4 january 2006: Aberdare National Reserve & The Ark Lodge

Started our safari this morning. My foot is so painful I can’t put any weight on it at all. The hotel found me a wheelchair, which made my breakfast a little easier. The service in the hotel is top notch, the staff was very helpful and worried. It feels like the staff to guest ratio is incredibly high, and so is the security – there are security guards at the front lobby, and on each floor in front of the lifts. Unfortunately, though, this makes tipping extremely complicated, as there are so many people who help you, and you are supposed to tip them all (about $1.50USD each person, each time).
We met our guide for the Kenya portion of the tour, his name is Amarjit ‘just call me Magic’. His grandfather was an Indian and his grandmother a Maasai, which is an interesting mix. He speaks 14 languages and considers himself Kenyan, since he was born and bred here. We filled an esky with ice and since we are the only 3 people on our tour (how lucky is that! A private tour!) there is plenty of room in the mini bus for me to stretch out my bad leg and ice it. (there are actually seats for 7 in the back).
We drove for about 3 hours on very below average roads, full of potholes and bad drivers. Actually I must say that the drivers here are all friendly and non-road rage types, they seem to handle things well. The roundabouts are a bit scary, 2 or 3 lanes without marked lines. Absolute chaos at rush hour. We did notice traffic police at the roundabouts, directing traffic at busy times. Another interesting experience is the police checkpoints all over the place. They block off the road with strips of nail spikes and randomly stop cars. The police are armed with machine guns. We were never stopped, and they always waved with a friendly ‘Jambo’ (hello) when we passed by. Apparently they check cars randomly for licenses and car infractions and cargo between villages. They also check matatus all the time, these are mini bus type vehicles, privately owned, and used as taxis, sort of. They have seats for 12 but we are told they will take upwards of 18 people – and this is when they get fined!
Stopping at a souvenir shop, I wasn’t able to walk around and I kind of missed out on the shopping experience, but Shane and Mum made up for it. Mum bought a woven bag and Shane bought us a gorgeous carved ebony giraffe, it is really incredible.
Arriving at the Aberdare Country Club, we checked in (we actually stay at The Ark tonight, more about that later) and relaxed in the grounds. They organized a couple of nice strong staff members to fireman’s lift me to the lunch area (somewhat embarrassing, but they had no wheelchairs or easy access to the restaurant). The grounds were beautifully kept up and manicured. Shane was interested in the golf course, with baboons on it. On the grounds were baboons, peacocks and warthogs, which are so ugly you have to love them!!!
During lunch we met the GM of the hotel, who was a typical British/Scottish Colonial gentleman. He arranged for us better located rooms at The Ark (because of my foot) and also our own private game tour vehicle when we decided to book the optional extra game drive in the arvo. We met our guide George, and embarked on 3 hours of fun, exciting game viewing, including the Reticulated Giraffe, Zebras, Elands, Colubus monkeys, elephants with huge tusks, buffalo and a hyena.
READ THE NEXT POSTING FOR MORE EXCITING NEWS ABOUT SPOTTING GAME.
Arrived at The Ark Lodge (shaped like you would imagine Noah’s Ark to be like) around 6pm, we saw our rooms (rustic and tiny) and downloaded the day’s images onto the laptop, had a few drinks and endured a delicious dinner spoiled by a horrid Yank woman at our table. (why are so many of them so irritating???)
After dinner we grabbed blankets off our beds and settled in for the night in viewing galley D, which is the ground level in front of the lit waterhole.
The Ark borders a large waterhole which is lit up all night. Inside has 4 levels, each with large viewing areas, and big windows. Gallery D also has a hide next to it, where you can take photos easier.
There are notices everywhere that you are NOT to leave the building at all, as we are surrounded by wild game. We are so tired! But happy to be here…..

