Going on an African safari is truly the adventure of a lifetime. It's a journey filled with unforgettable moments, and certain key elements make it a truly one-of-a-kind experience. For Melissa and me, our safari in Kenya stands out as one of the most remarkable adventures we've ever had, and we're thrilled to share it with you. and we're thrilled to share it with you. Today, we're kicking off a three-part series diving into essential components of planning an extraordinary safari. In this first episode, we'll focus on the unique and immersive lodging experiences that you will encounter. Outside of game drives, your lodge is where you'll spend much of your time, and it's a critical part of what makes your safari truly memorable. Join us as we recount our experiences across four different safari camps, each with its own distinctive charm and character. We will also share what we think you should be looking for in safari camps if you're booking them yourself. Join
us as we discover what made each one unforgettable and get inspired for your own adventure. I'm Scott. And I'm
Melissa. And we're the Sunshine
Sunshine Travelers. Our passion is travel and sharing our experiences with those who enjoyed as much as we do, or those who want to learn more about travel, or even those who just want to live vicariously through our travel stories. No matter where you fall along that journey, get ready to hear about our firsthand experiences as we visit some of the most interesting and amazing places on earth. If you missed our interview with
Piper McKay, the owner of McKay Africa, make sure to go back to episode 73 where we interviewed her before the trip. It will help set the stage for what is to come in this series of episodes. But let's talk about what we mean when we talk about the camps that we stayed in. I had at least one person ask me if we were actually camping during this trip. So if you've ever wondered what lodging on a safari is like, today we'll share some of that information with you.
Yeah, and I think that your aunts, Rita and Brenda, who we're going to have on, I think at first they were probably a little worried about that too when we started talking about safari camps.
Yeah, and we started talking about tentsari camps. Yeah. And we started talking about tents, right? That we were going to be staying in these tents. That's
true. Yeah, the tents. Yeah. So at a high
So at a high level, let's give a description of the types of lodging that's available to you on a safari. All right. So the first
first one you'd be looking at is luxury safari lodges. So these are high-end lodges that offer an immersive experience. Luxury amenities, spa surfaces, gourmet dining, private plunge pools, breathtaking views. These lodges typically blend elegant accommodations with local aesthetics and are situated in prime locations for wildlife viewing. And we saw a few of those really in the Mara, but we saw, you know, a few.
Yeah. And we definitely saw the vehicles from some of them as well. So like one of the, one of the parks we were in, I can't remember which one, I think maybe in the Maasai Mara, they had the JW Marriott Lodge, right? And so, you know, we're probably all very familiar with the JW Marriott. And so if you think they've put a JW Marriott Lodge out there in the middle of one of these parks, it's going to be a really high-end lodge that you're staying at. But one thing that I'd say about lodges, just to kind of make everyone aware, is usually lodges have more people at them. Right. So they can accommodate a larger number of rooms. There's going to be more people staying there. And so the exclusivity of it probably seems to be a little bit less, even though the amenities may be more. a little bit less, even though the amenities may be more.
may be more.
But if you're looking for more of a typical hotel room type experience, you're probably going to want to look at the lodges.
Yeah. And we've told McKay that we want to come back and we want to experience some of the lodges so that we can firsthand tell our listeners what those are like.
And then the second one is the tenant camps. So the tenant camps are what we experience. They give you a very authentic feel of being very close to nature, but they also offer comfort such as private bathrooms, beds, sometimes even air conditioning. Now, not the ones that we stayed at, but we didn't need them. So we're going to talk a little bit more about that. So don't think, you know, when we say, oh, no, no air conditioning, that you need that for them. But we did have the one camp where we said
did have the one camp where we said it would have been nice.
But really only in the afternoon. It really was only the day that we arrived, but we didn't need it for in the night.
That's right.
So, but these range from basic to ultra luxurious as well. So don't just think, you know, you're pitching a tent in the backyard and this is the camp. Very luxurious. And many of them are semi-permanent, allowing them to be set up in optimal wildlife areas or permanent. But they could very easily be. I mean, we did see some where like the land had flooded. And so, you know, the structure that they're kind of in would be destroyed. But, you know, all the other stuff could be, you know, moved fairly easily. could you be, know, moved fairly easily.
Yeah, and the ones that we stayed in, it seemed like the bathroom part of it was a more fixed structure. Like there was some concrete walls to it and things like that, whereas the rest of the tent, a really thick canvas material.
Right. So number three, mobile-tinted camps. These are often referred to as fly camps. These camps move seasonally to follow the wildlife migrations. They do offer a true sense of adventure. They're set up in different locations, allowing you to experience diverse ecosystems. So mobile camps typically focus on the essentials, comfortable beds, communal dining, but often with bucket showers. So that is not what we experienced. but dining, often with bucket So showers. that is not what we experienced. No, but it was an
No, but it was an option when we were talking to McKay on the initially, you're going through a checklist of things that you want to experience. And I think the mobile tenant camps was an option that you could choose from because remember, they don't own any kind of lodging. And so they would just go and find a partner that does this.
