Loisaba

I was given the Samburu name of Lomunyak which means “The Lucky One”.  I thought it was quite appropriate.  Traci was given a name which meant cow.  She wasn’t so thrilled but was forced to remember that it was a compliment as the cow is sacred to the Samburu.  I truly appreciate that I am a lucky one.  On a ruse that we were headed to help rescue a baby elephant, we were instead loaded into a helicopter and treated to a spectacular low level flight over the area, ending up on top of a 3000’ cliff where we enjoyed coffee and hot chocolate.  It is the day before Hayden’s birthday and Nella said in Africa that the custom is to celebrate the past the day before your birthday and so we did. After the helicopter ride we sadly packed our bags and said goodbye to Sarara. 

We boarded the helicopter for another short and amazing ride to our next stop, Loisaba.  We landed on the edge of a river and were met by 2 guides and 5 camels.  I can now cross the camel ride off the bucket list.   We then hopped back in the chopper and landed at the ranch’s main house. An American couple run this huge reserve and travel June through August. Nella is good friends with them and arranged for us to stay in their house. I thought we were going to be staying in a tiny guest house, instead we are in a really cool, huge stone and wood house. 

 

We had a lovely afternoon of pool time. While touring the grounds I was pulled to the side by an elderly caretaker who challenged me to a game of bocce ball. He was expecting an easy match and I had a few lucky throws, but our sign language was inadequate and I couldn’t figure out why he was getting points when my balls were closer. In the name of being a good ambassador I didn't complain and lost handily. He still called me champion which I think was his only English word.  We finished the day with some much needed down time…enjoying a fire, reading, a huge thunderstorm and an amazing meal. Don’t wake up…Don’t wake up.

July 25. Our boy is 10. What an amazing couple of days. We went for a 2 hour horseback ride this morning, all riding in English saddles which was a first. English saddles are prevalent all over the world except in North America. They are smaller and don't have the horn in front. In other words, when your horse stops unexpectedly to graze you can easily slide forward and off. Thankfully our ride was uneventful. We were accompanied by 2 guides who were on the lookout for elephant as you want to avoid them. We followed our ride with 30 minutes of four wheeling, and then some more cherished downtime this afternoon. For Hayden's birthday dinner he was treated to a Samburu dance by about 15 warriors and staff members who danced around the table chanting a song that roughly translated to "keep growing and getting stronger." At the end of the dance he was presented with the traditional safari elephant cake. After several minutes with a sharp knife he was still unable to cut throught the cake. All of the warriors were laughing hysterically. They asked him to look closer at what the cake was and he was still smiling when they said "Elephant Poo!" Yep, a big old ball of elephant dung covered with frosting!. Hayden's dimples were glowing throughout, and he was then served a traditional cake and was treated to a rousing rendition of "happy birthday." Sweet kid. Tough to top those couple of days. I hope the girls have their father's memory and don't have similar expectations for their birthdays. It was great for Hayden to have such a nice party as being a summer birthday his birthday isn't celebrated to the same extend as those with birthdays in the school year. Good day!

 

 

 

Sarara

July 22.  Happy 75^th birthday to my mother.   With no phone access I tried emailing as well as facetime to no avail.  Such is the life on the road.

Secondly, a disclaimer.  We are all learning at a rapid pace.  There are so many features, people, customs, animals, etc.  The kids ask us, Nella, and our local questions approximately 500 questions each per day (If the cheetah is fastest, what is second fastest?  Which animal would win in a fight a crocodile or a lion?  In a fight, which animal would win, a bear or a lion?)   We hear answers from various sources and not having the time (or willing to take the time) to fact check I’m pretty much going to pass our “knowledge” along. 

We enjoyed one final short game drive in the Mara and then departed for our next destination, the Sarara resort in the Mathews Mountains.  Christian our trusty Swiss pilot arrived on time (get it Swiss and time).  Seriously, this guy was anal about time.  He’d pride himself saying that we’d arrive at our next destination in 47 minutes and sure enough, we’d arrive on the dot.  He let me land his Caravan flying from the right seat. At first he said I would be able to descend and he would land but on approach he said that I could land it.  Only bounced his new $2.15M airplane one time but he thought it was a really good landing as it was slow and I basically did as instructed so no harm no foul. 

