My African Adventure

For a very long time I had a longing to go to Africa. It was one of those dreams, distant and far away. But this dream magically came true about a month ago. My parents and their siblings had been planning on visiting Africa for two years. And it didn’t occur to me that I could actually go along…

It all began when I was invited to an event hosted by the Kenya Foundation. At dinner I mentioned to my new Kenyan friends about my family’s upcoming trip. They immediately responded, “You should go. It’s crazy not to. Seriously, this is an opportunity of a lifetime that you just can’t miss!” They were right. And I was grateful that my family embraced my spontaneous decision to join them.

It was indeed one of the greatest adventures of my life. It was so amazing to be on this magical and magnificent continent, stepping into the wildness – the vast plant and animal kingdoms.

I felt excited, thrilled, blessed, and humbled in its presence, in absolute awe over the indescribable beauty, harmony and intelligence of the universe.  Now I want to share some of those moments with you…

Every year over 1.4 million wildebeest and 200,000 zebras and gazelles migrate in a clockwise fashion over 1,800 miles in search of rain-ripened grass. When we were there in late July, they had just crossed the Mara River – to the side of Masai Mara where our Safari lodge is located.

It was a long and dangerous journey. Many wildebeest didn’t make it. The Mara River was filled with their dead, bloated remains – killed by the river, predicators, and even themselves.

But this was a happy time for the vultures. They enjoyed many bountiful feasts – the flesh and blood of dead wildebeest… No need for these scavengers to worry about food for a while.

Most of the migrating animals did make it to the other side of the Mara River. These happy zebras were now enjoying their delightful rewards after a long and dangerous journey…

Peaceful elephants were easy to find. For some reason, they looked like they were always smiling, to me anyway… I learned that elephants have very strong family values. Females stay with their mothers all their lives, while male elephants stay until they’re about twelve years old. They then get kicked out of the herd to begin lives on their own.  “A smart way to prevent incest,” our Masai guide informed us.

The lions I saw were happy, too. After a long, dry and hungry season, they finally had an ample food supply.

Actually finding a meal was never easy, however. There were those mean buffalo! I watched three buffalo chase off a lion. Man, they were brave and tough creatures!

After patiently camouflaging herself in the long grass and stalking a herd of zebras, this lioness’ hunt was unsuccessful. She looked disappointed. “No breakfast for me today,” I could almost hear her sigh…

At the end of one of our game drives we saw the sun setting on the beautiful savanna with a desert date tree in the background… So magnificent, so peaceful, so timeless…

One afternoon, we visited a Masai village nearby. Beautiful and colorful Masai women greeted us with their famous welcoming songs. We joined them, humming and swaying along – standing on a pavement of cow dung that covered the ground of the village. Afterwards, there was no escaping the smell of my stinky shoes…

Adorable Masai children with pesky flies all over their faces… They seemed accustomed to it…

One of the highlights was a hot balloon ride, watching the beautiful sunrise waking up the entire savanna. The French invented the hot balloon, and they had a tradition of opening up a bottle of Champagne to celebrate each successful landing. So we had a Champagne breakfast at our landing spot in the middle of Savanna… How romantic! Even with families and kids…

After spending a few days at Masai Mara, we took a small plane to Lake Nakuru. Due to a larger amount of rainfall, this area was much greener, lush and refreshing! And there were no carnivorous predators in this area, so all grass-eating animals looked much more relaxed, enjoying the peaceful, quiet abundance.

Then a pink lake came into sight from far. Driving closer, we discovered that the “pink” lake was actually covered by thousands of pink flemingos that had just migrated back to their Lake Nakuru home…

Lastly, we visited the Victoria Falls on the Zimbabwe side. Victoria Falls, with a width of 1,708 meters (5,604 ft) and a height of 108 meters (354 ft), forms the largest sheet of falling water in the world. I took this photo during a helicopter ride circling above the falls. What an incredible sight…

Then we took a scroll along Victoria Falls. It was absolutely magnificent, especially the long, clear rainbows that rose from the bottom of the fall, reaching to the sky…

What a trip! I wished I could’ve stay longer, but it eventually came to an end…

On my flight home, I watched the Disney documentary “Wild Cats,” which was shot live in Masai Mara. To my delight, I recognized several characters from the film, notably the lion king and his three sons. They invaded our side of the Mara River and took over the pride there. I even saw the scar on the lion king’s hip, a souvenir from a brave lioness that chased him off to protect her cubs during his first invasion. Amazing!

When I arrived home and shared my adventure with a friend, he asked “What did you learn about yourself from this trip?” I really hadn’t thought about it when he first asked this question, but afterward, what jumped into my mind was this: I learned that I love nature, and that there truly is a natural harmony and balance in the universe. Every thing has a function and a purpose, and is part of a harmonious and gloriously unified whole.