The Woods Family in Kenya

Out on the veranda with neighbor Lynn       Joan and I spent a lot of time visiting and hanging out with all of Emily's well-to-do retiree neighbors at their lovely homes, sitting on their airy verandas, admiring their gorgeous gardens, and watching the birds.   These people love to entertain, and do a great job of ensuring that their guest's glass is always filled.   Most of them are British, so much so that expressions like "bloody" and "brilliant" have started working their way into my speech. There was even a pool house       One day we were visiting with Neil and Lynn, a wonderful couple who lived next door.   They have a little dog named Checko, who sat at the edge of the veranda the entire time, on full alert, watching …   And then suddenly, Checko bolted out across the lawn at full speed!   She covered the hundred yards or so in about five seconds.   I looked at Neil inquisitively.  ...

Lamu Island.  Lamu town is on the easternmost corner       So after several days of exploring the Naivasha area, watching the animals, and schmoozing with the British retirees, we took a change of scenery and headed for the coast.   Destination: Lamu Island.       First was another road trip back to Nairobi, to the airport.   One aspect of life in Nairobi that I found remarkable (at least, as viewed from the road) was all the foot traffic.   All up and down the highway, thousands of pedestrians where evidently commuting to work.   Some of these pedestrians were WAY out in the middle of nowhere.   How far were they walking, I wondered?   I suppose they have few alternatives.   On board the dhow.  Ah, life is good!      Four of us:   Joan, Emily, Kate, and myself, boarded a two-engine, propeller-driven plane for a one-hour flight to Lamu.   I lo...

Here is Shela      Elias brought us to the dock at the coastal town of Shela, is the center of tourism here on Lamu Island, and known for its lovely beaches.   As mentioned, no motor vehicles are allowed on the island.   Therefore the "streets" in Shela are just narrow alleys between the buildings, winding and twisting here and there, with few names or labels.    Big croton in the courtyard      Eddie, our host for our time here in Shela, met us at the beach and led us through the winding streets to his home, which would be our lodging for the next few nights.   It was a very lovely three-story house that Emily had found on AirBNB.   The ground floor was the kitchen, den, and dining area.   The 2nd story had the bedrooms and a bathroom, and the 3rd story was a roof deck.   Enormous, luscious plants grew in the courtyard.    This is our bed      As the sun set, we ...

View of the beach from Emily's feet       Upon returning to Shela, Emily and I went to spend some quality time relaxing on the beach.   There was plenty of shade and cool ocean breezes.   Nice!   Here, people were not shy about wearing swim suits.   We lay around and watched the boats come and go.   There were many boats out in the channel, of various sizes and functions.   Most were water taxis or dhows, but there were also a few larger power boats.   I only saw one sloop-rigged boat, but it did not look like it had been sailed in a while.   Yachts, on the other hand, do not come here because of safety issues, as the northwest corner of the Indian Ocean is notorious for piracy.       That evening, Joan and I headed down to the beach for a moonlight stroll.   Only there was one small problem:   the beach was gone!   It seems that the tide had come in.   Man - these tides ...

Maasai Mara triangle, on Kenya's SW border       Here is their website:   www.africasafaridiscovery.com/parks.php?p=maasai_mara       The road to the Maasi Mara was really rough.   The last 40 miles were on an unpaved dirt, rocky, pothole- and washout-infested road.   The pounding on your butt and back has named this part of the trip "The Maasi Massage".   It took over two hours.   All I could think about was:   we gotta go BACK down this darn road two days from now.   Our tent.  Glam camping at its finest!      The route took us through farm land and ranch land.   It started out as the same dry, dusty, scrubby roads we've traversed since arriving, with all the usual trash on the roadside.   But gradually, it got greener, lusher, and hillier.   Livestock got more and more sparse, and we see a zebra or two.       Finally,...

Buffalo.  That's a 1-hour old baby on the left, with his mom       We have another Land Rover tour scheduled for 6:30 this morning, and I am thinking:   what could we possibly see that we haven't already seen?       I was wrong.       First we came upon a large group of giraffes.   I try to count them … eleven?   O wait, there's some more back in the bushes … fifteen?   Oh wait, there's a couple more by that tree … I give up!   They're everywhere!   I wonder how many there are in this park; must be more than a hundred. Ostriches, female and male       Giraffes are fascinating to watch.   They seem to spend all their time just … walking, with that slow, majestic gait.   They can gallop pretty fast, tho, if they need to.   They seem rather oblivious to us in our wheeled vehicle; sometimes they just walk on by, without a ca...

  Maasi leaping ritual, supposedly to attract a mate      We went to the local Maasi village for the presentation they put on for the tourists.   It actually is authentic, as they try hard to hang onto their unique culture in our interconnected, technology-enabled world.          As we arrived, the men and women all came out to greet us, dressed in their brightly-colored traditional attire, singing and chanting.   They put a robe and a necklace on Joan and I, and a scepter in my hand.   Next thing I knew, we were sucked up into their very spirited, rhythmic, intoxicating tribal rituals.     I gave it my best shot.  Joan said she was impressed!      A big part of the Maasi ritual is a standing high leap, done while all the singing and chanting goes on in the background.   These wiry, agile guys could jump incredibly high!   Supposedly, tradition has it that t...