Summer Adventure: Week 52, July 16-22, 2023

Wow!! What a week we have had!

On Sunday, we spent the day in the desert with a tour company called Platinum Heritage. We booked a Land Rover Heritage Desert Safari - this is what the tour entailed:

Embark on the most awarded desert safari in Dubai. Ideal for the whole family as this educational, yet fun desert safari is unique from others. Be a part of history and experience the desert like never before. Your professional Conservation Guide will take you on a nature safari through the Dubai Desert Conservation Drive while telling you all about the desert fauna and flora and how the Bedouin used to survive. Take in a magnificent Arabian sunset while watching a spectacular falconry performance, this is the ideal opportunity for sunset selfies for your family album. Ease into the evening with a delicious Emirati dinner with shared starters and hearty mains. Be entertained with traditional performances like Yola and Drumming. The whole family can join in on the festivities as you get invited to partake in the drumming.

We started our adventure with a drive in an open top Land Rover cruising through the sand. The desert reserve we drove through is owned by the King’s cousin - so it was very private. Typically, sand tours in Dubai include dune bashing, where you drive into the sand. Because the reserve is a research centre, every effort to preserve the natural habitats was at the forefront. We drove on a track, spotting local wildlife, snakes, spiders, and little gerbils. Then, we watched the sunset over the sand with a falcon! We ended our night in a camp with dancing, music, and lots of great food.

On Monday, we started our day at the top of the Burj Khalifa. The Burj is the tallest building in the world and we rode up to the 125th floor for views over the city. It was so neat to see the city meet the desert from the sky.

Then, we rode the Metro to the Mall of Emirates. The Mall of Emirates is huge, with more than 600 stores. Webster spent the afternoon skiing in the mall - yes, skiing indoors! They have built a 500m ski hill with real snow in the mall. It was a nice break in -4 degree weather compared to the 45 degrees outside.

In the evening, we went to another hotel for observatory views over the Palm Jumeriah. The Palm Jumeriah is built from reclaimed land in a series of artificial archipelagos shaped like a palm tree when viewed from above.

We ended our evening at the beach near the Dubai Marina. It was hot, hot, hot, but beautiful!

On Tuesday, we made one last visit to the Burj Khalifa area before heading off to Sharjah airport, 40km outside of Dubai. We flew six hours to Nairobi, Kenya and arrived at 2PM local time.

That evening, we explored the local area with a visit to the grocery store. We had a quiet evening with some bathtub laundry and ended our night at an Italian restaurant with some delicious food.

On Wednesday we started the day bright and early en route to Olorien Primary School. In 2014, 9 years ago, I visited Kenya with 25 other high school students. We spent a month building classroom 2 & 3 at Olorien Primary School. In 2014, the school had three brick classrooms, no toilets and no water. Here are some photos from 2014.

Our driver, Peter, took us 4 hours outside the city centre for a visit to the school. Our first stop was a visit to the Great Rift Valley lookout point. We looked over the escarpment, bought some souvenirs, and took some photos.

Then, we met Tobi and his family, to head to Oloirien Primary School. I can’t describe the feeling of returning to the school 9 years later. We were welcomed by the principal, teachers, community members, and students, who sang us songs, and gifted us beautiful Kenyan handicrafts. We walked around the school grounds, talked to students, and learned about the educational program at the school. Oloirien Primary School is a public school funded by the government but, not everything is paid for. Teachers salaries and the land are provided but necessities like breakfast, lunch, and wifi are not - this is why charity involvement is so critical.

For the last nine years I wondered if the work we did manifested into something bigger. If we actually provided a hand-up to build infrastructure that would facilitate education. I can confidently say Oloirien Primary is thriving. Today, the school has 13 classrooms and 400 students - almost 50% of whom are girls. There is clean drinking water at every classroom - yes, we saw kids running, playing, and drinking the water … what a gift! I am so honoured that we were welcomed back to the school community and could see the positive impact it is having on the greater community. This adventure would not have been possible without Tobi, and his help. Tobi was my facilitator in Kenya 9 years ago and he coordinated with the school to plan our visit. Thank you, thank you, Tobi!

Our drive back to Nairobi was uneventful, but beautiful nonetheless. We saw baboons, zebras, and countless birds. We drove through quiet villages and bustling towns processing our adventure.