That's true. So number four would be bush camps. So these are usually more rustic than tented camps. Bush camps focus on immersive, eco-friendly stays close to nature. And these camps provide the essentials, often lack Wi-Fi. So everywhere that we stayed had Wi-Fi and other modern luxuries, offering a remote off the grid experience for guests looking to connect with nature. But these could be like photography expeditions, too. So when we talked to Piper at the end of our safari, she mentioned one of the ranches that we were in, that they would do these night photography shoots and would actually stay in the park. So that's probably something more like what they would have experienced for an immersive experience for photography like that. The travel
insurance you're looking for is an insurance. Unplanned incidents are rare but can crop up when you travel. That's why we want you to have the most robust travel protection for your next adventure. When a travel emergency arises, traditional travel insurance may not come to your aid, and a medical evacuation can cost up to $300,000. The cost when you have a Global Rescue membership is $0. That's why when the unexpected happens, you want the leader in rescue, evacuation, and medical advisory behind you. You want Global Rescue. Visit sunshinetravelers.com slash globalrescue to learn more. Using our affiliate link helps support our podcast and allows us to continue to provide new content each week. There is no extra cost to you and we are compensated through the affiliate. Well, for our trip, we stayed in the luxury tenant camps. And in this case, most of them were like 12 tents or less. So, you know, going back to what I was saying about the lodges, where the lodges can have large, you know, numbers of people in them, these tented camps that we stayed in were very small in number. And so you weren't ever going to have a bunch of people there at one time. Matter of fact, I want to say when we were at Intim, at one time. Matter of fact, I want to say when we were at Intim, they said kind of the max is somewhere around 26 to 34
26 to 34 people. Yeah. So they mentioned that they had a few tents that could accommodate like a third person. So if you had a child or if you had a party of three or something like that, that that could hold a third person. And so a lot of times in like their fully book season, they might have that many. But we had one instance while we were there that only had like three tents that were full. And so we had a very small number of people a couple of the nights. What that
means is that you just have the most dedicated service, right? And so you've got really people who are almost looking after just you in those cases. Yeah, absolutely. So let's talk about what these tents were like and
absolutely. So let's talk about what these tents were like and what it encompassed. So the tent basically had either, well, I guess usually it really was a king bed, right? Because then if it was, if you had two people that were just, you know, traveling together like your aunts, they would split those beds into two. I guess some of them had their dedicated king beds and some of them had them where they would be pushed together. Am I correct in saying that?
their dedicated
No, I think they were all two twin beds. And so the two twin beds could be pushed together to make a king or they could be separated into twin beds.
Okay. But I feel like probably on some of ours, instead of just being pushed together and like the sheets were like, they would make it up like maybe with the mattress pad and stuff that made it feel like a king bed. Like I never felt like we had like two twins pushed together in our case.
Yeah, you may be right.
Okay. Like I didn't feel like that. Sometimes you feel like that, but I didn't feel like that. And then in the bathroom, we had the shower and then the sinks and the toilet. And sometimes we even had double sink. And then we also had things like, I mean, you had places to like, usually like a trunk thing that you could store things in, places to hang your clothes. Most of them had like a desk and sometimes like seating area. Sometimes it was seating area inside and outside to where you could be in the screens. And because it was the canvas
seating area.
the canvas tent, but most of them had like a structure over them too, right? So if it rained, like it wasn't getting in. They had some kind of structure just depending on the camp.
A lot of the thatched roofs, we saw that in a lot of the camps where they had built a thatched roof over the tent. Yeah. And like a porch
too. So a porch with like porch furniture. And one of them that we stayed at, Elephant Bedroom in Samburu, actually we had our own plunge pool as well. Yeah. That was
was pretty nice because it looked out over the river. as well. Yeah, that was pretty nice because it looked out over the river. And when you got back to your tent, say in the afternoon, and it was kind of in the heat of the day, is you could just get into that little plunge pool right there and kind of soak or, you know, it was about the size of a hot tub. So there wasn't any swimming happening there. But, you know, you just get in there and relax and you can watch what's going on in the river and just kind of chill out. One of the things they tell you, though, is to keep that pool covered because the elephants will come in and elephants drink
happening there.
the elephants will come in and elephants drink like 180 gallons of water a day. And so they will absolutely empty that pool out. Or if it's not the elephants, then the monkeys will come and be chilling inside your pool when you get back. So they do ask you to keep those covered when you're not using them.