We were met by our Samburu driver and taken to camp in a specialized Toyota Landcruiser.  These are super cool safari vehicles and they have 3 sunroofs and pads and bars on the top where you can sit (the higher you are the better you can see game).  Kids are thrilled to drive around sitting on top of a car. 

Back to the camp. We arrived at Sarara camp, deep in the Mathews Mountains. Talk about remote. It is about a million acre conservation reserve. This is home to the Samburu people and is an active trust restoring animals (mainly elephant, zebra and giraffe) to an area that was decimated by poaching (over 30,000 elephants slaughtered by Somali poachers in the 1980’s). This posh resort is owned by the community and all profits are returned to the community. The Trust believes that the only way to stop poaching is for the local Samburu to realize that tourism is more valuable than poaching and to respect and take ownership of the animals in their lands. It seems to be working. This place is even more over the top than the last, but at least the proceeds go to a great cause. The kids were delighted to swim for an hour in an amazing pool overlooking a watering hole where elephants ad a variety of animals gather throughout the day and evening. 

We went on a hike the next morning and had the first semblance of exercise in over a week. Visited a cycad grove (the oldest plant species…dating back 25 million years). Our guides pulled a baboon spider out of its hole. These are lovely creatures, about 3 inches in diameter, covered with fur, with big fangs and a poisonous bite. I jumped about 3 feet backwards when he pulled it out, which gave the kids and guides quite a chuckle.  We hiked about 1500’ up the hill to the source of their local spring and the lovely cycad trees which only grow in elevations above 6000’. 

Later we visited the “singing wells.” This is a place where the local Samburu tribe dig wells in the local river bed (by bucket and pole) and then hoist the water up to the surface to a trough and sing as they toil away. The depth of the well is measured by the number/height of the men pulling up the water. We only saw 3 man wells today (about 20’ deep) but in the driest areas they have 7 man wells. They gather the water to feed their livestock (goats and cattle) then load it in bags and jugs on donkeys and take it back to their villages. The kids weren’t too keen to see so many donkeys whipped and beaten but it was a fascinating perspective to see how much work was required using such primitive methods. No shovels, no good buckets, etc. They don’t want them and they enjoy their life just the way it is thank you very much. We headed back to the landcruiser and enjoyed cold soft drinks and bottled water while the locals continued singing and hauling cans of muddy water to be loaded on their donkeys. Shocking disparity of wealth if measured by possessions but the Samburu were the ones singing. The kids were able to spend most of the afternoon in the pool. After just over a week on the road I think that kid’s enjoyment of a place is directly proportional to the availability of a swimming pool. 

 

Late that afternoon we ventured to a local Samburu village. Traci and I have never experienced anything like this before. The village was surrounded by a circular fence about 6’ tall made from a variety of dead thorny bushes (most of the bushes have evolved thorns over the eons as a defense to becoming an easy meal for the many herbivores). The diameter of the village was about 500 yards. Inside lived probably 200 people in about 20 small huts. These huts are about 5’ high, 8’ wide, and 12’long. They are covered in cow dung (makes a decent glue) then with a couple of layers of thatch. Inside there is a tiny kitchen (a 1’x2’ firepit) and a sleeping room. We were there on a cool day and it was so dang hot and stuffy in there I couldn’t stand it. They didn’t have a fire going but usually do and live under the heat and smoke so as to repel the mosquitos. I couldn’t imagine. The entire family sleeps on dried cowhides and uses small wood pillows in an area about 8’x8’. Privacy? Not exactly but a lot of procreating gets done in there in the smoke and heat. After escaping outside we toured the remainder of the village. The locals got a good chuckle out of watching our kids attempt to milk a goat. In the center of the village was another stable protected by another fence where they kept their cows and goats and camels. Life is all about their animals and they go to great efforts to protect them from predators (mainly leopards). My lasting image will be of the smiling kids, covered in flies (but not being bothered), wearing rags or nothing at all, living in tiny cow dung and grass huts, their village a goat cage where the goats are fighting and bleating incessantly. This lifestyle dates back tens of thousands of years and it doesn’t show any signs of changing. Their culture is all about procreating and survival. Without any freedom of individual choice (spouse, education, forced circumcision for men and women, etc.), it is easy to think of their existence as somewhat barbaric (and it is through a western lens) but they are content. They are amazingly welcoming and the concern for the good of the whole village is much greater than the immediate gratification individualism and selfishness which seems to have run amok in western society. 

