Amboseli day trip puts the “far” in “safari”

We made it into Nairobi late yesterday after mostly uneventful transit through Zurich. The three of us on U.S. passports had Kenyan visas ahead of time, but it turns out visa on arrival seemed to be pretty straightforward as well. When we got to customs, a Caucasian non-English speaking couple with maroon colored passports ahead of us was asked if we were “with them,” to which both they and we nodded no. The customs people waved us through along with them regardless. Safe to say we won’t be blending in as locals. After some spirited negotiation with drivers in the taxi queue, we agreed on a fare with our driver Charles. Charles very confidently took us down a wrong and very desolate road. However, the road that led to our lodge, to paraphrase Greg “looked like it might have a mass grave at the end of it.” Once past the secure gates though, we were welcomed to a cozy little place with manicured planters and pathways leading to “luxury tents.” The place could be a new mid-range offering from Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

Today we had basically a seventeen-hour day that took us to Amboseli National Park. We had to leave at 0500, which was before breakfast. Our driver stopped by a place that was furiously trying to offer us instant coffee and dusty cookies and crackers, so we took a pass until lunch. Thankfully the safari was interesting enough that there were no hunger meltdowns (the Swiss chocolate and cheese helped) until lunch. The artisanal craft touts were persistent but about as polite as you could imagine when we encountered them at gates and elsewhere. We closed out a very long day with a lot of driving back in Nairobi to a restaurant called “Carnivore” that offers a wide assortment of exotic meats set-course style that are brought around until you submit and can take no more.

A few hours sleep and off to the next stop, just a short hour flight north.