NAIROBI TO AMBOSELI
16 November 2006- Thursday
(Blog mechanics: Last night spent $5 for 30 minutes of time on the hotel internet. Was congratulating myself on successfully uploading a blog- when my computer's battery power ran out. So now I know it really works, I'll start working on the mechanics- like how to load photgraphs and get uniform looking pages. major problem is my dyslectic computer which has a lot of trouble with spelling- another item to work on.)
Thought I'd add vignettes on some of the interesting. people I meet on the trip. My dinner companions last night were Chester, an 88 yo American who flew dirigibles in WWII to patrol for U boats in the Gulf of Mexico. He said his secret to success is exercise- swims every day. His second wife, Heidi- (short for a long Swedish monniker that I can't remember) is in her sixties and has had MS for a number of years and the gentleman has Parkinson's. The other couple were Brits from Liverpool. John is 80 was widowed for 25 years and recently remarried a woman in her 50's- Mo short for Monica. They were delightful additions to an unusual meal and when we left the restuarant in a drizzle we really didn't mind after all the wine.)
Rained all night in Nairobi- bags were picked up at 6:30 and after breakfast loaded 8 passenger Range Rovers for trip to Amboseli. However they only loaded six passengers in each leaving the suicide seat next to the driver and the middle seat between the 2 people in the back seat open. Traffic a mess when we left at 7:45 and headed south out of the city which accounted for about an hour of a 5 hour drive. Drove past the Place where they are building the new American Embassy to replace the one that was bombed. It's really on the outskirts of town. The first 3 hours were on "paved" roads and ended at a rest stop with the biggest souvenir shop I've seen in Africa with some wood carvin gs as big as tree trunks. A nice soap stone Masai motif chess set was $125 and I was too beat up to bargain. All dirt roads a couple of miles from the shop as we headed east to Amboseli. And now the reason we were told to buckle our seat belts became obvious - not to prevent injury from rollovers, but to keep from getting skull fractures from the numerous ruts we hit. We were not too far from the Tanzania border when we headed east with Kilamanjaro shrouded in clouds on our right. This area looks like a desert with blotches of dried and some green vegetation- it is uninhabited by man or animal- except for an ostrich that ran across the road in front of us and I was able to another rear end view to my collection. Finally turned greener and now cattle appear wih Masai herdsmen. And finally we get to the reserve.When the drivers stop to pay the admission fee we are advised to stay in the vans with the windows rolled up as we are assailed by swarms of Masai selling their wares, but are reported to be great thieves and snatch stuff from the vehicles- they seemed friendly enought to me and I would have loved to taken photos of their varied mutilated ears from their earrings - some of the lobes were almost destroyed.
Amboseli is an oasis thanks to the water that runs off Kilamajaro. Since Kilamanjaro is a volcanic peak, there are underground lava tubes that carry the water and it surfaces in parts of Amboseli. Legend is that when the water runs low the Amboseli elephants climg the mountain and break into the tubes to start new water flow.
Then we leave the reserve and it beomes obvious that our lodge is on the opposite side of Amboseli and that's why our vans left first. The lodge is nice looking and we get to eat lunch- it takes them over an hour to do room assigments and I damn near have a heart attck when a long legged Masai (in hotel livery) takes my bags and starts uphill to my cabin which is at least a quarter of a mile away from the lodge. Almost recovered by 3 pm and decide to forgo a "cultural visit" to a Masai village in favour of going back to the game park. For the next four hours it's dirt roads again competing with other visitors to see elephant, gazelle, buffalo, birds and just before sunset 2 lioness and a hyena. My take is that there's been a big change since I was here 40 years ago and wonder what the future is. We never left the road as we did on my last trip and except for 3 elephants you can get closer to animals in a zoo.
Dinner waiting and the breaded fish was excellent with complimentary white wine. Then up the hill to crash after a grueling day cooped in a vehicle. Realized that the white polo was not going to suitable for the next day went down to the lodge and got a black one to hid the dirt. Glad I packed a flashlight and as usual in the third world wa amazed at the number of visible stars. It's what I remember from the war years in the 40s, walking to the post box under a star-filled sky. What with sodium an d mercury vapor lamps this generation is missing out.
But the people were interesting. Phil and Linda from Joisey who's son "the doctor" is an internist with travel medicine stationed in London who coordinates evacuations of sick American tourists. (speaking of sick tourists-Phil has severe diarrhea and we made at least 3 stops for him. remember I said this was flat terrain with no bushes. He was discrete enought to poop behind the van but poor fellow was chagrined to say the least) The other 3 occupants were Jane ( a recently retired Hospital administrator who started out as a nurse and eventually graduated from the Wharton School of Business) and Ron and Ann from Michigan- he was a physicist who worked for the automotive industry.
