here's to the rest of the world: Safari recap

Ok here's the story on the trip to Amboseli and Tsavo West a few weeks ago. It wasn't a terrible trip, the last day and a half were just a logistical nightmare, so I'll try not to be too negative about the overall experience. It was a last minute trip. I've never been good at planning ahead, and I tend to be pretty impulsive. Sometimes this works to my advantage--for example, Hell's Gate was planned about 30 hours before I left, and that trip was fantastic. I guess it's a little different when you show up at a travel agency on Monday and tell them you want to take a trip on Friday. After making about 100 phone calls they found a group I could join taking a four day trip to Amboseli and Tsavo West (In retrospect I probably should've recognized this as a bad sign--I got STA's, like, 96th choice of safari company).

Originally it was just supposed to be me joining a group of people, but Mary Beth decided to go also at the last minute (thank goodness). The good thing about independent travel is you only have to rely on yourself for food, lodging, and transport. This can be hectic, but it allows for flexibility, and if something doesn't turn out right, well, it's your own fault and you have to deal with it. Travelling with a safari company is the exact opposite. You rely on them for every detail, you're on a set schedule, and, at least in Nairobi, there's absolutely nothing you can do about it if something goes wrong or the company doesn't follow through with any part of its obligations. So Mary Beth and I were told we would be joining a "group" for the trip--we expected a group of people close to our age, whether or not they all knew each other previously. When they picked us up they told us we would be joining a family with kids. We expected little kids, and we were ok with that. So as we're riding to pick them up the coordinator gets the following call (this is her end):

"Yes, we're coming to pick you up now."
"'We'--the two girls joining you."
"Yes, I did tell you that you'd be joining a group."
"Yes I DID"
"Stop yelling, you knew you would be in a group for this half, I told you."
"DON'T YELL AT ME"
[click]

Considering we had only finalized the trip and paid the day before, it was pretty clear the family had not been told we would be joining them. It was also clear they definitely did not want us joining them. When we picked them up, this was the story: The "kids" were two guys aged 25 and 20. The family had already had 4 days in Masai Mara and were spending the night in Nairobi before heading to Amboseli. So we barged in on their family vacation half way through. There was so much stuff in the car that three of them had to squeeze in the very back, and no one talked the entire way to Amboseli. I'm bad at awkward situations anyway--but 4 days??? Nightmare.

Once we got to Amboseli and started to see some animals everyone started to talk a little bit. Our two nights there were great--we saw a ton of animals, ate good food, and camped in a really nice area. The family was really into games: Uno, Skip Bo, Boggle, you name it, we played it. After our first night we woke up and took another drive through the park at around 6:30am. We came back at around 11, because the best times to see animals are early in the morning and late in the afternoon. We went for another drive that afternoon and then came back for dinner, more card games, and bed.

To make a really long story short--basically they took us to Tsavo West, and the campsite was infested with ticks. We got out of the car for 15 minutes and everyone was covered in ticks. They told us our options were:
1) Sleep in tick-infested campground and do a second drive in Tsavo West the next morning
2) Sleep in scrub (my word) hotel and miss the second drive because we would have to leave the park.

They didn't want to pay for an extra day of park fees (which were technically included in our price) and none of us wanted either option. After a lot of yelling and phone calls, it was agreed that they would take us to Nairobi National Park the following day and not reimburse us for our lodging that night (we had opted for a less sketchy hotel). I guess if I don't think about it too hard, I can say it worked out ok, but the process was a nightmare, and we still lost $$ in the end. I'll just try not to think about it too hard. In the meantime, here are some pictures: