Two Girls and a Eurail Pass

Feb. 2, 2024 - Feb 3, 2024  Our adventure in Nairobi was a brief, but eventful way to conclude our Kenya adventure. After flying in from Samburu, we spent a night in Nairobi National Park, followed by a memorable trip to the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage and the Giraffe Center.  Upon landing at Nairobi airport, we took a car to the gates of Nairobi National Park where we then switched transport into a jeep sent by Nairobi Tented Camp  where we'd be spending the night.  There was already a tremendous line of cars queuing up to get inside the park, but thankfully we got to jump the line.  Heading into the park  We drove for awhile into the park before happening upon the campground.  A few quick tidbits, the camp only opened about 8 months ago and is the only camp in Nairobi National Park. The Park itself is also a site to behold as it's the only game park located in a capitol city. It's also only fenced on 3 sides, whereas the open southern boundary allow...

  Jan 30 - Feb. 2, 2024  We hopped onto our tiny 8-passenger airplane for Samburu at the Wilson domestic Nairobi airport and began the flight to Samburu. While I wouldn't say I have a fear of heights (I've gone paragliding from a mountain in Switzerland  which required us to literally run off a mountain...and I fly pretty frequently) - but as we took off in the tiny airplane  and took flight, I felt my stomach lurch and I was TERRIFIED . At one point we were flying directly through a cloud and all I could see in the front of the airplane window and on our side windows was white. I saw one of the pilots reach for a brown paper bag and assumed it was to hyperventilate into (because that's where I was at), but instead she just nonchalantly  pulled out a sandwich and started eating it. I didn't know how she could eat a sandwich at a time like this when we were clearly at death's door, but I guess if she had actually used it to hyperventilate that would've been much ...

Jan 26-Jan 30, 2024: After a quick overnighter in Nairobi at the Four Points Sheraton Nairobi (there aren’t direct flights from Lamu to Masai Mara, also referred to as “Maasai Mara”) we headed to Wilson Airport (a smaller airport in Nairobi that does a lot of the smaller flights out into the bush for safaris). We had previously weighed our luggage before heading to Kenya, making sure to keep it all under 20 KG (about 44 lbs.) per person (cumulative of checked luggage and handbags). Unfortunately, we didn’t realize that for the safari jumpers, the weight was 15 KG (33 lbs.) per person (including your purse, checked bag, everything coming with you on the airplane). After some back and forth, we made it all work, but I’ll definitely pack less next time! It was a decent-sized plane all things considered (about 20 seats) and the flight took under an hour before we landed in the open Mara airstrip (which is basically a dirt parking lot where cars park and airplanes land). As we landed, w...