Joe and Penny’s African Adventure
The Plains of Africa – April 9-23, 2007
Our 7 venues by date!
#1 – Off to Africa – Monday, April 9, 2007 – Day 1
Well, we're 3 hours away from our "Hometown Pickup" and we'll be on our way to Kenya. Our British Airway's flight from Philly takes off at 7 o'clock tonight. We should be in Heathrow Airport, London at around 2 a.m. (our time), then off to Nairobi, where we arrive at 8:30 p.m., their time, on Tuesday. They are 7 hours ahead of us. Our total elapsed time from Philly to Nairobi will be about 20 hours, 17 of them in the air! Not sure if we'll be able to access the internet while on safari, but you can be sure that if we can, you'll be getting a quick update every now and then over the next two weeks. I've attached a map of all our venues, in case you are interested. There are 18 in my group -- and we'll be joined by another group of 18 over there for a full complement of 36 adventurers. We'll be back on Monday afternoon, April 23.
Joe and Penny
#2 – First Full Day in Africa – Wednesday, April 11, 2007 – Day 3
Greetings from the Norfolk Hotel in Nairobi!
I am in the Business Center of this luxury hotel which was built for the British back in 1904. It is probably the most historic hotel in this part of Africa -- and the ambience is extraordinary. It seems we were flying forever to get here -- but both flights were relatively comfortable, on time and we arrived, as scheduled, at about 10 p.m. Kenya time on Tuesday night. By the time we settled in, it was about 11:30 pm, but in order to unwind, most of us spent the last few hours of the day recovering from the 18-hour captivity of the British Airways Airplanes in the bar. As is our custom, we closed the bar at 1 am. Since we are 7 hours ahead of you, our Wednesday is now half over as you are just waking up.
We had a nice breakfast this morning and will be heading out to Karen, an estate well-documented in the book and movie "Out of Africa". We will also head to a giraffe preserve, then off to dinner at the world-famous "Carnivore Restaurant" for a high-protein dinner of zebra meat, ostrich meat balls, and you name it in the meat category. African native entertainment will be a part of the evening. Our actual safari begins tomorrow morning as we head out in our 6-passenger vans for Amboseli National Park, where we will stay for 2 days in a place where Elephants proliferate. We've gotten off to a good start and we are looking forward to the more rugged part of the tour, the actual safari.
Our tour manager happens to be a young man from North Jersey by the name of Ron Falong – an avid Phillies and Eagles fan. He advised us that today is the last day we will see television for 11 days! That might be a good thing! That also means that I may not have access to a computer for that whole period of time. So I thought I'd get this hasty e-mail out to everyone today.
Ron Falong, our Collette Tour Manager
Our first impression of Africa has been created mostly by the people -- they are extremely helpful and friendly -- always smiling. Secondly, the City of Nairobi impresses because of its modernity -- It is a city of high-rise office buildings and a real center of commerce. Our hotel is centrally located, but in a very pastoral setting. We've already seen -- and heard -- dozens of exotic birds in our beautifully landscaped courtyard.
Penny says hello -- and we will contact you with "the rest of the story" the next time we have access to the internet.
From Nairobi, Africa, Joe and Penny.
#3 – Greetings from Shaba Reserve, Africa – Sunday, April 15, 2007 – Day 7
Hello from Africa!
After several days without internet access we have finally arrived at a resort with three computers! I will begin by saying that words cannot describe this tour -- it exceeds our expectations at every turn. The hotels, the food, the wild life, the scenery, and the people -- everything is above and beyond anything we expected. Today is the midpoint of our trip and we are now at our fourth venue (out of a total of seven). We crossed the equator at 10:30 a.m. today. For the first half of the trip we were in the southern hemisphere. Today we are in the northern hemisphere.