On Thursday, we started our day with a Nairobi City Walking Tour. The Nami Nami Tour provides tourists with an experience in downtown Nairobi that would otherwise not be possible alone.

We offer an inspirational "off-the-beaten-track" experience of Nairobi, guided by youth from slums who raised themselves on the streets of Nairobi City Centre. During a personal, one-on-one, 3-hours walking tour in Downtown, you will experience the city centre through the eyes of street children. Get the real insights into their way of life, get captivated by their life stories and ghetto-energy, learn from their street skills, ask all your questions, shop at local markets, bargain with your guides to pay a local price, eat street food, have tea with mechanics, see street art among and last but not least become friends with them. Social Impact: By booking a Nami Nami Tour you give disadvantaged youth from slums an opportunity to earn a regular income and inspire them as a role model.

Our tour guides were King and Tsunami who lived for more than 15 years on the streets of Nairobi. They now live in slums near the city centre with no water, electricity, or toilets. The Nami Nami tours were designed to provide a unique experience to tourists and a sustainable reoccurring income to 9 local entrepreneurs. King was our guide who shared a lot about his life growing up on the streets. He was left homeless at the age of 5 when the orphanage he was living in went bankrupt. He then lived for 16 years on the streets of Nairobi - making friends with other boys who would eventually pull themselves up into the slums, and launch this tour business. Tsunami was our “bodyguard” he stayed at the back of the group, chatted with locals, and made sure we were safe crossing roads and in large groups of people. While we wouldn’t have walked in the area alone, we felt safe the entire time.

Taking photos in public is illegal in Kenya, but our guides told us where we were allowed to take some quick photos of what we were seeing. We started our tour on one side of the city where government and bank buildings were. Then, we crossed over into downtown, where the locals eat and shop. All the locals in downtown either live in the slum or on the street. It seemed like every corner we turned our guides knew someone else, were introducing us, and sharing stories. It really was an “off the beaten track” tour that proved we all have more in common than we think.

Later in the afternoon we went to the Nairobi National Museum. We had a late lunch at the museum, and then explored the exhibits about the history of the country, the fossils found in this part of the world, and traditional life in Kenya before colonialism.

On Friday, we woke up bright and early to head out to the Maasai Mara! We flew on a small carrier AirKenya Express from Nairobi city to the national park, about 150km away. We made four stops in the park, picking people up, dropping them off, and spotting animals from above. At one point, we had the entire plane to ourselves - our first private plane! Then, we were picked up by Lecoco at the airstrip to head to our safari camp. On our way from the airstrip we were lucky to spot some animals - hippos, buffalo, antelope, and lots of birds! We even saw a giraffe on the airstrip as we were landing.

We spent the afternoon exploring “camp”. We are staying in a tent … well my kind of tent. The walls are made of canvas, but the tent is built on a stone platform, has electricity, running water, flush toilets and hot water for showers. We are lucky to be facing the river where we can see, and hear, lots of hippos and crocodiles.

That evening we went on our first game drive! This is where a local guide, typically from the local community, finds animals for us to see within the national park. The guides talk to each other and share where they find iconic animals, then we all take turns going to check it out. Our highlight was seeing two rhinos, the last two that live in the Maasai Mara. They are guarded 24/7 by local and government authorities. In 2013, two rhinos were killed by poachers in the same night, and since they are so endangered they are now heavily guarded.

At night, we returned back to camp for a traditional outdoor dinner. We had delicious BBQ and local dishes. We ended our night watching some hippos outside our tent, and looking at the bright stars.

On Saturday, we woke up bright and early for another game drive. At camp we are invited to join two game drives each day, one in the morning, and one at night. We left camp at 6:30am and set out to find more wildlife. Our highlight was finding a pack of hyenas lying in the grass. We spent the afternoon lounging by the pool, reading, and watching more hippos! That night, we set out for our third game drive. We had a new guide, Alex, and he made sure we saw lots of animals. What a day!

This week we are spending some more time in the Maasai Mara - hoping to see cheetahs, leopards, and the great migration as it comes through Kenya from Tanzania. At the end of the week, we are flying from Kenya to South Africa. Next Stop: Cape Town