3 January 2006: Nairobi, Kenya

As I am typing this into the laptop, I am on the bed, with my right foot up on a pillow, covered with ice. I fell down the hotel (http://www.summithotels.com/hotel_horizontal.cfm?id=17025) stairs after dinner (no, I was NOT drinking!! Only water!) and badly twisted my ankle. Anyway, I think it’s just a sprain so I am trying not to worry about it….
We had an excellent day today. We hired a private driver/guide for the day, for the 3 of us. Douglas picked us up and drove us out to David Sheldrick’s Elephant Orphanage (http://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/), which is in the Nairobi National Park. They take in orphaned elephants (mainly caused by poaching or starvation of the mothers) and nurse them for an indefinite period of time, the keepers even sleep next to the babies every night for months! Then they accompany them to Tsavo National Park, where they stay with the babies until they can find them a herd of elephants who will take them in. Every morning for an hour, the keepers take the babies out in the orphanage, so people can see them, touch them, and learn about them. It was fantastic, their skin is actually quite hard with spiky hair all over it. (Baby animals of any kind are so wonderful to see.) Shane adds this: It was also interesting to note that there still existed a form of hierarchy amongst the orphaned elephants, especially as they were all orphaned at such a young age of only a couple of months. The male babies stay with their mothers, under normal circumstances, for 15 years, and the baby girls will stay with their mothers forever.
After that, we drove out to Giraffe Manor where they take in orphaned Rothschild’s Giraffes and rear them as well (www.gcci.org/afew/afew.html). We hand-fed them and took heaps of photos. Around the giraffes were a bunch of warthogs as well. The tongue on a giraffe is 45cm long and a bluey grey colour. They stick it right thru the fence to get the food pellets. Excellent experience! Except after hand feeding them, you almost need a shower to clean up!!
Then off to Kazuri (http://www.kazuribeads.co.uk/), a bead making cooperative. This is a successful bead and pottery factory, hiring over 100 Kenyan women and older girls, to give them jobs and a way to support themselves. It was very interesting to see the factory and the workers, beautiful products.
Later that afternoon, our guide drove us around Naroibi, pointing out significant buildings and areas, and we also saw Marabou storks (huge carnivorous birds who defecate on their own legs to keep warm in colder times, and have a wingspan of 2.5 metres- don’t you just love Lonely Planet guidebooks??). Shane took photos (from a distance) of Kibera, a huge slum containing over 300 000 people in tin rooved shacks (featured in ‘The Constant Gardener’ recently).
All in all, an excellent day, and we felt very safe with our guide. Tomorrow, onto the Ark Lodge for some game viewing. Our safari begins!
Note: the money is a bit of a pain. Here we use both Kenyan shillings, and American dollars. So we need to memorise the exchange rate for these, compared to both Canadian (for Mum) and Australian (for us) dollars. Slightly confusing!! Maybe I should have a drink after all….. Actually earlier I tried a Tusker beer, very tasty. Although we managed to get wireless internet in our room for our laptop, the connection is VERY slow, it took me almost an hour to upload 7 images onto my blog…..I think it may only get worse as we get away from the major centres…..so keep your fingers crossed.

