African Adventures

Where do I even start...

What an amazing start to this adventure, so many memories to share, so many thoughts to write down. I’m going to get super real so if TMI is in your vocabulary I’d suggest moving on.

I don’t think this would be the adventure for me unless things started with some expected and unexpected challenges. Long flights. Surprise additional safari guests. Unexpected period. Airplane germs. Let’s dive in.

Booking the Safari

I’ll start with the safari booking process. As soon as you look up African safari online there are thousands of different sites and offerings. Safaribookings.com had a lot of reputable reviews so this is the site I decided to book through. I knew I wanted to experience the Great Migration so naturally I landed on Tanzania and the beauty that is the Serengeti - The Endless Plain. A multi-country experience seemed cool and a really uncomplicated way to see more, so I decided I wanted to book with an operator who offered safaris in Kenya and Tanzania. That narrowed down the search from thousands to a thousand, next I focused on duration and budget. To get enough time in both countries I chose a 10-day tour and set my budget to 10K CAD for the entire time (including safari, flights, tips, knick-knacks, additional lodging costs & excursions, etc.). This narrowed the search down a lot now I was looking at about 50 different options.

What I liked about safaribookings.com is that they recommended you reach out to three different companies to compare itineraries, compare costs, and see who will negotiate with you on price. My top two operators were the Soul of Tanzania and Mama Savana. They both had amazing itineraries and the cost estimates started at the same price, but Mama Savana was willing to customize my trip with all my suggestions and was more open to negotiations on price, so this was the operator I booked with, and I got my safari cost down to 5K USD.

I’ll be honest, up until the day my safari started there was a voice in the back of my head, that I was actively trying to ignore, which considered the possibility I could have been scammed. Communicating with companies and finalizing details on WhatsApp was so unfamiliar to me.

Travel Day Mayhem

I must have been nervous because I almost forgot my phone in I think 3 different places before I boarded my flight… the car… the table where I ate breakfast… the bathroom stall… but since my approved ETA came in (just 5 hours before my flight), the check-in and boarding process went smoothly. So, there I was in the airport waiting to board and I decided to check-in with Mama Savana on WhatsApp, and to my surprise she had news for me, there would be another woman travelling solo joining me for my safari. I didn’t mind at the time and thought it would be nice to have someone to talk to, but 10 days is a long time to make small talk with a stranger… more on my new visitor later.

Alright so I’m on the plane 8 hours into my 13-hour flight, here comes challenge #1, I get my period, I wasn’t expecting it and there were no tampons in sight. Very capable of dealing with this issue, was it uncomfortable, yes, was it the end of the world, no, but all I was thinking about was getting to my hotel in Nairobi and getting in a good shower and great sleep. I get to my lay-over destination (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) and I’m convinced they don’t use tampons there because I asked a woman where I can find a shop with tampons and she looked at me like I had three heads, maybe it’s just a taboo topic of discussion. I ended up finding one shop that had a pack of 10 pads for 10 USD (absolutely ridiculous price, must have been a combination of tourist & pink tax, clearly thriving in that airport).

Navigating international airports are easy, most signs have English somewhere on them and if you have questions there are people who work there everywhere, most of who speak airport English (basic airport questions). So finally, I’m almost in Nairobi!!! Clearing customs, picking up my luggage was all smooth, but as soon as you leave the airport the amount of people asking you if you need a taxi is always slightly overwhelming. So I’m looking for the driver who was supposed to be holding up my name on a sign to take me to my hotel and here comes challenge #2… he’s no where to be found, I’m calling the woman who has been communicating with me on WhatsApp and she’s not picking up my calls but she is answering my texts (here comes that voice in the back of my mind… RED flag, you’re being scammed).

I ended up having to take a cab to the hotel, it all worked out and the woman I was communicating with on WhatsApp was very apologetic that the driver didn’t show and said I would be reimbursed for the cost of the taxi. So, I took the next two days to relax, sleep, and get ready for my safari to start.

The Chaos Begins

I woke up the next day and had a bump on my lip, lovely challenge #3, contact dermatitis from the plane! This thing on my lip only got worse and honestly made me feel so insecure for the entire FIFTEEN DAYS this thing stayed on my face (so my entire safari). Me and Esmeralda (ChatGPT) had MANY conversations about what the fuck was going on, why it kept getting worse, etc. Turns out sun exposure was the worst thing for it, good thing I wasn’t about to start a 10-day adventure in the sun everyday. So annoying but still something I wouldn’t let bother me… not too much anyway. If anything, it was a test and challenge to my confidence while I knew I wasn’t looking or feeling my best.

