One Airport, Two Airport, Three Airport, Five

Well that was definitely the longest journey I have ever taken on a trip before, and my trooper friend Liz got to enjoy the adventure too! It has been super hectic getting ready for this trip - I suppose it is never a good time, but with work, and trying to rent my apartment, and coaching, being sick, and, well, life… It has been hard to come to terms with actually leaving. But at some point you close your laptop and surrender for an amazing journey.

This is my “ignorance is bliss” photo at LAX before I was DENIED my check-in

So I arrived at LAX with a little bit of wiggle room, 2 hours before my flight. Went to the Qatar check-in desk, and got to the front where the agent looked at me and said, do you have the Kenya visa? Um, nope. I definitely don’t. Can’t I just buy it there? I was promptly escorted away from the counter and the guy said, you have 30 minutes, good luck! So I called Liz who was in Philly en route to her flight and we entered extreme troubleshooting mode. My first thought was - I know that Tanzania does not require an advance passport, so let’s just go there and then figure it out - if we have to cut Kenya out of our trip, so be it. But of course I bought my flight on American so I had to call American to see if I could change my connection to go into Dar Es Salaam, and I needed Liz to do the same. That way we could take the same flight to Doha, meet there, and then go to Tanzania, where I at least knew a little bit of the lay of the land.

American Airlines was able to change my flight to go to Dar, and Liz did as well, though not without a lot of effort. I had to run to terminal 5 to pay at an American counter and then run back to Tom Bradley and got to the counter literally with one minute to spare. Then went to the gate and was on the phone with Liz until I had to board hoping that she would make it onto the Dar flight. I got on the plane with my fingers crossed that I had Wi-Fi and Liz would make it.

Well the angel from above gave me Wi-Fi and Liz got her ticket, but my payment was a 16 hour flight in a middle seat with a sinus infection. On that flight I filed for an expedited Kenya visa (it said online it would be “immediate” but I know what that typically means in East Africa), and bought a flight from Dar Es Salaam to Nairobi for Friday afternoon. So our visa deadline was Friday at 2pm.

Doha Airport - when we’re together its always fun

We both made it to Doha on Thursday, and what a beautiful airport - very much what I expected from a Middle East hub - bougie, brand name, boutique-y and bustling. The first challenge was to find Liz, then kill about 8 hours without falling asleep so we could sleep on leg 2 - Doha to Kilimanjaro. We found the lounge that I had a pass to and were able to shower which helped us feel half normal.

Flight 2 was much better, a quick. 6 hour jaunt on a plane full of Kili climbers and safari goers. Lots of new trekking poles and optimism floating around. We landed and everyone got for the plan except the crowd headed to Dar - Liz, me, and about 5 other people. The Dar crowd got on, many more business travelers, many from China, and we had a quick flight to the business capital of Tanzania.

So ready to NOT be getting on a plane at this point lol

By the time we made it to Dar Liz’s visa had been confirmed and mine was still in purgatory because I think somehow I hit Unsubscribe to all of the Kenya official emails. So I was, for the second time, on WhatApp trying to message them to see if I was at least approved. They finally responded simply “yes”. So - YAY, but what am I supposed to do, show Passport Control my WhatsApp message from the visa people? We had to wait 6 hours in Dar airport just to check into our flight to Nairobi, but when we finally went to check in, they questioned what I showed them. They did still let me check in but the agent said “you better get that handled before you get to Nairobi”. Ha! So at that point I was calling, WhatsApp messaging, and emailing them, and they finally sent it. So no issues getting into Kenya! After our fourth leg, we arrived, got picked up by the hotel shuttle driven by “John the Baptist” and “Moses” lol, and got our first look at a bed in 3 days, the most comfortable bed I have ever seen. We stayed at the Hyatt Place Nairobi Westlands, which was impeccably detailed. Our room had a great view of the city, and we sat by the rooftop pool for a drink before we hit the hay. After all was said and done, we missed a day in Nairobi and our Nairobi city tour that we were thinking about doing.

Rooftop Nairobi vibes and our very cool welcome snack

You would think I learned something about preparedness and checking everything twice at this point, but nope. Our first full day in Kenya, we had a reservation to visit Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage at 11am. Well Liz somehow bought online a new suitcase (hers didn’t make it) that was being delivered to the hotel for 40 bucks - creative shopper she is. So I was upstairs slowly waking up and checking my confirmation email when I realized that we need an advance purchase admission to the National Park to go to the Orphanage. What. Meanwhile Liz’s suitcase guy went to the wrong hotel… Needless to say we got in an uber at 10:15 and hoped for the best. Wilfred, our uber driver was like “you’ll never make it” but then realized that his clock in his car was an hour fast so he said, yes we can make it if we take the express lane. Best $2 ever spent. We got to the Mbagathi Gate at about 11:50 and they were definitely prepared for procrastinators like us because they had Wi-Fi set up and guided us through paying the park fees online, and we literally rolled up at 11:02.

And wow are we glad we made it. The Elephant Orphanage is a nursery that is for zebras, rhinos, and elephants. Basically they bring animals found in the wild all over Kenya who would otherwise not survive because they depended on mother’s milk and would be killed by predators. Babies are orphaned because of habitat destruction, poaching, or injuries of the mother. The highest number of babies they have had there is 38 and the babies all have name and a personality. The animals are not tagged, and they are cared for according to their species. For example, rhinos are more solitary so once they are ready to leave, they will go on their own. but elephants are released back to national parks with 2-3 other friends so they have a network, and they are monitored so they know they will be accepted by the new herd. The elephants are also not found in Nairobi National Park because they eat too much - something like 250 lbs of food per day - WHAT. So they keep them out because otherwise the other animals would starve.

When we walked in there was a baby rhino named Tytan who was 8-10 months and a 4 month old baby zebra named Notty. Notty was found abandoned in a tent at only a few days old. Tytan was found with his dead mother who had fallen off a cliff and dies. They think that Tytan survived because e was a baby following his mother and fell on top of the mother who broke his fall, but so sad.

The last little kid had to pee I think

After Tytan and Notty were led out, the elephants came thundering in. It was literally like an elephant preschool - kids fighting, playing, throwing mud, grabbing snacks. They all first went to their bottles of milk which some needed help with and others wrapped their trunks around and slurped it down. Then they started going for the leaves on the ground, picking them up with their trunks. And then finally they started throwing mud on themselves and rolling around in the dirt, pig pile style. They were feisty, cute, and did not care about the spectators. Some came close enough to pet, others paid no mind and went right to the mud pit. The visit was a very short hour but so cute, and then we headed back to our uber to go meet the driver for our next adventure - Giraffe Manor!