glamping : ) and safari

i am writing this on monday morning kenya time after a good night's rest. i have so many thoughts swirling in my mind. i know we are headed for home soon and there's so much to process. some of it i want to do now why i am still raw, and some over the next few months as i return to the lifestyle that is blessed beyond measure. 

for this post though, it is all massai mara and safari! there ain't no way to convey the awesomeness!!! please take a quick minute and look it up on wikipedia or google. it was the gift of a lifetime! it is 560 square miles in kenya and joins the serengetti. we saw lions, giraffes, cheetahs, wildebeests, hippos, ostriches, elephants, gazelles, zebras, warthogs, antelopes, buffalo, and one monitor lizard 🦎. we drove miles and miles from 6 am until 1 pm bumping our way across the terrain. 

inserting some pictures of where we slept the night before.... i had zero expectations on any of it. i was still trying to unwrap my heart from kisii 🩷. we drove many hours on the crazy  bus and got to the safari area around 7. if you have ever heard of being on african time, it is a.very.real.thing 🙃  we have been in continual motion for almost two weeks and everyone is starting to show it. it was dark and we stumbled our way into paradise. everything had their own "tent". o.m.goodness! all of it blew my mind!

i am uploading pictures because my words cannot do any of this night and day's awe factor. we slept (glamping safari style), we ate (best fish and snow peas and carrots i have ever eaten), slept (okay, lying. i laid in bed unable to stop my mind. was still up for 4:30 am alarm 😭), went to full breakfast, and got in open air land cruisers at 5. it was stinking cold! 43°. it is winter here and we ummm, weren't thinking winter 🥶. thankful as the sun came up and started providing it's beautiful warmth. 

and then the search was on! the drivers know favorite spots for the various animals. and lions and cheetahs are active early because of cooler temps. we found part of the pride relaxing after killing a wildebeest. i kept seeing the wildebeest legs being moved in the tall grasses and just had to look away. nature is such a condundrum. 

 and i officially want zebras. how cool would that be to see rosie, moses, twist and zebras hanging put in the pastures?!!

after safari, we drove to nairobi. we were looking very haggard 🤪. we were this level of exhausted when the trip began, but we had the excitement of what was to come and work to be done. with that all being behind us, it had all caught up tsunami style. we are staying in a nice hotel for two nights. while it feels westernized, we all miss kisii. nairobi does not have any of the vibe we were used to. i think though it helps provide the bridge from kisii to returning to the states. 

it is drawing near to closing time.