9-28 – And now I can die happy

We were up early, had another lovely breakfast in the hotel, then packed up and checked out. Sylvester met us at the hotel lobby with an updated itinerary and assurances that everything would be fine. Our driver/guide arrived and introduced himself as Edwin. That’s sort of a “stage name” because people have trouble with his real name, Lemaron.

Off we went to the jeep, bidding farewell to the Irene and Leonard, members of the hotel staff who had been so nice to us.

The trip to Samburu was quite a long one. We stopped at a comfort station/snack bar/souvenir store and got to see a lot of “everyday” Kenya along the way.

Lemaron is a Masai and is really interesting. He told us a lot about Kenya, its government, its tribes and helped us get a sense of the country. After about 4 hours we turned off the main road for the 8km drive to the hotel. Yes, the road…I have been on rutted, bumpy roads, but I have never experience anything like this. My mother would have said the drive was enough to shake the fillings out of your teeth. At points I couldn’t make out a road ahead at all, but Lemaron had b een there many times and made it look easy-ish. We arrived at the Sarova Shaba Hotel, located within the Shaba National Park. We were greeted with cool wet towels and a glass of mango nectar then escorted to the dining room for lunch, a buffet which was due to close soon. We then checked in and were escorted to our room. We had a little time to settle into the room, then we headed out to meet Lemaron for our first game drive. We stayed in the Shaba Reserve, down that same hellish road but with a detour to the park. We saw one Grevy’s giraffe, then a bit further on happened upon two reticulated Giraffes. There are three types of giraffe distinguishable by their markings. At the sanctuary we saw Rothschilds giraffes, the most endangered, at the Nairobi reserve we saw Masai giraffes, and tonight our giraffe list was complete. A game drive isn’t like a visit to a wildlife park. There isn’t a giraffe area and a zebra area, etc., you have to drive around and hunt for the animals and we did a lot of driving around. We nrounded a bend in the road, and suddenly we came upon a small herd of elephants feeding.

I cannot describe the feeling. Seeing them there, so peaceful, so calm and so massive, I was overcome.

I had dreamed of this moment for so many years and now, 40 feet in front of me were elephants. A matriarch, some teenagers, some youngsters just going about their elephant business. I had told Lemaron that seeing elephants in the wild was my dream, and happily, we were of the same mind regarding how to be with the animals. There are many tourists that just want to check the big five off their list; see it, take the photo, move on. But I just wanted to take the time to be with them and Lemaron understood that. We sat there for, I don’t know, 20 minutes? 30 minutes? It was glorious. Finally we moved on, spotted some waterbucks, water buffalo, more Grevy’s zebras, gazelles and vultures. The park closes at 6:30, so we headed back on yet more bone rattling roads and got back in time for a) a shower b) a cocktail and c) dinner. Another buffet but, again, really delicious. They are a bit meat-centric, but also have several Indian dishes, since a lot of their clientele is from India.

Back to the room to do a little hand laundry, then tried to settle in to bed. The beds are surrounded by mosquito netting and there’s a large oscillating fan over the bed, which was good for Bruce because he runs hot. It was in the high 70s, so I was warm too, but the fan was so powerful it kept blowing my hair in my face. I tried setting up a makeshift bed using the duvet (who uses a duvet in 78 degree weather?) but the fan found me there. I tried putting a towel over my head, but I couldn’t breathe. Finally Bruce took one for the team, the fan was turned off, and I drifted off to sleep.

More photos are coming but I have very slow internet, so please be patient.