Today felt like three days in one! We’re in Kenya! Our overnight flight to Nairobi arrived just before sunrise. Passport control took around an hour, as the process of checking e-visas and fingerprinting each person was rather slow. After meeting our transfer driver we bought esims for SafariCom & MPesa. The three employees setting up our three phones had the air of a comedy sketch, each phone being passed around with settings adjusted and data entered.
One of the most striking things about Nairobi is simply how many people are walking around. Next to every street, regardless of whether it’s a back road or a highway, is a stream of people walking. Our drive to Wilson airport was not long but it was fascinating. There was a mix of large commercial buildings, fenced homes, corrugated homes, micro businesses, and a couple of mango trees and open fires.
Wilson airport is for the little safari planes. We had some delicious tomato soup and bread with passion fruit jam while we waited. Our plane to Maasai Mara was a tiny 18-seater. The ride was thrilling; best of all was seeing some elephants near our descent.
The transfer over to the lodge was our first taste of safari. The area is unbelievably rich with wildlife. On the way we went through a Maasai town with a fitting traffic jam of cattle.
At the lodge it felt so good to finally have a shower. Our room is like a giant tent, including a zippered off area for the shower and a curtain next to the toilet. Lunch was delicious, and we were finally able to lay horizontally for 45 minutes before heading out on our safari!
Everything on safari was excellent. I wasn’t expecting to see so much so soon, including two baby lion cubs. It is hard to pick photos to share since we took so many. More safari tomorrow!
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