Kenya: Nature in All Its Expressions

Kenya: nature in all its forms

We booked 2 weeks at the Aquarius in Watamu, departing from Bologna, and our choice fell on the departure of Friday, March 5, for the direct flight with Neos, both outbound and return. At the Aquarius we had a good time, we ate very well, especially the fruit — mango, papaya, passion fruit, bananas, coconut, pineapple, watermelon — without disdaining pasta and rice seasoned in every way, always a meat course and a fish course, desserts and lots and lots of raw and cooked vegetables; the restaurant, located in the main complex near the reception, is large with a nice wooden floor, the buffet is arranged in the center in a circular fashion, so that all the tables are equidistant, and the food is always covered with mesh screens, cling film or lids. The room clean and spacious, beautiful flowering gardens, nice pools, and a beach of very white sand.

The main reason for our trip, however, is the safari: before departure we contacted Luigi Kassim; we meet him on the beach on Saturday afternoon, and we agree on a 2-night/3-day safari to Tsavo East + Amboseli; at Tsavo we'll sleep at the VOI WILDLIFE SAFARI LODGE, while at Amboseli at the KIBO CAMP. We paid the deposit and arranged to meet at 6 in the morning on Monday for the departure of the long-awaited safari. The excitement is sky-high, off we go... there are 2 minibuses, each with 6 people; after two and a half hours of dirt road we reach the Voi gate of Tsavo East, but first we stop at the Galana river to see the crocodiles, the customary photos, and finally we enter the park.

We immediately get a radio message that there's a lion, it has just brought down a buffalo, and indeed we see the buffalo carcass under a tree; in practice all the minibuses that crowded in disturbed the lion's lavish meal, and it waits a little way off to finish its lunch. We're starting well! The hardest animal to see, we've already seen it right away, we're full of expectation to see the others, and indeed shortly afterwards we spot the first gazelles, antelopes, jackals, zebras, the elephants, which here are red, giraffes, guinea fowl, buffaloes, baboons, mongooses, and even the secretary bird, which is a large bird that feeds on, precisely, snakes! We arrive at the VOI WILDLIFE LODGE, a quick shower, and then lunch.

In the afternoon we set off again for a new game drive, again elephants, and a giraffe very close, practically at the roadside, delights us with its majestic gait; at this point another radio message about an interesting sighting, so we turn around and head towards a plateau in the park: a lioness with cubs, but it's too far away, you can barely see it; then the leaden sky announces a downpour that doesn't take long to arrive, so with the rain we have to interrupt our game drive and return to the Lodge, where we have dinner and soon go to bed. We see two beautiful crowned cranes with their three chicks, more buffaloes and two ostriches, and we arrive at the KIBO CAMP, truly beautiful and distinctive; we can't wait to try sleeping in a tent, which in any case is equipped with all the comforts.

We have lunch and then rest at the edge of the pool, with a view (when you can see it) of Kilimanjaro; we're on a plateau and so it's not at all hot, it's really pleasant. During the afternoon game drive at Amboseli, we see a truly fascinating landscape, we spot a lion family cuddling, though they're not very close, a warthog, a hyena family, several types of birds, and lots and lots of baboons, a mother with her baby on her back. Towards 5 pm, the clouds that until then cluttered the summit of Kilimanjaro dissolve and finally... there it is...

beautiful with its almost 6000 meters of height, it's majestic!!! The sun begins to set and we start heading towards the park exit to return to Kibo; from afar we see a long line of elephants, which probably after grazing are returning to the bush to sleep; in fact further on they cross the road, right in front of the minibus, beautiful, with the little ones walking under their mother's belly, or right behind her, and with my heart beating wildly I manage to photograph a family right with Kilimanjaro in the background; it was exactly the scene I dreamed of capturing; by now my satisfaction is sky-high and, snapping the last photos of the rosy African sunset, we return to Kibo for dinner.

