So what do I mean by eventful? Let me first define it, Eh-vent-FULL = of or relating to 3 flat tires, one over turned car and a Masai lady opening a bag of crisps with her machette.
Flat tire 1: Happened in the gas station just after we loaded the van. Still can't figure that one out. Apparently the valve popped, not sure what exactly that means.
Flat tire 2: We were made aware of our flat tire when an oncoming car pointed it out. Liz confirmed it and after an hour of so of riding on a low pressure wheel it gave up and we had to stop. This time we were in the middle of nowhere. After about 5 minutes 3
Masai turned up , started staring at us and talking to us. We found them hugely interesting - Mickey paid a guy with a motor cycle to take him for a drive - that cost him less than 50p. I found the Masai women so intriguing I caved on wanting to take a picture. We paid her 40 bob in total - less than 40p - for a few shots of her and her friends. Lots of kids came to join and the Masai lady used her machete to open a pack of crisps!
The girl pictured here, Margaret, her english was brilliant and she was so cute. At one po
int a car came zooming passed us and reversed to see if he could help. We said we were ok and sent him on his way.
Overturned car:
About 30 minutes later on our way to the Mara we saw the car that had slowed down and stopped to ask if we were ok was overturned by the side of the road. The driver had been driving too fast and lost control of the car. Thank god all 4 passengers, girls from Finland, and the driver were ok. We arrived no more than 5 minutes after the accident and I got to speaking with the girls and they explained how they asked the driver to slow down at least 5 times. Some of the guys in our van helped turn the car right side up - the windscreen was smashed to bits - another true reminder how lucky the girls were. Our driver made sure someone was coming to pick up the girls and would take them to be checked out. Once we had this reassurance we ploughed on.
Flat tire 3: After we help the girls, our driver announces no more disasters are possible. Sod's law dictated it... we got another flat tire. Crazy. Within 5 minutes again this deserted landscape was dotted with Masai. Masai Twitter Katya and Liz called it. Good call hunh?
The next day, as we prepared for our 1st morning game drive, our driver saw one of the tire's pressure was too low so he disappeared off into the horizon get it fixed. This took a while.... We started a walking Safari, but after 20 minutes this was aborted when a Kenyan told us it was dangerous. Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Once the van was back up and running anytime we hear a loud noise coming from underneath the car we all stopped breathing. After our disaster day we made it without any other incidents - thank gosh!
Seeing wild animals 1st hand, the big ones like we see on National Geographic, was amazing. I didn't expect the experience to be quite so impressive, after all I'd been to the zoo. (For you animal lovers I know saying this is a sacrilege, however). We covered 4 of the 5 big five the only one we missed out on was the Leopard. As I mentioned these guys are hard to spot. Everyday we saw lots of animals and a new type of one each day which made the whole experience fun and entertaining. There were six of us on Safari so we had lots of photographers, videographers and binoculists (sic) on lookout. Each night we went back to Fig Tree Camp where we stayed in large tents - fully equipped with beds, mattresses, mosquito nets and a super large fixed bathroom. Basically, our tents had a bathroom 'extension.' All very nice. Thanks to a bit of advanced planning and the Liz and Katya bottle opening duet we had plenty of nice wine to enjoy each night and water to bring us back to life each morning. Our hotel included full board so we had lots of food options and didn't have to compete with Lions or Cheetahs for food - phew!
My favourite animals or memories of the safari you ask? Seeing a live buffalo - poor old guy he seemed to me - one day only to discover that the Lions had hunted him down during the night. The next morning we whitnessed Lions feasting... Circle of life we called it. A female cheetah and her cubs ravenously knawing at a gazelle killed early one afternoon. The shots of their blood-stained faces are priceless.
int a car came zooming passed us and reversed to see if he could help. We said we were ok and sent him on his way.Overturned car:
About 30 minutes later on our way to the Mara we saw the car that had slowed down and stopped to ask if we were ok was overturned by the side of the road. The driver had been driving too fast and lost control of the car. Thank god all 4 passengers, girls from Finland, and the driver were ok. We arrived no more than 5 minutes after the accident and I got to speaking with the girls and they explained how they asked the driver to slow down at least 5 times. Some of the guys in our van helped turn the car right side up - the windscreen was smashed to bits - another true reminder how lucky the girls were. Our driver made sure someone was coming to pick up the girls and would take them to be checked out. Once we had this reassurance we ploughed on.
Flat tire 3: After we help the girls, our driver announces no more disasters are possible. Sod's law dictated it... we got another flat tire. Crazy. Within 5 minutes again this deserted landscape was dotted with Masai. Masai Twitter Katya and Liz called it. Good call hunh?
The next day, as we prepared for our 1st morning game drive, our driver saw one of the tire's pressure was too low so he disappeared off into the horizon get it fixed. This took a while.... We started a walking Safari, but after 20 minutes this was aborted when a Kenyan told us it was dangerous. Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Once the van was back up and running anytime we hear a loud noise coming from underneath the car we all stopped breathing. After our disaster day we made it without any other incidents - thank gosh!
Seeing wild animals 1st hand, the big ones like we see on National Geographic, was amazing. I didn't expect the experience to be quite so impressive, after all I'd been to the zoo. (For you animal lovers I know saying this is a sacrilege, however). We covered 4 of the 5 big five the only one we missed out on was the Leopard. As I mentioned these guys are hard to spot. Everyday we saw lots of animals and a new type of one each day which made the whole experience fun and entertaining. There were six of us on Safari so we had lots of photographers, videographers and binoculists (sic) on lookout. Each night we went back to Fig Tree Camp where we stayed in large tents - fully equipped with beds, mattresses, mosquito nets and a super large fixed bathroom. Basically, our tents had a bathroom 'extension.' All very nice. Thanks to a bit of advanced planning and the Liz and Katya bottle opening duet we had plenty of nice wine to enjoy each night and water to bring us back to life each morning. Our hotel included full board so we had lots of food options and didn't have to compete with Lions or Cheetahs for food - phew!
My favourite animals or memories of the safari you ask? Seeing a live buffalo - poor old guy he seemed to me - one day only to discover that the Lions had hunted him down during the night. The next morning we whitnessed Lions feasting... Circle of life we called it. A female cheetah and her cubs ravenously knawing at a gazelle killed early one afternoon. The shots of their blood-stained faces are priceless.
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More comically - gay giraffes is next on the list. According to our driver it was 3 male giraffes necking but one giraffe looked really excited by the whole thing. I have a lot of photos of this event.
Zebra crossing was also cool and fun to capture on camera.
Amazing sunsets and the constant sense of adventure really tops it -
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4 comments:
It all looks amazing! Thank you for sharing these experience!
Wow! you are having fun. x
YOu look so nice in the African sun! But don't go walking around with the lions, you! :-) xx
This sounds like a dream to me. Lucky you Julia. Keep sending us your news and take care of yourself :)
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