Trip of a Lifetime
Last year on Christmas eve (2023), we had dinner at my in-laws like we usually do in order to exchange gifts. My mother-in-law was beside herself with excitement for me to open her gifts. The first two presents were a book and a map of Kenya. Ok, odd, but she did know it’s been on my bucket list. Was she trying to inspire me to get moving to check this off my list? Then she handed me a big envelope. When I took out the contents, my mind couldn’t comprehend what I was seeing. Did she really give me a Kenya Camping Safari and air travel as a present? And it would happen the end of October 2024 I was beyond shocked! I love my mother-in-law, but I never dreamed she would spend a large amount of money to make a dream come true.
On occasion I would think about the trip over the next 11 months, but I found it hard to get excited since I didn’t do any of the planning. One of my favorite things to do is to plan out my year in advance and working on logistics, etc. This helps get me excited and look forward to what I’ve planned. Since this trip was planned for me with the help of a travel agent, I didn’t really know what to expect other than the brief trip description and itinerary. It just didn’t seem real to me.
Traveling to Africa required some additional vaccination, which I acquired through the VA. Kenya requires a visa and I got that approved in September. Still, it didn’t seem real yet.
The week before I was to leave I packed my suitcase with most of what I thought I would need. I also went to the ATM to get some cash. Dollars were accepted in Kenya, so I didn’t feel the need to purchase any Kenyan shillings.
The morning of October 29th, William dropped me off at the light rail station and I was headed to the airport. I felt like I was sleep walking in a dream. 24 hours of travel later, I was dropped off at my hotel in Nairobi and didn’t get to bed until almost midnight. I hadn’t been able to sleep on the airplanes, so I thought I would crash hard. Instead, I slept about three hours, then tossed and turned until I finally got up around 5:30am east Africa time.
After playing on my phone until 6:30am, I went downstairs and had breakfast. I had the entire day with nothing to do. I still felt like I was in a daze. I knew I didn’t want to sit in my hotel room all day since it didn’t have any A/C and it was already getting pretty hot. I pulled up Google maps to see what was in walking distance. I found that there was a national museum, gardens and reptile center within a five minute walk. The challenge was that there was no sidewalk and I would have to walk along the highway and cross a ramp to get to my destination. The front desk confirmed it was the best way to go. I soon learned that this is quite normal in Nairobi. Also, there are no traffic stop lights and it’s a free-for-all at the intersections. I was scared, but made it to my destination without incident.
Before paying the entrance fee, I walked through the gardens to see the various plants that were native to Kenya. There were also a lot of statues to admire. Inside the museum, I wandered the many sections about tribal history, the animals and birds, and local art. Some teens were there on a school field trip and a couple of the boys asked me questions about the artwork. They were really sweet.
After the museum, I walked through the reptile section that included snakes, fish, crocodiles, tortoises, and amphibians. A pre-school class was also on a field trip and weren’t getting any input from their teachers except to keep them in a group. I started asking them questions about what they were seeing, if they knew why snakes shedding their skins, etc. Soon, they were grabbing me by my hand and taking me to see other things and asking me questions. I felt like I was channeling my mother-in-law, a retired educator, as I interacted with the kids. I hope they learned some new things from me and was sad that their teachers weren’t challenging them.
I went back to my hotel where I took a nap for two hours before getting up for dinner. Tomorrow I would be visiting the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust before meeting others on my camping safari.
