Five days after the gunpoint mugging I bid Emily adieu as she left for her 22 day overland safari through Africa (her Instagram of that trip was envy-inducing) and about one hour later I said “karibu (welcome to) Kenya” to my mom, dad, and sister! The three of them came for a 2 week vacation, and it was INCREDIBLE. I took the full two weeks off of work. There was a lot going on at work but it was hard for me to focus because my family was here, and I hadn’t seen them in months and needed those mom hugs from the previous blog post.

They were finally here and we had some amazing things planned. With the mugging fresh in my mind, I was overly protective and cautious, and we barely went anywhere in Nairobi, except to groceries, restaurants, the elephant orphanage, the giraffe center, the Kazuri bead factory, and KICC. Not all on the same day though. They arrived very very early on a Thursday morning, so we spent that day settling in, recovering from the long flights, looking at photos from their layover in Cairo, stocking up on food for the 2 weeks at the Carrefour at Junction Mall, and had a delicious dinner at our favorite restaurant Open House. On Friday we spent the day in Karen watching baby elephants and feeding giraffes, and on Saturday we left bright and early for the Maasai Mara with our guide Harrison.

The Mara was incredible. My mom, dad, sister, Bill, and I enjoyed every second of it. It was so magical and so different than the safari before, as no two are ever the same. On the day we arrive, we took an evening safari drive and saw cheetahs!! The next day was our full day drive, and we saw lions from WAY up close, and another cheetah that seemed to be posing for us then walked right in front of our van! The wildebeests had begun their migration and we saw hundreds of them walking in straight lines, feeding, and resting. They are kind of ugly and quite noisy. They had not yet made it to the Mara River for the famous river crossing, so we didn’t see any crocodiles make a kill, but we did see crocodiles being lazy. It was an incredible day, and we were all so happy to see what we did and all be together.

Back from the Mara we have a day of rest, then we go on a day trip to safari at Lake Nakuru and Lake Naivasha. My dad – and all of us – wanted to see the flamingos and my sister loves birds, so what better place for bird watching than these two lakes! Just as we enter the park, a baboon jumps on the van again, just as they had in the previous blog post. I was less scared this time and banged loudly on the van roof next to the baboon with a stick to scare him/her away and I felt very brave. We see a million different kinds of birds and a parent and baby rhino!! Then we get to the part of the lake where we can get out of the van and walk around. We see some birds closer up and enjoy stretching our legs. I notice a herd of water buffalo to our right just hanging out not minding us or anything. They were far in the distance. Then I notice one lone water buffalo on our left about 200 feet away or so who seemed to be enjoying whatever s/he is grazing on. I check back on that buffalo a couple of minutes later and now s/he is more like 150 feet away, but still grazing. My family continues to take in the sights and I ask them to start heading back to the van and luckily they oblige. I look back to my left and now that water buffalo is like 100 feet away looking right at us. I now am like, “ok, let’s go, let’s go” trying not to sound alarmed or that I am hurrying them. We start walking back, and I keep saying “let’s go”, “please hurry”, and the whole time they think it is just so we can start heading out of the park to get to Lake Naivasha not that a water buffalo is inching closer. We are maybe 30 feet from the van and the safari driver John sees the buffalo too – which is now like 50 feet away from us – and John tells us get in the car Now. However, I don’t think we were in actual danger at this point because the buffalo was walking perpendicular to us now that we had moved towards the van. S/he was just trying to get to the herd on the other side of where we were standing. But still, it was too close for comfort, and had we not started walking away when we did, s/he would have charged right through us. My family did not see the buffalo or know of its presence, so they were surprised when John said to run. He did find it very entertaining when my mom picked up the pace, and he said she ran very fast! We were safe in the van and headed to Lake Naivasha but got there a little too early, so the hippos were mostly underwater. Nevertheless, the boat ride was wonderful with lots of bird sightings including an African Fish Eagle catching a fish out of the water with its talons.

We have one more day of rest/Nairobi exploring before we leave for the 5 day safari to Amboseli and Voi. Harrison is our guide again – he is the best so we always request for him – and we enjoy Amboseli. It is THE place to see elephants. We saw two HUGE old male elephants fighting. It was incredible. They were staring at each other for like 15 minutes, then started battling for 5 minutes or so. Then they kept running away from each other. Then we saw some huge families of elephants with lots of adorable babies taking mud baths. Maybe the most adorable thing was when a baby elephant followed a mom and two twin baby elephants across the dirt road, but then turned around and saw that his/her mom wasn’t there, s/he cried out and started running back across the dirt road but went too fast and tripped a little on his/her own front legs. By this point in the morning I had to pee so badly because I had an entire liter of water with breakfast but there was so much elephant action I kept holding it. By the time we got to a safe pee spot it was almost too late. Next time I should wear a diaper, or just not drink a liter right before leaving on a full day safari. But that’s the thing with safaris. You need to stay hydrated because it can be hot, but then you don’t want to drink water because you will have to pee. It’s a tricky balance that I never really got right.

After Amboseli the plan was to go to the Voi Wildlife Lodge where we would spend two days relaxing and doing nothing except watch the waterhole. Harrison, the wonderful guide and driver that he is, suggested that instead of driving straight there, we take a safari through Tsavo West on our way, since it is on the way. Tsavo is such a huge park that seeing animals is not a guarantee, but we decided why not! The terrain in and of itself would have been enough because the landscape was beautiful and so varied. AND we got very lucky because even though we didn’t see a large herds of animals, we actually saw a lot of different kinds of animals than what we had seen already. So the variety was great. And to top it off, just before we exit the park, Harrison spots a leopard in a tree, and so my family got to see the famous big 5! We get to the waterhole lodge in the late afternoon and enjoy spending the rest of that day and the entire next day relaxing and watching the live national geographic waterhole channel. This might have been my favorite day because the 5 of us – mom, dad, sis, Bill, and I – just got to really relax, unwind, be together, enjoy the weather and the nature and each other. It was a top day of my life for sure. We woke up early to watch the sunrise and catch the early waterhole drinkers, and then spent the rest of the day losing count of how many elephants, waterbuck, and birds we saw.

The two week vacation sadly came to an end, but it was a wonderful and memorable time for all, and we got a lot of great photographs: