One emotion, one name: Kenya

It has been a year of big changes and great stress and Beppe and I really need this holiday. It is the first time he has flown overseas. The decision about the place was not easy, I wanted it to be something truly special for Beppe and for him to carry it within him for the rest of his life; considering his sensitive and attentive nature I thought that Africa could find a way into his heart and so I proposed Kenya as our destination... it had always fascinated me. The decision was met with great enthusiasm. We set off from Bologna and landed after 8 hours of flight. Getting off the plane we are immediately enveloped by the tropical climate and in the distance, with the first light of dawn, we read Welcomes you to Mombasa. Here we are, we are in Africa.

Beppe was looking around incredulous, I do not know whether he was more incredulous about the fact that he was in Africa or about the fact that I had convinced him to take an 8-hour flight!! We wait for the luggage, which seems never to arrive! They load us onto a dated coach without air conditioning, the heat is suffocating, and we arrive in Watamu after a couple of hours, wrecked by tiredness. We stay at the Barracuda Inn of Condor. They assign us our beautiful bungalow: four-poster bed, furnishing in typical African style, veranda and a little monkey included in the package! The village is small but welcoming, the food is good even if not very varied. On the whole not bad.

The beach is the best of all, enjoys an excellent view and is very close to the island of lovers, reachable on foot at low tide or crossing the little village of Watamu and finishing the journey with a canoe ride provided by the locals. The first day we enjoy the village beach and the first sun after the long winter. The sea and the beach are beautiful and the constant changing of the water due to the tides is enchanting. On the first day we are "assailed" by the beach boys who want to sell excursions, objects and more, but at our reply that we had already organised everything from Italy we are left alone. Indeed, from Italy I had contacted a local beach boy, found on the internet, the very dear Jammy, with whom a friendship immediately developed that continues even now. I would like to open a parenthesis about him and say that we got on very well and that his seriousness is exceptional.

(jammysafari@yahoo.com mobile: 00254734646977) How can you come to Kenya and not organise a safari? I would never have forgiven myself. And so Jammy organised 2 days in Tsavo East park with an overnight stay at the tented camp (specifically requested by us) Ndololo Safari Camp. We set off for Tsavo very early in the morning with the 4x4 minibus with an opening roof. We crossed many villages, stopping here and there to leave a few things. The African reality is very harsh and hurts a lot. It is in contact with these places outside tourism that you really realise you are in Africa. I knew I would find a way into Beppe's heart as he watched, moved, the children who ran towards our minibus with their arms raised hoping that we would throw them some little gift...

there are truly so many and you would like to give a smile to all of them but unfortunately it is not possible and you feel powerless before them, before their struggles for survival because that is what it is about... not the effort we can make to get to the end of the month with our salary, treating ourselves to 1000 luxuries... but about not knowing whether you will reach the end of the day alive because water and food are lacking. We stop and a load of children run towards us, all smiling, there are no long faces and tantrums, here they do not exist. It is Beppe's moment and he hands out notebooks and pencils to the children and I take the opportunity to snap a few souvenir photos of him; he looks at me, I understand he is moved and now I am certain that Africa will always be in his heart and that he will remember this trip as the first far-away one, the first together.

I will remember it as the first one to which I give a meaning and it is to him that I dedicate this diary. We continue and after 2 hours of potholes we arrive at the park entrance and settle into the tented camp. The tents are beautiful, they are proper tents, large with an en-suite bathroom and beds with mosquito nets. We have lunch and after a short rest immersed in the humid heat we set off for the safari. He looks at me and says... I am in the savannah, incredible! The sky is an intense blue, the earth is red and the combination of the two is almost perfect. The first sightings of gazelles and impala begin, then the driver makes a sudden swerve, takes a secondary little road and the spectacle that opens before our eyes is that of 3 lionesses that seem to have almost finished their meal, a zebra. We are enchanted, it is all so unreal.

We continue and spot giraffes, zebras, eagles, baboons, elephants, buffaloes, hippos, crocodiles and finally we glimpse the king, the lion dozing near a pond! We go deeper and see lots of elephants with their little ones passing a few metres from us... we try to get closer but the mother does not allow it and makes as if to charge, so we wisely retreat. A unique emotion. We are in their habitat, the animals move about undisturbed and we can admire them. Life here is slow, has no rhythms, everything flows with the utmost tranquillity. After several sightings and several hours of game drive we return to the tents. We get ready for dinner, we chat with the guests of the camp and retire to our accommodation... a moment I was waiting for. Ndololo, unlike other camps, is not fenced, so the animals can move freely around the tents; we are in the hands of the Masai guards.

We lie down and are enveloped by the breath of the savannah. It cannot be called noise, but absolutely not silence either; it is the sound of the savannah, the footsteps of the animals, the cries of the baboons, the song of the birds, a melody that will remain forever in our memory. The next morning the safari continues and at first light the best sightings are made, there are so many animals. Satisfied with the gift the savannah has given us, we return to Watamu. We organise for the next days, again with Jammy, and go to Sardegna 2. Another unforgettable day. We get on the boat to reach the place and see a pod of dolphins playing with the waves, how beautiful they are! We reach the splendid beach, indescribable for its beauty. The water is incredibly transparent.

The beach boys set up the barbecues on the water, which stays shallow for hundreds of metres thanks to the low tide, and cook lobsters and fish. While waiting we take a dip in this natural pool, stunning. We become acquainted with a puffer fish and enjoy the wonderful day that Kenya is once again giving us. We spend the remaining days on the island of lovers. A paradise. The beach is fantastic, there is a stretch of very white sand and an incredible sea. We have a coconut opened on the beach and eat it with relish, aware that we will miss this moment so many times back in Italy! The holiday is drawing to a close and, given the friendships made on the beach with the beach boys, a dinner of fish and lobsters is organised in the hut they run near our village.

The evening passes pleasantly, they cooked excellent fish for us and played Kenyan songs to the rhythm of bongos and improvised instruments, what better farewell. What can I say, the holiday is over but only materially, because it will resurface in our minds infinite times, making this wonderful journey together in African land never-ending. Jambo, Annalisa and Giuseppe.