Moving on, I booked two nights at the same hotel that I was staying at for the first night on my itinerary, when I checked in, I asked the staff if I could just stay in the same room for all 3 nights instead of checking out and checking in again, they of course said this was no problem. Here comes challenge #4, the two nights of my reservation are complete, I was going back to my room after lounging by the pool and my key card stops working. I go to talk to reception and the reservation under the safari company apparently doesn’t exist in their system. I’m calling the woman who I have been chatting with on WhatsApp and there’s no answer so here comes the screaming voice in the back of my head telling me I’ve been scammed and I’m now in Nairobi with no tour coming to pick me up the next day.

I gave the hotel the number of my contact on WhatsApp, they gave me temporary access to my room, and I asked them to call me when or IF they were able to reach my safari operator. Anxiously waiting in my room for 30 minutes, I get a call from my contact from the safari company, she is very apologetic, she explained the mix up and she had said her boss was on his way to the hotel to personally apologize, confirm the reservation and introduce me to the woman joining me on my tour. I said it was no problem on the phone but honestly I was skeptical until the moment I saw him walk in with his uniform on.

Finally, my safari starts!! Woohoo! Putting my sarcasm aside, this truly was an unforgettable experience, every single day brought a new memory that I will forever cherish.

Before we get to the good stuff, here is what you set out to see once you begin – the BIG FIVE (Lions, Elephants, Rhinos – Black & White, Buffalo, Leopards), the UGLY FIVE (Warthogs, Wildebeest, Hyena, Vulture, Marabou Stork).

And I saw them all!!!

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Kenya

Locations: Aberdare National Park, The Equator, Lake Nakuru, The Masai Mara

Kenya: First Impressions

Let me just start by saying if you are concerned by malaria, I left Africa mosquito bite free.

Anyway… there are things I saw that I’m not sure I will ever get lucky enough to see again, and memories that I will hold onto for a lifetime. But I’m not sure it would be travel if it didn’t also come with some challenges!

Day 1, I meet Julia – the mystery woman who would be joining me on my safari, we were taken out to dinner at this restaurant Carnivore, an all you can eat steakhouse in Nairobi, new things I tried were Ostrich (surprisingly good) and Ox Balls (not surprisingly disgusting). We got the run down on how the safari was going to work, how the border crossing would work and that our drivers would be switching when we went across the border. Overall, a great start and it got us really excited for our journey… poor Julia was a vegetarian, so Carnivore wasn’t really up her alley, but she was a trooper and they had a nice veg menu.

Kenya: Moments I'll Never Forget

There were so many firsts for me as I journeyed through Kenya, I fell in love with giraffes as I walked along side them on a nature walk with zebras, antelopes, warthogs, and baboons as well. I slept at a lodge built above a local elephant watering hole and watched them play for hours. I saw the rarest animal to see on a safari – the elusive black & white rhinos. I had one foot in the northern hemisphere and one in the southern hemisphere as I stood on the equator. I got really intimate with the toilet one day when my stomach disagreed with the food. I witnessed an entire pride of lions walk right up to my jeep and sit down next to us as I locked eyes with a fierce lioness. I watched the tenderness & interactions within the pride. I was close enough to see their beauty but also be witness to all their scars that mark a lifetime of survival. I saw the Masai people herding cows on foot through lion territory in the Masai Mara. I saw predators hunt and chase prey. I saw predators eat prey.

Kenya: Finding Perspective

The things that stood out to me were seeing that everyone has a different understanding of what perspective is. How you enjoy a safari is a personalized decision. I think when you go on a safari there are two different types of people, there are people who believe safaris are equally about patience and luck, these people watch the animals, observe their behaviour, and capture unique moments. And there are people who are there for the photo, these people see the experience through the lens of the camera, they snap 30 pictures of the same thing and once they are done taking photos they are ready to move on. The irony is that people who fall into category 1 typically get the better photo.

I believe I fall into the first category, and I think the woman I was paired with leans more into the second category. I found some of her behaviour so strange and like sometimes she forgot where she was and what we were witnessing. Whether it was complaining about the dirt roads, the early mornings, no midday naps, not getting a good enough angle for a photo overall she seemed difficult to please. And it really made me see how differently people process things because I think we left the same tour feeling completely different emotions. I’ll leave it at this; patience is how you see incredible encounters.