We have to leave Amboseli and face the long journey back to Watamu, but along the way a strange feeling creeps in: we're not yet completely fulfilled, we're still thirsty to see more, and so we give birth to, forgive the term, the idea of adding another day of safari, again at Tsavo East; among other things we have the advantage of breaking up the long return journey to Watamu. We get in touch with Luigi Kassim, who after a brief consultation on the choice of camp to stay in, with a couple of phone calls organizes our extra day for us.

We choose the NDOLOLO CAMP, which is located inside Tsavo East; we enter again through the Voi gate, and after not even 100 meters the driver slams on the brakes: on the right, on the edge of the road, there's a lioness who, with incredible phlegm and elegance, crosses the road right in front of the minibus, then heads towards the taller grass and disappears from view; just for this it was worth adding a day of safari. Dazed, we reach the chosen camp; it's very distinctive, more spartan than Kibo, but by now we feel like budding explorers, who can stop us now! l They serve us lunch outdoors under the trees.

We begin the afternoon game drive; luck has probably decided to favor us: we see a lioness asleep under a tree, not close by; our driver really wants to please us and, breaking the rule, approaches with the minibus, into the grass; she opens her sleepy eyes, and then blissfully goes back to sleep. Of course everything is fast-paced, in fact we hear the radio crackle, we don't understand what it says because obviously they speak in their own language, but the tone leaves no doubt; the minibus takes off like a rocket and Luigi anticipates: surprise... surprise... we weren't hoping for so much...

but instead that's exactly what it is, two cheetahs walking calmly in the grass; we follow them for a while, with our eyes and our cameras; there are lots and lots of minibuses at the roadside, alerted in turn; they walk and then, evidently annoyed by so many people watching them, they start running with the elegance that distinguishes them and briefly vanish from our sight into the bush. We are super excited, we weren't hoping for such luck; we look into each other's shining eyes, and the smile stamped on our faces expresses our happiness more than any words!!! meanwhile we continue on, the landscape is truly astonishing.

On Thursday morning the last game drive awaits us; this unscheduled day really rewards us: we spot another cheetah, though looking at it carefully now in the photos, it seems to me to be a female cheetah, in fact it seems pregnant; it drinks at the small lake, walks up to the top of the hillock, then lies down to rest.... The last hours don't offer us many other animal sightings, but traveling through another part of the park we see a very beautiful landscape, the grass is dry, yellow; here a lion with a full mane would fit in just right, but luck now is looking the other way... let's make do!!!

We leave Tsavo around 12 and head towards the Crocodile Camp; we have lunch with a view of the river, and now, finally fulfilled, we can return to Watamu, to the Aquarius! In the following days we enjoy the sea and the village, long walks on the beach, the fantastic massages, interspersed with the other excursions included in our safari package: the Blue Safari to Sardegna 2, the Island of Love, and a tour of Malindi — excursions amply described in previous travel diaries, so I won't repeat myself; I'll just dwell to say that on the way to Sardegna 2 a pod of dolphins accompanied us for more than half an hour, with somersaults, slapping their tails, blowing, in that crystal-clear sea, with a blinding, merciless sun; in fact despite sunscreen with SPF 50+ I still got sunburned.

Leafing through the Mondadori guide, full of photos, one site caught our attention: Hell's Kitchen, that is, the Devil's Kitchen, a limestone depression created by the rains, 38 km north of Malindi, run by a local cooperative; you pay €2.50 per person for the visit + a tip of your choosing to the guide who accompanies you. It takes an hour and a half to get there from Watamu, half the road is paved, half dirt; the scenery you see along the way is very beautiful, mango plantations, banana groves, villages with mud houses, women going to fetch water, with the jerrycan on their heads.

It's advisable to go in the early hours of the morning, or at sunset, because the heat is terrible; the colors are fantastic, white, yellow, ochre, pink, orange, red and then the green of the vegetation, the blue of the sky, the white of the clouds, in short, another masterpiece of nature! Africa is truly a splendid place, where the smile of the people, the gaze of the children, but above all the spectacle of nature, never disappoint!