Heathrow to Maasai Mara via Nairobi

BA00065 10.20 from Heathrow on 13/09/2011 was slightly delayed taking off. Not to worry re- in forced with a cooked breakfast and celebratory glass of that renowned sparkly stuff and some films to watch we are both in holiday mood. This was a holiday that had been on my list for as long as I can remember. Seriously a school girls dream and one that I never thought would come true.
We landed in Nairobi shortly after 9pm, we could see nothing of the city as we came in to land in the pitch black. Slight panic set in when our bags were the last to appear on the belt - through immigration with no problems and met by our greeter and driver Paul. We were soon driving through the quite deserted, unlit and unmade roads, quite a shock as we were in a city. Our base for tonight is the traditional colonial starting place for a safari the Norfolk hotel.

I had quite a sleepless night although Ian was already in Rip van Winkle mode, despite his legs twitching constantly & main reason for me not sleeping. Another early start 6.30 as we are going to catch a flight from a local airport into the Maasai Mara. Another fab breakfast, shame we are only here for one night in this lovely hotel, & we are soon on our way. The traffic in Nairobi is horrendous, no surprise as there are few road markings, lots of vehicles, animals, people and a lot of dust!

Nairobi City is full of birds, on this short drive in the depths of the city we see Marabou storks, hundreds of them up in the trees, hopping about on the roadside & perched on buildings. They are large birds & quite dirty & menacing in appearance. We also see Hummingbirds ( on reflection probably Sunbirds), Weavers, Bee eaters, Pied Crows and a possible black Kite. Whilst waiting to board the plane a Crane flies overhead - too fast & I am too busy to make out any distinctive markings. All this & we are not even trying and for that matter know what we are looking for or might have seen.

It is hot & sunny as we wait with a lot of other people at Wilson airport. There are several flights going out this morning & this is only one of the flight companies that operate out of Nairobi so this is big business, in small planes. We board a 25 seater and soon are heading South Westish. From the air we soon spot zebra, elephants and gazelles. After 35 minutes we land on a red dirt track in the bush. I thought I would be terrified of the flight but I love it. Ian & I are given a piece of paper with a number on it & told to get on the plane with that number, er - OK then. Grabbing our bags we get on a 10 seater plane & within 5 minutes we are off again.