I'll start where I left off with my last e-mail - Nairobi. On Wednesday afternoon we toured the city, first getting an orientation to the crafts of Africa, as a guide to our shopping, then stopped at the Victory Memorial where they commemorate the liberation of Kenya from Colonial rule - their "4th of July" -- which took place on December 12, 1961 -- it is a beautiful memorial and they are very proud of their freedom. Then off to a giraffe preserve, where we were able to feed the giraffes and get up close and tight with them. We also visited the home of Karen Blixen -- of "Back to Africa" fame. Then off to the Carnivore Restaurant for a great meal of the meats of Africa.
We left Nairobi on Thursday morning for an amazing trip south to the border between Kenya and Tanzania. The trip took several hours through a number of towns where we saw African daily life up close. There is 60% unemployment here -- and lots of poverty. We gradually left the more populated small towns and moved from pot hole highways to dirt roads, to take us through tribal villages and then into a large animal preserve. Along the last quarter of our trip we were up close with all kinds of animals in the wild -- in their natural habitat.
We finally arrived at our lodge in Amboseli -- a really beautiful setting where we were assigned individual cottages overlooking fields of elephants, zebras and other animals in the wild. Monkeys and baboons played on our porches and in our yard. While here we took four separate safaris -- 2 each on the two days we were here. We saw elephants, zebras, ostriches, eagles, gazelles, wildebeests, water buffaloes, hyenas, hippos -- and lions. Our two greatest experiences were having our 6-person van surrounded by elephants -- and then seeing two lions -- right outside our van - stalking a pack of zebras and going for the kill -- only to be foiled by the zebras as the lions attacked -- the zebras got away. An unbelievable sight!
We also got to see Mt. Kilimanjaro in all its snow-capped glory -- a rare sight, since it is usually covered in clouds. It is just over the border in Tanzania. On the second day, between safaris, we had an outdoor lunch overlooking one of the Great Plains on which dozens of the species mentioned earlier were grazing. The experience was overwhelming.
On Saturday morning we left for Aberdare National Forest -- to a lodge called "The Ark" where the animals come to feed. A bell awakens you during the night as the animals come to feed off the balcony. We saw a Baby Rhino, some hyenas, wart hogs, and elephants. This was only an overnight stay. Then this morning, Sunday, we left Aberdare for the trip north to our present location, a beautiful riverside lodge in a remote part of this national wildlife preserve. Here again we have our own cottage overlooking the river. It is absolutely beautiful here.
We only had rain upon our arrival in Nairobi. Since then the weather has been sunny and warm, and today we have temperatures in the low 90s. The first thing we did after arrival here was to go for a swim in the pool.
Naftali, our faithful,competent driver
On our safari, which ended about an hour ago, we visited the location of the filming of "Born Free" in a lion preserve. We had a champagne and snack stop in a protected area with the local rangers standing guard.
I came to this computer office just before dinner. Penny is out at the river side watching them feed the crocodiles. Dinner starts in about ten minutes. This narration doesn’t do justice to the experience we are having here. The people are wonderful and we are learning a lot about life here. One of the revelations to all of us is that the pictures we saw of tribal life in National Geographic are still real today. People still live in the thatched huts, still carry spears and still dress as they did then. And, yes, some tribes - we talked to tribal members - drink a mixture of blood and milk to be healthy.
We have lots of pictures and will tell you more as the tour continues. Penny says hi -- and she's really glad she didn't back out at the last minute!
Joe, Penny and the16 others in my group.
#4 – Another Day in Africa - Monday, April 16, 2007 – Day 8
Jambo (Swahili for Hello)
Those of you who saw “The Lion King” would have a head start on the language here. We are learning gradually. The most common phrase used on all of us by the natives is HAKUNA MATATA - 'no problem' - and last night at dinner we had a folk singer who sang all the songs from the Lion King and our group sang along. We want to bring him home with us! He even sang 'Country Roads' for Penny. He's going to try to learn Jambalaya today for tonight’s dinner so I can sing along.
