November 11& 12, 2008 – Kenya, to and from the Safari

It was an interesting sail up the river to the Mombasa port from about 5:30 to docking at 7:00am. The previous day had rained there but we arrived under warm clear skies and 96% humidity. A group of 8 of us had privately arranged an overnight safari to Tsavo East, a huge wildlife preserve about 3 hours drive from the port and, once immigration had cleared us and we could get our passports, we headed for our excursion. I will describe the safari itself in the next post.

“Welcome to the Land of Obama” was the greeting we received from our drivers and that was followed by the Swahili “Jambo”, which means “Hello.” The people are quite proud of Obama and posters of his face were in the windshields of many trucks & vans on the highway. Our vans had a top which could be raised for animal viewing in the park and the air conditioning consisted of opening the windows. The first few miles of road from the port were full of pot holes and dust. Hundreds of exhaust spewing trucks kept traffic slow and our throats rough from the exhaust and dust. Once on the highway things smoothed out and we moved along at a good clip. We passed many small villages, Maasai villages, brown adobe homes and rounded thatched huts of Somali refugees. There were herds of goats and Brahma cattle feeding along the roadway with a young shepherd controlling them. Some herds had as many of 50 animals in them and some were a mix of goat and cattle. We even saw a herd of camels in one area. All along the highways were small stands selling charcoal in duffel bag size plastic bags. They make the charcoal from wood collected in the countryside and sell it to passersby. The bags sell for about $4.50 on the highway and for double that in Mombasa. We stopped at a large roadside curio shop for a toilet break and to view the carvings for sale. We decided to wait until after the safari to buy anything and we did so on the way back from the reserve. The return to Mombasa was from a different gate of the park so we saw some different areas of the country until we got back to within 1 ½ hours of the port where we stopped at the same curio shop for lunch and buying. The carvings are made at that shop so we were dealing with the artisans themselves. Once back in the port area it felt a lot hotter and we were ready for a shower. Between where we were dropped off and the ship there were dozens of vendors selling all sorts of carvings and other curios. They really pestered us to look at their wares and we looked a bit and asked some prices to satisfy us that our purchases in the countryside were of much better quality and price. We felt much better after leaning up and decided not to take the shuttle into Mombasa for a short visit. We were told it wasn’t really worth the effort unless you had a guide or were on a tour. That evening we and another couple who are close friends were invited to dinner by Capt John & Carolina and we had a very fun evening. After dinner we went to the show which was a comedian who wasn’t the least bit funny so we left after a few minutes. The next morning was an early excursion in Zanzibar so we retired early.