Sasa!
Finally I got to stay over in Kenya (had a few flights there before, but they were all turnarounds) and can share another amazing experience with you. We had the late flight, which meant early night landing, so having the whole day to do stuff the next day. That night I couldn't sleep. Why? Fear. Knowing Alta, aiaiaia what will she be up to the next day, with Kenya not being so stable. I knew where I wanted to go, but how would I get there. The tours were superexpensive (and I don't like touristy stuff anyways). All the staff at the hotel, advised me not to go so far, coz there were groups fighting, police everywhere and especially going by myself would be dangerous (I wanted to take one of those minibuses again, called the matato in Kenya). The crew didn't want to go with me. And therefore, I was scared - because I knew that I would go. So I lay awake, praying for safety, for something, for someone. The next morning, I was still in a rut. I asked for a few second and third opinions, and they all said I should rather not go. So I called up crew to try and convince them, and they all made plans to go to the zoo. But when I have this burning feeling in me (like the one I had in Tanzania, in Sri Lanka, etc), then there is no stopping me. I can feel something beautiful wants to be borne..
And so a long story short with a very happy ending, off I went with two crew members in our own private taxi to go to Naivasha. Yes, there were a lot of police on the way (they put these spikes in the road to slow cars down - never heard of beacons or gates?) The weather was ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS!! (They predicted heavy showers). The trip was great, with stunning scenery. Lots of goats, cows, donkeys and sheep along the road and bushveld, which gives it this typical farmlike African style feeling. The sky and clouds were just freakin blissful!
I learned that rafiki means my friend in Swahili (for those who don't know - there is a pub/backpacker style/restaurant/typical Cape Townian hangout place in Tamboerskloof, Cape Town called Rafiki's)
Then we arrived in Naivasha (100kms out).
It's a chaotic African dorpie. I wasn't impressed, but relieved again when we drove through to go to Lake Naivasha and the scenery changed again to beautiful Africa. Once we got there, we were once again taken back by what we were surrounded by. Nature, wildness, silence, trees and then we saw a giraffe just chowing from the trees, 50ms away. It was crazy!! A Masai from the Mara region led the way and we found ourselves sharing a field with zebras, gazelles, waterbucks and giraffes. We tried to get close to them, but they would step back. This was not a zoo. Just open land. I couldn't believe how close we could get to the animals, just grazing around freely. This was true Africa to me. Not some Safari.
Then he showed us to a place (a hotel - one that you can't stay at) and there was no one. We were the only people there. How fabulous!! They offered us a boatride, and we couldn't resist. So off we go. And as we approached a bunch of rocks, and as we got closer, we realized shucks - it's HIPPOS!! A whole group.
Man, I've never seen hippos in real life!!! We got so close, the one hippo went under water and came after us. Our boat had an engine (thank God) And wait, it doesn't stop here. There were beeeeautiful beeeg flamingos everywhere. We saw a massive fish eagle (flew away as we got closer, just sitting on a stick coming out of the water - it's not very deep by the way - the hippos were just chilling, basically sitting/lying) There were huuuuuge pelicans (I still thought it were sailing boats from afar, that's why we thought this great place was busy - geez, and I had my eyes done). On land(the lake was pretty big, was as if we approached an island) we saw a big herd of gazelles again, and waterbucks as we made a turn, to find another group of hippos on the other side. We even saw a very big dead hippo laying on its side.
The whole experience was extremely peaceful and wholesome. Our driver took us back into town (Naivasha), and we insisted to go to some shack to have local food.
Back in Nairobi, we were not allowed to leave the hotel because of some demonstration going on. We left anyway. Bought some Savannas at the local supermarket:) and decided to check out the markets. Now, as you know, I've been to a lot of markets, but dear lord, I've never experienced such desperation before. These guys corner you, grab you by the arm to buy stuff, shout above each other and even fight with each other like children over a toy to get your attention. They actually get aggressive. Thank God I had two guys with me. I had to get out of there!! It was awful.
Overall, the experience was amazing, and the feeling is still lingering:) And I put my palms together to thank the universe/God for giving me this journey, for making it happen for me.
I hope you enjoyed reading this
Eish, I must still tell you about Austria (my roster is slammed this month!) Soon
Ok brothers and sisters,
till laters
A
be surrounded by hundreds of people trying to sell stuff to us while we are trying to relax on the beach, play an ancient game with the locals then end up buying the game, smoke shisha AGAIN, look at the many men jogging passed training for soccer or something = creating an entertaining scene of an African Baywatch movieset for women, haha, get a peaceful snake wrapped around my neck and pay for that, then finally get tired of trying to relax and go back to hotel)
