safari by numbers, a blog framed by numbers.

PART 1: TO VOI

09:45, the time i'm in town.

10:00 the time it is when i'm still waiting for MK to come from umoja.

30-40 mins, he says, the amount of time he'll take to get here.

10:30, the time of departure for the tickets i buy for 900/- each.

10:15, the time when MK is still nowhere to be seen and i'm beginning to become frantic (for potentially losing 2 x 900/- tickets)

10:25, the time he says he's arrived at the stage. i speed walk to afya centre and then walk to the stage.

no MK.

where are you? tuskys. there are 2 tuskys, i will discover, conveniently located within the same block.

4. the number of times i call him.

when i finally do find him (at the other tusky's), i hand my bag over to him to carry (late do-ers must be punished) and we run to the mash bus.

2. the number of other buses that go to mombasa from river road. coast bus and modern coast. but we take mash because the next departure time would have been at 12:00 and i wanted to leave as early as possible.

09:00, 09:30, 10:30, 12:00, 12:30, 13:00 and 1330, the morning departure times between the 3 buses.

900/- to 1,400/- the price range for tickets.

i follow a map as we pass athi river, emali and kibwezi before deciding to stop over in tsavo to to see if we can go for a safari.

15 mins, the time we have to decide before the bus leaves to carry on to mombasa.

15:30. the time it is when we get back on the bus, having decided to alight at voi instead. the conductor, a one christopher takes a liking to my 'brother' and will continue to call me for some months looking for him.

16:00. the time we arrive at voi.

the first hotel we enter, doesn't give us any information about any other places to stay or even discuss a safari if we don't stay with them. even after saying we’d be happy to camp, they tell us that every other place is booked and the best they can offer us is $100 BB.

we settle for $50 bed only.

4,000/- the price we settle for, for an evening safari (from 10,000/-) and 6,000/- for a 4-hour morning safari the next day.

ONE HOUR. the time it takes us to haggle for that, recognising that if we want to have a safari at all today, we’d have to settle somewhere.


17:00. the safari is anti-climatic but better than nothing and a relief at least from a day on the road. the KWS wardens take their sweet time signing us in etc.

i’m resentful enough about being cheated/not camping for $10(!) to not have dinner. i do order a sandwich however - 250/- for the morning safari because the kitchen won’t be open before we leave.

20:00. the time my mother calls me to tell me i have no decency with the way i travel.

22:00. the time we sleep and MK cheers me up by telling me that his father thinks him a sex tourist for choosing to visit thailand and the philippines repeatedly lol.


05:15 the time we're up.

05:40 the time we're off on safari. (we must punish the tour guide for wasting our time yesterday)

one hour, the amount of time we drive around for, as the sun rises.

where you find buffalo, steve the guide says, is where lions will go for a killing in the early morning. but today, there wasn't one.

1 out of the big 5, is what the buffalo turns out being. we don't find any other (except the red elephants from yesterday).

marabou stork, grand gazelles, guinea fowl, sickly wild dog, zebra, waterbuck and baboons... they are at once familiar and exotic. familiar because documentaries can make you feel like you've seen them up close and in real life. and exotic because it really is a treat to be in their company.

10:00. the time it is when steve takes us back to tsavo lodge. we pack our things, check out and have him bring us to town to take breakfast.

he takes us to new distar hotel, a place he says, he goes to himself, and order beef biriani and doughnuts: 250/-.

PART 2: TO MOMBASA

200/- each is the price for bus tickets to mombasa on frontline safaris.

3 hours, the amount of driving time from voi to mombasa town.

5 mins and 15/- for the matatu to the ferry.

50/- each and 20-30 mins for the matatu to ukunda.

300/- from the road to the beach by monopolising taxis.

we offer 200/- to a mat which happens to be passing there. and they agree. but then the taxi drivers rally to save their clientele;

"this is not your business. why do you interfere with our business? you are supposed to be a driver for school children. why are you even going this way? stealing our customers? do we interfere with your business?" they confronted the matatu driver.

the tension in their dispute surprised and unsettled MK and to avoid it, he changed his mind to go with the taxi drivers instead.

it’s 17:00 when we step onto tiwi beach.