Yeah. And so I had a real easy cover. And so some of them, the separation between the bedroom and the bathroom was almost like tent flaps, but we had a couple where it was an actual door as well. We also had one tent, so an elephant bedroom also going into the tent was an actual door, whereas sometimes it was a zipper and tent flaps as well. So it just was a variety, which was neat to stay in different places. So you could really see the variety of the ways that it had set up the camps. But most of them had all those basic amenities as well. And then as far as like the camp itself, most of them had a common area to hang out and mingle with your party or with other guests and then usually had some kind of bar available. So like a place to sit and just relax, get a drink. But then they also had the dining areas as well. And every place that we stayed had really
that we stayed had really comfortable furniture for this kind of common area to just hang out. I would say everywhere except for the first one, the glamping Kenya. I would say that it didn't have as much of a common area to, you know, just hang out and relax and stuff like that, like all of the others that we'd go to, but did have a place where you could eat inside or outside because we did both while we were there. Other than that, everywhere else had these really nice, nicely furnished common areas.
And we should probably mention, too, that two of them also had swimming pools. So that Glamping, Kenya you mentioned had a swimming pool with, like, loungers as well, as did Tortillas Camp that we stayed at. And Amboseli had a swimming pool. So the other one, Intim in the Mara, did not. But so, you know, that's just some things to look at if you are going to be, you know, taking advantage of those. Honestly, we didn't really take advantage of that. I did the plunge, I used the plunge pool one of the days. But other than that, we just, you know, we're so focused on the other things, resting, you know, of course, the game drives that we didn't, you know, have time for that anyway.
We're going to talk about the safari experiences in another episode. So we want to hold that off and we want to encourage you guys to come back to the next episode where we're going to talk about the safari itself.
Yeah. And so then the next thing was the dining area that I kind of briefly mentioned. And so this varied between different ones. And so some of them times it was outside and sometimes it was covered. And so, and even it was interesting because they would move them around so that one elephant bedroom, one of the days we had lunch like down near the river. And then one of the days we had it, they had all the tables set out like more on a patio. And then one day they had kind of moved those. So that varied, but we always went down to that common area and had our meals at each of the camps.
The trip that we took, even though we're not going to talk about the safari itself, McKay Africa, they don't own these camps. And so they work with partners based on the needs and the requirements that are given from us for the trip. And then also the budget range that you're trying to stay in, and they help put together a plan on that. In the case of the one camp, Tortillas, that was the only one where McKay didn't provide our safari guides, because this is what they focus on normally, is providing the safari guides, And they've got these highly trained, excellent guides that they provide. But at the one camp, Tortillas, it was a package deal where you had to use their guide. In this case, it happened to be a guide that Piper McKay had used many times before. guide that Piper McKay had used many times before. And she was very comfortable with and making sure that, you know, we had an excellent experience while we were there. And so the guide that we had there, his name was Ali. He actually worked for Tortilla's camp. But otherwise, we had guides from McKay Africa who stayed at these camps with us and took us out on the game drives.
Right. And so that's probably one thing we should point out at this point is as almost as an amenity of the camp is that if you are kind of booking that yourself and looking at where to go is thinking about how are you going to do these game drives, right? And so if those camps have somebody available to where you book that as part of your experience, and we saw tons of people doing that, right? So we would see people out on these game drives and they would be in the vehicle of the different camps. And so, you know, making that as part of your reservation as well. So that might be something to look into if you're not booking it as a package, all inclusive like we did. So a few other things that you might want to look at that we wanted to point out, a couple of the things that camps could offer are things like spa services. So that was just not something that we had kind of fit into our schedule and even thought about and looked at, but they had said, OK, we have this available kind of once we got there, if you wanted to book it. So Intimidamara and Tortillas and Amboseli had that that you could book as well.
Well, let's talk a little bit about these camps and how they're set up, because, you know, I don't know that I really thought about this ahead of time. I know Piper did mention it in our interview that we did with her. These camps are set in the middle of these national parks, right? Or on the edges of these national parks. And it's not like when you go into the camp, they built some kind of wall or fence or something like that to where only the humans are going into the camp. There's no borders for these camps. And so often the animals will move or come into these camps at different times of the day. And when we stayed at Elephant Bedroom, they have this really huge elephant. Now, we never saw him, but his name is Obama. And Obama naturally comes through the camp almost every day because they have these date palms that he loves to eat inside the camp. And so he will come through on his way down to the river or whatever he's doing, and he will come through the camp. And so he will come through on his way down to the river or whatever he's doing, and he will come through the camp. We never saw him, but one night we did hear Obama outside our tent because it had to be a huge elephant because he was breaking trees and things like that out there. breaking trees and things like that out there. And Melissa popped up. I don't know if she thought maybe one of those monkeys had gotten in our tent and was messing things up. And so she popped out of bed. But we asked one of the warriors the next day about it. And he said, oh, yeah, he was outside your tent last night.
