After leaving Bungoma for Nairobi, I went to two national parks, and some requisite wildlife pictures are featured below. We were in Amboseli National Park and then Tsavo West National Park. Jill, Brett, Ingrid and I then went to Mombasa for a night, explored the Old Fort, and rested. Next we headed north to Watamu, an Italian resort village in Kenya...where everyone spoke Italian and where the foods were all from Italy. We stayed at a hotel/resort that was shockingly nice for the $30 or so for a room each night. Also from Watamu went to the Gede ruins, which were every which way ancient and mysterious, with gargantuan trees--one of which had a platform to view the site. It was generally a fantastic experience, despite the odd insects (after all, the forest there hasn't been affected all that much by humans in the last 400 or 500 years; it was precisely like going back in time).
Brett and Ingrid left from Watamu and Jill and I continued the trek north up the coast to Lamu, a paradisaical island with a traditional and gorgeous old town in typical Swahili fashion. No cars [the main street was never more than 5 or 6 feet wide], but literally thousands of donkeys paraded the island for transport of people and goods. Jill and I, for a ridiculous price in the neighborhood of $15 each, essentially had two floors of an amazing villa. Each level was littered with Swahili-carved day beds and chairs. A full breakfast was also served. We took a day trip on a traditional dhow, sailing to Manda island and having fresh caught fish for lunch.
We decided that instead of taking a round-about 18-20 hour bus ride back to Nairobi, we would fly. So I had some extra time to do a bit of tourist-style shopping, relax, and contemplate my journey--both as an individual traveler, as part of the project to start a VCT center; Ultimately, as a person genuinely interested in how people everywhere on earth are so enormously different in their styles and beliefs, I was once again was impressed with the common threads that are part of a greater 'humanity'. Anyway, that's a bit of stereotypical "everyone is different but also the same" sort of speech, but it's hard to genuinely capture the kind of education that can only come from experience.
In travels and work, I wonder if anything will take me back to Kenya--, to Kisumu, or to Bungoma; to see all of the people there that I found to be like family by the end--like Joyce and Mama Betty and the Lubanga kids and Epico Jahns Primary school. Now I only hope I can keep in touch until I am there once again!
Here are some shots from the last 10 days of Kenya!, in completely random order...
Sand castle I spent probably an hour creating on the empty, vast stretch of Shella Beach on Lamu island
Tito, Brett's carved giraffe from the gate of Tsavo West, at the Old Fort in Lamu
Tree in Amboseli National Park
View of rooftops from the terrace of our villa in Lamu looking east
Zebras in Amboseli National Park. They were everywhere...
Me, riding Watermelon. When I was traveling, I rode Carrot (the donkey in the background). The guy sitting there is Lemon, our guide and dhow captain
Standing next to a gargantuan tree at the 13th-17th century Gede ruins on the coast near Watamu--home to a surprisingly advanced town for that time in Western Kenya that must have had an extensive trading network given the articles found there. Everyone left in the 17th century though; no record of why
The iconic tusks in Mombasa; photo taken from the middle of the street--there's a matching set over the road to the right of the line of trees
This little guy and several others were near our campsite in Tsavo West National Park
Near the Old Fort in Mombasa, there was a photogenic vining plant taking over a traditional Swahili Mombasa-style carved door
The typical sights of Lamu: donkeys and a dhow--, and Manda island across the water where the mangroves are
Night view from the Lamu villa. Flowering vines crawled up and over the alleys, from rooftop to rooftop, littering the streets with their blossoms--usually pink and yellow
One of my favorite Lamu shots, taken from a few feet off the ground (sometimes I took the phrase "shoot from the hip" to heart when looking for good candid shots)--there were maybe thirty or forty donkeys off to the left
Me, sitting on a platform overlooking the springs in Amboseli National Park. Were it a clear day, Kilimanjaro would have been off to the right
Standing on a 200-300 year old volcanic lava flow in the midst of the Chulu hills, where there were many dormant cone volcanoes
Left to right: Brett from Tenneessee, Jill from Pennsylvania, Ingrid from D. C., and me; this was our safari group. We toasted our trip at Carnivore (one of the top 50 dining experiences in the world), and toasted the end in Watamu, the strange Italian resort town, over pasta.
The Chulu Hills; this was truly an experience of sublimity--utterly awe inspiring in its scale and grandeur as we tooled around in our van with removable roof surrounded by animals usually confined to zoos
A hippo--the most dainty creature I've ever seen walk, as if on its tip-toes
A poor quality photo of Kilimanjaro from the ground in the early morning of our second day in Amboseli
A nice view of Lamu, the town--on Lamu, the island--part of Lamu, the archipelago (in Kenya, East Africa?)
These carved doors were incredible. Most were not nearly as elaborate as this one; however, many were carved rather delicately with lovely artistic discretion
A nice panorama at Amboseli, where the hordes of elephants were sunk down into the water that the grass and plants were emerging from--the baby elephant could easily inspire a rousing "Circle of Life" chorus if you were feeling like a tourist
First course of breakfast at the villa in Lamu was always fruit...often these three were substituted or supplemented with fresh papaya or mango
The first large animal we saw after leaving Nairobi was this giraffe just outside the car window
This sign is excellent all-around, but I particularly like "The National Parks are not responsible for any eventuality"
The wildlife, however fun to look at, was often just standing in the middle of the road. It was weird, we were looking at them and they were looking at us; and sometimes they took a while to move--this one looks perfect, bordering on artificial
This is a hill of volcanic ash. There are three people in this photo: Ingrid closest, then Jill nearing the bottom of the path, then Brett still up almost on the hill horizon line. Spot all three?
The sunset while waiting for the plane in Cleveland to go back to Dayton
Guess which safari van was ours? Hint: Our safari company was for the fiscally conscious. Basically, I mean the super dirty one.
This is a dik-dik, an insanely small (30-40cm high) and light (3-6kg) antelope that were hard to spot most of the time. This one is on the lava flow in the Chulu Hills
