Game Drive in Lake Nakuru National Park

​Today we went on a game drive through Lake Nakuru National Park in Kenya. Armed with cameras, we set out in Lando to see some animals.

When planning the trip, I read through the itinerary and it said that lions and leopards could be found at Lake Nakuru. I had debated adding a week in the Masai Mara, but it just included more game drives, so I assumed that meant more of the same. I quickly learned that this is not the case. Our guide told us early on in the trip that the cats are rare to see in Lake Nakuru. Also, the Masai Mara sounds like an amazing place all of its own, and somewhere I will make sure to see if I come back to Kenya.

So there were no big cats. BUT there were some marvelous other animals, that made the game drive a wonderful afternoon.

Impala

I made a list about a page long of all the animals that I saw. Impalas, gazelles, water bucks, water buffalos, and zebras were everywhere.

Water buck 

Zebra

Water buffalo

Ostrich

I’ve discovered that I love warthogs. They are adorable in how hideous they are. Families of warthogs would scatter when our bus rolled past, then they would turn and stare us down. Every time we saw warthogs, someone in the group would point and shout “Pumba!” 

We were told that in addition to the famous Big 5 animals (lion, leopard, rhino, elephant, and water buffalo) there are the Ugly 5, which include warthogs, hyenas, marabou storks, vultures, and wildebeasts.
We spotted a second of the Ugly 5 when we saw a hyena come loping toward the road.

The favourite animals for most of the group, were the white rhinos that we saw snoozing in the distance. Some of our group members have been travelling for 55 days now, from South Africa, and this was their first time seeing rhinos in the daylight. They had only seen them one other time, at the Etosha watering hole in Namibia, at night.

But despite rhinos being special because they are so hard to find, my favorites were the giraffes. We watched them graze on the trees right outside our Lando – a mom and her babies. I love giraffes. They’re so tall and awkward and goofy and gentle. The giraffes we saw are the endangered Rothschild giraffes.

Baby giraffe

After our game drive, we set up camp at our last campsite, a very basic campsite in Lake Nakuru National Park. We had a wonderful meal in the main hall/community center. Local crafts were set our for sale, and we all did some souvenir shopping. Then, after dinner, two local acrobats put on a short show for us. They did hand balancing, fire eating, and tumbling.
My group and I played cards in the community center well into the evening. We made up silly rules that had us laughing until we cried. It was a fantastic last night in tour. Most of us will still be in Nairobi together tomorrow night, but it was our last camping night (at least for those of us not continuing into Tanzania).

GAdventures has been a wonderful tour company. John was a cheerful and knowledgeable guide. We had some early mornings, but he was always up well before the rest of us to prepare breakfast. His food was incredible. Our driver, Joseph, had some long drives to get us into Uganda, but he got us everywhere safely. There were a few optional excursions (such as white water rafting) to book and pay for separately, but for the most part, the tour cost covered everything, including meals, which was different from other tours I’ve taken in the past. They’re clearly a well-established company that organized a great tour. Plus, they organize various types of tours, for each travel style. So they have options for those who don’t want to tent every night, who would rather travel in a smaller group, or who want to travel with children. I will likely be looking at another tour with them in the future.
It is going to be sad to say goodbye to my group members when we get to Nairobi. Randie and I will be heading home in a couple of days. Some of the other group members are also heading home while others head on to Tanzania.

It has been an amazing adventure the past couple of weeks.

Lake Bunyonyi

​In the Ugandan mountains, sits quiet Lake Bunyonyi – our home for the past 3 nights. 

Approaching Lake Bunyonyi, towns all have signs for gorilla adventures, and it appears to be a popular base for tourists wanting to see the gorillas. But Lake Bunyonyi is a destination worth visiting all on its own.

We pulled up to our campsite on the first night and I was immediately struck by the beauty of the lake. We set up our tents right next to the water, and I was looking forward to spending a few nights in this location.

Once the camp was set up, the first thing on everyone’s agenda was to go swimming. Lake Bunyonyi is one of the only lakes safe for swimming. The only animals living in it are fish and otters. No hippos or crocodiles or other deadly creatures.

