Diani Beach and Maasai Mara

Hello dear ones!

Last weekend I took a trip to Diani Beach with Francesca. Thursday (1.6) was a public holiday here (Madaraka Day - Independence Day), so we actually wanted to have an extended weekend at Diani Beach. But as it is here, you can't plan anything. One of the veterinarians wanted to anesthetize the lions at the orphanage on Friday with Francesca to take blood samples. And since Francesca needs every lion she can get for her study and has been waiting for a long time, we decided to go on Friday. You can probably guess... Of course, we didn't anaesthetize the lions on Friday. Who would have thought? Francesca and I flew from Nairobi to Mombasa on Saturday morning at half past six. When we arrived in Mombasa, I was shocked at first because it was pouring rain. That's not how I imagined a weekend at the beach. But fortunately, the rain stopped by the time we found the right hotel (a nice hotel in the middle of the forest and not far from the beach. We slept in a nice safari tent, which I found much more comfortable than a room in any hostel), and we spent the whole day at the beach. Diani Beach is really beautiful! We ended the day in a fish restaurant. The food and the wine were really great. The next day we had great weather again, and after 2 days at the beach, I felt really refreshed (although this whole internship here feels more like a vacation, I really enjoyed the days at the beach). Sunday evening at 10:45 we took the overnight bus back to Nairobi. I can tell you that was the worst bus ride of my life. I really miss the German highways. We arrived in Nairobi on Monday morning at 8 o'clock, and the whole route was a constant bumping and jolting. Once we arrived in Nairobi, we quickly went home to shower, change clothes, unpack beach stuff, and pack bush stuff. Because we should continue to Maasai Mara in the afternoon. Francesca had told me a lot about this place before and was very enthusiastic about it. She said it's the most beautiful place in Kenya. What can I say?! She didn't promise too much. Maasai Mara is the Kenyan part of the Serengeti, and in June, the migration of zebras, wildebeests, and antelopes begins. When food runs out in the southern Serengeti, hundreds of thousands of animals migrate to Maasai Mara. I was lucky to see some of these animals. We arrived in Maasai Mara on Monday night. We slept the first night in the "Vets house" and then moved to the "Guesthouse" the next day. It is really located in the middle of the savannah. The animals sometimes come right in front of the door. That's why you can only drive the 50m way to the Vetshouse by car, otherwise you might be eaten by lions or attacked by buffalos. Unfortunately, there is also no electricity in the guesthouse, but at least we could charge our mobile phones in the "Office", which was also only 50m away. At least there was running water. However, it was not very clean, as it came from the nearest river. And the running water was gone the next day. Something in the pipe broke. There was only water from buckets then. But you get used to it.

The second day was very calm. We drove around in the morning to see if there was anything to do. But there wasn't. But a free safari every day! Just drive around and watch animals. What could be better?

On the following day, I saw cheetahs in the wild. Unfortunately, one of them was in very bad shape. Its fur was dull, it was very thin, and it had scratches all over. Since the animal was not able to be anesthetized in this condition, the veterinarian injected Ivermectin to treat the parasite infestation. Then we were on the lookout for another injured lion, but unfortunately, we couldn't find it. That's how it is as a wildlife vet. You can't always find all the animals immediately. The next day, the search was supposed to continue. Unfortunately, without success. But we saw 4 lions that had just killed a wildebeest. That was exciting enough for me!

On Saturday, Francesca received the call that she could treat the lions at the orphanage on Monday (hopefully this time for real...). Unfortunately, this meant that we had to drive back on Sunday, although we would have liked to stay until Monday. However, the return trip turned out to be a bit difficult because we were really in the middle of nowhere. From the guesthouse, the driver Felix kindly drove us to the nearest makeshift village "Sekanani". Luckily, we found a ride there. Unfortunately, we had a lot of luggage. Women on travel. Besides the things you need anyway, Francesca also had a very sensitive blood gas analysis machine with her. However, the driver of the ride told us that he always takes 6 people in his car (despite being a 5-seater) (minus star rating on BlaBlaCar...). 4 on the back seat and 2 on the front passenger seat. And all for 500 Kenyan shillings (5€) per person. Francesca then paid for two but was graciously allowed to drive alone on the front passenger seat. And I squeezed myself onto the back seat with 3 other people. Actually, there were 4 other people because the woman next to me was as fat as at least 2 people. So you can imagine how pleasant this almost 3-hour drive was. But we were lucky to even get from Sekanani to Narok. From Narok, we had to take a matatu to Nairobi. Fortunately, the drive was more pleasant. When we finally arrived in Nairobi after 3 hours, we still had to find a way home from the bus stop. Fortunately, there is a very practical taxi app here. It's called Uber. You enter where you want to go, your own mobile phone is located, and the taxi driver sees where he has to pick you up. So actually idiot-proof. However, I really don't know why the taxi drivers still can't find you. They can basically see exactly where you are on Google Maps. The app also shows exactly how long it will take for the taxi to arrive. The app showed that the taxi would be there in 2 minutes. After 30 minutes, the taxi still hadn't arrived. Because the taxi driver was too stupid to find us. We had enough of it and took a taxi that was there. However, it was twice as expensive. Well, now I'm definitely safely home. Otherwise, I would probably still be there waiting.

Tomorrow we will (hopefully!) treat the lions at the orphanage. I'm excited!

Best regards,

Pia