Kenya pt 6

[Skywatcher]

August 19th Thursday

Another quiet day, the boys play for a while in the kids club. One of the animation team shows Lisa and I 2 more ways to play Ajua, during the lesson we again talk about life out side the walls. We talk about the police checks we have seen. 'Ah' he says ' there are many checks by the police, but not to get the drugs, they hope they find them, because then the men will give them a bribe. Most kids want to be a police man, that way you get very rich.'

Boys have made pizza, so they will be back later to eat these for lunch. They play on the water slide, then we play table tennis of sorts, not much actual use of the table if I'm honest, lots of looking for balls in ponds.

Thomas declares this his best holiday ever, even including Disney ! It's an amazing place he said, the animals are incredible. So it's not about and endless supply of fanta so that's nice.

I go bird spotting in the garden in the evening and see another 3 that I've never seen before. Not great pics though.


We have dinner and on the walk home Thomas gets the worlds smallest lizard drop onto his shoulder..




August 20-22 nd

Not much to report in all honesty, spent a lot of time relaxing by the pool, too much time maybe, eating and relaxing and then eating some more. Found a wifi hot spot and showed the boys an episode of bod and an episode of finger bobs on YouTube and they both collapsed in fits of giggles. Tried to explain what life was like pre computer and they were totally uncomprehending. Went to sleep a couple of times with the evening 'entertainment' competing with the honking of the frogs. Found another 4 species of birds in the garden of the hotel, one being a beautiful heron and another a huge flock of ibis !! read our guide again and kenya is the second best place in the world to spot birds which I utterly believe. ( the first is the democratic republic of the Congo which isn't really touristy. )

Booked to get up early in the morning to snorkel off the reef and see the starfish and fish,then I woke up with conjunctivitis which put a kibosh on the whole thing as I can't see without my glasses. Luckily I had planned and bought some eye stuff but it would take too long to heal to let us go.

The animation crew tried to recruit the children into the kids club, that prided itself on taking your kids an 7 am and watering and feeding them all day, piling them with entertainment and returning them to you after you evening meal at the end of the day. 'why , I asked . Would I want to do that? The whole point is, I don't see my kids all year due to work, why would I want to spent the only 2 weeks they are in my company away from them? They looked at us utterly bemused.... , on Friday another plane load of British arrived and the mood in the hotel changed, without wishing to sound snobbish there were an awful lot of football shirts around the pool and the entertainment changed to organised drinking games, not great and a sad end to the day.

We spent the whole of the next day by the sports pool reading and watching the kids swim, in the afternoon they make friends with a brother and sister of approximately the same age in the pool and pay for a couple of hours, the mum comes up and takes a picture and we get talking, her husband hears and pulls his chair up , they have just arrived and are a little anxious about the safari. They too have been moved, utterly, by the trip to the hotel. He is also a doc, and we have a lot in common, and for the first time in days we don't feel like killjoys and weirdos for feeling like we do. They echo a lot of the sentiments I have expressed above and they have only been here since yesterday morning.

Show them picture of the view from our lodge window and he nearly faints.

Our sort of people.

He also has an iPhone and and iMac and an iPad . Lol. Geeks stick together.

During the evening meal we told the kids all the jobs we'd had when we were growing up, told them a lot about our childhoods and stuff like that. The way kids grow up , I am realising there is very little time to get this information across.

Asked the chap who works at the shop if he could get us Ajua and he has got us a portable board , boys are ecstatic we can bring the game home.

Only one full day left. Will be glad to get home in some ways, want to look at the almost 2000 photos and sift out some of the better ones, have a decent shower and a good nights sleep in s warm duvet bed, but in a very very real way, I don't want to leave Africa. I want to leave this hotel now, don't get me wrong. It has now, thanks to the shift towards nearly all English, taken on an almost bizarrely Butlins like atmosphere at times, but the staff are just the best I have ever met. CMs at Disney world could learn from them and I say that with the deepest sincerity.

I haven't left this continent yet, and already miss it, is that weird?, maybe. It gets under your skin.

Anyway, it's been a long day

Honk honk honk go the frogs

In the distance the karaoke is starting up.

