A day with Sweet Thing in Nairobi

Unfortunately my Sweet Thing woke up with a mosquito bite near her right eye. She has been icing it and that appears to have accelerated the "healing process". She was up quite early and I was up for a bit with her then fell back asleep until after 7. She chowed down while I slept and then I went for a bite while she went back to bed. I returned to the room to collect my knapsack and see if there were anything I could do for the ST. She would have liked to do what I suggested today which was a tour of Nairobi but she is not feeling up to it. I returned the Kenya power adapter to the front desk amidst huge buckets of thanks. My day will now consist of reading and hanging out after I finish copying the safari pictures and ST's camera pics to a 4Gb SD card that will return to Canada with her in her camera. I have copied all the safari pictures, my Casio pictures, and a backup of my work directory from MoFED to an 8Gb SD card that will go back to Addis in my camera. Overall impression/feedback of the safari: 1) William, the guide, was GREAT. He was very knowledgeable and knew the maasai especially like the back of his hand. He was well-voiced in the animal habits and imparted some interesting trivia as we sighted different species. Rating William out of 10 -> 10 2) The Sarova Mara Sunday and Monday night was wonderful. The staff were friendly and attentive and the surroundings were carved out and appointed nicely from the terrain of the maasai. Rating the Sarova Mara out of 10 -> 10 3) There was too much driving on 2 occasions. Tuesday we headed from maasai to lake Nakuru and, for the hotel (a 3-star at best) and the "difficulty" photographing the flamingos (the main attraction of the lake), the game drives were not worth the long trip. On Wednesday the trip from Nakuru to Amboseli was 396 kilometres and took 8 hours. There was a 45 minute stop in Nairobi and a 30 minute stop just before making the final turn to the park road. Considering what we found (or more likely did not find) at Nakuru, the length of the Wednesday drive was not necessary. Rating the game viewing at Lake Nakuru out of 10 -> 5 Rating the hotel at Lake Nakuru out of 10 -> 4 Rating the balance of driving to "staying put" out of 10 -> 5 4) Nights 4 and 5 were spent at the Serena Amboseli lodge which was comparable with the Sarova Mara where we spent nights 1 and 2. The setup was great and there were lots of places to relax. Rating the Serena Amboseli out of 10 -> 10 5) We saw a lot of animals and birds including giraffe (ST's favourite), lion, cheetah, hyena, leopard, gazelle, topi, impala, warthog (ST's least favourite), zebra, gnu (wildebeest), crane, vulture, monkey, baboon, mongoose, elephant, hippopotamaus, rhinoceros, a whole bunch of colourful birds whose names I do not remember ... Rating the animal sightings out of 10 -> 10 6) The food was very good everywhere we went. Rating the food out of 10 -> 10 ********************************************* Rating the safari as a whole out of 10 -> 8.5 Words used to describe the experience -> amazing + wonderful + met expectation ********************************************* Advice we would give others about safaris: - consider using African Adventures as we were pleased with the quality of the safari - have reasonable expectations about going to a park that features flamingos - insist the company tell you the length in hours of ALL drives - drives should be no more than 4 hours - get an idea of the ratio of dirt to paved roads as 2 hours on a dirt road can be compared to double that (i.e., 4 hours) on a paved road Top 10 from the safari: 10 - Cilantro in the green salad at lake Nakuru ... to add more to the poor quality of the hotel; I suggested putting it on the side to one of the chefs. 9 - The cheddar cheese ... considering we live close to a handful of the very best cheddar cheese (Balderson to name one of many manufacturers around) the Kenya version of cheddar was soft, had little or no taste, and possessed none of the pungent qualities of what we are used to. 8 - Mosquito netting at lake Nakuru and the Amboseli ... they reportedly do not have any such pests at either; but it looked good. It is ironic that after making fun of the netting, when we returned to Nairobi and the Fairmont had no netting, ST was bitten. 7 - The taxi ride to the restaurant where we ate the Friday night when we returned to Nairobi ... there it took 35 minutes (partially but not completely due to traffic) but the trip back took close to 10 minutes. A couple we met at the hotel had a similar experience. 6 - The taxi ride to the restaurant we ate at the Saturday after we arrived in Nairobi was reported to be 5-10 minutes. The cab driver as it turns out did not exactly know where the place was and it took us close to 40 minutes. We ended up stopping at another restaurant for assistance and the people there knew nothing about the establishment either. In some ways it was a mini-tour of Nairobi. 5 - I did not bring enough t-shirts (again !!!!!!); I always do this and it gives ST no end of pain (and joy at teasing me about it). 4 - ST dropping an earring down the drain at Sarova Mara which was retrieved by an employee. 3 - My knapsack which gave the ST no end of enjoyment as it is NOT the kind of luggage one would ever want to bring on a trip like this. A knapsack that has to be emptied every time you need something not at the top is not suitable for "living out of a suitcase". 2 - The power strip I brought and so proudly announced on the BLOG as having 8 outlets ... if went up in smoke on day 1. 1 - Sweet Thing losing her camera which, after a huge kefuffle, turned up in the inside pocket of her purse.