waterbuck. Hoofed animals only go so far after one’s impression of a Kenyan safari is based mainly on the Lion King.

Luckily the next day we saw lots of cool animals, and right up close too!

But almost more importantly, several other things happened as well:

1. We actually made it out of the park,

2. We did end up using our beguiling charm to talk our way out of an US$30 park fee for staying an extra day,

3. I drove stick in a safari car with my left hand (very fun), and

4. We discovered that by making a sarong barricade, you can almost not hear the howling of two very overtired children in the back seat. Here’s a picture of brilliant discovery:

So safari was a big thumbs up. But it was still nice to get home – actually, that’s a whole other story. While you would think that we would have been organized to make it off the the most dangerous highway in Kenya by dark since we didn’t have working headlights, that would be giving us way too much credit. However, for future reference, jiggling your swiss army knife in the fuse box under the hood really does work! And so our lights miraculously start working again, we held our breath, and somehow managed to make it all the way home. There’s just nothing life a do-it-yourself safari in Africa.

// posted by Emily @ 9:19 AM