One of the many things I love about my Kenya 10 Team is we all unanimously decided to spend our weekends together exploring Kenya. And even better - the people are great!
Before heading out Saturday morning for Lake Naivasha and Nakuru, we went out to dinner in Karen at Talisman for Arianna's birthday. Bob introduced us all to a Brickweg family tradition of the birthday girl sharing her favorite memory from the past year. After that traditionally everyone goes around the room and shares a memory with the birthday girl, but because we are all new friends we went around and all shared our own favorite memory from the past year. I obviously shared the Vannucci Tiro Della Forma story. This weekend would have been the second cheese throwing, but luckily the family post-poned the event until I am back from Kenya. #HappyParentsWeekendJoeAndMar
The drive back to Nairobi wasn't without excitement though. Our driver was apparently very confused and went the wrong way on the highway, even starting to change lanes to dodge oncoming traffic. I really don't think he would have turned around if our entire bus wasn't screaming. Fortunately we convinced him to turn around and headed back in the right direction - all while I was on the phone with my dad! Luckily Mar and Joe taught me all about #LivinLaVidaVannucci so they just waited until I could continue the conversation. The driver also crashed into the overhang in our apartment building when he pulled in so we were all glad we made it back in one piece!
We left early the next morning for Lake Naivasha. En route we stopped at the Great Rift Valley, which runs from Israel to Mozambique. Gorgeous views looking out over the valley, even with the fog hanging low and with people surrounding us trying to sell things.
As we got close to Lake Naivasha we spotted a few giraffes on the side of the road and our drive indulged us as we kicked off a weekend of #WildlifePaparazzi.
Hells Gate National Park was awesome - we were immediately greeted by hundreds of zebras, warthogs, gazelles and lots of other animals. We could have taken pictures with the zebras for hours, but our drivers kept us moving so we could do a hike in the the gorge. The gorge was so cool - reminded me a bit of Wadi Mujib in Jordan as we did both hiking and climbing, just didn't have the waterfall!
After the gorge we went to Lake Naivasha Sopa Resort for a buffet lunch and you could have sworn the 11 of us never saw food before. The resort was beautiful - we were all a little jealous we weren't actually staying there - and the food was delicious (or were we just hungry?). We walked around the grounds after lunch checking out the monkeys, horses and water bucks, then off to our safari boat ride to Crescent Island.
Lake Naivasha is a beautiful lake, but kind of creepy as well. There are trees that come out from the water, mostly dead looking, and there isn't really a bank, just a boggy shore that the boats ride up onto. So it was only fitting that at this point the beautiful sunny day turned into dark clouds with rain just minutes away. Made for a much more fun and adventurous boat safari. We were on the look out for hippos and hippos we found! A whole bunch of them, coming up for air every few minutes. Even an eagle, and luckily our boat drivers brought fish to entice them to dive into the water near our boats - they move quickly and so beautiful to see go after the fish.
When we got to Crescent Island, we did a walking safari with a guide named James. He knew more about birds than I ever thought possible. All different kinds of birds on the island - some native to Kenya and others that migrate here. Lots of other animals too - wildebeest, impalas, and water bucks. On the walk back to the boat the rains started coming - we couldn't get to the boats fast enough.
Once back ashore, our drivers let us know we were cutting it close to get to Lake Nakuru before they closed the gates. It was 5PM and we were a ~2 hour drive to the park and it closed at 6:30PM. So what is normally aggressive driving was even more so on the road from Naivasha to Nakuru, but we made it with just minutes to spare.
Once inside the park and on our way to the lodge we were lucky enough to come across a black rhino! He crossed in front of our van and we stopped as we watched him waddle across the road into the brush. His big tushie shaking back and forth as he walked away - so awesome! They are one of the hardest of the Big 5 to see and we spotted him minutes into the park!
After getting to the lodge and freshening up, we met for dinner at yet another buffet. And again, ate like we had never seen food before. As we were finishing dessert and getting ready to call it a night, a procession came out from the kitchen - carrying a torch, playing drums and signing. As they marched around the dining room singing in Swahili holding a cake, we all figured it was some kind of a Happy Birthday until they circled around our table and stopped. The song and dance was to welcome and thank us for staying at their lodge! Although, we are pretty sure the man carrying the torch had a thing for Jessica and it was really a marriage ceremony, but regardless we were all thrilled for a second dessert!
We carried the festivities into the bar to continue listening to local music and dances. I knew my sister Katie would love this (like me) so I decided to FaceTime her. She didn't answer on the first try so I called again - this time she answered, in her underwear. Katie said it best, "Never answer a FaceTime call in your underwear. Molly might be in a show full of people doing tribal dances." I eventually had to put the phone down as Ari and I got pulled up to dance, and clearly my white girl dances didn't even compare, but I had a lot of fun trying!
The next morning - after yet another buffet meal - we headed out for our morning game drive. We quickly saw hundreds (literally) of zebras just outside the lodge, then the adventure began of looking for the big five. We soon after found a giraffe - boy do I love those animals. Then word came in on the radio that a lion was close by so off we drove to try and find simba! It really is quite exciting as you look for these animals in their natural habitat, and just hope for a glance. We made a pass by the area the Lion was spotted, but didn't see anything. We turned around for a second pass and Jessica spotted him! He was up on the mountain side, hiding behind a bush barely visible, but eventually made himself known. He was so cool - hid for a bit, made himself known and made eye contact, then went back into the bushes. He is clearly the boss of that park and we were very lucky to catch a glimpse!
After a few more hours of finding various animals and continuing our #WildlifePaparazzi roles, we headed back to the lodge for a buffet lunch. All in all we saw 3 of the big 5 - elephants don't live in Nakuru so there was no chance of seeing them, but we saw hundreds of water buffalo, 11 rhinos and the lion. Next weekend in Massai Mara we hope to see leopards and elephants (although we saw them at the orphanage, doesn't count since we haven't seen them in the wild yet).
After lunch we hit the road back to Nairobi. All was going smoothly when we pulled into a gas station. I figured it was for a rest stop, but apparently our van had lost power and we weren't going to make it back. The "obvious solution" was to tie a rope between our van and the other van as they towed us back to Nairobi. This is when personalities really come out - myself and a few other in my van didn't really hesitate and were ready for an interesting 2 hour drive back to Nairobi. Bob on the other hand had already contacted Lucky (head of IBM security) and was working with the drivers on another solution as this was unacceptable. Lucky for Bob or I might have had a much more adventurous story to tell!
Obviously made it back to Nairobi safe and sound and looking forward to Massia Mara this weekend!
Molly
#LivinLaVidaVannucci #ibmcsc #Kenyeah #Kenya