 

 

Masai Mara

After an unbelievable visit at Giraffe Manor, it was time to get out of the city.  We departed the local airfield (Wilson) which as a pilot was very interesting.  We flew in a Cessna Caravan (much like the Kodiak but slightly bigger and not nearly the performance….do you detect a hint of my wanting our plane here?).  Wilson Field (and for that manner everything we’ve seen in Kenya to date) feels like a throwback.  Looser, fewer rules, crazy.  This is a field about ½ the size of Boeing Field (which is considered very busy) and it has probably 4 times the traffic.  There are only 2 paved airports in the Nairobi area and the main airport Jomo Kenyatta is strictly commercial…so all general aviation (which is super popular and critical as in Alaska) packs into Wilson Field.  We had a great pilot from Switzerland who owns 4-5 planes and runs his little charter operation.  So with eyes wide open on the lookout for birds (birds and airplanes don't mix and there are a lot of birds in Africa) we departed after about a 20 minute wait for a departure slot.  40 minutes later we were on approach in the Masai Mara and were wonderstruck.  Animals, animals and more animals.  I’m quite sure, now that my days as second grade zoo chaperone are over, that I’ll never go to a zoo again.  The thrill of seeing so many huge, wild animals up close is indescribable.   On our brief drive from the local airstrip, within 30 minutes we saw giraffe, elephant, a huge male lion, and a cheetah.  The Masai Mara is just absolutely huge and the variety of species is stunning.  It truly seems to be a Garden of Eden.  We visited the Mara River to witness one of the national geographic specials, the crossing of the river by the wildebeest and zebra and ensuing carnage.  Wildebeest are the most prolific mammal out here.  They gather in huge herds to cross the river, waiting for zebra to lead them across.  Once they cross they tend to panic and stomp on each other and many drown.  Kind of like an English soccer match. The crocodiles take full advantage of the proffered buffet.  We didn’t see a crossing, but instead saw thousands of dead wildebeest floating down the river from an unsuccessful attempt a few days prior.  The crocs were stuffed and the remaining carcasses were being devoured by thousands of vultures.   Before leaving, Hayden specifically stated in a time capsule that the thing he least wanted to experience was to see an animal die, so his wish was granted.

We stayed at a camp in the middle of the Masai Mara called Naibor. To call it a camping is a stretch. One of the caretakers, a lovely English woman named Victoria, appropriately calls it “glamping” and there is probably more glamor than camping. Fabulous food, huge netted tents (3 kids on one side in their own beds and an adjoining tent with a king sized bed for the parents. Each side has a toilet and a shower where one of the camp workers will fill a 5 minute shower bucket with a large water bladder heated by a wood furnace. Each day we get up early (6 ish) for a game drive, then return for a 1-4 lunch and siesta, followed by a second game drive from 4 to sunset. This is timed with the active period for the large cats (lions, cheetahs, leopards). The camp overlooks a pond with about 15 hippos and a couple of large crocodiles. At night the hippos come out of the water to graze and they make a heck of a ruckus as they move about. Masai (local tribe) guards escort guests around camp after dark. They also made Hayden a bow and arrow which thrilled him and also made Sydney and Halle jealous…So now we are proudly packing 3 bows and arrows and Halle has added a bow and arrow to her repertoire of weapons (ok the only other one is a pocket knife).  In celebration of carnivores all around us, our kids were introduced to the world's best fillet. 

While Traci and I were attempting to have our first date in a month, our kids devoured 3-4 servings each of the famous Naibor filet mignon.  They wouldn't share the recipe, and each of our kids will forever have a lifelong relentless pursuit of the perfection they tasted that evening.