Yeah. So that particular one elephant bedroom is literally set in the middle of Samburu right by the river. And so, like Scott said, I mean, the animals are free to come and go. So how do guests stay protected? And so they do have these, in that case, it's the Samburu warriors or the men from the Samburu tribe who are kind of guarding the camp. And so especially, I mean, you're free to walk around during the day and, you know, they're there looking and watching, when you're ready to go to dinner or it's dark when you're ready to go back, you have a flashlight or you could, you know, use the flashlight on your phone and they actually walk you. They escort you back, back and forth. And if you needed to do something on the night or something like that, but they're up all night.
night or something
I mean, we talk about the elephant, but it could just as easily be one of those big cats walking through your camp. And so, you know, just something to know, but never anything to fear because like Melissa said, those warriors are there and, you know, they'll move them along if they need to. We actually experienced at one point where an elephant had gotten really close to us and our guide said something to that elephant in Swahili and that elephant backed up and walked away. And so these guys are very accustomed to dealing with this and they know what to do and they're going to make sure you stay safe.
Yeah. And I think actually when we heard the elephant, I think I heard him kind of like walking around, too. and I think Yeah, actually when we heard the I elephant, think I heard him kind of like walking around too. You know, and all the tents were, in most of the camps, are kind of close to that main, you know, main lodge and stuff too. So, but we did see a lot of monkeys there at Elephant Bedroom, like even on our porch and Amboseli at the Tortillas Camp, some baboons. even on our porch and Amboseli at the Tortillas some camp, baboons.
And so in those two in they had a key particular, or on the tent where you close the doors they had a carabiner. together,
the doors they had a carabiner. together, So they were like, make sure you put this on because these guys will, you know, open the doors. They will, you know, unzip your tent. And then even in that, in the last one at the Tortillas, they had a trunk and they were like, please put any medicines, any supplements, any snacks you have in that wooden trunk because they will sniff it out and they will figure out how to get in. Yeah, the elephant bedroom.
elephant bedroom. I mean, you don't fear for safety. You don't fear that someone's going to come in and steal your stuff and things like that. And so we were just like, oh, we're not going to lock our tent up. But they would come behind us and lock it up for us. And it was because of the reason of the monkeys and stuff like that. They don't want them to come in and take your stuff and run off with it.
Yeah, because they said in like two seconds, they can like lug off suitcases and bags. And you know, they just they want the food and the and the snacks and stuff like that so that's just such an interesting experience and and then also in the Masai Mara where we were at the Intim camp so they actually have so there it's the Masai warriors and they will they have one posted it's kind of in between each two, right? No, I think it was one per tent.
No, I think it was one per tent.
And so those poor guys, they have to stay up all night to watch. So in that case, I mean, it could be anything that comes into the camp. We saw some giraffes super close by one day, but then the hippos. So I didn't know this, but hippopotamuses feed at night. So they stay in the water all day and then they get out of the water at night. They can go up to 10 kilometers. And so there were hippos really close by in that river. So it could be hippos. I mean, it could be anything. And so they have to watch out and just make sure that, you know, all the guests are safe. So bless them with their stick, you know, watching us. But I was just like, OK, thankful for them. And it's not, you know. Yeah, because we
Yeah, because we would come out in the mornings and, you know, they'd just be right outside your tent there. And we always tried to speak with them and, you know, ask them if they had seen anything overnight. And I remember one morning he was like, oh, yeah, Hippo was right there. Yeah, we stayed there three nights and every morning he was like, oh yeah, hippo was right there.
Yeah, we stayed there three nights and every day he was like, yep, yeah. So that was just, it's so interesting.
So the last camp though that we stayed at did have an electric fence around it. And that was kind of a unique setup because it was designed to keep the animals out, unlike the other ones. But, you know, obviously no fence can keep a baboon or a monkey out or the small animals that can just come under the fence. And so you did have some of those in there. But in order to make sure that you still had a way to see the most wildlife and stuff like that, they had built a little pond or a drinking pond for them that they kept filled with water. Amboseli is a very dry, it's a prairie. And matter of fact, we saw a bunch of little cyclones of dust inside this park, right? Very dry. And they have a way to continuously pump water into this watering hole. And the animals will come to that watering hole outside the fence, but in a way that you could see it from that common area and the dining area, which sat up on a hill. And so you look down and you saw the animals there. And Melissa, you want to tell the story about the Maasai warrior and chasing the baboons off?
Yeah, so we were sitting there at breakfast and there was some zebras. But we could tell there was a lot of baboons. And then all of a sudden we see him and I guess he's throwing rocks at them. I thought he had thrown a
I thought he had thrown a spear. I was like, oh my God, this guy's out here hunting.
I was like, oh
And so we asked him about it. And they said, yeah, they said if they just, you know, let too many of those baboons overtake, they'll come into the camp and just wreak havoc. Now, we did see one, I think, the day before sitting in the tent, you know, ran by. So there are a few that come and go, but they said they just can't let them overrun. And so that camp is interesting. So it's not actually located inside the park. It's right at the edge of the park. So I think that's why they can have the, you know, the fence like that. But two of the other ones were located in the Masamara and in Samburu, like in the middle of the camp, or I'm sorry, in the middle of the park. And so they can't, you know, fence off that. Yeah, but
it was interesting because even though it had the electric fence at night after dinner, if you were walking back, most people would walk back to their rooms. We had a different situation because our aunts were traveling with us and someone would drive us down to the rooms. But a couple of nights we walked down and one of the warriors would actually escort you to your room, even though you were inside that fence. So from a safety perspective, guys, let me tell you, 100% of the time we felt safe. Right. But
it's, and it's really only safety from the animals is all.
Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely. Because I mean, in the grand perspective, like there's so few people, you know, out in these remote areas as well.
That's right. Well, you know, you can't talk about these camps without mentioning the food. This food was fantastic and so abundant. They wanted to feed you at each of these camps, and each one of them had this amazing set of chefs that worked
there. Yeah, absolutely incredible food. A lot of them had menus that included local dishes. And so they'd have a little briefing every time when you checked in and if you had any, you know, dietary restrictions, which we had had to, you know, submit ahead of time. But just to go over some of those, like, you know, I'm allergic to crustaceans. You don't eat things like cilantro and just stuff like that. And they would go over all that with you, but they would then they would absolutely remember it and, you know, cater to those preferences for sure. Yeah. Every meal was catered to your
Yeah. Every meal was catered to your preferences, but, you know, they did offer the opportunities to try local dishes. And I think that was really cool. But, you know, if you're not adventurous and you're not into trying that or, you know, for some dietary reason you couldn't, they then also have kind of the standard fare offering as well.
Yeah. And that's what I was going to say is I think that if you they would say if there's something you want that's not on the menu, then just ask. I mean, I think they could have fixed you. I was going to say a hamburger, but they would say a beef burger. You know, if you wanted a beef burger and french fries or you wanted them to try to do, I don't know, chicken nuggets or a steak or, you know, they could they could modify that because I would say that the food was on the high end of the way things are prepared, right? Like very culinary. And you would pick from, you know, the different ones, but I mean, anything that you wanted bonafide or, you know, leave this off or that kind of thing. I mean, it was just like so much food and absolutely phenomenal. That's
what I was just about to say. There was no shortage of food, though,
That's what I was just about to There was no shortage say. of when food, that though, chef came out and presented that. Right. And it was always it was always three courses, too. You breakfast was a little bit different So breakfast was dependent on the place. know, situation. It was between ordering it or a buffet. And but we did a lot of bush breakfasts as well so and then lunch most of them were you order it there was one place that was the buffet and then at dinner but it was always yeah three courses and and then in some they were always just like well it was you know we'd say you know we'd finish it and it was wonderful and they said well do you want another one? It's like, no, we don't want another
one. Thank you though. But even when we're saying buffet, like they prepared some type of hot dish for you right there. And then they had things like fruit and stuff like that, that was, you know, on the buffet. Oh, absolutely. Like if like an omelet
Like if like an omelet station or even the one that was lunch, it was like a pasta station or something like that. So, yeah. And when we talk about a buffet, I mean, they would fix it for what, like 12 or 15 people. So it wasn't like a.
And in these luxury tenant camps, you didn't have to worry about things like water. Now, they provided you water in your rooms for drinking and for brushing your teeth and stuff like that. You couldn't use the water out of the tap to brush your teeth or to drink. And even I want to say it was in the last one, they actually had a filtered water tap in the room.
Right. They did it at Tortillas, which is interesting because we have one living in Florida. Water is not so tasty. And so we filter our drinking water. And so it was almost the same as that. So it was it was interesting to, you know, kind of after all those days, right, to have a faucet you could turn on to brush your teeth. But it wasn't a big deal. I mean, you know, they had plenty of water. They would refresh it like multiple times a day if you needed them to. So you just sort of got in the habit of, you know, don't rinse your toothbrush and use this filtered water. Yeah. And, you
know, it was great because they had filter water available. And so you could get things like ice inside the camps. They washed all their fruits and vegetables in the filtered water. And so you could actually have a salad in one of these places and not get sick because that's one of the things that people warn you about is, you know, the fruits and the salads, if they wash it in the unfiltered water, you can get sick. But in these cases, in these camps where we stayed, they used the filtered water to wash all that and never had any problem.
Yeah, I think that's a great point because I think a lot of people had told us going into that, you're going to have to be so careful with fruits and vegetables. And no, we had an absolute abundance of the most delicious fruit, you know, salads, vegetables, and also not realizing that a lot of this food is absolutely local. They have so many fresh fruits in Kenya. They're also a massive pineapple producer and some of the best pineapple in the world. Things like passion fruit and, you know, melons, and it was things that were in season. So we were just blown away by, you it was know, like, a lot of times it was like, this oh, is a kind of like our local bread and, you know, just different things like that, that they wanted you you to, know, to try. So they had, you know, a good variety of like almost like Western dishes, European dishes, but then African selections, local Kenyan type dishes, if you wanted to try those as well.
