August 12, 2012 Dear Friends, Last week we did the Nairobi tourist trek. We drove to Lake Nahuru, on the floor of the Great Rift Valley on Tuesday. It is what is called a “soda lake.” It usually hosts about a … Continue reading Kenya, Nairobi and the Great Rift Valley.
August 6, 2012 Nairobi, Kenya Dear Friends, Sometimes the much awaited second novel or record album (am I showing my age?) is a disappointment, the first was so good. Suzi had some fears that if we returned to the Mara after the wonderful safari of discovery we had last April it would be like a second novel. I shared some of those apprehensions but wanted to go anyway, seeing the same land in a different season. As it happened it was spectacular. We arrived just as the annual wildebeest (we called them Gnus when I grew up) arrived. Had we … Continue reading Wildebeest Migration, Kenya
May 6, 2012 Shihipol, the Netherlands Dear Friends, When we got back to Nairobi from Mt. Kenya and still had not seen a lion I thought I would give us one more chance. I booked game drive through Nairobi National Park, which is just on the outskirts of Nairobi, for dawn on Thursday. It seemed like a good idea at the time but our flight from Zanzibar was canceled and we had to book a later flight getting us into Nairobi too late for dinner and too late to get a good night’s sleep before the dawn trek to the … Continue reading Nairobi National Park
This is a letter about the drive from Mt. Kenya back to Nairobi. April 28, Nairobi, Kenya Dear Friends, After rain most of Friday, Saturday Morning was gorgeous. I got up at about 6:15 to watch the sun rise behind Mt. Kenya, and while the day stayed sunny the mountain progressively pulled its cloud shroud around its peak until about 8, while we were eating breakfast, the peak was completely gone. By 10 we were on the road back to Nairobi. Our first stop was the equator out on the highway where a tourist trap has grown up around “The … Continue reading Roadside Kenya
This is the second half of that family letter from Mt. Kenya. We’re on the second half our safari now, at the Mt. Kenya Safari Club in Nanyuki, 7,000 feet up the slopes of Mt. Kenya, which is 17,000 feet high. Yesterday morning I stood, jacket on, outside my room, 75 feet north of the equator, looking up at snow. Snow in the equator. The equator runs through the bar. The dining room is in the Northern Hemisphere, reception, the gift shop, and services are South of the line. The Safari Club was started by the actor William Holden and … Continue reading Mt Kenya
This is the first half of a letter from Mt. Kenya National Park. It deals with our trip to the Masai Mara. The second half of the letter will be in the post from Mt. Kenya. April 27, 2012 Nanyuki, Kenya (Mt. Kenya National Park) Dear Friends, Victor, the deputy chief of the radio project for South Sudan, asked me why Americans want to come to Africa to see animals. It’s people he is interested in. I gave some feeble answer about how we had seen elephants, (Barbapapa) lions (Lion King) and hippos (Hungry, Hungry Hippo) in kids’ books … Continue reading Masi Mara, Kenya
March 24, 2012 Nairobi, Kenya Dear Friends It’s not what I thought. I’m sitting just a few kilometers south of the equator. It is the time of the equinox with the sun directly overhead, and it is pleasant 78 degrees midday. Sundown comes like switching off a light switch. No twilight at all. Evening breezes mean I sleep with the windows open with no need for air conditioning. The birds and the sun wake me after sleeping well. Welcome to Nairobi. Nairobi is over a mile high. The combination of proximity to the equator and the altitude makes sunburn a … Continue reading Nairobi