Normally I post in the evening of the same day so that I can recall the events that happened. On this specific day there were two things that stopped me from posting: we were exhausted from the day’s travels and the connectivity (both WIFI and cellular) was very poor. So, I’ll be doing two blog posts today to get back on track.
The day started early as we needed to be in the lobby and ready to go at 7:00 AM. Since breakfast started at 6:30 we had 30 minutes to finish breakfast and be ready to go. This meant we were up around 5:00 AM. Final bags into the back of Hamisi’s vehicle, and we were on the road to the boarder for Tanzania. Since we were staying right in the Maasai Mara National Park, we had one game drive left with our current guide before he passed us off to our new driver. We came across a mother Hyena feeding her babies on the side of the road and a herd of elephants on our journey. We also made a pit-stop at a hospital where the toilets were the squat kind. That was a bit of an experience.
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| The side of the road is as good a place as any |
Most of the way to the boarder was rough. I mean, think of the worst gravel road you have ever been on, and double the badness. It was THAT bad. The rough roads made the journey seem even longer that it was, even thought it was long. When we finally reached the border, there was a very large group that had just arrived to go through immigration as well, so the tiny area for both Kenya and Tanzania was crammed full of people. First, we had to leave Kenya, and then stand in line to go through Tanzanian immigration. We stood there for just over an hour watching the border individual that we were in line with one-finger type all the information that was already on our visas, into his computer. It’s strange that they don’t use the barcode that is on the visa itself as they would not have to type that information again. The joy of travelling on the African continent.
Once through customs, we made our way out of the building to say our final goodbye to Hamisi as he handed us off to Renatus (our new driver/guide). With the suitcases all piled into his Land Cruiser (which was only a couple years old), we piled in and started the long journey to Lake Victoria. We made one pit-stop at a place where I think he normally would stop with people, but there was a padlock on the door. He then found another place not too far away where all the bladders could be emptied. Back on the road.
The journey was long. At. One point our driver was stopped by the police for speeding. We don’t speak Swahili, but I did hear him say the word ‘lunch’. He was hurrying to get us there and was going a bit too fast. I’m pretty sure some money changed hands there and then we were back on the road. We arrived at about 3:30 and had our lunch on the shore of Lake Victoria (the second largest lake in the world – the first largest is Lake Superior). We got settled in our rooms and then we also met our guide for a short briefing of the trip at 6:00 PM in the lobby of the location. The rooms were quite spacious, and we were given the opportunity to sleep in a little as our guide could see that we were all tired. Our next day we would meet at 9:00 AM to get started with our first official game drive of our Tanzanian leg.
Looking forward to the extra rest.
G’night all.
Curt & Laureen
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