Lake Nakuru National Park

On the fourth and last day of my safari, I went to Lake Nakuru National Park. Nakuru is Kenya's 4th largest city. Lake Nakuru is best known for its millions of flamingoes... which have since migrated to another lake due to issues with water levels and algae levels.

Now, the park is known for having black and white rhinos as well as Rothschild's giraffes, which are different from the Maasai giraffes in my photos from the Mara. The patterns are different!

Pair of rhinos

Rothschild's giraffe

Great white pelicans

Lake Nakuru. Yes, those are trees in the water! So incredibly beautiful.

In Nakuru we stayed in a budget hotel. I had signed up for the "budget camping" option for the safari (versus the "budget lodging") option so while I was impressed by how nice the tents in the Masai Mara were, I was not expecting to stay in a hotel with like, tiled floors and wi-fi (not that I had my laptop with me).

For the Nakuru leg of the trip, it was just me and two Austrian women. They shared a room. Which meant I got my own room!! I realize that I sound irrationally excited but I totally was.

This bed was the most wonderful thing I've slept on my whole time in Kenya.

And that's it!

Masai Mara

Yesterday I returned from a four-day safari trip to Masai Mara National Reserve and Lake Nakuru National Park. Masai Mara is probably Kenya's most well-known safari destination and what a girl on my trip referred to as "the Africa of our childhood programming", i.e. it's very Lion King-esque (though the Lion King is actually based off Kenya's Hell's Gate National Park, which I'll hopefully visit later in August). The Mara is connected to Tanzania's Serengeti National Park.

I couldn't believe how many animals were in the Masai Mara. On a two or three hour game drive on the first evening, we managed to spot lions, elephants, giraffes, zebra, and who knows how many wildebeest. Throughout the trip we also spotted cheetahs, jackals, hyenas, hippos, crocodiles and different types of antelopes.

I took A LOT of photos throughout the safari... Over 200. These are just a few of them!

These are the safari minivans we went around in! As you can see, they have a pop-up roof so you can stand up and stick your head out and catch the breeze and take better photos. I was surprised by the vehicle's ability to handle the bumpy roads (or lack thereof). The terrain can get pretty rough. I think most of the safari vehicles we saw were minivans like this, though occasionally you saw the Toyota Land Cruiser 4x4s that are more safari-esque. You really aren't supposed to go off-road because it ruins the terrain for the animals, but mostly everyone does ... in the words of our driver/guide, "the road is merely a suggestion".

The above sign was right next to the park gate! Clearly there is an attempt to appeal to Chinese tourists. The sign is definitely unnecessary considering that Chinese tourists (like all the other tourists) mostly come to safari in organized trips with tour guides who figure out the park fees for you. I guess this KCTT company does pretty well.

I ran into a group of Chinese tourists from Jiangsu at the Masai Village - they had a really bubbly translator and a lot of sun umbrellas and sun visors. So stereotypical-Chinese-tourist.

From the first evening game drive. This is the African buffalo - one of the "Big Five" game animals. I learn from Wikipedia that unlike some other buffalo types, the African buffalo has never been domesticated.

Ostrich!

We were fortunate to see so many lions throughout the trip. At one point we saw 6 at once, walking across the plain individually, spaced apart.

Here's another lion!

We hoped that it would go after one of the zebra! We waited and waited but it just sat there patiently.

Yawn, lion, yawn

I'm not sure what bird this is! I recall the guide saying it was a superb starling, but now that I google it, the colors are in the wrong places.

Wildebeest, Grant's Zebra, Masai Giraffe.  

Elephant (... I think) skull we picked up!

The vultures have come. They always come. They're everywhere.

CHEETAH! Much cuter than the Toronto Zoo's one-eyed cheetah. I would have loved to see it running... but that's a rarity.

July through October is the most popular time for Masai Mara because that's when the wildebeest migration takes place. Now the wildebeest are (supposedly) migrating from Tanzania's Serengeti up to the Mara. We (and all the other safari vehicles you can see here) were waiting for the wildebeest to cross the river, but they would just run up to the edge of the river, run back in the opposite direction, run up to the edge again, and back... I ran into some travelers who did manage to see it, but we waited for so long with no luck. You can see all the dust from the running in the photo below.

I must have seen THOUSANDS of wildebeest throughout the safari.

The male did not want to open its eyes.

The only time I was able to get out of the vehicle in the Mara was when we stopped for a picnic lunch on the second day, far away from all the animals.

In the back of the car, with an American expat living in Nairobi and her American friend visiting her. 

