Kenya, the First Trip

Friday 1 November at 14.00 we set off from home; it's very cold... no fog, little traffic. We arrive at the airport and there are only 4 hours to departure!!!! We check in, we're given window seats, fantastic!! The plane is practically empty, so as soon as we take off we separate and stretch out, so we can sleep for almost the whole flight!! I wake up, and it's dawn, it takes my breath away; I savour it, and start to get excited: in 2 hours we'll be there. I look outside and the savannah is already below us. We arrive; the flight went very well, my heart beats fast as we're about to get off. We cross the door and go from 0° to +30; the air is warm, it envelops us, and I, with backpack, sweatshirt and long trousers, melt.

But I'm in Africa at last!! My dream is coming true!! I'm bursting with excitement; we fill in the visa form, pass the checks, collect the luggage and… at last, outside! At our tour operator's desk they're waiting for us, we get on our bus, and the journey towards Watamu begins. We cross Mombasa: cars, people on foot pulling carts loaded to the brim with things, "stalls" at the sides of the roads, clothes for sale, crockery, straw bags, women in colourful clothes who, with babies on their backs, sit at the roadside selling a bit of vegetables, a bit of fruit.

I'm tired, and sleep creeps up on me and I don't notice; I'm jolted about, but I manage to fall asleep; I'm serene, I'm here, at last, where I want to be!!? At a certain point I open my eyes, and at the sides of the road there are expanses of agave, the agave they use to make clothes and carpets, an endless expanse!! Now I can't sit still, there's too much to see: the houses, the people, the sky, the first enormous baobabs, everything! I wish I had eyes like a chameleon!!!! I don't want to miss a single frame of that landscape........I'm falling in love! No, in fact, I know now that I already was!! We arrive at the Barracuda Inn, a village with many little houses; in each little house, two rooms: one on the lower floor, with a veranda, one upstairs, with a terrace, where the bougainvillea climbs and forms a colourful shelter of purple and pink from the sun!! We drop our bags, put on our s

wimsuits and run to the beach!! White, a blinding white, beautiful, the sea beautiful. We lie in the sun and the beach boys arrive!! Each one wants to sell a safari; they have photos, they explain, they all talk at once, they're insistent; we're tired, so we go back to the village. We decide we'll do nothing, just sea, sea, sea!! No sooner said than done!! In the evening we sit in the cool, and talking with other people who had arrived before us, among them a family with a 6-year-old child, we let ourselves be persuaded to do the safari!! Yes, ok, but with whom??? how to trust them? Paola, the child's mother, gives us the contact of Giovanni; she explains that he has a website, ( ) that she had contacted him before arriving, that he issued the receipt, that they had a wonderful time.

So she calls him, and we meet the next day; he explains the programme, he always answers our thousand questions with a smile, and… well, we decide to go!! Giovanni was wonderful. We were intimidated, despite his reassurances, and yet everything was fantastic!! The next morning the safari van with Giovanni waits for us outside the village gate; we're sleepy, the air is fresh, now I can't wait to be inside the park!! I'm struck by the poverty I see; the villages we pass on the road to Tsavo are mud houses with makuti roofs; it's still dark, but many are already on the street, on foot, the luckier ones on bicycles. Giovanni explains that many of them work on the coast and are heading to work.

There are women with jerrycans balanced on their heads, the baby tied with a kanga on their backs: they're going to fetch water!! The children run towards the van, shouting: hello!! waving with one hand, their very white teeth standing out, the smiles they give us as we pass!! Poverty is tangible, but I also see how much dignity: they have nothing and they smile at us. My heart begins to crumble, to scatter, among the smiles of the children, the mothers dressed in a thousand colours, the weights balanced on their heads, little goats running and crossing the road, a strutting rooster!! At last we arrive at Tsavo East park; I'm torn between the video camera and the digital camera......but why don't I have 4 arms? what won't I be able to photograph? Oh God, what if I can't take the photos!! Helppppp The landscapes alternate and every km forcefully takes a piece of my heart.

The colours are more intense, the red earth seeps into you but it's beautiful, the sky is a blue I've never seen!!! We spot the first animals.....I start hopping here and there in the van; now I'd like 4 eyes too!!! I apologise to my companions, but I see that they're excited too!! and we all laugh together, we understand each other, we feel the same sensations. I thought I'd see the animals only from afar, with binoculars, and that they'd be just a tiny dot in the photos, that only I would recognise!!........but here they are!!! 5 elephants cross the road in front of us, and then the zebras and the antelopes...they're there, I can almost touch them, under the bushes the little dik-diks! Abu the driver and Giovanni talk to each other, then they tell us there's a surprise!! The car shoots off...

it drives and drives and we arrive: a family of 6 lions is sleeping near the river......I stop breathing; for me the holiday could end now!!! Instead, many more emotions await me. We drive around until lunchtime and see animals in abundance. More elephants, zebras, buffalo watching us. We arrive at the lodge; it's terribly hot, but I feel nothing.

They give us an enormous room with 2 double beds; we have lunch and set off again at 15.00!! After lunch I go out onto the terrace; at a certain point a group of elephants with 4 calves emerges from the trees and comes to drink at the pool; they're a few metres from us, the little ones play with the water, the big ones seem to pose for us; I'm speechless! During the afternoon safari we drive around in search of as many animals as possible; I'm not tired, I'd like to go on forever! I hear Giovanni calling other clients who are in Watamu, doing other excursions; he wants to know if everything is fine... dear Giovanni is special. During the night it rains and the savannah awakens; it seems strange but there the leaves even look a phosphorescent green!!.......I'll never forget those colours.

We return to Watamu, but first we stop at a village on the way back; the children surround us, we give them what we brought from Italy, far too little!! The children laugh when they see themselves on the camera screen. The week goes on, the weather is good, we also do the blue safari, to what is called Sardinia2; the sea has fantastic colours, it looks painted, a new sea turtle under our boat; when the low tide comes, the boat settles on the strips of sand that emerge, we walk, we swim, then a lunch of lobster, everyone on the boat, eating, laughing, singing!! On the way back we're burnt by the sun; the sunset accompanies us towards our village. I'm tired, but happy! I still have the songs in my ears: "Jambo, jambo bwana. Habari gani. Nzuri sana. Wageni, wakaribishwa. Kenya yetu, Hakuna Matata!!" How many times I've heard it, how many times I'll hear it again!! It wasn't a holiday.

It was an encounter with a land rich in contrasts, but which moved me, which calls me, again and again. Four years have passed since then, I've done many more safaris, other excursions, visited Lamu, Kilifi, Mombasa, the south coast, m