Kenyan Safari and Zanzibar

Left Mbarara on saturday morning, December 20th. Took a five hour bus back to Kampala, then took a matatu to Entebbe, had lunch, and took a motorcycle taxi to the airport. Cost of the whole endeavour was ~$10, which was double the price of the 20 minute taxi ride from Nairobi airport to the hotel. Welcome to Kenya.

Liz and I were picked up the next morning by the safari company and spent seven magical days on safari. Well, most of the days were magical, but the reality was that three of the seven days involved some heavy driving. Still, by the end of it we had spent two good days on the Masai Mara and had seen so many lions they had gotten boring. We also saw a cheetah, a leopard stalking a herd of Impalas, a male lions munching away on the head of a Cape Buffalo (one of the big five eating the other) and countless giraffes and elephants. I'd seen elephants before, but the proximity this time put a whole new light on the elephant viewing experience. Who needs a telephoto lens when they're five metres away?

The other good park we saw was Lake Nakuru, which had the white and black buffalo, and once we'd seen them, we'd seen all of the big five, and frankly, all of the animals worth viewing. However, the lions managed to steal the show there. A pack of five lions were all sleeping on top of each other looking like a litter of kittens. Out of all the animals, the leopard, cheetah, lion, giraffe, rhino and elephant have to be the favourites. Considering the decline of hunting in the world, I'm not sure why the Cape Buffalo is still one of the "big five". It's frankly the cow of the safari world.

All in all though, the safari was amazing and I highly recommend Into Africa to everyone. We were able to interact with the local Masai, the local Kikuyu, visit an archeaology site home to Homo Habilis that is apparently 700,000 years old (cradle of humanity stuff), and stayed in some beautiful bungalows and tents along the way. Even had some curious, massive, spiders keep us company at night.

Ended the safari in Nairobi and managed to get a room at the Hilton on Liz' points. Do not recommend that hotel, it was built in the 1960s and it feels like it hasn't had a facelift since then...

Flew out disturbingly early sunday morning and arrived in Zanzibar. Was greatly amused that the Visa fee for americans into Tanzania was double what it was for everyone else. I guess Obama fever isn't as high here.

We're currently staying at a resort in southeastern Zanzibar The resort is amazing, with a short coral clif (5 metres high) overlooking the azure indian ocean. If you want to go swimming, you simply walk out the front of the bungalow, walk down some steps and you're swimming in a metre of coral. Water's too hot to really cool off though, so you need a combination of water and breeze to cool down. Such a tough life.

Yesterday's morning activity was swimming with the dolphins and for a full hour, equipped with a snorkel, mask and fins we dove and played with them. At times they would stare at you, or the pod would swim through you as you were treading water. I dove a couple of times and was able to swim alongside them, but alas was not accepted into the pod. Not yet at least.

We went again this morning, but quickly learned why it has such a bad reputation. This time there were six boats chasing the dolphins, and it was obvious they did not want to play. In fact, they were starting to look harassed and the whole thing was starting to leave a bad taste in our mouths, so after a quick swim alongside them, and Liz getting stung by jellyfish, we headed back in.

Heading off to Stonetown today to spend the next two days there and then off to the mainland for the long trip back to Mbarara. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!