Kenya

karibu kenya! the country, which is often the scenery of imaginary dreams about africa, not least because of karen blixen’s drama «out of africa». it is the country of beautiful hilly landscapes and the home of an impressive wildlife. but it is also the first country of our journey, where plastic bags are officially banned, which we welcome so much! but to be honest, even for us as environmental conscious people, it took a while to get rid of any hidden plastic bag in our car upfront border crossing.

one day before christmas, we got already a present: roads like mirrors! we were so enormously pleased about this fact that we had almost forgotten to change the driving side from right to left, since kenya is a left-driven country. well, this fact often challenged our brains and of course our overtaking maneuvers.

our first camping stop in marsabit, a town in the northern region of kenya, was followed by an adventurous off-road drive to the reteti elephant sanctuary, where abandoned baby elephants are lovingly bottle raised until they can live independently in nature again. we were allowed to witness the baby elephant feeding and we even had the opportunity to stroke and cuddle them. it is an absolutely fantastic project, which we highly recommend for a visit and the people there are doing such a great job (https://www.retetielephants.org).

our first african wildlife meetup on our journey got even more enriched as we entered the beautiful national park samburu: giraffes, zebras, elephants, wildebeest, warthogs, a huge variety of antelopes and impressively colored birds – our daktari life had definitely started! nothing can compete with a sunset or an early sunrise game drive and watching the behavior of the wildlife! just being alone in nature surrounded by all these graceful creatures and the only sound of singing birds and swirling insects is such an incredible mind and soul blowing moment that it has kind of a healing character. and although we are experienced african bush campers, the first night in a national park after a while feels always very exciting, especially when sharing the night place with sneaky monkeys.

southbound, we drove along lush green vegetations and crossed the equator from the northern to the southern hemisphere in nanyuki, which felt a very special moment, in particular as we could hardly believe that we have already been driven over 22'000 kilometers and have been on the road for more than five months. how many adventurous experiences we have already gone through and how many more to come – doing this journey was definitely one of our best decisions in life! by passing hilly roads, awesome mountain jungles and golden shining tea fields illuminated by the sun we reached the castle forest lodge at the slope of mount kenya, where we could give us and Flora a break on the lodge's campground. the cold air, the daily periodic rain, the dancing mist between the treetops of the forest and the presence of grassing goats and horses gave us a feeling of experiencing an early autumn weekend in the swiss alps. unfortunately, during this time, katharina had a dengue fever outbreak from which she suffered for almost a month. we would not have known how things would have developed if we had not met our dear friends, the family of josie and andy at the campsite of this lodge, who had invited us to their beautiful home in nairobi. their generosity gave not only katharina the opportunity to recover completely from the dengue fever, but also to enrich our lives with a wonderful new friendship. every moment we could spend together with josie, andy, stella and harry and their dogs tusker and scout, we are so grateful for as well as for their unconditional hospitality.

nairobi with its own national park within the city, its hilly and very green cityscape and its dynamic, open-minded, friendly and peaceful vibes impressed and inspired us a lot. the city has so much to offer and thus we enjoyed not only to get to know it better during a local guided tour, but also by visiting and promenading through its recreation area like the magnificent karura forest or the beautiful victorian tea farm kampethu, where we got introduced to the fascinating secrets of tea cultivation. a stop from time to time in one of nairobi’s numerous cozy cafés and restaurants let us enjoy yummy organic dishes or simply freshly pressed juices. from the first moment on we had entered kenya, we felt very welcomed and familiar to this country and not at least because we could apply our basic knowledge of the swahili language.

as much as we have enjoyed kenya’s capital, the same we did being in its nature. at lake naivasha, where we spent two nights camping at a beautiful sanctuary farm, we did wildlife watching on the back of horses, which was a unique and truly unforgettable experience. since the smell of horses covers the smell of humans, it is possible to get as close to the animals as would otherwise not be possible. another highlight was the clear view on mount kilimanjaro in amboseli national park. although we have already known this epic mountain from our tanzania journey some years ago, it is a breathtaking moment every time anew that filled us with great awe and admiration.

the long-lasting small rain season in kenya let us be suspicious about the roads’ conditions in the maasai mara national park. but we always found our paths through the mud and although it was almost impossible to spot one of the big cats in the high grass, the rain advantaged the circumstance that hippos are more often land-crossing when the rivers are full of water. and thus, we had the seldom chance to spot a hippo couple strolling through the grass in daylight.

we are so happy that we have made it this far and that we are here in africa, which always enchants us incredibly!