2 january 2006

1 January 2006
Arrived at Ottawa airport at 10am and managed to get an earlier flight to Toronto. When we arrived in Toronto we ate! We bought paperbacks to read! And we chatted with various people. We met a Nigerian priest/minister who was leaving his studies in Canada to fly back home to bury his mother. Asked him about his thoughts of the differing cultures, he said the main thing was that for Africans, family is Number One, whereas in Western cultures, YOU are number one, and everything else comes in much later. He’s right!
We also met 2 girls, students from Calgary, who were on their way to Paris to study for a semester. We followed them (or did they follow us?????) and kept running into them. Airports, even busy ones, can be quite a small world after all.
Finally got on the plane to London and it was a full flight – the only saving grace was they were showing The Constant Gardener, which is a great movie, a thriller set in Kenya. Mum watched it for the first time.
At Heathrow in London, we……..ate again! Spent all our Euros and a few pounds sterling as well.
The flight to Nairobi was a lot of fun actually, plenty of empty seats, so we all managed to find lots of room to lie down and sleep. Shane, of course, was chatting up the flight attendants (male AND female!!) and finding out about Nairobi from those ‘in the know’. I chatted with 2 girls who work for UNICEF in Kenya and Somalia, they were very interesting. They advised to be very careful in Nairobi, that robbery and carjackings are commonplace. Not to go out at night. Be very careful with valuables etc. They love Nairobi but are quite upset that the criminal element is so prevalent. One of them was robbed recently, at Java Hut, an ‘American’ type coffee shop. Also had a good conversation with a granny who has visited her grandchildren, daughter and son-in-law in Nairobi about 8 times before. She had some good tips on things to see and do.
Shane was busy videoing out the window – we passed over the Sahara Desert for ages, and you could see the rippling sand dunes (no vegetation at all – to me, a REAL desert!) below, it was fantastic.
He also spoke at length to a flight attendant who was planning her wedding in Rome – he gave her lots of tips about the photography. Who knows, maybe she’ll book him for her wedding and fly him over there! It was mentioned……. Here’s hoping…..
2 January 2006
The time has changed an awful lot! We finally arrived in Nairobi, 9pm local time.
Alfred, a young fellow from the tour company (see image) (born and bred in Nairobi), met us and escorted us back to the Stanley Hotel downtown. First impressions of Kenya: hot! After cold Canada it was a nice change. We passed by lots of industrial areas, and recognised a lot of Western names like Toyota, Daikin, Hewlett Packard, etc. The hotel is very British colonial looking, very luxurious. We are stuffed! So after showers and washing some clothes in the bathtub (I can see that getting old very quick! but necessary) we are heading for bed. Big day tomorrow, going to do some fun stuff. We are arranging a private guide for the 3 of us to take us to: (hopefully!) the baby elephant orphanage, a giraffe rescue place, Carnivore’s restaurant, Karen Blixen’s museum (‘Out of Africa’), and maybe a bead/pottery co-op. I’ll write more tomorrow………I think internet access may be okay- here they have wireless internet for $6.50USD/hour, which is pretty cheap (not that we need it for an hour though!), although Nairobi is a large major city of 3 million, and we are ‘going bush’ on safari, so we’ll see how we go.
By the way, we are so excited to be here! Looks like we are only 3 on the safari leaving Wednesday morning so we’ll have a great time………….

Eating out: Mexican

Had lunch at Mexicali Rosa's on Dow's Lake with Kim. Ate chicken and steak fajitas, yummy!

28 Dec 2005 - Kim and family

Had lunch with Kim, Vicki and Matt at Mahatma Mahari Moti's Indian buffet restaurant (which said 'open' yesterday, but was closed!) in downtown Ottawa. A surly Indian lady poured water into our glasses but no matter what, we couldn't get her to crack a smile.... We ate some new and different foods and also a favorite, pumpkin, which is so prevalent in Australia but not so much in Canada. (images by Kim)

Walking the dog

Jackson (Chris and Molly's dog) loves to go out, regardless of the weather. He still plays 'fetch' in the deep snow and, having slimmed down somewhat, he is great fun to be around. However, being with Jackson makes me miss Kimberley and Mitchell back in Oz.

What can I say about Ottawa???

Here is a homeless man sitting at a picnic table, snow flurries falling all over him. He seems oblivious, reading the daily newspaper.
Only in Ottawa???

Group shot Christmas 2005

Clockwise from bottom left: Me, Molly (Chris's wife), Chris (my brother), Babcia (my 90 year old grandmother), Mum, Rich (my brother), Ian (his son), Karon (Rich's wife), Forest (Rich & Karon's daughter) and Shane in front of Mum's house. Temperature, around 0 degrees.

25 December 2005 Christmas Day

Images by Shane Craswell Photography.

The Rideau Canal, which passes through the centre of Ottawa, and is the 'longest skating rink in the world' in about another month or so. For now, it is just covered in snow and looks a bit bleak in this image, since the sun chose not to come out. The other image is Canada's flag emblem, the maple leaf, lying in the snow.

26-27 December 2005

We had Bubble Tea (flavoured drink with tea and tapioca pearls) at Bubblicity in Chinatown with Kim (one of my oldest friends -- from high school) and her kids Vicki (13) and Matt (12).
Unfortunately our ski trip was cancelled, due to the warm weather, over zero degrees, the conditions were not great.
Took Jackson (my brother Chris and wife Molly's 8yr old black lab) for a long walk through the snow, watching kids tobogganing and lots of dogs being walked as well.