Well, I am down in the SW corner of Kenya, Kericho. This is a camping safari, we set up our own tents nightly but do have a camp cook. We went from Nairobi up to Naguru then back to Lake Nakuru national park then to the Masai Mara national reserve. I’ve seen all types of antelope and gazelles, lions, wildbeasts, cheetahs (including on a kill), giraffes, elephants rhinos, etc. It is quite interesting and I’m having fun.
What a basic trip, cold showers, bathrooms that barely fit our description, good food, travel in a large safari truck, what a different country.
Tomorrow we go into Tanzania for the last week of this trip with our first night on the shore of lake victoria.
Having a good time with our group, mostly auzzies. Did a tea plantation tour today.
Hopefully find a better connection soon or else may not post until the 15.
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As I write this, Fritz is enthusiastically groping my wrist, indicating to me in no uncertain terms that I should not be allowed to leave him ever again.
I didn’t plan to do another post, but today (yesterday) bears comment.
So, it turns out that our flight from Paris to Calgary was moved up three hours.
I’ll let that one sink in…
There we are, about to check in our bags, and we’re told that our plane is literally taking off right now. Notable absences on this plane include… US. Both Char and I just about drop to the ground right there, but since we’re persons of resource and grace, we instead make our way to the airline ticket counter, in the hopes of rearranging our travel. Did you know that Air Transat only makes one flight per week to Calgary from Paris? You do now!
We are informed that, if we pay a 40 euro fee each, we might be fortunate enough to catch their 15:10 flight to Toronto, but other than that we’re on our own, so long, see ya, read the fine print next time… So, we do this, ending up as standby passengers numbers three and four on the flight. And now, two hours of nerve-wracking waiting, hoping that the flight doesn’t fill up. Char, in the interim, checks up on the cost of the next Air Canada or Air France flights, and determines that — if we don’t make this standby flight — we will be on the hook for $4100 to get home. When she tells me this (about 40 minutes before the standby cutoff) I actually felt faint. I don’t generally do that.
Long story short(er), with 5 slots left on the flight, and 5 minutes til cutoff, a lady and her daughter come up to the checkin and get on our plane. At this point, I have given up on getting home, having decided to send Char if there’s only one seat. Our fellow sufferers, two franco-edmontonians with whom we got along famously, are checked in as standbys one and two… and then Char and I are called up to check in. At which point I concealed tears of relief behind my otherwise unnecessary sunglasses… and we ran to the plane.
The rest of the trip was routine, other than spending two extra hours on a plane, two extra hours in an airport, and arriving home about an hour and a half ago, hoping to pass right out… and failing. So, this coda is brought to you by my insomnia.
I popped down to the internet cafe in Paris whilst Char sleeps in a bit to do this last bit of postery. We’re heading off to the airport in two hours, starting the last, longest, and least pleasant leg of the vacation — the ten-hour flight and 3.5-hour drive home.
We’ll see you all over the next little while, probably in small doses because we’re gonna be wiped right out 
So, much like Char’s post below, this one is from Reims, at a local cybercafe. Not a cheap hobby, this mobile internet thing…
Anyway, I’m not going to cover the same ground as she did, nor in fact am I going to bother with a lot of detail at all; I’m tired (again!) and I have only one thing to add (and that’s for Amy): Gargoyles!
Admittedly, this is not the Normandy invasion — we’re not even going to Normandy — but it is Departure Day.
I’m almost packed, lacking just the step of putting my carryon bag together. I’ve figured out the metro routes we need to take to get to our hotel in Paris, two hops total, and I know the metro station I’m going to. I’ve just tracked down phone numbers and addresses for every hotel we’re staying in, and made notes of them, so I’m set for that. Our cats are taken care of (Thanks, Brady!) and the house is nearly in order.
And I’ve got butterflies the size of houses in my belly. I’ve only been on a trip this long once before, and although I was an adult, I still had my Dad with me, which spared me a lot of worry. This is going to be a blast, don’t get me wrong, but I’m still nervous as hell. I’ll be fine once we’re on the road, and I’ll be even better once we’re on the plane, settled in to the hotel, and enjoying the wine and dine of the City of Lights. But for now, I wait to wake Char up, and I twitch with anticipation.
Wow, is my french rusty. Like, decaying post-communist state rusty.
But it’ll do.
We’re going to France!
So, I’ve spent quite a bit of time (and money!) on the phone the last couple of days, trying to line up the hotel for the main part of our trip. Last night, the last pieces fell in to place; we’re set for transportation, housing, and pretty much everything else, now all we have to do is get there. September 4th can’t get here soon enough!
We’ll be doing a few pretty cool things: An overnight ferry ride on the Mediterranean, a week on Corsican beaches, probably the Moulin Rouge in Paris… All told, it’s going to be something special.
We’ll be updating as we go. Welcome to Morruz2008!
Date: 01/30/2006
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