The last 6 weeks in a nutshell!

After the breathtaking trek on Mount Kilimanjaro no time was wasted looking for a stunning and relaxing beach. The bus from Moshi, Tanzania to Mombassa, Kenya could have been worse. Public transport is something that you just need to learn to deal with.

Sometimes, when they say be there at 5:15am it could really mean the bus won't get there until 7am, and for some reason…all of the passengers get the memo besides you. Hopefully your seat is not in the last 2 rows – if it is…good luck. There are more pot holes and speed bumps on 1 road than there are in an entire state in the US! You literally “get air” on many of these pot holes or speed bumps and the jittering bus makes reading very difficult. If you’re not in the back of the bus you still have to worry about the people around you. There is always a hard workingman or woman who doesn’t know what personal hygiene is or deodorant. Then you have the woman with 3 live chickens (sometimes just holding them by their feet in her hands) and the guy who plays his ring tones from his mobile phone on repeat as his ‘music’ for the whole ride…or until his phone dies. The seats on the buses recline an astonishing amount nearly breaking your kneecaps if you aren’t ready for the passenger in front of you to recline. Not to mention, the driver and conductor stop whenever and wherever they please – sometimes just for a smoke break/bathroom (side of the road/bush) and other times going form market to marked buying and then selling things making money for themselves.

Mombassa was a great city – not to big and not too small. They have neat little mini taxi cars that looked very environmentally friendly and compact so they didn’t take up space on the road. 

Awesome mini taxi in Kenya - on the ferry going to Diani Beach

 After one nights rest we headed to our first of many destinations on the Kenya Coast – Diani Beach. Not quite ‘falling in love’ with Diani but being completely satisfied and content we decided to scratch out plans of heading north and spend the week on the white sand beaches of Diani Beach. On the shores is where I had my first massage – costing a whopping $7 per hour! 

Our home at Diani Beach

100mts walk from our place in Diani

Paul and a camel

Indian Ocean

Construction, Africa style!

The main event of the week was going to Kisite Marine Park Wasini Island. We took a traditional dhow around 4 islands and went dolphin watching. There were 7 or more dolphins playing near our boat at one time! Then we were able to go snorkeling around the coral reefs. I wasn’t expecting much, but WOW was I surprised – it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life… it was like finding nemo just below the surface. I scratched my knee on the coral and then we stopped on one of the islands for a late lunch of wonderful local seafood!

Kisiti Marine Park Gate

Dolphins playing

 

Underwater Adventures!

I found NEMO!

View from our seafood lunch

We took a short (7hr) bus ride from Mombassa to Nairobi the day before our safari started. Realizing I had written the wrong start date for the safari we had a full day to explore Nairobi and see what attractions they had to offer. David Sheldrick Elephant and Rhino Orphanage was on the top of the list after meeting many travelers that highly recommended it. This sanctuary is a cause worthy of donating to! Daphne Sheldrick founded the sanctuary after her husband David (famous dounder Warden of Kenya's Tsavo NP) died and dedicated it to him. She worked for over 25 years perfecting the milk needed by baby elephants and rhinos in order to survive the first 2 years of life without their mother. But why would these animals be without a mother? POACHING! Poaching is more common than I thought – just this year the President of Kenya set fire to 5 tons of ivory worth over $16million in protest of poaching and also to raise awareness. These baby elephants are very prone to pneumonia which usually isnt caught until it is too late. For the first 2 years of life the babies need to be fed every three hours 24/7. They have a ‘keeper’ who is with them around the clock and even sleeps with them in the stable. They sleep with blankets over them so they don’t catch cold. After 2-3 years at the sanctuary it is time to reintroduce the elephants into the wild. These animals are extremely family oriented (another reason why their keeper is with them all the time) and in order to introduce them back into the animal kingdom they roam the Nairobi National Park (their backyard) everyday freely. They come back every night to their ‘home’ at the sanctuary but then one day… they won’t come home because they have finally been accepted by another family of elephants. It was remarkable hearing the beautiful story of these surviving elephants and rhinos; some of them with scars left by the poachers who killed their mother. 

David Sheldrick's Elephant and Rhino Sanctuary

I got to pet a baby elephant!!

A rhino named Maxwell

SAFARI TIME! We spent 2 ½ days and 2 nights roaming Maasai Mara Game Park. We saw every single animal that I wanted to…besides a rhino!! My third time to Africa and I still haven’t seen a rhino in the wild! We were somewhat disappointed by our guide, within the first 5 min of meeting him he told us we needed to tip the people where we would spend the night and also him. He was not friendly, never talked to us outside of the car/park and on the second day someone asked, “what is the name of this animal?” He replied, “I have told you three times already, don’t you remember?” Needless to say we did not tip and were thrilled to meet our next guide, Benson, who would take us to Hells Gate National Park and Lake Nakuruba for 2 ½ days and 2 night. Hells Gate NP is the only NP that you can be on foot/bike (out of the car) because there are no predators. Paul, Benson (guide) and I rented bikes at the gate and biked about 20 km through the park. It was a spectacular day!! I went rock climbing and then we hiked down into Hells Gate Gorge! A day I will never forget! J Although I was completely exhausted after biking all day, I wanted to try the horseback riding. I was feeling extremely unstable on my horse which was not taking my directions or listening at all. So I cut the ride very short to only 30min. I was feeling really uneasy and not being a professional rider, I didn’t want to take a chance of pissing off the horse and getting hurt. 

Paul&I ready to bike!

Hells Gate National Park - View of Hells Gate Gorge from the top

Hells Gate :)

Climbed this rock!

In the gorge!

More Hells Gate

An accident on a safari road, everyone was ok.

King of the jungle

Bee-eater bird!

After the Serengeti - Masai Mari annual migration, many wildebeest are left dead from
crossing the Mara river. Crocs and other animals will feast for months.

Huge family of hippos behind us in the Mara River

This little guy attacked Paul and his lunch (literally)

spotted hyena

warthogs

baby lion cub

WE SAW THIS KILL! cheetah kills gazelle!

Secretary bird

Leopard!!!

water buffalo

Typical - guy biking with a bunk bed.

RIFT VALLEY!!!

Lake Naivasha - view from a horse!

 Arriving back to Nairobi before dark we had enough time to go shopping for…BOOKS! I got two (Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles; The State of Africa) and Paul got 3 (Into Africa [my dad would love this one]; Blood River; and one about the railroad put in East Africa during colonial times) We then hopped on the overnight bus heading back home to Jinja and arrived at the crack of dawn!

I fell in love with Africa :)

Being mid/beginning September when the holiday was over, it left me with just under 4 weeks before I headed off to Senegal. I spent those next four weeks buckling down on my paper, kayaking on the Nile, and enjoying the company of those around me. I spent a couple of nights in the seclusion of an island in the middle of the Nile River- Hairy Lemon. No cell service, no internet, only harmony. Highly recommended if you ever get to Uganda. 

Hairy Lemon Island

  

I also spent 3/4 days in Rwanda. Kigali is the most surprising African city I have ever been to. They have rules there…and people actually obey them!!! I could not believe my eyes – although I’m sure some of the enormous amounts of aid money (given as an apology for the lack of interference during the genocide in 1994) has went into the bank accounts of politicians, much of it has went into the infrastructure of the nation. Its absolutely remarkable. It took me nearly 4 hours to get through the Genocide Memorial on the outskirts of Kigali, tears filled my eyes every step I took. Its appalling to see how many warning signs the international community turned their back to. That was the most heartbreaking – it could have been prevented. But, in my own liberal conspiracy theorist mind, I believe we didn’t do anything because there was nothing in it for us – no oil, no mineral wealth…just ‘a bunch of savage Africans’ fighting some incomprehensible and irrelevant war in some distant place that 99% of the Western world couldn’t have pointed out on a map. At the end of the exhibition there was a room dedicated to the children of the genocide – the main targets as it was the Hutu’s goal to exterminate the Tutsi ethnic group and what better way to do that by killing its youngest members. This room was the most difficult to get through, I had to stop reading because I couldn’t control my tears anymore. No one was spared during that regrettable and mournful period of history. 

Kigali, Rwanda

Garden at the memorial

 Some last picture of Uganda...

 I didn’t realize how fast the time was going until now… I am on the airplane heading to Dakar!!

My paper is nearly finished; what was supposed to be 20 pages is now 30 and is not yet completed. My paper’s focus is the history and root causes of conflict in the Great Lakes region of Central Africa. I was going to put an emphasis on Uganda’s response to the influx of refugees but I am afraid I don’t have enough time or space to include that information.

Senegal… I don’t know what to expect and I have found that not expecting is best here in Africa. I had a friend who studied there for the summer and she has sent me some contacts which I am very grateful for – it looked like she had a blast with them; saw the real Senegal that is hard for ‘tourist’ to find. I have 12 days here before I begin my overland adventure Oct 22. I have six weeks until I meet Paul and our good friend Rito in Ghana for the second half of the overland. IF they get their visas taken care of. After my Great Lakes paper is completed I need to focus my studies on French and Francophone culture. I am enrolled in independent study classes that require me to 1) read 5 Francophone stories and write a essay showing my comprehension, knowledge of the French language, etc and 2) 5 papers in French about different aspects of Francophone culture (i.e.: the passing of tradition through dance and drum, women's roll in the economy, how the slave trade has effected modern W.Africa) and to do this I have to complete interviews and do a lot of hands on research while I am traveling. I am a little scared that I ‘bit off more than I could chew’ but I know I will prevail and complete the coursework successfully.