And the one thing that I would say is they will try to feed you dessert at every meal. So just be prepared for that. It's okay to say no, turn it down. They'll worry about you. They'll worry that something's wrong. We had a couple of times where we either had a late lunch and so we didn't want dinner or, you know, we maybe had a late breakfast and so we didn't want to have lunch. And they came to check on us. They're like, are you OK? You know, but it's like we just can't eat this much. Right. Or, you know, it's too much. We need smaller meals or something like that. And they will feed you like kings. Yeah. And I wanted to point out too that the camps that we were staying
And I wanted to point out too that the camps that we were staying in, it was like an all-inclusive package. So all the food was included, you know, the three meals. Most of them, the alcoholic beverages, not like, you know, super high-end premium. They had a few, like if you, you know, if you want a gin or you wanted a whiskey or something like that, they had a couple. Yeah, beer, wine, a lot of I mean, most of it was included and kind of had house wines
a couple. Yeah,
had house wines and things like that. But I mean, they had other things available if you needed it. But, you know, soft drinks, everything was absolutely included. And so, some yeah, of the meals we just were like, we've OK, got to take a nap you or, soft know, drinks, everything was absolutely included. And so, some yeah, of the meals we just were like, okay, we've got to take a nap or, you know, whatever, we're just, we're done.
And then, and sometimes they would send out breakfast with you on your game drive. So you would have what they called a bush breakfast. And so, you know, we had a couple of different variations of that. They sent it out in like these little camping packs or whatever that kept it, you know, warm in like a metal tin. I don't know.
know. We just laughed because one time his aunts were like, OK, because we hadn't had a bush breakfast yet. And so they were like, OK, well, what like what is it? What are you packing us? We'll just take a Danish, you know, or whatever. what are you packing us we'll just take a danish you know or whatever and so we get out there and it's literally you know our guide richard is like spreading it on the front of the vehicle and it's like everything you can think of it's like their sausage and their bacon and then it's like their pancakes which are really crepes and i can't remember all this stuff like oh yeah we had yeah boiled eggs and there a massive amount of fruit. And toast. then, oh, Like, toast was a big thing. You and jelly and butter. know, I it's like a full breakfast. And, like, mean, It's an English breakfast. yeah. Oh, that's right. Oh, yeah, they had So, the beans and then tomatoes. I you on real plates And, mean, with the so, real know, silverware you the whole nut and, hot know, juices. coffee, tea, I the whole nut hot And I yeah. And, mean, coffee, tea, juices. mean, just,
stuff like oh yeah
I it's like a full breakfast. And, like, mean, It's an English breakfast.
So when you're eating that at like 10 you you 930, get back a.m., at 1130. know, I'm not eating it. You I can't eat again know, because I just stuffed my face with all this yummy food.
all this yummy food. It was great. We also had the experience of a sundowner. And so they took us up to this great overlook and they had set it up and they had like little appetizers and they had asked ahead of time, like what kind of drinks or beverages would you like to have? So they made sure to have your favorite out there. We had one other set of guests who were there with us and we just, you know, we got to know them a little bit. And matter of fact, have made a connection with them, but enjoyed the sun going down, enjoying that, you know, those beverages and the little appetizers. And then, you know, we went on back to camp and our waiter who took care of us during this time, Timothy, you know, he was the one out there doing the sundowner. But he hurried on back and was there for dinner time and served us.
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that we did want to say, since I talked about Timothy, I want to go ahead and just say like, you know, it was neat getting to talk to him because we found out during that time, because we were talking about the podcast, and we found out that Timothy was a Maasai. So he grew up in the Maasai village and went to school with the intent of working inside of the camps. That was kind of the goal of his education. you know, the camps. That was kind of the goal of his education. But Timothy's never been more than an hour away from his home. So that camp was an hour from where he lives, and that's the furthest he's ever been from home. But he worked there for like two months, and then he'll have a few weeks off. And so it was just neat getting to know some of their stories as well. Like there was a Maasai warrior who was also a guide and then he did something else in the camp, I think as well. But we were having a conversation with him one day and he was asking us where we were from and he said, oh, one of my former teachers was from Atlanta, Georgia, you know, and so just hearing their stories was a phenomenal part of the trip. Yeah. And just being able to make those connections and, you
able to make those connections and, you know, just talking to them about their lives, because you have to think about these camps are remote and they are, you know, serving guests till 10 o'clock at night. And then these wake up calls that we're going to talk about in a second are happening at like 5 a.m. So they don't go home, right? They serve and work in these camps for, like you said, several months, and then they have a few weeks off and then they come back because they're needed to do these things. And so Scott, before we get to that, I wanted to say one thing about the Sundowner is that was one of the experiences, like so many of them on the safari where you're just not like nowhere to look. So it was so cute. They had the setup, they had brought their truck, they had set up this bar and it said Bush Bar and they had set it up so cute. And then there's the sun set, which, you know, I love. And then there's Mount Kilimanjaro. So I'm like, do I sit here and film this cute setup? Do I film this, you know, sunset? And here's Mount Kilimanjaro where we can see the peak of it. It's just one of those experiences. I was like, I don't know where to look at this moment. It's just, you know, so awesome. Well, so while we're
there, Melissa, let's talk about what were some of your favorite experiences in these camps?