Good grief


August 23rd last day

A rather sad day really , didn't do much at all. Boys had a marathon swim from 10.30 until 5.30 and spent the whole day playing with their new friends who were very sad to see them go by the end of the day. We spent most of the afternoon chatting to their parents. Turns out our kids are pretty much a mirror of theirs which is always comforting. At one point one of the ground staff effortlessly climbs to the top of one of the huge palms and cuts down the coconuts slices the tops off and hands them around for people to drink the water.

We swapped emails and promised to share safari photos.

After the evening meal they took the time to come over and say goodbye, which was both lovely and a bit sad.

Best holiday ever the boys conclude again.

What even including Disney ?

Yes, even including Disney!

So there you have it, from the mouths of babes.

And all in all I have to agree with them. This place, this country and it's people, it's landscape and it's flora and fauna are all utterly breathtaking.

If you ever get the chance to go in life, do it, and have no regrets.

Never has a holiday affected me so deeply as this one has, in all sorts of ways.

Will I come back?

Just try and stop me

August 24th

Travelling home all day, awoke at 2 am British time 4 am Kenyan time. Got into the taxi,q which again was a camper van. Nice chap for 5 am, lots of people up and about in the city, he tells us the similar vans to ours with yellow stripes down the side are the public transport. They call them Mututu. He laughs and says, hakuna matata means no problems, hakuna mututu means no public transport . Booked in to the flight went through a bazillion security and visa checks , plus the most intimate examination I have ever had outside of marriage . The airport only had 2 planes parked at it and there were no departure boards, but there were about 20 gift shops.

Usual long haul flight really, bizarre times for meals, board at 9 am local and 7 am uk time and they wanted us to have luck by 10/8 which makes no sense and was very unsettling on the old tum.

Anyway I had planned in advance of us even going in the holiday as I had a hunch which way the flint would depart, and sure enough after. 10 minutes in the air, Thomas has an incredible view of kilimanjaro outside his window, it was dark on the flight in of course , awesome poking out through the to of the clouds at dawn. After we pass over most of Sudan he spies the Nile and the sahara desert from the air is an incredible sight, as the horizon is hazy the colurs go from deep orange to deep purple above you in a seamless rainbow, it is unimaginably huge and we pen hours flying over it, through Libya to the coast.

Back to the hurly burly all too soon, rather annoyed that the parking has left a deep red scratch on lisas bonnet that they are denying doing, even though they have added it to the damage sheet after 'we left, we have a timed and dated digital photo' he says

Right says I because it's absolutely impossible to change the time and date on a digital camera!!!!

Grrr, a bitter taste at the end of the holiday and typically British

Utterly exhausted we get home, have a cup of tea and get ready for bed.

[Tink]

Poignant and sad and mystical, and well... I just don't know all the words...

Thank you Chris, Lisa, Thomas and Matthew for sharing your journey (that was so much more than a holiday) with us.

[foreverducky]

I don't even know what to say. But thank you for sharing this amazing journey with us.

[josh.p.]

I really don't know what to say other then... when is the best time to go to Kenya? I HAVE to go.

[Skywatcher]

[Tinkfan]

There are certain moments in life that change your world forever, I believe that you have had yours my friend.

[Deafjeff]

My Sister and Brother in law went and they fell in love with the country and we are considering our next holiday after WDW so will put Kenya on the list of holiday to consider

Thank you for sharing it with us

[catrancher]

He also has an iPhone and and iMac and an iPad . Lol. Geeks stick together.

Hmmm... like attracts like. Or geek attracts geek if you prefer.



An amazing and wondrous trip Chris.

Thanks so much for taking the time to share this.

I, for one, need to sit here and think a bit.

Tom (... new perspectives.)

[Skywatcher]

thanks chaps I knew you'd all understand.

[Deb]

Read your reports before today, but didn't quite know what to say. Still don't really, but that's in a good way I've done a lot of reflecting on when I went, and how I felt, and am still thinking.

Anyway, that you so much for sharing all that special stuff from your trip, and even more for sharing your feelings about it all

Oh, and you are a darn good writer