Everything was ridiculously beautiful during the sunrise drive on the last day. Totally worth getting up at 6AM!

I stayed two nights at a camp a few minutes from the park gate. "Camping safari" really means staying in a semi-permanent tent with beds and a bathroom with a hot shower. Not bad at all.

I shared the tent with Paula, a Chilean who was also traveling alone. She was so much fun! Our whole van became an amazing 8-person family for 48 hours.

Inside the tent.

Masai Mara took up the first three (well, two and a half) days of the safari. Lake Nakuru I went to on the fourth day. I'll put up pictures from Lake Nakuru soon!

(un)burnt birthday banana bread bars

banananananananas!

We had a birthday in the office this past week and I took it as an opportunity to try a little stovetop experiment. 

After some time on google, mostly looking at blogs of the ovenless in Asia and Africa, I decided to try making some banana bread via steam. To avoid the whole burning fiasco that resulted from my last little experiment. 

I just used a regular banana bread recipe (one without milk or butter) for the oven and figured out a system with the multitude of pots we have in the office kitchen. Other ovenless folks tend to use dry heat, making use of dutch ovens or sand or rocks (in the pots) but a) we don't have a dutch oven, and I'm not even sure what one is b) there's not much sand around here c) all the rocks around here are covered in mud and d) I wasn't sure if I would scorch the the pot without anything in it SO I went with water/steam. 

Meet birthday boy Ambrose! He's one of the law students.

Shown: big pot with water, little pot to put the pan on, and a pan with the batter.

Afterwards this was covered with another pot.

In the above photo the batter absolutely does not look appetizing. BUT once it baked (steamed?) it was totally great. As an added bonus, there was no burning anywhere. 

Of course, this would have taken forever if it was a loaf ... not like we have a loaf pan ... the end product should more accurately be named banana bread bars.

BANANA BREAD BARS

YUM

Ambrose with a plate of banana bread bars. This was about a third of the total.

Ambrose serves Miriam, one of our lawyers.

With my girl Miriam!

All in all, a relative success! I like to be able to have something to do after work... there's only so much to do in Kianyaga, especially considering you have to be indoors after 6:30/7, when it gets dark.

I'm in Nairobi now, and will be embarking to Masai Mara for safari on Monday :)

making friends in Nyeri

A little while ago, on my way to the market after work, I saw a white woman. You never see wazungu (non-black people) in Kianyaga, other than us three McGillians. For a moment, I had the same wide-eyed expression that a lot of people in town have when they see me, but I restrained myself. However, on my way back, I knew I had to say hello and find out what she was doing in Kianyaga.

Her name was Rose, and it turns out she was born and raised in Nyeri, Kenya. Her parents were missionaries from Italy. Now she has her own business, doing wholesaling around Central Province. Rose then introduced me to her sister Maria, and Maria's daughter Bridget, who were in a shop. They were so incredibly nice. They insisted that I visit Nyeri and visit them.

So yesterday, I did! I took a series of three matatus from Kianyaga to Nyeri, which took a little over 2 hours in total. Rose took me around the Central Business District of Nyeri and then we went to Maria's house for lunch. I was also introduced to their brother's son, Paolo, who attends school in Nyeri.

Maria is totally into baking and showed me pictures of cakes she had made, and all her recipes. She has a whole cupboard of baking supplies that I was insanely jealous of. She has an oven!! We basically talked about food for a very long time. She told me about Kenyan dishes, and Italian dishes, and also how to deal with not having butter.

Maria, where she works her baking and cooking magic. 

All the pots

With Rose and Maria outside Maria's house

With Bridget and Paolo. Wearing hats at 15 degrees is actually quite normal in Kenya. It's "cold".

We had green beans for lunch. I mentioned to Maria that at work, we have been surveying farmers on how dangerous it is to produce various crops and green beans are consistently rated as the most dangerous due to the nature of the pesticides and their application. Rose laughed and told me she grew the green beans herself, without pesticides :)

In the background of the photo, you can see some plants. Rose grows all sorts of herbs and vegetables - parsley, rosemary, thyme, spring onions, green beans. Rose was kind enough to give me some fresh parsley to take home and I was sooooooo excited. I finished it all today! Judging by the fact that I haven't seen parsley anywhere, and the Kenyan staff at the office were intrigued by the parsley in the kitchen, parsley isn't really a thing in Kenya. Rose's sister brought seeds from Italy for her to grow here in Kenya.

What a great day trip! I'm so lucky to have ran into Rose that one day in Kianyaga. I keep meeting such welcoming and hospitable people in Kenya! It's wonderful.