The tent...

A dear friend wrote to say how impressed she was that we went camping for our safari.  I have to admit that if what we did was considered camping, I want to go again this weekend, and next weekend and the next!  It was anything but the type of camping that I did in Brownies and Girl Scouts when I was young, nor what I did when I went to youth camp when I was in jr. high and high school.  I feel quite guilty letting anyone think that we were roughing it.

The accommodations were fantastic!  The only problem was that we were so eager to go out and see animals that we did not spend much time in our tent relaxing.  We had two queen size beds with mosquito netting, comfy chairs to sit in while we read, a nice shower with warm water as well as a sink and toilet.  It gets quite cold in the mara in the evenings and our beds had nice fluffy pillows and quilts. To top them off, we had hot water bottles in the beds warming them up for us when we got in them at night.

On our second evening there was a wedding (what a simply amazing and fantastic place for a wedding!!!).  We were fearful that we would be kept up all night long and would not get the sleep that we wanted so that we could be ready to head out on safari at 6:15 AM.  We could not have had nicer, more considerate neighbors.  We only woke up when we heard monkeys and hippos making noises and even then were able to go back to sleep.

The safari was simply amazing!  As we were leaving Tenwek to go to the mara, someone said that they would pray that we got a safe tour guide.  Hmmm...that concerned me.  I did say a quick prayer for safety and for the girls to really enjoy and remember all that they were going to see.  Our guide, Big Joe, was careful and knowledgable about animal habits.  We were in awe of the way that he found a cheetah snuggled up in a ball in the middle of a field of tall grass.  Any time we were getting ready to hit bumps in the road...and I am talking big rocks and huge muddy areas that would have caused me to just turn around and go home, Big Joe would yell out, "Hallo" as a warning to hold on tight.  He also sang to us and entertained us with his singing.  We could not have asked for a better guide.

What a wonderful weekend we had...and no we were not roughing it at all!  As we were leaving to head back to Tenwek, Mia said that she was looking forward to getting back to our house "in real Kenya."  We had fun, but it is also good to be in our "real Kenya" home.