We had another wonderful experience today, going out very early for another safari in search for the only animal on our list of the BIG 5 that we haven't seen yet -- a Leopard. We were, unfortunately unsuccessful. We did have some great safari experiences however. The biggest event of the day was seeing several herds of elephants converge on a river for their early afternoon swim. An unbelievable sight -- we counted 90 elephants at one time. The young ones were frolicking in the water. We had never imagined so many elephants in one place at the same time. We got up close to a giraffe -- a different species than we had seen below the equator -- and also lots of zebras of a different type than below the equator. This is all part of the many revelations we are having about African wild life. We saw many other animals in the wild -- and today, the exotic birds were a special treat. Colors and species we had never imagined.
We had the opportunity to visit an active Samburu Tribal Village. Another experience hard to describe! We were invited to go into the private huts of the villagers and to sit on the floor as they do. The huts are made of cow dung. There were 30 huts this particular village and the animals were kept in the center of the village. The village kids entertained us with songs and the teenagers performed tribal dances for us. This was not a Disney version of a village -- but the real thing.
 
Interacting with the natives!
We all brought toys for the children of Africa, and have been handing them out along the way to the poorest children we see. Today we brought them to the village and they were well received. We all wish we could do more for these beautiful people.
Our lodge, in contrast, is luxurious! It is almost embarrassing. Wait till you see the pictures. We are along the banks of a crocodile-infested river -- the kind you saw in Tarzan movies. Last night we watched as the one of the tribesman employed here at the lodge fed the crocodiles. There was some apprehension as we walked back to our cottage from the main lodge as to whether a crocodile might be waiting for one of us along the path. We are only equipped with flashlights!
The weather today was again gorgeous. We leave tomorrow morning (Tuesday) for the Mount Kenya Safari Club, our home for the next two days. Will tell you all about that in the next email -- I'm told they have internet there. The mountain is actually on the equator, so we are heading slightly south again.
I don't proof these emails before sending them, because I can't risk losing them by messing with the text -- this is dial up internet, very slow, and quite "iffy" -- and I hate to risk loosing all that I have written. I did notice, after sending yesterday's message that I spelled a number of words incorrectly -- and Tanzania came up twice misspelled.
By the way, the BIG 5 are Lion, Buffalo, Elephant, Leopard and Rhino. We hope to find an elusive Leopard yet -- and more Rhinos. We will settle for a Cheetah if we can't find a Leopard. But we still have 6 days to meet our objectives.
Hope I'm not boring you. We are having a marvelous time. All 36 people are fun. There are two grandmothers here with their grandchildren -- one kid is 12, the other 16 -- hint, hint for all you grandparents out there. Penny and I are sharing our Safari vehicle daily with Joyce Goldsmith, Ray Holshue, Marge Monaghan and Maureen Perinchief. Doug Ghaul has four ladies in his van -- he's the King of the Hill in that vehicle. The entire Anderson family is in the same van -- and having a ball. As I said yesterday, words cannot describe what we are seeing. Wait till you see the pictures of our accommodations along the way.
That's it for now. More tomorrow from Mt. Kenya.
Joe and Penny and all.
#5 – Catching up on African Safari – Thursday, April 19, 2007 – Day 11
Jambo!
Well, we finally arrived at a place with a workable computer. I tried sending emails from our previous stop, but the computer was so slow and unreliable that my many hours at the keyboard were wasted -- as the emails got lost somewhere in cyber space. We are now at the Sarova Lion Hill Lodge on Lake Nakuru a little south of the equator in the western part of Kenya.
Let me go back to my last email and our last night at Shaba National Reserve. I mentioned that the guitarist was going to try to learn how to play "Jambalaya" - well, he did and we had a great night of singing at the bar -- and can be credited with introducing Cajun music to Africa!!! The following morning we left for our next stop, a two-night stay at the famous Mt. Kenya Safari Club, a luxurious retreat founded by movie star William Holden on the equator in central Kenya on the slopes of snow-capped Mt. Kenya (yes, we got to see the Mountain in all its glory for about two hours when the clouds lifted), which looms in the background. We have beautiful cottages equipped with our own individual fire places -- which are needed at night because of the temperature fluctuations -- hot during the day, cool at night. We are surrounded by luxury. This place was founded in 1959 by Bill Holden, and has hosted the likes of President Lyndon Johnson, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and many others. Stephanie Powers, Holden's wife, founded an animal orphanage here -- which we visited. She still spends a month a year here.
