I have always been excited about my birthday. When I was in school/college I never quite liked the idea that my birthday was always in the middle of summer holidays, but as I grew older, I realised that it is the best time of the year because everyone is always willing to take a break! This year, my friends and I set out on an adventure to Kenya. Since Kenya is a country where Indian citizens are granted visa on arrival, all I did was get my yellow fever vaccination, polio drops and packed a lot of stuff. I was ready to board!
On the 12-hour flight with a layover at Abu Dhabi, I read a book cover-to-cover on Kenya — about the forest reserves where the wildlife roamed freely, the clear blue waters against white-sand beaches, snorkeling amidst coral reefs, trekking through mountains and jungles and the upcoming metropolis of Nairobi with its bustling malls, multi-cuisine restaurants and amazing nightlife. Straight from the airport, a convoy of my friends’ cars picked us up and we drove for about four-five hours towards our destination. The landscape around us was absolutely surreal with dramatic manketti trees and cute acacia bushes on either sides. Beyond that, on both the sides of the road, for as far as the eyes could see, there was just plain land and the most vivid display of cloud-layers one can imagine.
Our first stop was the gates of Tsavo West National Park — or as the legend has it, the place of “man-eating ghost-lions”. While approaching our lodge, I had my first glimpse into the magical wildlife of Africa when we had a tall, slender and spotted companion waiting in the middle of the road staring directly at us. It was the first time I saw a giraffe in its natural habitat. I got out of the sunroof and like a typical tourist, clicked a selfie with my first African friend. We brought in my birthday at midnight, with the entire kitchen and bar staff singing in Swahili, not the birthday song, but Hakuna Matata instead. It was truly a very unique experience.
One of the first noticeable things about the place, believe it or not, is the air. Sounds funny, but honestly, the air, atmosphere or weather — whatever you may call it, has an exceptional quality about it. It is not just pure, but also possesses a very refreshing quality. Just sitting in Tsavo, surrounded by the abundance of mother Earth and breathing that exquisite air, felt so immensely peaceful, as if I had inhaled a part of heaven and it flowed through my blood and cleansed my aura. Tsavo is a very big park. So the variety of landscape adds to the variety of wildlife that can be spotted in the region. We went for multiple “game-drives” as they call it, but unfortunately we didn’t spot any exciting carnivores. The experience was mind-blowing nevertheless.
During our first safari game-drive, we came across a herd of red elephants. Red! They are exactly the colour of the soil. I stared at their white glistening tusks. I had never seen anything like them. A few metres ahead of them we saw another herd of these red elephants. This time the male elephant stared right at me and the minute I clicked his picture, he rumbled, stood on his hind legs and charged towards our car. Thankfully, we were on a curved road and were out of their sight very soon.
The following days, we came across giraffes, zebras (which in my opinion were designed by God’s coolest artists), gazelles, impalas, wildebeests in the jungle and hippos and crocodiles at the spring-lake. The landscape and the atmospheric curvature projected breathtaking views. With every passing day and curve, the words “all journeys have secret destinations of which the traveller is unaware,” echoed in my ears. What a journey it had been!
The writer is a fashion designer bitten by the travel bug
