Lydi Wilder: It Was The Salad

Sometimes fiction is stranger than truth, but I still think it was the salad. Remind me to tell you about the safari and the last drive out of the park.

As you can see we made a connecting flight into Kenya, although a day late and a lighter wallet to show for it. We hemmed and hawed at the price of hotels and ended up sleeping in our new friend Mason's apartment that we had spent the last few days looking for. It was another late night discussing if humans are basically good or not, his hot date with a local girl the next day, ultimate truth, and any other topic that came up.

Kenya caught our attention right off and we enjoyed the greener pastures. The persistent touts finally broke down my walls and we gave in to a taxi ride from the airport. It was strait to Africa Inland Mission base for us as we tried to connect with friends as we had done a poor job of announcing our arrival. Of course all of my college friends were out and we headed to the youth hostel to sleep off the restless flight. Three days later after fantastic evenings with friends we got the inside scoop on a safari headed to Amboseli National Park where the elephants and zebras roam. We made the trip with two brilliant British folks and thoroughly enjoyed their company and accent! It almost doesn't matter what they say, their accent is so mesmerizing. It was two days in the park for us and from the time we entered it was just like the films, animals everywhere, we were amazed at the sheer numbers of different animals we saw and so close we could almost taste them. Heidi was envisioning hunting every one I just know. We were able to see a lion, buffalo, zebras, hyenas, impala, gazelle, elephants, warthogs, wildebeests, fox type animals, countless birds, and I'm forgetting some I'm sure. The accommodations were fantastic including all our meals and even turn down service on our bed!

After a superb evening in the hotel we made a late breakfast and headed out on our last game drive on the way out. As we were well away from the hotel I felt that blurp in my stomach, you know the one, so I decided to move to the back of the open bus and let the little gas bubble be free. The only problem with the idea was that the salad the night before had done some magic on my insides and they had turned to jello and well I think you get the picture . . . We made full speed back to the hotel where I promptly changed my shorts.

So with that behind us we walked across the border to Tanzania and hop, skipped, and jumped our way to the far side of the mountain. Kili dashed our hopes this time not by its height but by the size of the price tag to walk its slopes. The park fees killed us and we decided to trod a different path and made our way to Zanzibar for a couple days of fun in the sun. In my own naive way the heat at the equator surprised me and the lack of electricity didn't allow us to be cool. One night was enough. After waking buring the night in a pool of our own sweat we decided to move on to higher and cooler ground. A boat and a train took us to the south of Tanzania where we climbed on the mountain near Mbeya then headed south here to Malawi. We have found a place to rest here on the shores of the mighty Lake Malawi after two days of fighting our way to this ground.

So here we sit and soak in the sun and tranquility of this place and wake to the sound of the fishermen paddling their dugouts home from their labor at three in the morning shouting their catch. Rousing to the sound of singing in the town and washing on the rock below our love shack. Its nice here, I think we'll stay for a while.