So I wanted to talk about actually several because, you know, when you think about going on safari and you think about staying in these camps, I kind of have in my mind, you know, from seeing pictures, I mean, what that looks like. And even, you know, after we have booked this trip, because we did have the help of McKay Africa, you know, and they are said, okay, we think you're, you know, kind of here's the experience, you're going to stay at this camp and this camp, and we didn't go, you know, pre select these camps, we probably could have had some more input if we had any idea, but we didn't. And so, you know, looking at these pictures, but really not knowing what goes into this experience, right? And so that's how we wanted to share a few of these things. And so when we talked about this, I just mentioned to Scott, you know, some of the things that you wouldn't even think about the first camp we were in where they said, do you, you know, what time do you want your wake-up call? So you think about a wake-up call. Okay, they're going to call and wake you up. We can do that alarm on our phone or whatever. And they're like, no, no, we're no, going to bring you.
we're no, going to bring you.
Oh, go ahead.
There were no phones in the room, so I'm not sure what I was thinking about. Yeah, yeah. yeah,
about. Yeah, yeah. yeah, And they're like, no, no, no, we're going to bring you coffee. And I'm like, okay, like this is because you're getting up at, I don't know, depending on, you know, the day and you have to meet, you know, and especially the days that we were going to do either the bush breakfast or we're going to eat when we get back, which was most of the time, right? It was really nice to be, you know, getting ready in the dark, you know, and have them just bring you the, you know, the hot thermos of coffee with a few little biscuits, right, as they would be. They were little cookies like you would have, like shortbread cookies or whatever. So just, you know, having that is, that was amazing. And then the other thing that was really cool is, so the tents, we talked about not really having the air conditioning, and so they're not really going to have the heat either. And so the places where it would get a little bit chilly at night, it wasn't like you're going to be freezing cold. They would actually feel what I would call an old school hot water bottle, right? I remember my grandmother would have the hot water bottle instead of using a heating pad, right? They would fill up this hot water bottle and they would put those on each side of the bed at night. And so then when you got ready to get in bed, you were like, oh, this is like really toasty, sometimes almost a couple, you know, too toasty. And they would have cute little like sweaters on them and stuff like that. So just little things like that, that I think were just super memorable as well. Yeah. And we talked about
about just how everybody who worked in these camps did their utmost to try to remember all of your preferences. And, you know, when you came in, they welcomed you home. And just one of the things that we really enjoyed is they like to teach us a lot of the Swahili. So it's a language that a lot of the or all the tribes use so that they can talk to one another. They have their local tribal language, but then they also all learn Swahili. And so they would teach us a lot of the Swahili sayings and stuff like that. And then when we would remember them, that just made them so happy. So we've talked about this multiple times before, is to learn a few phrases and things like that. And it just creates a bond between you and the person you're interacting with.
Right. I don't know that I've ever been anywhere where like right from the get go, they're so excited to teach you Swahili. I mean, even the guy who met us at the airport, like started from the get go. Do you know any Swahili? And also what's interesting is I think that most of us know more Swahili than we think we do from Than we think we do. the Lion King. Yeah. From the Lion Jumbo King. Rafiki.
the Lion Jumbo King. Rafiki. Jumbo Yeah, Rafiki. Yeah, Jumbo Rafiki.
So, Jumbo means? Hello. And then which Rafiki, we learned. Friend. But we learned a lot of things. Like, we learned how to say, you know, thank you very much. And.
Asante Sana.
And we learned how to say.
You're welcome. You're welcome. Do you remember that one? Do you remember that one? Caribou. Caribou. Caribou. Caribou. And then
one? Caribou. Caribou. Caribou. Caribou. And then also, very good was Missouri Sauna. We like it very much. Very nice. Very nice. Okay, that's right. Very nice. Missouri Sauna. But then we also learned Twindy.
Yeah, Twindy. Let's go.
And Sawa Sawa.
Yeah. Okay, okay.
And Polly Polly.
Yeah, but we would say roly poly.
So, you know, we learned a lot of great, you know, just sayings and we would use them as much as possible. And then the more that we use, the more they tried to teach us. So in just a little while, we're going to tell you lala salama, which means good night.
But what was really cool is I think because we had been, you know, especially by the end, we had been at four different camps, but we had stayed, you know, we'd learned it from him at the airport. And then we'd stayed at the Makushla house in Nairobi first, which they also taught us things. So by like the last place, they were very impressed with the amount. They were like, how long have you been here? Where all have you been? You know, as much as we already knew. So, but you're right. Then they would try to teach us something that we didn't know, which was very fun. So I think we didn't have that
I think we didn't have that in our notes, but that's something interesting is how many different places we stayed. So when we got there, we stayed at Makushla House. So when we got there, we stayed at Makushla House. So that was our first night there. Then we went on to the Glamping which was near Kenya, Solio Ranch. From we left going to the there, and that's where Samburu, we checked into Elephant Bedroom. We left went to the Samburu, Masai and that's where Mara, we stayed at the Intim camp. We left the Masai went to Mara, and that's where Amboseli, we stayed at the Tortillas camp. And then we left the Tortillas camp and the flew back to and we Amboseli, stayed as my aunt Nairobi, the Four Seasons. at, said, But don't get excited. It was actually the Four Points by Sheraton. But it ended up being a really nice.
it ended up being a really nice. It was probably the nicest Four Points by Sheraton. I won't say in the world, but that we've ever stayed in, right? Like restaurants. And we had a very nice room.