We went on several safaris while here -- with our greatest experience being an encounter with a male and female lion couple who came right up to our vans. We have some great pictures. We saw rhinos, giraffes, zebras, elephants, ostriches, pigmy hippos, wildebeests, gazelles. -- just about everything EXCEPT the illusive Leopard, the only one of the big five we still have not seen. We visited a chimpanzee preserve -- one of the best in the world and were fascinated by the antics of the chimps.
There is so much more -- suffice to say that everything continues to exceed our expectations and superlatives remain the only way to describe our food, accommodations, entertainment, experiences and everything. We even had the experience of one of our vans getting stuck in the mud and another breaking a shock absorber (ours) -- the roads are unbelievably primitive -- if you can call them roads. We hated to say goodbye to the Mt. Kenya Safari Club, but this morning we headed for this national preserve on Lake Nakuru. Our route went west along the equator. One of our rest stops was at an equator crossing where the natives demonstrated the Corealis effect -- how the draining water goes one way in the northern hemisphere and the opposite way in the southern hemisphere. We then visited one of Kenya's largest Tea plantations where we saw how they harvested the tea -- and had samples! We arrived here at Lake Nakuru for lunch -- and were again awe struck at the beauty and the elegance of our accommodations. We all have cottages overlooking the lake in a rustic setting. We were greeted by thousands -- no exaggeration -- of Pink Flamingos (just as you see them on the National Geographic Channel) -- they line the beaches of Lake Nakuru. At 4 p.m. we will be taking another safari -- and it is here that we hope to see that Leopard we are missing from our list of the big 5. Tomorrow we leave for our final venue, which is a tented camp. We'll be there for two days. On Saturday, some of us will be taking a hot air balloon ride over the Serengeti plains. We then head back to Nairobi for a late-night flight to London. I may be able to get one more email in before our departure.
Again, we are overwhelmed not only by the wonderful things we are doing, but also by the daily life and culture we are experiencing as we travel from village to village throughout Kenya. Some in the group have already exceeded 1000 pictures. Penny and I have almost finished filling three chips with a total of about 560 pictures so far.
Just so you know, we haven't forgotten about you. Although we couldn't send out emails from Mt. Kenya, I was able to access the Philly Burbs website to get updates on the flooding in Burlington County -- also all the other crazy news that has occurred since we left. We learned of Corzine's accident through somebody's cell phone while in a remote area of an arid plane of Africa while on safari.
Hope this wasn't too long, but I wanted to bring you up to date. Everyone is having a great time and we all send our regards to all of you.
Love, Penny and Joe.
#6 – A Day at Masai Mara National Reserve – Friday, April 20, 2007 – Day 12
Jambo,
Well, we are now in the final location on our Safari. More about that in a minute. When I last wrote, we were midway through our day at Sarova Lion Hill Lodge, and I was lamenting the fact that we had not yet seen a Leopard. However, during our afternoon Safari we had the good fortune of attaining our final goal. We saw one of the most magnificent Leopards up close -- and, curiously -- on the ground (they are generally at a distance in a tree). So we got to see "The Big Five" during our visit to Africa.
We also saw one of the most amazing sights imaginable -- over a million (no exaggeration) flamingos, hundreds of them in flight -- on Lake Nakuru. We were able to walk right up to them on the beach -- and take a ride up to an overlook where we could see all million at once. A most extraordinary vision! We also got close to some White Rhinos. Our evening was capped by a very entertaining native dance performance by the Masai Tribal group -- the real McCoy -- not just actors.
This morning we got up early for the longest and most difficult transit from one place to another during the entire trip. The roads (???) were unbelievably difficult -- due to construction, mud, detours, etc. -- and it took almost 7 hours. But we are now entrenched in our wonderful tent city on the Masai Mara National Reserve -- the largest wild animal preserve in Kenya. It is located on the border with Tanzania (south-west corner of Kenya), and is the Kenyan version of the adjacent Tanzanian Serengeti Plain. We already saw some lion cubs, elephants, water buffalo, giraffes, and a few other more common animals during our safari.
