#40: Special Edition: Trip to Kenya Part 1
Some highlights from the Safari
Hey friends,
I was unsure if I would send out this newsletter, as I was in Kenya and didn’t have the time to write it, but I thought about it a bit more and decided to tell you about my trip and show you some pictures.
Kenya was never on my list of countries I wanted to visit. Mainly because I haven’t heard too much about it. Until a couple of years or so.
We have some friends who live in Basel. They are a couple; Diana has been one of my wife’s best friends for almost 20 years and her bridesmaid, and Alex was her then-boyfriend.
They are a very adventurous couple, very passionate about kite surfing, and they travel across the world to practice this sport. Mainly because you can’t do it everywhere, as you need windy beaches.
Anyway, so we had dinner in Bucharest a while ago, and they started telling us about their trip to Kenya and how much they enjoyed it. Aside from the kite surfing part, which was great, they told us about the safari and how nice the people are, the scenery, the beaches, everything. It all sounded very appealing, but since I don’t kite surf, Kenya still didn’t make it on my radar.
Time passed, and last June, at our wedding, they told everyone that they were thinking about getting married in Kenya at the end of the year. As you can imagine, everyone started smiling and thought it was a joke.
They are two Romanians living in Basel who want to get married 5000 km away from Bucharest.
We forgot about this until we got the invitation to the wedding a couple of months later. The second week of January, wedding in Watamu, Kenya.
Hmm, that was unexpected.
And I’ll be honest about it; I asked my wife if we could skip it. We had a long year and went on our honeymoon in September.
This was just after the holiday season. It looked like a stretch from all points of view.
But she wouldn’t miss her best friend’s wedding for the world.
And I’m glad she made this decision.
This meant that on the 9th of January, we boarded a direct charter flight to Kenya. It was snowing in Bucharest, and it was -2C or something.
We flew all night, and we landed around 8 a.m. in Mombassa after a refueling stop in Zanzibar.
Temperature in Mombassa: 32 C.
It was crazy; I was already sweating when we got out of the airport. Diana was there, and as she organized everything for us, we were in the car for the safari in less than an hour.
We started the safari immediately; we would go to Tsavo East National Park, spend two nights there in two different accommodations, and then drive to the wedding location.
It was a hot and bumpy road, but we forgot all about that when we entered the national park. The rooftop was raised, and we could watch the animals.
We first saw an elephant from afar.
Then, I was in awe of seeing a majestic lion sitting in the shade. A lioness came walking with grace. It was one of the most spectacular things I’ve ever seen.
Then we saw some gazelles, impalas, and more elephants.
We reached the first resort around 3 p.m., and we were dead tired. I hadn’t slept at all during the flight so when they asked who wanted to join the afternoon safari, I had to say no.
I had lunch and dosed off for a couple of hours before going to dinner. The resort was very nice, but there were so many bugs during the night that it was very annoying.
The second day of the safari started right, with a cheetah. It’s quite rare to see one. It’s even rarer to see one attack.
And we waited and waited until it finally happened. He moved slowly through the high grass before sprinting to get a baby zebra.
The cheetah can run up to 120 kph. But they can only do that for 10 seconds max because they need to slow down their heart rate afterward. It’s impressive to see it accelerate.
As impressive as the scene was, it was not for the fainthearted. As you can imagine, the baby zebra had no chance. He caught it and then dragged it to some bushes.
We were lucky enough to see more zebras, elephants, and giraffes during the day, as well as some interesting-looking birds.
On the last day of the safari, we saw some hippos and some crocodiles as we got out of the car (from afar, of course, they are both very aggressive animals), and the cars drove us to the “Temple Point” resort, where the wedding would take place.
But that’s a story for next week :)
I hope you liked this vacation edition of the newsletter, and I’ll be back next week with more details and photos.
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Thank you for reading, and let me know if you liked something in particular in this newsletter.
Until next time,
Leo
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I told you, you will come to like Kenya. If and when you do get another chance to visit, welcome back in advance. . . .I'm glad you enjoyed your stay.