Our 2nd morning in camp we woke the kids up at 4:30 and were out the tent flap at 5 (new family preparedness record) for a 40 minute white knuckle dirt road drive to a surprise hot air balloon ride. We had a fabulous pilot and guide, and saw hundreds of giraffe and elephant, thousands of zebra and gazelle, hundreds of thousands of gnu (wildebeest), a black rhino, hyena, jackal, lions, etc. Amazing to be floating over the vast savanna, riding the wind, with nothing but flat grasslands and animals as far as the eye can see.  

In Africa, it is good to be a man. We observed a lion and lioness on our safari yesterday. Their mating ritual lasts one week and they mate approximately every 15 minutes during that week. After the week, the female hunts and the male gets first dibs. In addition, men in many of the local tribes have multiple wives. This is a sign of stature, much like cattle. Unbelievable but hakuna matada.

I’d say that the Masai Mara is a must see. I am very thankful we had the chance to visit and see so many of the animals that have been here for for so many thousands of years, and I hope that this pristine area can continued to be preserved from the increasing crush of humanity.

 

 

Big City Animals

It's super cool that in 2011 a member of the Janssen family established a new record in Africa.  The Muthaiga country club was THE place for British colonials to hang out and talk about their hunting kills, their flights into uncharted territories, etc. No where in the annals of the distinguished club's history could we find a reference to a monkey attack on the hallowed grounds.  Let alone a monkey attack that was repelled by a valiant mother. We live in rarified air.  Making history, surviving history.

 

OK so still a bit jet lagged.  It may have been Curious George looking for a snack in a hood but we'll never know the truth as that scoundrel of a Sykes monkey bounded away into the bushes.  Despite the attack (as history will call it), we had what was probably our most amazing family day ever.  We ventured across Nairobi to the suburb of Karen (named for Karen Blixen, the lady featured in "Out of Africa" who was a hugely important pioneer for Nairobi).  We enjoyed a great lunch in a beautiful outdoor restaurant called Tamarind then headed to what honestly has to be the most amazing place a person could visit...Giraffe Manor.  This is a 30's era ranch that through various owners has devoted itself to the preservation of the rarest of the 3 species of giraffes: the Rothschild Giraffe.  You can check out the website for details but the abbreviated version is it is a very small manor on a huge swath of land in the middle of Nairobi dedicated to breeding, caring for, then releasing into the wild these magnificent creatures.  These are wild creatures, yet they are allowed to walk a very fine line and be fed by the manor's guests.  When I say fed I mean the guests are allowed to hand feed these gentle giants.  Keep in mind that giraffes can both forward and hind kick with enough strength to kill a lion.  In America, our litigious society would prevent such a place from ever happening.  Here it is magic.  Safe yet wild.  I mentioned hand feeding, but there are several giraffe that like to kiss.  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. 

 

After an hour here, our wonderful guide told us she had a special surprise for us....to the moans and groans of all we reboarded a van and put our lives at stake to head to a special place. I should note here that Kenyan vehicles are approximately 6 feet wide and the roads are no more than 13 feet wide. They pass each other on these roads at about 40-50 mph, +/- 40-50mph depending on whether or not they are passing a lorry (truck), are being passed by 3 people and cargo on a motor scooter, if there is a speed bump ahead, if part of the road is washed out, etc. We've criss-crossed Nairobi multiple times and I think that I can honestly say that the worst road in Seattle is 100x better than the best in Nairobi. There are no sidewalks, just washed out dirt and rocks but people also share the generous 13'.

We survived the short drive. We were in for a surprise and what a surprise it was: The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, an elephant and rhino orphanage where orphaned baby elephants and rhinos are cared for until they are able to be returned to the wild. The kids (and parents) were able to touch the elephants, have their arms wrapped by their trunks, etc. Just a super cool, intimate opportunity. The most interesting thing was that each "orphan" is assigned a caregiver that would be a model for human parenting in any country. These caregivers sleep in the stalls with them (in bunks above), feed, care, and watch over them for 1-3 years. The elephants literally think that these men are their mother.

