Sunday was an early morning wake up call with all our bags needing to be ready to be loaded onto the pickup and bus at 4.30am, everyone was ready and set to go and we even managed to get away 5 minutes early at 4.55am. With a box full of Juliet's mandazis we headed to the Busia Border, where we would do a land crossing into Kenya and be picked up by our safari vehicles, to head to the Masai Mara.
After 2 hours of driving. we arrived at the border, where we found hundreds of trucks waiting to cross the border - by the rate at which they were moving some of those trucks would probably be there for at least 2 days! Our bus however went ahead and dropped us off at the point where we could walk across the One-Stop border. We unloaded all our bags, made a quick toilet stop (a rating 1 out of 10 toilet at best) and then after saying a final goodbye to Robert and William, we walked across the border and then just like that we were in Kenya.
The crossing was interesting in that we went to the Uganda Immigration counter, departed Uganda and then walked 2 metres to the Kenyan Immigration counter and we were welcomed into Kenya. Our 4 safari vas were already there and Nelson, Elijah, Sam and Isaac, our 4 drivers welcomed us and proceeded to load all of our bags - we then got on ourselves and began the journey to the Masai Mara... After a number of stops along the way and about 8 hours of driving, we arrived at the Sekenani Gate of the Masa Mara National... we popped up the roof on each of the vans and then proceeded to do a little game drive on the way to our Ol Moran Tented Safari Camp, which would be our base for 2 nights.
That evening we had a nice dinner a celebratory birthday cake for Amelia, with the camp's staff parading the cake in a congo line along with singing and dancing - we did enjoy this a second time the next night for Kathy. We got up early the next morning had breakfast and headed out for an all-day game drive complete with packed lunch. The game drive delivered - we say almost 17 lions, elephants, cheetahs, giraffes, hippos, crocodiles, lots of zebras, wildebeests, hyenas, gazelles, antelopes, wild boars (pumbas), topis, vultures, malibu storks, ostriches, mongooses, and many other species - all in one day!
We then enjoyed our last African dinner and some welcome rest, before beginning our long trip home the next day. After leaving the national park, we stopped at a Kenyan Art and Curio shop where we had our final team debrief, which was led by Johann and was preceded by a song written by Joyce that featured each of the team members. Our debrief reflected on WHAT we had done and experienced, it then asked the question SO WHAT and then we were challenged with the final question WHAT NOW. Johann then shared some re-entry thoughts and encouraged the team to continue to tell the stories of what they had seen and experienced. It was then off to Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport for our flights home.
Once at the airport we spent some time at Java House with coffee and some refreshments until we had to say good bye to Jim and Joyce who had an extended stay on at the airport before their flight to Victoria Falls and continuing a long awaited vacation in South Africa. The rest of the team then headed in to the airport and checked in for our flight to Dubai.
As we arrived in Dubai we found out that our Melbourne flight was already delayed by 4 hours, this was not great news but there was not much we could do except find ways to stay comfortable and to try and rest for almost 8 hours. At this point we said good bye to Roy and Tamie who were heading of the London, Wales and Scotland to enjoy a vacation with family.
The team finally did get on our Emirates flight back to Melbourne which had been delayed due to the closed airspace by Israel due to escalations in the war in Syria. The flight was long but everyone was keen to get home, on arrival back in Melbourne it was quite busy at the airport due to us arriving at a delayed time, however we all got our bags and got through customs and immigration without any hassles.
Now we are back home and just like that team UG30 is history, however it is yet to be seen the NOW WHAT for each of our team members and how this trip will impact and shape our journey from here on. THANKS for reading and following our journey...
Blessings
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