Kenya: Local Customs

Local culture is another thing that stood out to me, in the city it looked developed but there was a lot of homelessness, and at the same time it was visibly impoverished, our guide kept making comments about local corruption, a lot of bribes and the only reason we weren’t stopped was due to a safari operator sticker which made it illegal to stop us. But when you got to the tribal communities it felt like you teleported back in time.

As we were driving I saw two gravestones which made me realize I hadn’t seen any graveyards so I asked our guide about typical customs when someone dies and he said something to me that stuck with me, he said what I don’t understand about your culture is that people cry for the dead, he said people need to cry for the living, once you’re dead there’s nothing left to cry about.

When we got to the tribal communities our guide started talking to us about the Masai people and local customs, many things were as expected by way of money, traditional gender roles, religious customs, but one thing I wasn’t expecting to hear was how prevalent female genital mutilation (FGM) was within that tribe. Our guide said every child we saw that was 10 years of age or older went through FGM. This was particularly hard to hear and made me incredibly grateful for the men in my life who value and encourage my autonomy, my opinions, and see me as their equal.

As a woman learning and understanding your body, understanding pleasure and human connection is a right we don’t all have and this was an interesting reminder of that for me.

Kenya: Conclusions

Overall, of course I found Kenya beautiful and nothing like what I see at home, but I found it heavily monetized which to me took away the authenticity of seeing animals, experiencing culture and people in this beautifully balanced ecosystem. The lodges we stayed at were stunning, but they were massive, fenced and took away from what was originally ground animals freely roamed. With my experience in Kenya, it felt like the photo op was more important. It was money driven, interactions felt more transactional, the friendliness of the people was all an act my guide said, children wave at us, people smile at us in hopes of getting money and if we don’t give it to them, they say something behind our back once we leave.

The focus was profit over authenticity or respect for the animals. I felt that in Tanzania this was done differently… you can tell by the difference in the park fee. For example, the only thing stopping our guide from going off the allocated path was fear that the rangers were going to fine him. At one point the rangers took bribes from other operators to allow all the cars in the area to drive right up to this cheetah who had been lying in a bush, it felt like an invasion of privacy but what’s interesting is that these animals are used to seeing cars from the day they are born. It was interesting, even my guide sat there on his phone while we looked at animals like this was completely boring to him.

Lodges

·       The Eka Hotel – Nairobi

·       The Ark – Aberdare National Park

·       Lake Nakuru Lodge – Lake Nakuru

·       Sentrim Mara Lodge – Masai Mara

Restaurants

·       Carnivore – Nairobi

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Tanzania

Locations: The Serengeti (Central & South), Ngorongoro Crater, Mount Kilimanjaro

Tanzania: First Impressions

I will admit right away that I liked Tanzania more than I liked Kenya, in terms of what I saw both places brought their own unimaginable memories, but strictly speaking about how it felt there was almost an immediate shift when we crossed over into Tanzania.

The respect for the land and the animals was visibly different, the constant heckling for money stopped, local interactions felt different, people didn’t stare we were all just there going about our days. Staff at the lodges were friendlier, seemed to genuinely want to know what we saw, what we experienced, and appreciated where they were and what was around them. The food the chefs made was incredible. Tanzania felt preserved where Kenya felt curated. Bribing rangers was not an option; there were places of the park you could offroad and places that was strictly not allowed which all drivers respected.

Tanzania: Moments I'll Never Forget

In continuation with firsts, I stayed in unfenced camps (all camps in the Serengeti are unfenced) and slept 3 metres away from a pride of lions. Woke up to the sound of a lion roar. Locked eyes with a leopard from a metre away as it descended from its perch and walked by our jeep. Saw lion cubs play and run, as the lioness' protected them from all sides. I saw a group of 'teenage' lions sitting with their mothers, some learning how to hunt. I saw cheetah cubs play and then stop and hide and wait for their mom to try to hunt. I saw the Great Migration as thousands of wildebeests ran through the Serengeti. I saw a wildebeest that had been born not 20 minutes before we drove by learning how to walk. I saw pregnant lions and zebras. I saw the birth of a wildebeest and watched as its mother abandoned it because the jeep frightened her. I saw the Ngorongoro Crater in all its beauty and perfect balance. I walked a trail on the legendary Mount Kilimanjaro.

