We started our day early as usual. The first stop was lake Naivasha with a 1 night stay at Malu Lodge. This would be followed by a 2 night stay at Masai Mara and head back to Nairobi.

We had some light leftovers in the morning as well as packed them for our drive. It would be 2-3 hrs to get to lake Naivasha. Some of us ate enough so we could skip breakfast at Lake Naivasha. When we got there half the group chose a breakfast buffet, seemed like a nice but expensive place. After breakfast, we headed for the boat ride. To future travelers, I would say this pit stop could be skipped. It was a nice lake, definitely popular with locals but the main point about it was that it was where “out of Africa” was filmed and I haven’t even heard of this movie. I saw a poster and I don’t think I want to watch it either. The movie makers had a number of wild animals brought to an island on this lake for the filming. After the movie shooting, they just left the animals there and they roam around freely. It had all the animals you would see at a national park I.e, impala, gazelle, ostrich, giraffes, wildebeest, baboon etc. I wasn’t impressed about seeing something created artificially but the lake is natural. I was meh honestly but ok. Rithvi had a good time, she said the lake was clear and not smelly (our recent experience in Cali was less than ideal, too much algae due to high heat).

After this we headed to check in to Malu lodge. Now, when we got to the lodge, it was beautiful! Large open meadow and very English style cottages, that make you feel like you’ve been transported to 1930’s. However the drive to get there was nuts. I get driving on dirt roads but this was on an incline for almost a couple hours. Given that, I would say this stop could be skipped too. It’s unfortunate that such a nice place is so poorly accessible. It didn’t really feel worth it, and that too for just one night. I was exhausted from the drive. Our driver also mentioned that many of the estates/resorts are owned by English/white folks who have also cut down a lot of tress and driven away the elephants that used to live here. So overall, I felt all the more like this stop could have been skipped.

Anyway, reaching the destination was a relief. The kids, especially Rithvi ran in the meadow and they also had a swing that she totally enjoyed. The view at the top was also picturesque but knowing the truth also made me feel salty. The staff were all very nice locals, we had a nice outdoor lunch. A naturalist said he could take us on a nature walk at 4 pm. We had ~1 hr to rest in our cottage. The cottage was really cozy and nice too.

I thought I’d take a nap before the nature walk. When I woke up ~4 pm it was raining heavily, it truly did feel like we were in England, I was sort of relieved and went back to sleep. That drive was something. I woke up ~ 6 pm when then rain had stopped and freshened up for dinner, the naturalist had told us that if it rained we can’t do the walk. We had thought we could walk from the cottage to dining hall but given the rains and mud puddles everywhere decided to have our driver take us there.

Dinner was inside, it was cozy, service was Kenyan speed. Food was good. We shared the space with 3 other families with their very young children. I told myself they must be from nearby if they are traveling with such young kiddos and choosing to stay here 😄

Headed back to our cottages after dinner and hit the bed. There is no internet connectivity in the cottages so not much I could do staying up either. We were going to head out ~ 7 am to Masai Mara and requested our lodge to pack breakfast for one the way.