Like restaurants.
a very nice room. And yeah, so. Yeah, so. So we
So we stayed at a lot of different places on this trip. So we stayed at a lot of different places on this trip.
So speaking of tell us what was that, your Scott, favorite place you stayed. But let's say right? camp, And then why?
I think my favorite camp was the Tortillas Camp. Now, it had its pluses and minuses because the rooms were very private. Let's say they were very private because they were spread out. They were also down a hill. So going up and down for the people who stayed there, for the most part, it's pretty strenuous going, at least going up to the main area where you have that common space and the dining room. But the views from that common space and the dining room looking out over that watering hole that they've created, and then you have the park behind it. Those were just fabulous. I could have spent another day or two not doing game drives, but just hanging out in that space. It just felt so comfortable to me. And so I want to say that that was my favorite. And then I think I kind of connected a little bit more with Timothy there, our waiter, than I did at some of the others. Let me tell you, the people at the other places, super nice. It just so happened that I connected, I think, more with Timothy. Yeah. So, and that's something we probably should point out as far
something we probably should point out as far as, like, if you're looking at where to stay. Let's just talk about, for example, if you have a little bit of mobility issues. I think you probably need to be able to be able to walk at least short distances in most of these camps. Now, I did see at the Intim camp, I did see them taking somebody in a wheelchair, you know, back up to where they parked. And they had sort of like I a, don't know, like a stone pathway or something. That was a very small camp. But the Tortillas camp that you just mentioned was like the biggest one in that hill. camp that you just mentioned was like the biggest one in that hill. Now we did have Ali who was there available to, you know, take us if we wanted to go with your aunts down to
basically right outside their tents. And they
their tents. And they had placed us like no one up front. McKay Africa had done a good job of saying, okay, you know, like where to like where to put us. So all of ours were also very close to the dining. Like we could have, you know, you could have been a lot further away as well. But just like keeping that in mind that if that is something that you need to accommodate for to work close, like know the camp that you're going to do and work closely with the people. But McKay Africa did a fabulous job of communicating that. And then the camps did a great job of just making sure that it was comfortable for your aunts to get, you know, back and forth to the dining areas and stuff like that. So just something to be aware of. But I mean, they did a fantastic job. Yeah. And let me just say there's my aunts
And let me just say there's my aunts are so excited to come on our podcast and there's going to be an episode very soon where they're going to come in and talk about their experience. And, you know, they both said this was one of the most memorable experiences of their lives.
Yeah. And they're just going to have different perspectives. And that's why we want to do that completely different perspectives. They don't travel as much as we do and, you know, have some of the experiences as well. And so that's why we wanted to have them to share, because it was just a phenomenal experience to have them there with us to do that. Yes. So
Melissa, what was your favorite?
So my favorite one, I think, was the Intim Camp and the Masai Mara. And I think for me, it was just the way that it was designed and the decorations is just kind of like my style. And so I just absolutely love that. The furniture, the way they had laid it out, the furniture that they had used and like the color scheme and just what they had done. And so that one was neat because then they had like almost like Adirondack chairs that you sat out. Now, this one had a great view to over the Mara, over a river where there was you hippos, could hear the hippos at night. But I think I just, I don't know the way that that was just decorated. And I just kind of connected with that one. So I think that was my favorite.
One of the things that most people will tell you is to be prepared that you're going to want to go back. We had the opportunity to have dinner with Piper and Mark from McKay Africa at the end of our trip, and one of the first things that I said to them was, where are we going next? We can say without a doubt that the team at McKay Africa did everything within their power to go above and beyond our wildest expectations to make this trip unbelievable. Make sure to tune in to the next episode because that is one of the areas where McKay's resources really shine in providing the guide services to us. Have you ever been on a safari? Share your experiences with us by emailing me, scott at sunshinetravelers.com. We are always inspired by your travel stories. We hope you enjoyed this episode and found some inspiration to help you with your travel journeys. If you could take a moment to leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform, it would be greatly appreciated. Your five-star reviews help us get discovered by others and possibly featured on your favorite platform. Don't forget to follow or subscribe to our podcast to get notified of new episodes as they are released. You can also find us on Instagram and Facebook at Sunshine Travelers Podcast. Remember, that is Travelers with one L. Most importantly, please share it with your friends to help them catch the travel bug. You never know, they may become your greatest travel companion.
