Day 121...Africaaah! oooh uhohohohooo - 25th October

Arrived at 5am on no sleep, and only 4 hours the previous night as well. Suffice to say, we feel rather fucked. Like we're coming down or something. But our bags turned up though!

It was exciting to be back in Africa. We drove through the dark grey morning light, watching the horizon get lighter and lighter. Our pick up guy was very friendly and pointed things out along the way, like their first presidents memorial site etc. Driving through Nairobi - to people just arrived it would look like a poor, large African city. But to us - coming from the dust and chaos of Egypt - Nathan and I were like "luxury" ! The buildings were cleaner, and it seemed alot sharper and smarter. Alot like Harare in Zimbabwe really. A nice city in all.
But very dangerous! Apparently it is more dangerous than Johannesburg and you can't walk outside with any valuables at all. But it felt ok to us. Wouldn't want to do it alone though!

We check in at our hotel = Nathan was so tired, he wrote his name down as Nathan Kay! Yeah, right on!
We got about 3 hours sleep before we went downstairs for breakfast and to start our safari. If only we were able to fly yesterday, we would have been much more rested for our tour! I booked this company as they were cheap as chips, but only did small groups with a maximum of 4. So we were the only two going on this trip. The tour manager met us and gave us a brief (and i mean brief) overview. Not up to Mohameds standards I have to say. Then we met our staff. Basically it was Nathan and I, and our guide and cook. We paid buckley's for the tour as well which is really good. It was much cheaper than the other African tours I researched, but got good raps in Lonely Planet. The main thing I worried about at that price was the car (the animals are no different no matter which company you're with haha) and we ended up getting a van to ourselves and it was no different than any other vehicle we saw throughout the whole trip. So in all we did pretty well. Considering when we went on safari we saw vans jammed full with people - and it was just the 2 of us in ours!

Our guide was Stanley, and old Kikuyu guy. James was a Kisii and looks like a taller version of Gary Coleman. James was our cook. We had to pick a few more supplies up around Nairobi and Nathan pulled some cash out. While he was gone, a mate of Stanleys turned up and they gabbled away in Swahili. I had to restrain my giggles as every time the conversation paused, they would say éh' in a low deep voice. And it would volley back and forth about five times before breaking into conversation again!
We drove out of Nairobi (past Joseph Kenyetta's grave - their first president) and out to Amboseli National Park. It was a long...LONG drive. The scenery was beautiful - very different to Zimbabwe. Coz its on the equator its very dry. There were miles and miles of rolling orange hills dotted with green tufts. And you could see the sky forever. I wanted to watch but as we had no sleep, we slept most of the way (i think it was about an 8 hour drive). The further out we went, the worse the road got. It became full of potholes and about two-thirds in, just turned to dirt and rock. Then we couldn't sleep and had to resort to holding on to dear life! The whole car shook and rattled so loudly.

Amboseli literally means 'dust' and we were coated in great clouds of the stuff. Amboseli is also home to the Maasai people. They herd cattle and don't believe in farming. We were amazed to see them all dressed in traditional garb! This was no tourist show, they actually wander around like that! They trotted around herding goats and cows, riding bikes, sitting under trees all wearing bright red shawls and covered in African jewellery and had big earlobes. At one point, we stopped and bought coal for our campfire off an old Maasai dude: Nathan and I were fascinated by him! The Maasai are sick of being photographed though, so you really have to guerilla shoot them!
The Maasai have a reputation of being fierce warriors and of a proud demeanor. They scorn agriculture and land ownership and live along the Tanzanian border.

Stanley explained to us that Mt Kilimanjaro is actually in Tanzania. but everyone thinks its in Kenya, as thats were all the famous photos are from. In Tanzania, the land slowly rises up to Mt Kilimanjaro so it doesn't stand out at all. From Kenya is the most impressive views. Also, Mt Kilimanjaro means something like 'whats that stuff on top there?' (snow).

We were only a few hundred metres to the Tanzanian border before we made a turn at a town bustling with Maasai and small friendly children waving at us. We waited while Stanley fussed around buying oranges and chatting (we are now officially on 'african time') We would learn to become familiar with this behaviour.

After that we drove towards the park over crazy, heavily potholed and rocky dirt roads. The scenery was incredibly African. Yellow River Acacia trees, acacia bushes, dry desolate scape, a clouded Mt Kilimanjaro in the background. Amboseli used to be a lake, but over hte past few years it has stayed dry. So we drove across the dust, trying not to breathe it all in. It was the first time I understoond what they meant about mirages looking huge. An elephant miles away would be suddenly magnified in the heat of the mirage, and would look up close. It was a really cool effect! I'd always read about it, and now I was seeing it. Cars would get huge then small then huge again. Weird!

A giraffe would lope along in the distance. Near our camp (which was inside the park) was a patch of bright blue water, surrounded by a rich green. We could make out hippos (barely) and there wre wildebeasts, and zebra dotted all over the place. They are strict about staying on the roads here. It makes sense as its all alkaline and if you drive over it, it won't grow back. With the dust and dryness (we came just before the wet season - we'll be lucky if we don't get rained on!) its really easy to spot the animals all bunched together. We saw an elephant as well, but it was very distant! Stanley said that we would see more elephant here (and it sounded like the guy in Zimbabwe explaining about impala, so I was ok with that! haha).

We arrived at our camp which was inside the National Park. It was run by the local Maasai, who live in a village a little way away. Its a community project and colourful Maasai women were washing at a tap when we rocked up. It was just the 4 of us in one section - the camp is widely spaced so you can't see or hear the other campers. There were small wooden shacks with a tent inside and mattresses on the floor. We got a small set of sheets, and a woolly planket. No pillow, so we go tblankets out of Stanleys van, rolled them up and put our towels over the top.

I wandered around a little, just savouring the air and the smells and the landscape. We are surrounded by umbrella acacias and squirrels and birds. Its so fantastic. Perhaps because its dry, but it doesn't smell as spicy and flavoursome as Zimbabwe did. It smells very fresh, and you feel like you are in an incredible amount of space.

James cooked us a simple dinner, but it washealthy with spagetti and steamed cabbage and mixed vegetables. bananas for dessert. After Egypt we were pretty pleased with this, its so good to eat again. We watched the sky go dark as we were surrounded by red dirt and trees and Mt Kilimanjaro looming in the background. We sat at a little wooded bench and ate dinner. Stanley ends up having the table manners of a babboon, and I spent a good 10 minutes staring entraced at a really long piece of cabbage which swung and dangled from his lower lip as he ate and talked. The sky went from ink blue to black and the fire crackled merrily. We heard the gibbering laugh of a hyena which was really close! Its so cool! And it turns out they make 4 different sounds, so all night I was like "whats that?" - "hyena". "Oh and what's that?" - "hyena". haha.

It felt so wonderful to be standing under the african sky. Just the four of us surrounded by all that Africa-ness. Since we'd had bugger all sleep and there's not much to do by gaslight, we went to bed. Being in the national park, lying on the floor in a tent hearing the night sounds of Africa was fantastic.