Revising History on Safari

I think the cheetah was the height of the game park experience but I have tons of great photos of other animals as well.

History repeats itself.  True enough, but only the really clever folks try to anticipate and improve upon it when it comes around a second or third time.  Actually I find that things come around in epicycles of varying lengths.   Our whole vacation is a repeat of the one we took 4 years ago, with some similarities and a few improvements.  (past post about these places) But there is a much bigger cycle of synchronicity that has occurred in the past week that mirrors oddly earlier events in Rebecca’s life.  With that let us begin in the moment and let this story spiral its way out. 

Four years ago, we spent our first summer in Africa after taking our MCC assignment.  We had decided not to go home that year and made a plan to have a vacation in Africa that would let us get away a bit from Burundi and our work.  Rebecca’s parents had planned a visit and with them we booked, on the recommendation of others a double vacation in Kenya—the first several days were spent in a game park lodge near Mt. Kenya called Sweet-waters, and the second half off the coast in a town near Malindi at a resort called Turtle Bay Beach Club. 

I guess I needn’t say that we enjoyed it the first time since we have repeated the same adventure with a few changes.  First, we have come a month earlier, in July instead of August, which does make a difference as it is not quite high season so both places have less guests.  The other big difference was the company.  The last time Rebeca’s parents accompanied us, and this time her brother and sister-in-law’s family came along.  They have been planning to visit us in Africa during our assignment here and joined us in Burundi for a week before we went together to Kenya. 

We arrived in Nairobi on Friday.  The flight from Burundi is short although we had to be ready to go fairly early in the morning.  I admit that we left the house in a bit of a state after the many parties, ending in Oren’s Birthday that we hosted in the past several weeks. 

We had booked rooms at the Mennonite Guest House in Nairobi which feels like a retreat in itself for those of us at MCC.  The climate in Nairobi is so pleasant the grounds of the guesthouse are beautiful with many things to do for the kids, especially swinging on a high tree swing and climbing trees.

We got settled in and played on the grounds in the afternoon before going as a group to a nearby Indian restaurant.  We went to bed fairly early as we had another early start the next day to go to Sweetwaters, in the Ol Pejeta Game park. 

The timing of the drive to Sweetwaters brings us to the second larger cycle of synchonicity that I made reference to.  The date was June 29^th, which happened to be the actual date of Oren’s 8^th Birthday.  Because we knew we would be traveling that day we had decided to celebrate earlier in Bujumbura with a party with his Burundi friends.

But the purpose of the party in Burundi was more profound as Rebecca had had a similar experience.  It was on her 8^th Birthday that her parents had decided to take a trip to Kenya (from the US) to go on safari.  They were taking advantage of the fact that they knew a family residing there, (the Mosleys!)  My dad and Rebecca’s dad have been professional colleagues since our childhood and our families have been friends for years.  (I do remember their family staying with us in Nairobi then for a couple days.)

While going on safari for one’s 8^th Birthday might seem like the best gift ever, in fact, for an 8 year old girl, the experience of bouncing along in a landrover rather than having a cake and presents with one’s friends at home, was disappointing to say the least.  Rebecca’s memory of the trip was somewhat scarred by her 8 year old diminished expectations of her Birthday, and she remembers being sullen and petulant during the whole trip to this day.

It was for this reason that she was insistent on having a real Birthday party for Oren prior to going, so he would not feel slighted. 

kids at the watering hole

So with the opportunity to improve on history we started on our venture to Sweetwaters.  We arrived in the early afternoon and got checked in.

The ‘hotel’ at Sweetwaters is actually a tented camp in front of a watering hole in the middle of the game park.  It is run by the Serena hotel so when I say tent, I am talking about a 5 star tent with a working toilet, running water, and many other luxury appointments.  It is really awesome and the food in the restaurant is fantastic!