A sign by the dock boasts that Lake Bunyonyi is the deepest lake in Uganda, at 6500 feet deep. We were also told 900 meters. Either way, it’s deep. It’s the second deepest lake in Africa, with the deepest lake being in Tanzania.

The swimming area has platforms to jump off of, including one at the top of a tree that you need to climb if you want to jump off. On our last night, I did manage to reach the platform and take the leap, after backing down once, unsure of how to actually climb onto the platform.

After gorilla trekking, we had a free day in Lake Bunyonyi and a couple of options for activities to fill that day with. We could cross into Rwanda to go to the genocide museum, we could go see local villages around the lake, or we could stay at camp to swim and relax. The eight of us who tracked gorillas together all opted for seeing the villages.

Our guide, Fred, picked us up first thing in the morning to take us to the neighbouring villages. His company, Uganda Adventure, takes people on 1, 2, and 3 day canoe trips to the villages.

The canoes are quite literally hollowed out tree trunks. We paddled past a local market selling everything under the sun. Locals paddled to the market with goats and pigs aboard the canoes.

Then we paddled to an island, and climbed out of our canoes, heading up the steep embankment.

Our guide showed us the tree sap that is used like chewing gum and to cement teeth. We all tried it, and decided that it didn’t have much flavour but left a chalky coating in our mouths.

Then our guide showed us the sorghum plants. They’re kind of like barley, but filled with a milky substance that is dried and used as baby formula when babies can’t be breast fed. We all tasted the plant. 

We then hiked up to a viewpoint and listened to Fred tell us stories of the islands in the lake. There are 29 islands in Lake Bunyonyi.

One of the islands is called Punishment Island. It was where women were sent to live (or die) as punishment for getting pregnant before marriage. It is a stark, barren island.

Another island was where twins were sent to die because they were believed to be a curse.

Our guide told us that this lake used to be a place of death, but those times are over and it is much better now.

A little girl from the village came and sat with us as we heard the stories. She borrowed our phones and cameras to take pictures and made sure to get into any photos we were taking. She was so sweet.

We then went to a local home to learn to make bracelets and to have a local lunch. Fred explained that the families all want to host us because of the money it brings in, but that he picks a family based on need. 

We ate lunch at the home of a widow with ten children. She taught us about the crafts she learned to make in her women’s craft group, and we ate amazing Ugandan food. Most of us agreed that the best dish was the strange looking purple mixture of peanuts and spinach. It was so delicious.

We also tasted banana gin, which is used both as an alcoholic beverage and as a medicine. It was so strong, I have no doubt it could kill bacteria. We dipped pineapples in it – some sort of alcohol fondue.

After lunch, the village children showed us their songs and dances. They invited us to dance with them, and we all tried to at least somewhat follow along.
The children were amazing singers and dancers. One young girl kept the rhythm with a makeshift drum. We tried to come up with a song and dance to show the children in return, but none of us could remember the lyrics to the macarena.

From there we boarded a speed boat and toured the lake. We saw zebra and water buck grazing at the shores. We also saw the crested crane, Uganda’s national bird. It was chosen to be the national bird, because crested cranes are peaceful and don’t fight with one another.

We then visited a village of another UGanda tribe where we were taught to shoot archery. Here we learned about this tribe’s traditional hunting practices.

We asked Fred how often he takes groups out, thinking it would be daily, but right now he only has about one group per month. It was definitely a tour worth doing, though. We enjoyed the mixture of history and local culture. Plus, it was a great way to really see the lake.

I would have loved to have had more time in Lake Bunyonyi, but there were other places to see and not nearly enough time, and so our stay was only 3 nights and 2 days.

So far, it has been one of the highlights of the trip, and a place I’d love to return.

Kampala

​It rained in the night. I woke to the sound of it pouring down on the tent, turning the tent into a snare drum, the campsite into a drumline. Thunder rumbled its way across the sky. I had left my towel on the roof of the tent to dry – bad call.
Inside the tent, however, was dry and cozy. Our alarms went off at 4am, so we could be on the road to Kampala by 5:30. As if on cue, the rain stopped for us as we stepped out of our tents.