It is hard to describe our "tent" cottages. They are bona-fide tents, but under a roofed canopy, with a connected bath room and hardwood floors -- hardly "roughing it" according to campers standards -- but none-the-less rustic. We will be here for two nights. We just finished dinner, and I have to get to bed early because I have to be up at 4:00 a.m. for the hot air balloon ride. 19 of us are going on that ride over the African plains -- that ends with a champagne breakfast. We then continue on a safari for a good part of the day. Tomorrow night we have dinner in the outdoors in the bush -- in the heart of the reserve where wild animals still roam. There will be rangers with guns and Masai Warriors standing guard as we enjoy our meal. I am told that our camp will be attacked by a hostile Masai tribe (staged of course for the entertainment of the American tourists). Many in our group are unaware of this and I hope there are no weak hearts at the time of the "staged" attack! (Editor’s note at conclusion of tour: the outdoor aspect of the meal and the staged attack had to be cancelled due to rain and lightning).
Our trip is winding down and most of us are pretty much "safaried out" and will not miss the bumpy and dusty so-called roads we have been using for the past two weeks. We visited a Masai Village today and most of us were impressed by the fact that people still live as primitively as they did hundreds of years ago. We will, however, miss the totality of this once-in-a-lifetime adventure.
Our schedule is busy tomorrow, and then we pack up for the last time, and on Sunday morning drive to Nairobi where this all began. We fly out of Nairobi on Sunday night.
This is most likely the last email from me from Africa. Thanks for bearing with me. However, I have to say that words cannot describe the adventure we have just experienced. I hope the pictures will help when we get home -- but even the words and pictures fall short of conveying the African adventure we are about to complete. See you soon.
Joe and Penny.
# 7 – Final Night in Kenya - Saturday, April 21, 2007 – Day 13
Jambo!
We just finished dinner and before I go down to my lakeside tent/room to join Penny for our final night in Kenya, I thought I'd get off this quick final e-mail. It rained all last night, but our scheduled hot air balloon safari took place as planned (wakeup call at 4 a.m.). We got to see the most beautiful African sunrise imaginable and took off over the plains along the border with Tanzania. From the air we saw some of the most magnificent scenery imaginable. The flight ended with a breakfast under an acacia tree (those famous flat-topped African trees you see in all the travel literature) where we had three chefs waiting for us preparing a full breakfast, served by red-coated waiters. Champagne and Bloody Marys were served as we sat in the morning sunshine in a remote spot on the plains far from all civilization. The trip back to our hotel was a different story however. Because of the overnight rains, the roads (????) were nothing but mud holes. Because of where our balloon landed, we had to take a road that crossed a river without a bridge -- that's right, our vehicle (not one of those Philly "Ducks, however) had to cross the river bed by going through the river -- we almost made it -- but the van got stuck before it emerged on the opposite bank. The result -- we had to be rescued by another van -- which came about a half hour later. Mind you -- we are in an African wildlife preserve where lions, leopards, elephants, hyenas, and other predators roam daily! The rescue van came and we headed back home.
On the way back we got stuck in mud a few more times -- and had the good fortune of meeting up with a lioness and a cheetah along the way for our final picture taking. The cheetah was the last of the animals we were hoping to see (but not one of the "Big 5"). We got home safely, and as I mentioned, just completed our dinner. So it was a truly eventful day. Just for the record, only 11 of my group of 18 opted for that hot air balloon ride -- and Penny was not among them -- so she, along with Marge Monaghan and Maureen Perenchief did not have that experience. Dixie Lee Anderson, however was along for the balloon trip -- so will have the same story to tell when she comes home.
We head for Nairobi tomorrow morning, spend the afternoon there, have dinner, and then go to the airport for our overnight flight, first to Heathrow, then home. See you Monday!
Joe, Penny and the other African adventurers!
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