10-8 Escaping Tanzania

It was finally time to go back to Kenya. (Cue sound of cheering.) Our itinerary promised a drive to the border with our guide, passport processing, then handover to our Kenyan guide. We were so excited that we would be seeing Lemaron again. So breakfast, tipping and checkout done we loaded ourselves onto the cruiser. Made it into Arusha where we stopped at another souvenir/tanzanite store. When we came out to the van, we found that our bags were being loaded into a small van and that another couple was to travel with us, Matthew and MJ. They had also booked their safari with Seven By Far Tours.

I checked my phone and found a message from Lemaron saying that he wasn't going to be our guide in Amboseli. He had tried to contact the office, but they hadn't returned his calls. I emailed Sylvester to ask about it and got a sad face emoji as a response. Grrrrr.

Anyway, the driver of the van took us to immigration/customs where our bags were screened by dogs and by machine. Then to the Tanzanian immigration where our passports were processed and we were given forms to fill out. From there to a window where a man who clearly held us in contempt sat looking at his cellphone. After five minutes or so he looked up and held his hand out. I was tempted to reach into the window and shake his hand, but I thought I’d be thrown in jail, so I handed him my passport and paper. He threw the paper into a pile, then tossed my passport back to me. Bruce went through the same procedure, with the addition of having his fingerprints registered again. I was the only one of our now party of 4 not fingerprinted. I must have an honest face. (haha) Finally processed, we went out to the van where we were told that another driver was coming to pick us up to take us to Amboselli. Then we waited, while seemingly countless Masai women entreated us to buy stuff. That has become a ritual whenever we stop anywhere. Checking into a National Park? Masai women selling stuff. Stopping to use the washroom? Masai women selling stuff. Stopping for lunch? Masai women selling stuff. They’re everywhere and they’re very assertive. Assertiive? Aggressive? Anyway, we stood in the heat, virtually no shade to be found, Masai women omnipresent. I made a rookie mistake. I wanted to get rid of them and they lowering their prices, so I bought a couple of things from two of them.

Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, more Masai women surrounded me. I said, but I already bought from Grace and Namama. “But now you buy from me. I have to take care of my family. Look. Lady, look, I give you good price. Lower and lower the prices went but I really had everything I wanted, and more besides. Finally MJ looked at them and in her own assertive voice said, “Go away”. And they did! After waiting for almost an hour, the driver who would take us to Amboselli, Evans, arrived. So off we went for another 4 hour drive. At least he wan’t going 20 LPH!

As we were approaching the Amboselli area, the landscape was very flat and brown. Evans told us that the land we were driving across used to be Lake Amboselli, but it dried up about 20 yeas before.

By the time we arrived at the Sopa hotel, it was really too late for the game drive that was originally scheduled on our itinerary, so Evans told us that instead of morning and afternoon game drives tomorrow, we would have a full day game drive. We got the usual hot towels and fruit juice at reception, checked in, and were escorted to our room by stewards. We were next to Matthew and MJ in the last two rooms on the property. Not all of our rooms have been luxurious, which is fine by me, but this room was really kind of awful. It was like a cement storage room with a very small window and terrible lighting. The kicker was that we were told that hot water was available from 6:00 – 10:00am and 6:00-10pm. So here we were at 4:30, covered in dust from the dirt roads we had traversed and we couldn’t have a warm shower to scrub it off. Bruce went to the pool, I brought my laptop to the bar and enjoyed a libation. One of the things I like about the property is the fact that there are animals about. A few baboons, many mongoose a couple of dik diks and a plethora of vervet monkeys. You remember, the ones with the aqua blue genitalia? (When a Kenyan points out the vervets, they invariably call them “the monkeys with the blue balls.” I think they think that’s mildly shocking to the tourists.)

Anyway, I had ordered a chili dawa, a cocktail based on what is essentially a Kenyan cure for a cold. The original is lemon, ginger, honey, herbs and hot water. If you order a dawa at one of the resorts, they leave out the herbx. The chili dawa is lemon, honey, a tiny bit of chili sauce and vodka. Anyway, as I sat sipping my dawa, I saw the top of a tiny head appear across the table, followed by a timy forehead and pair of eyes. I said hello, and the rest of the head of a vervet appeared. Then the cheeky monkey tried to reach over and steal the lemons from my drink. I said, “No” and he ran away. A couple of minutes later the scene was repeated. The hotel has very strict rules about not feeding the monkeys because it encourages them, otherwise I would have given him a lemon. Finally I packed up so neither of us would continue to be annoyed.

In the course of our ride to Amboseli in the afternoon, MJ heard my horrible cough and asked what I was taking. I told her I was taking a fairly useless cough syrup since you can’t get Mucinex in Kenya. Well, she just happened to have a whole box of Mucinex in her bag, so she gave me a sleeve. Hooray! Now maybe I can get rid of this cough in 2-3 weeks, instead of 4-5. As a thank you, when we saw them at the hotel bar, we bought them a round of drinks since MJ refused to let me buy the Mucinex from her. We enjoyed a cocktail then headed to dinner, but were told the dining room was full and we couldn’t be seated. Oh, come on! We’ve had a very long day, we just want a bite to eat. The Maitre d’ told us to wait in the bar and he would come and get us when a table opened in 5 minutes of so. Well, 45 minutes later, I went to the dining room to find there were at least 25 available tables. The maitre d’ had just forgotten about us. Now it’s approaching 8:30, so Bruce and I ate a very light meal and headed off to bed. I’m telling you, 8 plus hours in vans and cruisers really takes it out of you. As we were walking back to the room, we ran into a Masai warrior, paid by the hotel to walk guests to their rooms. We got most of the way to the room and he said, did you see the dik diks? We said we had seen them earlier. He said, “come come!” so we followed him to a clump of bushes. He shone the light into the bushes and there were the two little dik diks cosily tucked into their resting spots.

He told us that we should look out our window after midnight, because the giraffes graze in the clearing outside our room. It didn’t happen, but just seeing the dik diks was a great way to end the day.