(Blog mechanics: Last night spent $5 for 30 minutes of time on the hotel internet. Was congratulating myself on successfully uploading a blog- when my computer's battery power ran out. So now I know it really works, I'll start working on the mechanics- like how to load photgraphs and get uniform looking pages. major problem is my dyslectic computer which has a lot of trouble with spelling- another item to work on.)
Thought I'd add vignettes on some of the interesting. people I meet on the trip. My dinner companions last night were Chester, an 88 yo American who flew dirigibles in WWII to patrol for U boats in the Gulf of Mexico. He said his secret to success is exercise- swims every day. His second wife, Heidi- (short for a long Swedish monniker that I can't remember) is in her sixties and has had MS for a number of years and the gentleman has Parkinson's. The other couple were Brits from Liverpool. John is 80 was widowed for 25 years and recently remarried a woman in her 50's- Mo short for Monica. They were delightful additions to an unusual meal and when we left the restuarant in a drizzle we really didn't mind after all the wine.)
Rained all night in Nairobi- bags were picked up at 6:30 and after breakfast loaded 8 passenger Range Rovers for trip to Amboseli. However they only loaded six passengers in each leaving the suicide seat next to the driver and the middle seat between the 2 people in the back seat open. Traffic a mess when we left at 7:45 and headed south out of the city which accounted for about an hour of a 5 hour drive. Drove past the Place where they are building the new American Embassy to replace the one that was bombed. It's really on the outskirts of town. The first 3 hours were on "paved" roads and ended at a rest stop with the biggest souvenir shop I've seen in Africa with some wood carvin gs as big as tree trunks. A nice soap stone Masai motif chess set was $125 and I was too beat up to bargain. All dirt roads a couple of miles from the shop as we headed east to Amboseli. And now the reason we were told to buckle our seat belts became obvious - not to prevent injury from rollovers, but to keep from getting skull fractures from the numerous ruts we hit. We were not too far from the Tanzania border when we headed east with Kilamanjaro shrouded in clouds on our right. This area looks like a desert with blotches of dried and some green vegetation- it is uninhabited by man or animal- except for an ostrich that ran across the road in front of us and I was able to another rear end view to my collection. Finally turned greener and now cattle appear wih Masai herdsmen. And finally we get to the reserve.When the drivers stop to pay the admission fee we are advised to stay in the vans with the windows rolled up as we are assailed by swarms of Masai selling their wares, but are reported to be great thieves and snatch stuff from the vehicles- they seemed friendly enought to me and I would have loved to taken photos of their varied mutilated ears from their earrings - some of the lobes were almost destroyed.
Amboseli is an oasis thanks to the water that runs off Kilamajaro. Since Kilamanjaro is a volcanic peak, there are underground lava tubes that carry the water and it surfaces in parts of Amboseli. Legend is that when the water runs low the Amboseli elephants climg the mountain and break into the tubes to start new water flow.
Then we leave the reserve and it beomes obvious that our lodge is on the opposite side of Amboseli and that's why our vans left first. The lodge is nice looking and we get to eat lunch- it takes them over an hour to do room assigments and I damn near have a heart attck when a long legged Masai (in hotel livery) takes my bags and starts uphill to my cabin which is at least a quarter of a mile away from the lodge. Almost recovered by 3 pm and decide to forgo a "cultural visit" to a Masai village in favour of going back to the game park. For the next four hours it's dirt roads again competing with other visitors to see elephant, gazelle, buffalo, birds and just before sunset 2 lioness and a hyena. My take is that there's been a big change since I was here 40 years ago and wonder what the future is. We never left the road as we did on my last trip and except for 3 elephants you can get closer to animals in a zoo.
Dinner waiting and the breaded fish was excellent with complimentary white wine. Then up the hill to crash after a grueling day cooped in a vehicle. Realized that the white polo was not going to suitable for the next day went down to the lodge and got a black one to hid the dirt. Glad I packed a flashlight and as usual in the third world wa amazed at the number of visible stars. It's what I remember from the war years in the 40s, walking to the post box under a star-filled sky. What with sodium an d mercury vapor lamps this generation is missing out.
But the people were interesting. Phil and Linda from Joisey who's son "the doctor" is an internist with travel medicine stationed in London who coordinates evacuations of sick American tourists. (speaking of sick tourists-Phil has severe diarrhea and we made at least 3 stops for him. remember I said this was flat terrain with no bushes. He was discrete enought to poop behind the van but poor fellow was chagrined to say the least) The other 3 occupants were Jane ( a recently retired Hospital administrator who started out as a nurse and eventually graduated from the Wharton School of Business) and Ron and Ann from Michigan- he was a physicist who worked for the automotive industry.
Labels: Nairobi to Rio 2006
posted by DT at 10:55 AM
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