Packing was an adventure. The tents were slick with mud, making it difficult to roll them tight enough to fit in their bags. We had to work in teams to get everything packed up. Somehow, at 5:30 on the dot, we had everything loaded onto Lando.

It was dark when we hit the road, and our group was quiet, either sleeping or only barely awake. It was a good couple of hours of driving before we reached the border to Uganda.

The border crossing took awhile, between all of our Kenyan exit documents and Ugandan entry documents, but we finally made it into Uganda. A man stood outside our bus selling cold drinks and samosas, which most of us bought for lunch.

Uganda is perhaps even greener than Kenya. Our guide, John, explained that Uganda grows all types of produce and that we will see many people selling fruits and veggies along the road. He stopped yo buy us some grilled green bananas for a snack, explaining that unripened bananas are good for grilling. He also told us that Uganda never struggles with hunger because they grow so much food. Kenya, he said, sometimes struggles with hunger, but rarely. 

John told us that Uganda was hit hard by AIDS. At the peak of the AIDS crisis here, 30% of the population was infected. The number has since dropped to 6%, and there are billboards advertising condom use to prevent the spread of HIV.

As we drove through the Ugandan countryside, I saw a woman spreading clothes on the ground outside of her clay hut, men working in the corn fields, and and little markets. I waved at the groups of children who all waved up at our bus.

We are staying at a campsite/hotel on the outskirts of Kampala, with our tents overlooking the city. I went for a swim in the pool, and enjoyed the hot showers. Four new people joined our tour here, and we spent the evening with dinner and conversation before retiring to our tents for the night.

Antelope Canyon

Because a road trip with my dad is never complete without some sort of detour, side trip, or misadventure, we drove north from Zion National Park to Bryce Canyon National Park, before deciding to head south again, down past Zion, to see Antelope Canyon in Arizona. Had we planned this trip out, we would have gone to see things in a different order (especially since we would then have to drive way north to Salt Lake City). But when my dad realized we were only 3 hours away from Antelope Canyon, we decided we had to go.

And wow, was it ever worth the drive!

We stayed in Page, Arizona, and Antelope Canyon is only a few miles away. Both Upper and Lower Antelope Canyon can only be explored by taking a tour. We started with a tour of Upper Antelope Canyon that was run by Antelope Canyon Navajo Tours, and ended with a tour of Lower Antelope Canyon that was run by Ken’s Tours.

Upper Antelope Canyon is above ground. You walk into a crack in the rock wall and are suddenly surrounded by gorgeous, red swirls of rock. The rock is sandstone that has been formed by millions of years of wind and water and sand all working on one another.The canyons are basically nature’s drainage systems, and they fill up with water during flash floods, directing that water toward Lake Powell. The direction and movement of the wind and the water is clearly etched into the rock, and standing in the canyon, it feels almost alive with that motion, twirling around everyone.

Our guide showed us what settings on our cameras to use to really capture the light and colours, and she showed us what angles to shoot from to get great photos. She pointed out rocks that looked like various animals and people.

This rock is shaped like a bear, with its face looking up out of the canyon, and both paws reaching up as well.

Lower Antelope Canyon is in the ground. We took stairs down into the earth, and then walked through the stunning canyon. Afterward, we all agreed that Lower Antelope Canyon was our favourite, though both canyons were stunning.

At the end, we emerged back up onto solid ground through a crack in the earth. From up top, it looks like nothing. Just a crack in the rocks. No evidence of the canyon below.

We did not have the chance to check out anything else in the area, but if I return, I’d like to see Lake Powell and Horseshoe Bend. Antelope Canyon itself, though, was worth the long detour. It was unlike any canyon I’ve ever seen before.

Beautiful Bryce Canyon

Bryce Canyon is incredible.

After spending a couple of days in and around Zion, I thought that my amazement with the area would have worn off. But then we got to Bryce, and it was spectacular. We walked up on the big open canyon, and all audibly gasped at the sight.

