Wildlife Safari, Kenya

"All good things are wild and free"

Ok so it's been months and months since my last blog post, the reason being is that my laptop got hacked and I lost all the programs on it, including Lightroom so I couldn't edit my photos. Another reason is I was just plain lazy lol but now that I got Lightroom back again I have no more excuse. I am getting back on track so bear with me and keep a lookout for more posts to come!

I am currently on my reserve month, which means I can basically be pulled out to operate any flight at anytime without knowing beforehand. It sucks big time but I'm already half way through it and the flights I got pulled out for were not that bad so I'm not complaining.

Recently during my home standby I was called to operate the flight to Nairobi, Kenya. I've been there once before and was not really interested in going back again but being pulled out, I had no choice. I packed my laptop and some books, thinking that I would just chill in my room and watch some movies the entire layover.

The flight turned out to be super easy and the crew were so much fun and really amazing. A lot of them were going for the first time so naturally they wanted to do the safari. I'd already done it last time and I really enjoyed it. I thought maybe this time the experience could be different and I might get to see some animals that I didn't get to see last time so I decided to join the group.

We booked the safari tour with the hotel we stayed in. There were 8 of us going in 2 separate vans (so we don't have to cram our heads together to look outside) and it cost us 75$ each. They took us to Nairobi National Park, which is massive and is a natural habitat for the wild animals. The animals move about freely and there is no particular place in which each kind of animal stays in so we had to drive around looking for them. It took us about 4 hours in total and it was worth every single penny, even though it was already my second time. And the weather was perfect - a bit chilly but not too cold.

Each time we saw some animals we squeaked with excitement. It was like being a kid again going to the zoo for the first time. But what's amazing was getting to see these animals in the place they truly belong in, roaming freely. They are so calm and relaxed, unlike those we usually see in the zoo: scared and locked inside a cage. Jimmy, our tour guide, told us that many times he gets to see the lions hunting and killing their prey in live action. We were hoping to see that but unfortunately it did not happen. I don't know how traumatized I would be getting to witness such thing so maybe it was for the best haha. But we did see a lot of dead buffalos decaying with their bones and everything. It all felt very real.

female ostrich

male ostrich - darker feathers and more elegant looking

What I would advise to people going on a safari is to bring a really good camera with them. Don't hope for good photos using your iphone camera because these animals, despite how you see them in my pictures, blend in with the nature so much in real life you can barely see them with your bare eyes. Even with my somewhat good camera (Canon 600D) I had to zoom in to the max to get a clear shot of them because most of the time they are really far away. It took a lot of patience to get a decent shot and a lot of editing too lol. Professional photographers literally stay in the same spot, observing the animals for hours in an attempt to get perfect photos of them.

Going in with an experienced tour guide is highly recommended too. I believe you can drive in on your own, with certain kinds of vehicle but the roads are tough and you could easily get stuck if you don't know what you're doing (and trust me you don't want to go outside to try to push your car either). Plus, these tour guides spot things you're not even aware of at first glance. At one point, Jimmy told us there were some lions lying in the distance. We tried to look and only saw a patch of something brown on the grass and were sure that it was only a pile of rocks. We were laughing and told Jimmy that it was definitely not lions. But he passed us his binoculars and oh my god he was right hahahaha there were 4 lions lying there among the grass. We could have easily missed them if we were not told. So I can imagine how much you would miss going in on your own.

Now this scene in particular (the picture above) reminds me so much of Lion king (or even The Jungle Book). The scene where all the animals come together at the waterhole and drink peacefully. It felt so unreal to witness it in real life. We even saw 2 Pumbaa's running around at some point during the tour lol

You killed Mufasa!!

Look carefully at this one and you will see tiny hippopotamus' head popping out of the water to look at us lol we could see their little pink ears flicking and they were soooo adorable.

After about 3 hours in the van, we came to a picnic spot where we could come out and stretched our legs a bit. The boys climbed trees and the girls took lots of photos and selfies (naturally lol). 

In the end I couldn't be happier I was pulled out for this flight. I enjoyed it so much and would not mind to come back again. If I get to come back again I think I will try to go for Lake Nakuru National Park to see all the pretty flamingos hehe.

That's it for today. Now I'm off to sleep and get ready for my next standby. I hope I get another good flight haha. Until next time! xx