Mal d'Afrique

MAL D'AFRIQUE

My Kenya...when tourism will be back

I miss it after the first holiday...how is possible?

11-10-2020 by Daniela Bussolino

I don't want to influence anyone even if in these moments I seem to be a Jehovah's Witness... but Africa and especially Kenya are beautiful, needless to say, and if you haven't appreciated them yet I will try to sell them to you in another way... in the way you would live them as tourists.
You will arrive in Mombasa passing from 15 Italian degrees to 35 with a humidity rate of 70%, you will start to sweat like camels, you will undress and you will start to complain about the heat and especially about the queue that you have to do for immigration.
You will have to wait at least an hour and a half of patience in the stifling heat of the airport which clearly has no air conditioning but has more anti covid devices than NASA.
You will die of heat but without covid!
Finally, you will be enveloped in a suffocating heat and the smell of black sweat waving a thousand signs in front of you to help you get your bearings. Don't panic!
Just find "your" Kenyan and you're done!
Once you arrive in your car with 18°C air-conditioning you will start to look around you and, little by little if you are careful, even just on the way to the resort you will see precious glimpses of real Africa: street markets, street vendors, tuk-tuks, furniture manufacturers and anything else that can pass before your eyes, a real wonder, it almost looks like an imaginary, dreamlike landscape, nothing could appear more strange and fascinating.
Once you arrive in the resort you will be welcomed in an excellent way with dances, songs and drinks and from there you can start thinking about how to live your holiday.
I remember the first time I arrived in kenya, excited and ready for a thousand adventures, just the fact that I was under a makuti roof made me happy and I couldn't wait to start seeing MY KENYA.
But back to you...
Time to change and freshen up and you will be projected into the magical world of endless excursions and even now you will regret having booked a week instead of two!
You already know that you won't have enough time and practically all you will have left of the resort is the image of the entrance and the first half day at the pool!
Yes, there are myriads of things to do and see, each one more beautiful and spectacular than the other, let's list a few for example if you are in the Malindi area...
Blue Safari (and you will go and eat some fantastic fish on an island that emerges only at low tide as well as watching the wonderful fish and starfish that live there).
Marafa (spectacular canyon), the visit to the mangroves exceptional cc... but shall we talk about the TOP of the TOP?
The safari!!!
You will get up at dawn cursing those who convinced you to do it, you will be hunted on a minibus without air conditioning that will take you to the National Park, at that point you will be tired and thirsty but just seeing the blue-balled monkeys and crocodiles at less than 2 meters will make you pass everything and you just want to see more!
So go! You buy the safari hat and a thousand other bullshit things and off you go!
And here we are, all standing on the safari bus which has the roof raised to allow tourists to look and photograph the outside better.
Now, apart from the elephants and the giraffes that, given their size, can be seen very well, for everything else you can hear the driver saying: "Lion, gazelle, warthog" and so on... and everybody takes a picture of a stone, because in reality they see us much better than we do and the lion was ten meters away, but by dint of taking pictures sooner or later you'll catch something... I didn't realize I'd seen cheetahs until I saw the picture I took of them!
So don't get discouraged, the photos of the close-ups were taken with hours of stakeout, we poor mortals will never succeed!
If you go to a tented field in the evening the second part of the show starts.
You will eat around a bonfire (how wonderful) with the monkeys trying to take away your food and the Masai who, after making the evening story, will take you inside a tent in the middle of the savannah... the only method of alarm in case of attack is to shout "Masai Masai" and he arrives with the stick!
And you will trust that with a stick he will chase away lions and elephants... but this never happens so enjoy your campsite and if you are lucky enough to have animals walking around the tent, be quiet and listen to nature!
But how wonderful is it to arrive at your tent and discover that right there is an artificial well for the animals and enjoy the African sunset watching elephants, gazelles, giraffes, zebras etc. coming to water? I think there is nothing more wonderful than that... this is Africa!
The next morning you will be thrown out of your bunk more or less at dawn because you know, felines or you see them at sunrise or sunset and then via bus and armed cameras and the race begins! The drivers talk to each other and exchange positions, you run and finally... the lion, 2 meters away unbelievable! Enough photos of the rocks, the lion is there and you are incredulous, you would like to go down and touch it from how quiet it is, but you can't do it and so everyone goes off to make selfie with the lion to send to friends!
The journey back will seem endless and when you return to the resort you will be destroyed but in the meantime you will have lived one of the most beautiful experiences that you can live in Africa, the contact even if at a distance with animals that so far you have never seen in their environment except on television!
In all this so far I have omitted the Kenyan people, they also have to eat and so when you find them on the beaches or during excursions to "stress" with their products to sell, simply try to explain to them that you do not want them, do not treat them badly, you are at home!
And they are a fantastic people, you just need to get to know them!
And in any case, when you return to the resort you will see all the colours of the flowers, the palm trees at sunset, the African scents will make you forget the "stress" da vu cumprà
And after excursions and safaris you wake up and discover that it's the last day and then compulsive shopping trip to malindi to bring souvenirs and then ... and then the sadness, watch the last sunset behind the palm trees and know that in italy you will never see such a thing.
And it's done! Africa's sickness taken root!
You can't wait to see those sunsets, those panoramas, feel the scents and smells and tell you... I'M AT HOME!!!!

TAGS: mal d'africa kenyaturismo kenyavacanza kenyaricordi kenyaracconti kenya

Do you remember how many times you have dreamt of Kenya?
Its...

READ ALL THE ARTICLE

by redazione

by redazione

A good read, about past times and those who dream of reviving them, until reaching the origin of those ancient tales narrated here. It's the Kenya of «Lord of the prairie», the latest book by the spanish writer Javier Yanes.READ ALL THE REVIEW

A touching but also meaningful remembrance of Italian entrepreneur Franco Rosso was staged yesterday...

READ AND SEE THE PICTURES

by redazione

An evening of stories about Kenya and the Mijikenda ethnicity this Tuesday at Figino Serenza in the province of Como.
With free entrance, in the beautiful and elegant frame of Villa Ferranti, the headquarters of the municipal library, Malindikenya.net's director...

READ ALL THE REVIEW

"We have to do that thing in Swahili, and we give the proceeds to the children of Malindi."
Fred ...

READ ALL THE ARTICLE

by redazione

by redazione

by Iole Savona

Already a full house in Malindi for the first of the five evenings in August of the new serial ...

READ ALL THE ARTICLE

by redazione

This year Freddie of the Curatolo chose children as a public to tell her stories of Kenya, between nature, solidarity and fun moments.
They are elementary schools, especially quarters and scenes, listening to stories that go from baobab to schools...

READ ALL THE REVIEW

What can Italian "family films" shot in superotto and the memory of refugees in...

READ THE ARTICLE

by redazione