African Diary

Jambo... Hello!  January 2019

  Travelling from Kannur  to Kenya,  the Jomo Kenyatta Airport at Nairobi looks p unsophisticated  . Affrica  in my mind was a hot and humid , surprisingly the weather is fine  at around 25deg max and 15 deg min and we're told it's summer  now.  It's more or less  little like Wynad winter  climate without air conditioners anywhere on..  .  People were friendly and always wish as we pass them, but we were told by our friends there to be careful about the pickpockets and snatchers which were rampant .  Roads are wide and in vehicles seat belts are a must for all passengers .  Honking is akin to insulting and the discipline in driving and overtaking is worth learning  for malayalees .  All women have very fancy hairdo and they smile a lot . Kenyans speak very good English but the accent needs getting used to. Swahili sounds like hindi and is said to have descended from Hindi.

Nairobi is a clean city ,  In fact all the spaces are clean with lots of greenery. No signs of rubbish anywhere. Food is stomach friendly but  not pocket friendly . The soil is red as it in Kerala,  but no red flags  seen anywhere ..

Kenya  is land of wild animals and safari, the elephant orphanage and the Giraffe park in the city is worth visiting . A visit to  ‘Bomas of Kenya ‘is a learning experience to  understand the culture and art forms  of Kenya 

We  took a  2 day safari   to Maasai Mara, which is about 300 Kms from Nairobi .  It took about 6 to reach there as the roads are being re- layed . The geography classes by Laksmanan sir in school ,  just lit up when we  passed through the  Great Rift Valley,  which extends 6,000 kilometres in length, that runs from Lebanon's Beqaa Valley in Asia to Mozambique . Our driver cum guide , Peter drove his Landcruiser with agility especially through the last stretch to Mara where there were no roads at all .

It doesn’t really matter where you stay in the Masai Mara because you spend most of your time out on game drives. We spent out on the Savanna searching for all the wild animals we could find in the heart of Kenya .We hopped into our safari van and spent hours keeping our eyes peeled for wildlife. It's all out there, you just have to pay attention.

Our first outing on the Masai Mara brought us to a Lion  sleeping on the shade of a tree . It didn't seem to have a care in the world as the safari vans pulled up beside it. . Other family members were also relaxing nearby .  They looked  at us in a relaxed manner and then continued to ignore us.It is the first time I realized about not taking a good camera to shoot it.

As we drove to the water stream to see the hippos and crocodiles  , we ran into another driver who told us that some cheetahs were there  close by. We made it just in time to catch a glimpse of them before the sun started to set . We'd only been in the Masai Mara for a few hours and we already family of cheetah and a pride of lions . We couldn't stay in the safari for too long because we had to get back to camp before the sun completely set as park rangers check tourists in as they return from safari. We also witnessed the most spectacular sunset we had ever seen with animals as backdrop such as ostrich. gazelle , hyena, egyptian goose, hornbill, waterbuck zebra, giraffe , topi and ofcourse the African elephant.

It rained heavily in the night and as the dawn approached the whispering  of animals was in the air. Peter, our guide took us in his Landcruiser to see all the inhabitants of  Masai once more .  They seemed to be in a trance, walking deliberately yet relaxed. They moved as if gliding over water. *It was silent, it was magical, it was Africa*