We sat in the restaurant in front of the watering hole the first day and watched animals come and go.  26 giraffes showed up within the first hour of our arrival.

luxury tent

In the afternoon we went on a game drive and saw about a dozen different animals including, impala, waterbuck, eland, hartebeest, several types of gazelle, giraffes, zebra, water buffalo, baboons, rhinos, elephants, and 4 lionesses who were sitting about 5 meters from the car!

We came home to dinner, exhilarated by our good luck.  The last time we had come 4 years ago we had not seen any big cats and here we had seen 4 up close on the first drive.  All of us were exhilarated but Oren that is, who was very sullen and petulant about not having a cake and some presents on his actual Birthday.

Fortunately Rebecca was wise and sympathetic enough to anticipate this and had brought a candle and at dessert stuck it in a piece of cake and he got a present of a wooden water buffalo that he loved.  We sung him Happy Birthday and he was finally happy.  That night he wanted to write a letter to talk about all the things he was thankful for that day and dictated two full pages to Rebecca.

I think he was very fortunate to have a mother as sympathetic to his 8 year old sensibilities as Rebecca who remembered less than fondly her own, oddly identical 8 year old Birthday experience. 

best roller pic I have taken

One thing that is surprising about the Ol Pajeta game park is that it is extremely cold at night even though it sits directly on the equator.  It is about 6000 feet in altitude and gets down into the low 50s at night.  Fortunately the beds have comforters and the staff puts a hot water bottle into them about an hour before bedtime.

The next morning we went on another game drive and saw everything I had mentioned before.  The elephants were so close we could practically reach out the roof of the mini-van and touch them. 

Baraka the blind rhino

We did get to pet a blind rhino named Baraka that was kept in captivity because of his condition.  David was thrilled to be able to feed him hay.  We also learned a lot about animal conservation and how the park is being shared with cattle herders to improve soil fertility for grasses on the savannah. 

Again we saw predators including more lions who practically climbed over our cars, their paws still bloody from the kill they had just eaten.  We also saw jackals and vultures eating the remains of some prey.

We spent the afternoon at the water hole again and went out for our last evening drive hoping to see a leopard or a cheetah.  Toward the end of our drive we were not disappointed.  Another group had spotted a cheetah and we went over and saw it from a distance.  Fortunately we could see the direction it was moving and drove down a road that would eventually intercept it.  Sure enough, after about 20 minutes the cheetah emerged and crossed directly behind our vehicle as it stalked some nearby gazelle.  It was really fantastic to see one so close.

It was a fantastic game park experience, and we all left feeling extremely fortunate to have seen so many amazing animals.  I think for Miriam and Gabriel, the cousins from the US, seeing the animals in the wild was a truly exhilarating and unforgettable experience.

We had to leave early the next morning to take the 4 hour drive back to Nairobi and went directly to the airport to catch a short flight down to the coast to Malindi.  From there we took a 30 minute cab ride to the town of Watamu where the Turtle Bay Beach Resort is located. 

kids on the beach at turtle bay

This place is really unique in a very different way.  It is in a beautiful location next to a coral reef sanctuary, along a white sand beach.  It has gorgeous gardens, 3 swimming pools, and many, many activities.  But the most impressive feature is the very labor intensive hospitality.  The food is great and included in the package, as well as many beverage extras, there are staff who run a kids club with activities throughout the day.  In the evening the kids have their own dinner and a movie leaving the parents a chance to have an adult dinner on their own. 

We have really enjoyed that, and spent time talking with Paul and Gwendolyn and playing some card games with them (a new one called San Juan). 

During the days we swim, relax, walk on the beach (where you can see moray eels in rock pools at low tide), go kayaking, and snorkeling.  Paul and I went snorkeling once at the coral reef preserve and we are taking the whole group today.

We have one more full day here before heading back to Nairobi where our families will split and go our separate ways.  Actually it is a bit more complicated as they will take our kids with them back to the US and we will follow them 10 days later after wrapping up some work in Rwanda and Burundi.  We do have some separation anxiety about sending the kids without us, but we know they will be in excellent hands on the trip and going into the awaiting arms of loving grand parents.