A few years ago, I asked Alex where he would like to go for his fortieth birthday. He said an African safari to see the Great Migration. I love planning trips more than anything else so I started working on it right away. I usually handle all the details myself, but decided to work with a travel company for this trip to make sure all the flights, transfers and details were watertight. I found Ubuntu Travel and worked with the owner, Leah, to plan the perfect trip. I already knew one of the safari camps I wanted to do and also had my mind set on Giraffe Manor and she made it happen. There was no detail overlooked, no room to question what happened next. We had a team on the ground in Kenya to keep us updated on who would be picking us up and where. The communication was solid. We were literally handed from one person to another every stop of the way. I don't think we ever even held our own bags! After two and a half years of waiting (and saving money), we set off on our dream adventure!
We left Charlotte at six in the morning on Friday. We flew to New York first and had a long layover. We took advantage of my credit card benefit for the first time and stayed in the lounge for breakfast and lunch. We ate our bellies full! It was nice!
Lu wanted to come on safari with us to lure out the big cats. We had been nervous to pack as we were only allowed thirty-three pounds per person. We ended up only packing three bags and each was well under the max weight.
Loving our peaceful lounge access!
They had great mocktails with my favorite Luxardo Maraschino cherries!
We met a dog while getting our steps in before the flight.
None of us slept very well on the flight over to Kenya. From New York, it was a fourteen hour flight. When we arrived in Kenya, it was morning time and seven hours ahead of the US eastern time zone. Someone met us immediately after walking off the plane and led us through customs. She took us to our driver.
Our driver took us to our hotel, the Tamarind Tree Hotel in Nairobi. On the highway to the hotel, we saw our first giraffes and zebras! The Nairobi National Park borders the city so you can see the animals!
Our hotel was nice with connecting rooms. Alex had made plans with another driver to go disc golfing on arrival. The kids and I took naps when we got to the hotel. It was supposed to be a short nap with hotel pool time afterwards, but we slept until Alex got back at dinner time.
Our view from the hotel! We were able to watch little monkeys playing on the white tents the following morning.
Alex enjoyed his disc golfing experience. The owners were expatriates from the US who Alex had set up the experience with ahead of time. Alex brought them discs from Charlotte. He had a great time and played well.
Alex was able to see gazelles, impalas and an ostrich while golfing.
We had dinner at the hotel.
