Life is in full swing everywhere, people are smiling, children are playing on piles of garbage and it seems that there is no other Kenya - with hotels for $ 500 a day, restaurants with an average bill of 100, ballooning over the savannah for 900 for two .... Kenya that came down from the pages of glossy publications that tourists see. Being there, it is impossible to believe that these two worlds exist with each other in the same reality.
In order to recover at least a little and get distracted, we hurry to the third paragraph of our program “catch up in 24 hours”
In Nairobi, or rather its environs, there is the Giraffe Manor Hotel. There giraffes walk right across the territory, and they also look in the windows of your room and even eat breakfast from a plate from yours. I read about this hotel a year ago, when we were not going to Africa. And very fired up with the idea. But the price tag there is very inhumane. About $ 500 a night. But you can come to the center of giraffes, also owned by the owners of the hotel and there to talk with these cuties in the wild. This is an indescribable feeling.
The day in Nairobi was intense and very emotional. This, of course, is not the city you fall in love with and dream of returning to, but it also has something to offer, believe me.
It is here that you can almost always see lions, often cheetahs, and, if you are very lucky, a leopard. And the rhino is easiest to see in Nakura.
We will ride a boat on the mystical Naivasha Lake, where dozens of hippo families and thousands of birds live.
Let's go in search of a white rhino and pink flamingos on the shores of Lake Nakuru.
Four hours drive from Nairobi - and we are already in a different reality. Our first jeep afternoon game drive in the Amboseli National Park, the first look at Kili's snowy hat, the first elephants that I finally see in the wild. Not just nature, but the real African savannah.
What to do in Amboseli? Taking pictures at dawn of elephants against the backdrop of Kilimanjaro and swimming in the pool overlooking the highest point in Africa. Oh yes, drink coffee, have breakfast and think about the eternal, too, with a view of the beauty of Keely. An incomparable pleasure, I tell you.
Well, the next day, in the early morning we set off to explore the most impressive national parks in Kenya, Amboseli, Naivasha, Nakuru and Masai Mara.
We have a five-day private safari, so there are only two of us, a driver and a snow-white (so far) handsome, our fighting friend Land Rover Defender, who will plow the African dusty expanses.
Let's visit the Masai tribe and see their famous dances. We will see Amboseli's elephants.
We will spend two days plowing the open spaces of one of the best national parks in Africa - Masai Mara.
If you, just like me before coming to Africa, a safari seems like an endless series of giraffes, elephants, zebras, lions, here and there across the road, I hasten to dispel your illusions. Today, for example, we got up at five, and at six we were already shaking along the dusty Kenyan roads, moving from one park to another. And this, for a second, is 7 hours away. Outside the window is either a lifeless savannah, or a slum city.
Then a quick lunch - and again in a jeep. Now in the national park in search of animals. And in the evening, when it got dark, we, without strength, in dust and with tangled hair, fall without hind legs.
But what is most surprising, we are insanely happy and absolutely delighted with everything that happens.
Early morning. We are sailing on Lake Naivasha. To be honest, after reading the reviews before the trip, I did not expect anything from this lake. But we are delighted. Some kind of mystical place. And how many birds and hippos are there, and right on the shores zebras, antelopes, buffalos, giraffes graze peacefully.
Today, near Lake Nakuru we were even released from a jeep for a walk. Although in all other national parks this is strictly prohibited.
Masai Mara National Park is an amazing place. We have seen so much today that there will be enough impressions for half a life. Some kind of animated channel National Geographic before my eyes.
The first half hour in Masai Mara - and now the family of lions lay in the bushes right five meters from us. Indescribable feelings.
And after a couple of kilometers a few more. And what is most surprising - there are five cars around, everyone is talking, the shutters click, and the lions behave as if we are invisible.
A picnic in the African savannah looks something like this. It’s hard to relax, of course. Constantly peer into the distance and startle from every rustle. And the grass, by the way, is tall at this time of year and the animals are almost invisible - and this makes it even more uncomfortable. But they had a good dinner, of course. Everything worked out.
"You still do not get out of the jeep, I'll see if there are lions on the shore," says our driver Peter. "Everything is clean, you can go." And so we live, a new reality.
And this is the Mara River, the same one that the Gnu antelopes cross during the migration from the Serengeti to Masai Mara, from Tanzania to Kenya. This usually happens in August-October. Thousands of antelopes are trying to cross this river. In search of a better life and food. Although the river seems not wide and in general "what is there to swim", not all antelopes swim to the other side. Why? Water is teeming with crocodiles. With my own eyes I saw about five pieces over 100 meters. And those creatures that look like stones are hippos. There are an unrealistic number of them living here. They take sun and water treatments every day. Our six days in Kenya are at an end. Did she live up to our hopes? In full.