Kenya, Africa is known for their safaris. And a huge draw for travelers is to head to Kenya to go on a safari trip and hopefully sight native animals known as the “Big Five”: Lion, Elephant, Buffalo, Rhino and Leopard. And that was our goal as Kelly, Paul, Alan, and I set out to Masai Mara National Reserve with our guide, Wallace, on Sunday afternoon, two days after the fabulous wedding. We had traveled most of the day Saturday to Kisii, Kenya, to spend time with the bride and groom, and the bride’s family where they owned a farm that grew tea plants. Kericho Gold Tea is their company, and yes, it is fine tea!

We had a wonderful time with the family. Lots of tasty food and of course I drank their tea. It is very good served hot and the tradition is to add lots of hot milk. We walked around the farm and were shown an acre or two of ground with the tea plants growing far and wide. I had never seen tea plants before. They are large bushes with dark green leaves. Only the quality leaves are picked off the top and then the bush is allowed to grow some more.

We left the farm later that afternoon. Good-byes can be hard to say to beautiful people one has bonded with so easily. And, yes, I cried a little bit as we headed down the rough, rocky road in the Landcruiser driven by Wallace. My darling Man, Alan, knows me well and giving me a smile he squeezed my hand, and gave me a soft napkin to dry my tears. But the bumpy drive soon gave me other things to think about as we drove over hard, packed earth the color of brown sugar, with scattered gray rocks poking out of the dirt quite often. And then later as we hit the highway the traffic and other drivers soon became my main focus!

Let me tell you about riding in a car in Kenya. With the history of the British influence the driver sits on the right side of the front car seat, not the left. I have total respect for that as there are lots of ways to be right with many of our choices. But the way they drive! As my friend and traveling companion Paul said, “It’s the most organized chaos I’ve ever seen!” Motorcycles were everywhere, most likely driven as a less pricey source of gas consumption. But they have no rules! I was sitting in the back seat, in the middle, with a full view of the front windshield. I would shut my eyes sometimes, and grip Alan’s knee next to mine quite often, because I was sure someone was going to die! I didn’t want to be a nurse on my vacation. Yet the motorcycle drivers would boldly weave in and out of traffic, and pass cars from the left side of the road as if the cars and trucks were non-existent. Most drivers wore no helmets. Many of the motorcycles carried huge bags of corn, or another passenger, and sometimes two passengers! One motorcycle passed with a large couch strapped down to the seat! Roundabouts were everywhere, and cars merged together as close as they could possibly get, horns honking. Cattle and goats were herded next to the highway with a herdsman walking with a tall stick. These animals were the official “tractors and blades” to keep the grass short next to the highway. At one point when we were on our way to Kisii we were passing around a car in front of us, and a big truck came barreling down the highway towards us at the exact time a large black and white cow decided she needed to cross the highway! It’s a wonder I didn’t rip Alan’s knee off, and I heard Kelly, sitting next to me, say “Oh, my God!”. I’m sure her eyes were as bIg as saucers. Thank God, Sam, our driver, was a native Kenyan, and a seasoned driver. He calmly navigated our car through the heavy traffic and chose to go around the cow! Somehow everyone was safe.

So. We did make it to Masai Mara Reserve, and finally long after the day fell into darkness we arrived at our resort for the night, Osero Camp. We were tired and maybe a little sore because the Reserve roads made the Kisii roads look like a piece of cake. The Reserve roads were filled with potholes and constant bumps. I have never seen any roads like them. But I have to admit it was all worth it. We were on safari! The staff at the resort was so friendly and quickly brought us food in the dining room. Then we were lead to our individual canvas tent cabins, with wood floors and a huge tile bathroom and shower. It was quite lovely, including the white mosquito netting around the bed. Alan and I were at the far end of the compound, but we would not know that till the next morning. It was dark and quiet all around us…for a few hours.

I had to get up and go pee around 3am. Kenya is seven hours ahead, so in Louisville it would have been 8pm. But we had adjusted to the time change very well. And like a lot of people it was normal for me to get up and go pee in the middle of the night. But this time I took my phone to allow the small light to guide me on my way. I remember feeling very sleepy and relaxed as I sat on the toilet. Then I heard it! A loud ROOOAAAAR! sliced open the deep silence like a knife slashing aggressively through a window curtain. And it was coming from outside right behind me! I froze. I heard it again, softer now, repetitive, roar, roar, roar, roar. OMG! It was lion!

I softly crept back to bed, barely breathing, thinking, ‘My God! He can rip this canvas tent/cabin in half. Don’t make a sound. Just get in bed.” I climbed under the covers and woke Alan up. “Alan! There’s a lion out there! Do you hear it?” I whispered. “No,” he said, his voice soft and sleepy. I accidently moved my phone with my hand and the light came back on. “ROOOAAAAR!” “Do you hear it now?” I asked. “Yes,” he said, and I knew he was awake now. Then the repetitive, roar, roar, roar, roar. This time it sounded like the lion was right behind us, outside, breathing down our necks while we were lying in our bed. “I bet he smells us, ” I whispered. “He knows we’re here,” Alan whispered back. I reached for my wrist and checked my pulse, a normal thing for a nurse to do. It was running around one hundred beats per minute. My normal heart beat is around seventy per minute. Then I found Alan’s wrist in the dark. It too was running a hundred, maybe a hundred and four beats per minute, and his normal pulse is usually in the seventies like mine. We are definitely awake, I thought, perhaps a little anxious. My ears were straining to hear, but it was quiet. Quiet for several minutes.

We laid still in the darkness. Then I got to thinking how wonderful it would be to record that “roar” with my phone. I started to relax and decided to see if I could quickly find my Audio Recording App so I could be ready if I heard a roar, hopefully far out in the distance, away from our tent. I turned my light on from the phone again. What a mistake that was! ROOOAAAAR! Then the roar, roar, roar, roar. Only this time it came from our front porch. “You are such a goof!”, I thought to myself. “He’s going to come crashing through the front of the tent any minute!” We both laid still, no talking, no whispering, and I didn’t touch my phone again. Every few minutes I could hear his soft, repetitive roars. “What is Lion doing? Is he snoring?”. I had no idea what his soft roars meant. Obviously I had much to learn about Lion.

Quiet settled in again. I began to relax, and eventually, like Alan, fell back to sleep. In the morning we talked to Kelly and Paul, and they had heard Lion, too, only not as up close and personal. It turns out the whole compound has a tall, secure, wired fence around it. Lion had not been “breathing down our necks”. He had been twenty to thirty feet away on the other side of the fence, pacing back and forth. Our tent/cabin was the furthest out on that side of the property, and sat where the fence line met in a triangle shape, very close to our accommodations. Then add in the factor of the human imagination, which I seem to have plenty of that! But I know my phone light agitated him, and I am sure he smelled us humans lying in that canvas tent.

Later that day we would meet Lion out on the Reserve, safely in the Landcruiser, the top up, and us standing taking pictures of a small pride of lions lying in the shade. We saw two males, both asleep in the shade, not a care in the world, which makes sense when you know you are king of that world. The above picture I took with my camera with a great zoom for close ups. She had been maybe thirty feet away from our vehicle. They all seemed very nonchalant with us humans so close by. Lion is quite beautiful, majestic, confident, and BIG!

I kept trying to smell them, thinking they would smell rather strong and rangy. I could not. I had to smile at myself, knowing there was no need to check my pulse now. But I knew from an experience that had been up close and personal, they could smell me.

I was in Africa, feeling very humble. :O)

c   Love, Joan