THE PLANNING OF THE GREAT ELKIN SAFARI / MY STAYCATION

The Great Elkin Safari officially starts tomorrow. 

Months of planning, the Elkins are here and tomorrow we ship out for a week of GREAT animal viewing.

I can’t tell you how excited I was when back in June 2015, my best friend of **cough cough**18 years, sent me a message that she was coming to Kenya, with my god-daughters and of course her husband.

EXCITED MUCH!

I was that excited that I started planning their itinerary there and then.  There was so much I wanted to show them, where I lived, where I was volunteering at the time and as time evolved where I worked.  As I toiled over their itinerary I realized that the Elkins needed about 25 weeks to see what I wanted them to see, which I knew was hilarious!  So as 2015 progressed, the itinerary was manipulated, prodded, changed and moulded till we had what was a pretty good damn itinerary with the time frame that we had.  I asked all the people I knew about where to go, where to stay and in the end Shane, in typical fashion, booked it all from Australia on a website that tailor makes African safaris.  I was actually okay with that, as it took the pressure off me, in case things did not go to plan.  I would not be the one to blame!!!!  We ended up booking our weeks safari with a company called Kikwetu Cultural Adventures.

http://kikwetuculturaladventures.com/ 

Before our trip had even started we were getting phone calls confirming pick-up times, telling us the night before what our first day would bring and if we had any questions.  They were excellent, and coming from the tourism sector, I was pretty impressed. 

So we had 16 days in total. 

It seems a long time, but there was so much to squeeze in during that time.

Our final itinerary looked like this:

3 nights in Nairobi

1 night in Lake Nakuru

1 night in Lake Naivasha

3 nights in the Maasai Mara

1 night in Nairobi

3 nights in Stone Town-Tanzania

4 nights in South Coast - Diani

For me Samburu and Amboseli had to be dropped from the itinerary and for Shane the Rwandan gorilla’s had to be dropped due to time, but you know what that means?  The Elkins will just have to return.  Somehow, sometime, maybe on the back of another trip, transit via Kenya so that I can show them more of what I call my home.

In the lead up to their arrival, I was starting to look at my own surroundings and found I was asking myself what would the Elkins think?  What would they think about that truck that had 23 people in the back of it?  What would they think of the men urinating along the main road.  What would they think of the crazy matatu drivers?  What would they think of children playing so close to the roads?  It was kind of cool to look through some-one else’s eye at something you see and take for granted every day.  There was also the introduction of my Australia family to my Kenyan family aka my husband, which was a little nerve racking, as I really wanted them to like each other, which I shouldn’t be worried, as Eric, Shelly and Shane are amazing people, and amazing people  magnate to other amazing people, so I know I shouldn’t worry.  But I worried all the same.

I don’t think I realized that this day would come so quickly, having my BEST FRIEND in KENYA!  My god-daughters are growing so quickly, and I think at their ages of 8 and 10, it is a perfect time for them to see Kenya and to make memories that they will keep for a lifetime.

THE ELKINS ARE IN KENYA AND THE MUGO’S ARE EXCITED. 

Our safari starts tomorrow and I can’t think of a better country to have a ‘staycation’ and better people to spend my holidays with.