Friday, February 17, 2012

Friday, Feb 17th, Nairobi


Greetings!

This morning, we arrived in Nairobi early after a flight from Cairo via Khartoum. Pat shot off an angry email to Adventures Abroad for the only mistake it seems they have made in our itinerary so far. Leaving us at the Nairobi Serena Hotel at 6:30 in the morning without rooms ready for us (after 27 hours without sleep) seems like poor planning. We waited for four more agonizing hours before we were assigned a room, and could sack out. Because the next tour didn't start until dinner this evening, it would seem they could have kept us in Cairo and flown us out today, or made sure there were rooms reserved last night which were ready when we arrived.

After a long nap, we went to dinner in one of the restaurants in the hotel, meeting with our new tour leader and our travel mates. There will be 14 on the Kenya tour, mostly Canadians. When we get to the Tanzania, the number expands to 20. After breakfast and an orientation tomorrow morning, we'll board three small vans and travel through the "White Highlands," so called because of the large number of Europeans who settled here, northwards into the Samburu National Reserve. En route, we stop for lunch on the lower slopes of Mt Kenya where we may catch a glimpse of the glaciers coating the summit of Africa's second highest mountain.

The Samburu Reserve is mainly semi-desert savannah plain with the seasonal Ewaso Nyiro River supporting a wide variety of game such as elephant, buffalo, cheetah, leopard and lion, as well as dik-dik (a tiny antelope), and warthog. On our afternoon game drive, we hope we can see elephants, giraffes and gazelles. We end at the Samburu Sopa Lodge.

The photo above is the only photo taken today. Beginning tomorrow, Pat is taking along her camera.

Gregory

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