Seven Companion Travellers......What Possibly Could Go Wrong?

The approximate 24 hour travel day with two flights and a three hour stopover in Paris was starting to take its toll. Nothing drastic but the comedy of errors was starting to play out. Ray and Waren were an hour late in their departure from Vancouver, so when they nonchalantly strolled down the concourse at CDG Paris, with 15 minutes to spare before boarding for our next leg of the journey, we were relieved that they were going to be able to join us. Unfortunately Ray’s bag didn’t seem to see it that way, so it decided to stay another night and didn’t arrive into Nairobi until the following day.

Upon arrival in Nairobi, Sue had packed away her visa so carefully, she couldn’t find it. She had to go to the Immigration office to explain and fortunately they were able to track it down for confirmation. Finally clearing immigration we lined up for clearance and excited the wrong exit point only to find out we had to re-enter the facility. So much for good signage. We just love lining up, so we decided just to do it again.

Waren and I went ahead of the others to start looking for our luggage from the luggage carousel. I found mine, Jennifer’s and Shirley’s. I left the terminal with one bag in search of our guide/driver David. He had been patiently waiting for us and I assured him everyone would be out in another couple of minutes. Minutes turned into another half an hour and Waren appeared to inform me that Shirley couldn’t find her bag and was filing a lost baggage report. What the hell? I made my way back to the staging area to see what all the fuss was about. I couldn’t understand why she had not found her bag as I had taken it off the carousel myself. Upon further discussion I discovered that Jennifer had my bag. Bingo!! I then realized that I had taken Shirley’s bag by mistake. I rushed back to David our guide and confirmed that I had stolen Shirley’s bag in error.  No harm done but lots of laughs all around and I had to buy Shirley a drink at the hotel bar to compensate. That story will circulate every time we meet up after this adventure is over.

The following day I made arrangements for a van/taxi to take us on a daily regional tour for the cost of $100 in total for the 7 of us. You can’t beat that arrangement. It was to be a day of getting an introductory taste of what was to come.

We started out at the elephant rescue center for baby orphaned elephants. There were 17 in total ranging in age from three months to four years. Most of these elephants had been orphaned due to poachers shooting the mothers for their ivory. The keepers nurture the youngsters back to health to release them back into the wild when they are healthy and mature enough to survive on their own. At Q&A one bright bunny asked the question if the orphans were fed milk from other mature mother elephants. The narrator responded to great laughter, that they didn’t track wild elephants to milk them.

A stop at a giraffe center gave us all the opportunity to feed the giraffes and get some close up pictures. Beware of head butting if you get too close. I took a hit unexpectedly which took me for a bit of a loop and after recovery managed to get in a few shots of my own.

Lunch time and a two hour repose was enjoyed at a lovely garden restaurant. Sipping Chardonnay and drinking Tusker beer, we sat under the canopy of lush palms and other exotica greenery. Where does the time go? Who takes two hour lunches? Only the lives of the rich and famous I had thought, and I am neither.

After apologies to our driver Oliver we persuaded him we had to make one final stop. We went in search Karen Bixen’s farm of Out of Africa fame. It was so easy to immerse yourself in the setting. The farm house, the front porch and dining room. Floral trees and huge poinsettias were everywhere. I kept looking for Meryl Streep and Robert Redford. We all agreed that when we returned home we would have to have a movie night and relive the inspiring and tragic love story of the Countess, her husband Bror and Karen’s lover Denys. Jambo from Nairobi.