Sunrise Point

We only had a couple of hours to spend in Bryce, and so we asked the park guide what the best trails would be. He suggested combining Queen’s Trail and Navajo Trail, for a good couple hours of hiking. This would take us in to see the amphitheater, Queen’s Garden, and the hoodoos.

We started the trail at Sunrise Point and worked our way clockwise. Sunrise Point is breathtaking, with huge open vistas of the canyon. Bryce is so different looking than Zion, and yet equally amazing.

The trail started by taking us down into the Queen’s Gardens. The path was a bit high, but nothing as terrifying as the hikes in Zion. I took my time and snapped about a million photos on the way down.

The hike down from Sunrise Point to Queen’s Garden

It is not hard to see how Queen’s Garden got its name. Looking over the edge of the canyon, the first thing Ashley said was “it looks like a castle!” And it does, with all of its spires and towers.

When the Queen’s Trail met with the Navajo Trail, the path cut in between the hoodoos, and suddenly we found ourselves walking amidst giant orange rock formations. It was like snaking through a maze.

Ashley in front of hoodoos on the Navajo Trail

The path then started ascending back up to the top of the canyon. I won’t lie, it was a good climb. The switchbacks were steep and exhausting. It was worth every tiring step, though.

Dad towered by a tree that was towered by the rock.

The path then took us up to Sunset Point, which we happened to make it to as the sun was beginning to go down. Here we took more photos of the incredible view. We could have stayed and taken photos all night, but forced ourselves to stop and move on.

Sunset Point

Finally, we walked the last half a mile along the canyon from Sunset Point back to Sunrise point, concluding our hike. I would have loved to have had more time to spend in Bryce Canyon. There were other trails that could have also been added to the path that we hiked, making for a full day of hiking. Next time, I will pack a picnic lunch and make a day of it.

I absolutely recommend going to see Bryce Canyon. I loved every minute of our walk!

A Day in the Desert with Dave: Quadding Southern Utah’s Sand Dunes

One of the things that my dad wanted to do while we were in Utah, was to go on an ATV tour. We were going to be hiking in Zion, but quads seemed like a great way to see Utah’s sand dunes. I had vague recollections of riding in a sand dune buggy in Utah as a child, but the memory was very vague, and I had no real idea of what to expect.

My dad organized a tour through Dave at Zion Country Off-Road Tours. The tour was made up of Dad, Ashley, and I, along with a man named Thomas, and our guide Dave. It was a small group, and so Dave made sure that we got to see and do everything that we wanted on our tour. He was an excellent guide, who had a wealth of info about the plants, rocks, and wildlife in the area.

Our Group

Dave referred to the trip as “a day in the desert with Dave,” and it really was. It did not feel like a structured ride from point A to point B. We did not feel rushed to stick to any schedule. We got to ride around and explore the sand dunes for a good chunk of the day. We stopped at scenic overlooks, climbed on rocks for fun photo ops, and just had fun. My dad and Thomas took the opportunity to race up and down the dunes on all of the different machines to try them all out.

When Dad had suggested quadding the sand dunes, I had expected a mostly flat field with waves of sand. I did not expect vast canyons, sheer drops, and sandy mountains.  The sights were amazing, and it seemed that each corner we turned opened up to a new breathtaking panorama.

The sand was such a unique experience. It was more like dust it was so light. The machines fishtailed as they rode atop the sand like water. At one point, both of my right tires sunk right down into the sand and I leaped off of my ATV with lightning speed, determined not to roll with it (note, it did not roll, I just worried it might). Thankfully Dad and Ashley, who were riding right behind me, were able to get it back on the track. Dave had done a great job of ensuring our safety and teaching us to handle the machines in the sand, but nevertheless handling quads in sand was new and unfamiliar and took some adjustment. All in all, the trip was an adrenaline rush! We climbed over rocks, shot down hills, rode the sides of the dunes… It was exhilarating.

Time flew and I was sad to see the tour end. Exploring the sand dunes is a must for spending time in Southern Utah. I learned so much about the geography of the area, and loved the opportunity to really explore Utah’s red sand desert.