Safari Misadventure

           Wednesday was perhaps the craziest day of my life thus far.  Katie and I woke up at 5:45 am to get ready and eat breakfast before our driver, Joseph, picked us up at 7.  He arrived on time, so I felt pretty happy about that and proud of my travel arranging skills.  I asked Joseph if the resort had called him to give directions as I had been told they would.  He said no, but that he knew where he was going.  I just said OK and didn’t think twice about the fact that I had never actually given him the name of the resort.  A red flag should have gone up at that moment, but I was too excited to care too much. 

            The first few hours of the drive were so nice.  It was supposed to take about 4 hours to get to Ngerende Island Lodge, so we were planning to arrive around 11.  The road was paved and smooth without many twists and turns so I wasn’t even getting carsick as I had on a few of our previous rides in Kenya.  Katie and I were listening to music on her ipod and enjoying a relaxing ride.  We passed the town of Narok which is 120km (about 2 hours) from Ngerende.  We took a left turn in the direction of a sign pointing to the Masai Mara so I figured we were on the right path.  Soon after the turn, the paved road disappeared.  We were on rocky, rough terrain, although not as bumpy as some other roads I’ve been on during the past two months.  I should mention that our car was not an all-terrain vehicle suitable for a road like this, another detail that didn’t particularly concern me at this point.  It was 10 am, so I thought we had about an hour left to drive when we got a flat tire (the first of many).  Joseph had a spare plus a little donut tire so we thought, “Great, he’s well prepared.”  He changed the tire and we were on our way.  About 20 minutes later, the front right tire went out, too.  He changed that, and we kept driving. 

            At this point, the resort called to check in on where we were (they had called earlier to make sure we were on our way).  Joseph told them that we were next to the sign for the Siana Springs Tent Camp.  He was speaking in Kiswahili so we didn’t really know what the conversation consisted of, but it seemed like something wasn’t quite right.  He hung up and kept driving on, just saying that it was the hotel calling to check in.  A few minutes later he stopped to ask directions from another driver and found out we had gone a bit too far along this road and needed to turn around apparently.  We turned around and asked another driver for directions.  This driver said he had never heard of Ngerende before, but thought it was on the other side of the Masai Mara (we were on the east side at this point I believe).  We had taken a wrong turn in Narok and were probably 3 hours from where we should be.  The quickest route to Ngerende was across the Masai Mara on a horrible rocky road (if you could even call it that) and we had no spare tires left.  Joseph wasn’t really even clear on what route to take, and no one seemed sure of the exact location of Ngerende.

            Now I was a bit freaked out and disappointed that we wouldn’t make it to the safari at all and that we would be stuck in the middle of nowhere in Africa.  At least we brought snacks and some water with us for the ride (I was trying to focus on counting my blessings).  We stopped at the “Puncture Repair Shop” (apparently this happens frequently out there) to get one of our tires fixed in case of another flat.  This took close to an hour.  Katie and I were sitting in the car and during this time we:

- Had 2 women approach us to take a picture of them and once we did, demanded money from us, which we refused to pay (we actually went to two repair shops and they followed us from the first to the second in search of payment)

- Were harassed by women from the village selling jewelry through the cracks we had opened in the windows to let in some air. 

- Were asked by a young guy how to help him find an American girlfriend.

Somewhere in the middle of all of this I started calling out to Joseph to come back to the car, hoping he could get some of these people to leave us alone.  I was scared, hot, and frustrated.  It was after noon with no end to the journey in sight.

            Finally, the tire was repaired and we started off on the terrible dirt road through the valley.  We were heading toward a place called Aitong.  Joseph kept stopping periodically to ask random villagers along the way if we were going in the right direction since there were many forks in the road and we were just guessing at the right one to choose.  We got a third flat tire somewhere on this leg of the journey and used the newly repaired tire to change it.  Finally, at around 2 pm we reached Aitong.  We called the resort because they had said it was close to this town.  I had been checking Googlemaps at various locations along the way, but it still felt like we were lost.  Unfortunately, we thought we had a flat AGAIN right after Aitong.  Joseph got out to check and it wasn’t flat after all.  Yay!!  I was praying we’d make it without another stop.  Five minutes later we actually did get a flat tire (#4) and had no spare left.  Joseph called the resort to pick us up since it was supposed to be nearby.  I was still a little skeptical, because it felt like we were in the middle of nowhere.  When I asked, Joseph just replied it was “not too far”.  On Googlemaps when I looked it up, it said it was 4 hours away so I started to panic just a bit.  Katie called the hotel, though, and they were 16 km away, phew!! 

            They arrived to rescue us a little after 3 pm, but the wait felt excruciating.  I was never so happy to see someone in my life, I don’t think.  I was so relieved that we were actually going to make it to the resort and not be stuck in the middle of nowhere in Kenya for the night.  Our drivers from Ngerende were Stephen and Daniel, and they were so friendly and welcoming.  They brought us fruit and water and apologized that we had gotten lost.  Apparently, Joseph had told them that we knew the way to Ngerende and were giving him directions.  Katie distinctly remembers saying at the start of the trip, “I hope you know where we’re going, because I have no clue”.  Big miscommunication.  We all laughed for a while about that. 

When we arrived at the resort, we were greeted by members of the Maasai tribe who led us to the main lodge, holding our hands, chanting, and skipping as Stephen and Daniel snapped photos of us with our cameras.  We received a formal introduction to the staff (including our butler, Walter) and the chef.  It was quite surreal to have gone from anxiety and mild terror to luxury within the course of  a half hour.  The safari was one of the most amazing experiences of my life, absolutely worth the trouble it took to travel there.  We just stayed for one night, but we had 2 game drives, one in the evening and another early the next morning.  Here’s a list of the animals we saw (that I can remember):

Zebras, lions (including a female lions walking with her 2 cubs and a young male lion), gazelles, buffalo, baboons, warthogs, ostriches, impalas, dik dik antelope, eland antelope, jackals, giraffes, elephants, wildebeests, Topi antelope, banded mongoose, hippos, hartebeest antelope, a CHEETAH!!, white rhinos, a black-chested snake eagle, and hyenas.  Needless to say, I was completely satisfied with the trip.  It seems like everything in Africa has been an adventure, although I’m excited to be going home soon.

Here are a few pictures.  I’ll be back in America on Sunday and will post more to Facebook then