 

The kids were able to witness this for a couple of hours, then we bounced and somehow survived a 10 minute drive back to Giraffe Manor, where we were greeted by the sight of about 50 warthogs and 4 elephants roaming the grounds. We had a fantastic evening at Giraffe Manor, wishing only we could have stayed a second night. Surreal, fantastic, amazing and tomorrow we head out of the city to the Massai Mara, the heart of African big game safari action.

 

Little food pellet, little girl, big tongue

The view from our bedroom

I'm not sure if Hayden is enjoying this moment

Sydney...just gross from this angle unless you like giraffe spit

Gentle meets gentle

Incredible!

Biggest smile since leaving home!

Reminds me of being fed grapes at home

I don't think I could ever not flinch

One of dozens of local warthogs

One of the incredible caregivers

 

Arrival In Kenya

Our flights were great, and the kids were absolute troopers! We had the chaotic check-in with 8 bags and 5 backpacks at a very crowded airport. Our first flight was 10 hours long, completely full, and we were packed in the back of the economy section.  Economy is perfect for kids. They had seats assigned next to each other, plenty of legroom, flight attendants that loved serving them soda, movies, etc. The kids were in Heaven.  Economy isn't so great these days, however, if you're 6'2".  Use the computer?  Update the blog?  I was barely able to write using arms that felt like they had the coordination of those of a T-Rex. Did I also mention that I was sitting next to the biggest guy on the plane?  I have some bizarre magnetic attraction for 300 pound plus men and women.

After 10 hours in the air with a waning sugar buzz, we staggered through a 2 hour layover in Amsterdam at what was about 4 a.m. Seattle time.  We then enjoyed another full 8 hour flight to Nairobi; each of us attempting but never quite finding that nearly impossible upright-in-flight sleeping position.

After arriving somewhat stunned in Nairobi ("Hey Halle you're the first in our family to step foot in Africa!"), we met our safari guide Nella Nencina at the airport. We then took a van to the little cottage where we stayed at the Muthaiga Country Club. Nairobi traffic is crazy at best. Mostly dirt roads, completely chaotic, and a true test of the survival of the fittest.  We survived the drive and all slept long and hard.  Our first morning we were well-rested and well-fed. After a short walk around the grounds, we spotted a wild Sykes monkey in an Acacia tree on the way back to our cabin. On closer inspection it came down out of the tree. Halle had a plum in her hand that it wanted. Determined to be good citizens and not feed wild animals we turned and walked away. Next thing we know it had jumped onto Hayden's back and had attempted to get in the hood of his sweatshirt (thinking that it was a food pocket). The valiant Dr. Janssen whisked him off (good instinct...think I'll keep her). A few shoo's and laughter and all was good. Hayden survived his first close encounter and we knew we were off to a good start!

The wily Sykes monkey, waiting for ignorant Americans 

 

The Journey Begins

Friday July 15th, 2011

2:23 pm.  The wheels on our flight from Seattle to Amsterdam just retracted and we're now unequivocally committed.  After a decade of consideration, a year of determination and a month of somewhat frantic preparation we are off.

This past week has been much more difficult than we expected.  Emotionally it was super-tough.  In our busy lives, we don't think that much about not seeing close friends as frequently as we'd like.  Sports, school and work commitments, and the general routines we all enjoy preclude a lot of relationship maintenance.  If after a year you haven't seen a close friend it's a bummer but life goes on.  For some reason though, when you're making the conscious decision to leave for the year, and physically separating yourself by 1/3 of the planet or more, the parting with family and friends is super tough.  Seeing your children hug their friends and sharing tears and saying their goodbyes is really difficult.  Seeing grandparents, parents, in-laws, brothers, nieces, nephews and many dear friends for the last time in a year was very hard on all of us.  I held back a lot of tears during these goodbyes, but on the final day seeing the kids maul their dog as they said goodbye to her made a big fat chocolate mess out of each of us.  Lots of tears.  In my next life I want to be a Labrador Retriever.