The Journey Home

    Our last night in Kenya was a little brutal, and I again started to feel sick during the night. The hyena sounded closer than ever, and something was splashing in the river right outside of our tent all night long. It was probably a good thing to be getting out of the area at this point. I ended up taking anti-nausea medicines in the middle of the night and again in the morning before we left Ilkeliani. Sami started the drive to the airfield on-time, but I felt like trash by the time we arrived. Unfortunately, Sami had other plans (since we were there so early). My heart sank as he drove past the airstrip on his way to the leopard kill from the night before. I know he had the best intentions, but I was feeling nauseated before we started the trip, and we tacked on an extra half-hour of driving in the hot sun on very bumpy roads running through rancid hippo pools before we finally came back to the airstrip. Thankfully, we had a bit of time sitting in the shade and settling down before we boarded the plane to Nairobi.

An armed Wildlife Ranger

This DC-3 was a lot happier than I was at the time.

    It turned out to be a good thing that we had time to recover from the drive, as the actual flight to Nairobi was very turbulent and there was no AC (the vents were broken). We both felt terrible when we landed, despite zofran and dramamine. We were very happy to see Philip waiting for us with all of our luggage from Kijabe outside Wilson airfield, and we made plans to whittle away the day before our flight out at 11:30pm at night. Our first stop was at Galleria for (most importantly) very cheap drugs for me. This photo was just after downing one of the most bitter pills I've ever had in my life.

...But I was happy to have it.

    We did a little shopping at places I won't mention (I don't want to provide clues as to what we bought), but we ended up at the museum for Karen Blixen. The movie Out of Africa was about her time in Kenya, and there is even a part of Nairobi named for her now. I won't go into the details of her life, but you should look it up sometime. The tour was pretty interesting and ate through a big chunk of our time before we went to dinner.

"Wait. Are you telling me you're on Karen

Blixen's porch?! THE Karen Blixen?!!"

Karen Blixen's Rock Hyrax. I thought he was stuffed.

    We planned to treat Philip to a nice dinner at Carnivore. There are two Carnivore restaurants (the other is in South Africa), and it used to be known as the place to go to eat zebra, gazelle, and giraffe. Unfortunately there are now game meat restrictions in Kenya, so the most exotic meat we could eat would be ostrich, crocodile, and bull testicles. Awesome. The way the meal works is that they bring you appetizers, sides, and sauces at the beginning. They then start to bring you meats of various types on long swords. They'll serve you a piece by forking it off or cutting a slice off with a machete (depending on the meat). This continues indefinitely as long as you leave your table's flag up. When you lay the flag on its side, you are taking a break. When you take the flag out and put it under the flagbase, you are done eating. I was done way before Joe and Philip just because I was still feeling on-edge gastrointestinally (and I didn't want to do anything I would regret during our fast-approaching horrific flight schedule). It ended up being a pretty amazing experience nevertheless.

Cooking the meats

Our flag

Sides and sauces

Another round

Bull testicle

He was braver than I...

For some reason it doesn't look like Philip

ever smiles. He's actually a very happy guy.

The open-air restaurant

The bathroom. No sinks needed?

    After dinner, Philip dropped us off at the airport and we said goodbye. Joe got stopped going through initial security and asked about the transport monitor we were carrying, but no one said anything about the spear he had right next to it. We were forced to take sub-optimal seats on the long flight to London, and we waited a long time in the hot terminal in Nairobi before finally boarding the plane. The flight to London was (thankfully) uneventful, and I got caught up on a few good movies I had been meaning to see. Arriving in London was a crazy experience. Everything in Heathrow was so clean compared to Kenya. I took a few shots in awe before we settled down to charge batteries and upload photos during our five-hour layover.

Sterile civilization!

How I missed you so...

    Our seats for the flight to Chicago were much better (though the plane didn't have movies-on-demand for some reason). Still, it was an easier flight than the one from Nairobi. It was extremely refreshing to finally see the tell-tale signs of being back home (and far from the equator).

Like snow over Canada.

    Our layover in Chicago was only 2-3 hours (just enough time for me to scarf down an expensively delicious Subway club). A short flight later brought us into Nashville and the end of the trip. I can't begin to describe how great it was to see Kate, Quinten and Kira on our arrival. I think we'd both like to go back, but we'll have some stipulations next time about being able to take them.

    I hope you've enjoyed reading the blog over the last month. Joe has 3000 photos (many better than the ones I've posted), and I have lots of great video. We'd both be happy to show some (or all) of it if you are interested and available. Just let us know. Cheers! :)