Tanzania: Differing Opinions

Some people, depending on their own view, might have a different outlook, they might enjoy the fenced lodges and the more curated experience. I will never forget when Julia and I were having breakfast and she said “this isn’t a 7 minute hard boiled egg” as we were watching the sunrise beside zebras in the middle of the Serengeti. All I could do was laugh because the only thoughts going through my mind were “I can’t believe how beautiful this is” and “wow I’m eating better than I am at home in the middle of the Serengeti where my food is being cooked in a shack.”

Your guide is so important in your safari because they truly make or break the experience but their livelihood thrives on tips, which means the customers values lead how they act towards the animal, while Julia and I didn’t agree on everything, one thing we agreed on was that we always wanted to respect the animal’s space, if it came near us great, if not then it wasn’t our moment and that was okay.

Tanzania: Human Invasion

While I would recommend that everyone get to experience the things I saw, sometimes I felt like I shouldn’t be there, like I was invading on something that I had no business being in.

The Leopard Encounter – leopards are rare, especially getting to see one active. He comes down from a tree, looking at a herd of wildebeest, he’s starting to engage in hunt behaviours, instead of giving him space and following from behind, cars start to cut him off to get good pictures of his face. Eventually he had had enough and went back up into the tree where he wasn’t visible to people.

The Wildebeest Encounter – We were driving on one of the paved roads and we just happened to see a wildebeest right as she was giving birth, she was pretty close to the road, we didn’t even really realize what was happening until we saw the calf lying there in the grass, it hadn’t taken its first steps yet, and the sound of the car spooked the mother, we immediately backed away at least 50 feet and gave her lots of space but she kept eyeing us and left the baby there all alone and ran back to the herd, we were the only car who saw this and we left as soon as she ran, I hope she went back to it but if she didn’t it most definitely was eaten by a predator.

I’m so torn by these memories, on one hand it was amazing to be there and experience something I would never see at home but on the other hand I felt like I didn’t belong there and human interference was an active part of the circle of life – but whether its safaris now or poachers / explorers then, I guess we always have been. My guide told me that this was nothing and during peak season apparently upwards of 100 cars trying to see the same animal, there have been car accidents racing to get a good spot. I don’t even think that would be an enjoyable experience.

Tanzania: Conclusions

All in all, Tanzania is a place I will go back to one day; I am committed to completing the summit and conquering Kilimanjaro as well as exploring more of the beauty Tanzania has to offer.

Lodges

·       Osinon Camps & Lodges – Central Serengeti

·       Nyikani Migration Camp – Southern Serengeti

·       Ngorongoro Coffee Lodge – Ngorongoro National Park

·       Villa Rosa – Moshi

I witnessed the beautifully self-sustaining trifecta comprised of the Masai Mara-Serengeti-Ngorongoro Crater. I’ve never seen anything like this in my life, these naturally preserved sanctuaries working in a perfect balance to sustain the circle of life. Anywhere you look you are surrounded by beauty. It was extraordinary, ancient, and unforgettable.

Tanzania: Kilimanjaro Adventures

Oh, also the first thing I booked by myself outside of the safari (my first official solo travel thing) was the shuttle to get to Moshi (the town closest to Kilimanjaro). I got on the bus and made my way to the town, the bus dropped me in the middle of nowhere, not where it was supposed to, I google mapped where I was staying, walked there, and the hostel was no where to be found, I message them on WhatsApp and he calls me saying google maps in Africa lies, I had no idea where I was, neither did he. Thank god these three local guys pull into the driveway I was standing in (looking at me like I was obviously not where I needed to be). I asked them to talk to the hostel guy to figure out where I was and they hailed down this little scooter taxi to take me to my hostel… so there I was with my massive backpack, my front pack and my purse on me as I was on the back of a dirtbike which drove me 20 minutes to my hostel. I wish I had a picture… but I’m sure it’ll happen again. Adventure #1 complete!

Writing this helped me reflect and honestly it made me laugh. And I think that’s what this whole thing is about. Welcoming some chaos, welcoming some challenges, and moving through them with confidence even when it’s embarrassing, even when you feel insecure.

I also need to commemorate this motorbike situation, the bikes run the road here, I think this will be a trend that continues when I get to Asia. The craziest thing I saw on a bike was a father, 2 kids, 2 rolled up mattresses, a folded up table set and chairs and bags of clothes and dishes hanging off the sides... I couldn't believe my eyes.

Thanks for the memories Africa.

https://www.polarsteps.com/OliviaBaird/23042002-world-tour?s=9281b1b4-283c-417b-8f24-7291dd1b0eb6