The drive was beautiful, we passed Tsavo and had mountains on the East and West side of the road. We even saw some zebras and camels on the side of the road.

The day was so sunny and clear that we could see MT Kiliminjaro in the distance. That's in Tanzania which is roughly 100 Kilomiters away.

We got to Mombasa around 2pm. On the way we stopped a few times to eat. Oh, and I have to say, Its been such a long time since I had to "USE" the side of the road! But were in Africa in the bush so there is not much choice as to toilets!

When we arrived in Mombasa Sandra took us to a special place. It was a nice beach area. So beautiful! Can't even describe it so I won't :) we stayed a bit to unwind. Then dropped off the couple that came with us at a brothers House.

On the side of the road you notice lots of shop stands. And one man was selling Casava chips. Its interesting that every culture has similarities. In Mexico and TX they sell the pig skins with hot sauce in a bag for 1 dollar. Here its Casava chips with pili pili as they call hot sauce.

After we left the friends at the brothers House in Nyali, we drove about 40min to Kilifi which is where Granny Pot lives :) On the way there are many Baobab Trees. In Swahilli they are called Mbuyu. Do you remember there was and article in the AWAKE! Magazine about them? So that was cool to see so many!

When we arrived in Kilifi it was raining. Spent time with grandma and made ourselves comfy in the guest House. Its really nice that she lives about one quarter away from the beach. Its within walking distance and I must say its is SOOO beautiful!

That was today and now I'm off to bed!

Take care and we miss yal!

Love Drea

written by  africandre on July 31, 2010 from Mombasa, Kenya
from the travel blog: Mombasa Kenya
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Spent the entire day on the sand. We walked up and down picking shells. I found a beautiful piece of white coral that I will put up in the restroom as a decoration. Sandra has made mirrors with sea shells and drift wood and I want to make one too. So now I have everything I need.

Today we went to the city of Malindi, that's about 45 min from Kilifi. We met up with some of Sandra's friends. They use to be missionaries and now serve as special pioneers. We had some lunch at this Italian place and had such a good time with them even though it was only for an hour or so. They love to talk and tell stories and it was nice hearing their stories of Kyran and his brothers when they we're young.

Talking to the Brother was refreshing. It was like talking to brother E. Raymond! Lol well that's who he reminded me of :)

He said it was hard to imagine the boys married because he remembers them during their teens! Hmmm...... ;)

After we left them we went shopping. Malindi has lot unique crafts mens. So there is stuff here that you can't really find anywhere else.

There are many Italians in this city and so it has lots of flavor.
Oh, and I even found my favorite cheap Italian red wine! :) haven't been able to find it in Nairobi!

Time was running out and so we had to leave. We are going back on Tue.

Back at grandmas, me and Sandra prepared lunch for tomorrow. We are going to Tsavo national park.

On a different note Grandmas brother who lives in South Africa came today!!

Everyone says he looks like Kyran, but he is in his 70s so I can't really tell. He does have colored eyes just like KY KY. He is such a nice fellow very down to earth and likes to tell stories, sounds like Kyran :)

Speaking of stories BBC did a documentary on his past work. He used to wk for the government before Kenya got its freedom. Ever heard of the Mau Mau? Look it up :) interesting and sad story.

Anyway since it was a special occasion we had crab and lobster. Fresh from the sea I might add!

Later on we left brother and sister to catch up one the 'good ol' days'.

That was today! I'm exhausted.

Night yal!

Love drea.

written by  africandre on July 31, 2010 from Mombasa, Kenya
from the travel blog: Mombasa Kenya
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This park covers about 21.000 kilometers of land. We went to Tsavo East on wednesday. Drove around the first animal we saw was an elephant, actually a bunch of elephants.

The last time I went on safari the only animals I hadn't seen were elephants, Cheetah leopard and Hippo. This safari I saw all of them! But it was definitely an elephant safari. We even saw wild dogs. Apparently they are very rare and hardly ever seen.

The friends I was with were more excited to see the dogs than they were any other animal!

On our first day there we stayed in tent. I thought it was gonna be one of those small camping tents that you can buy at WAL- Mart. But it wasn't, these were huge tents that fit 3 beds in it. Had plenty of walking space and a shower and toilet. I must say I was very pleased and happy.

In front of our tent was a water hole so we could see when animals went for a drink. It was nice waking up early and lying in bed listening to the sounds of nature :)

The camp site served the 3main meals to us. It was all out doors of course and in the evening they had a camp fire. It was nice having dinner under the stars. So different than the city. This is real bush living.

The fallowing morning we woke up @6 to have an early morning game drive. We took lots of photos. It was a clear sunny morning and we got to see a lot of animals.

After that we went back for breakfast. They packed a lunch for us to take since we were not coming back to that place. I could have stayed another night in a tent. I really really enjoyed it. Except for the cold shower!

The rest of the day we spent driving around. We found a bunch of elephants playing around so we decided to stop there and have our lunch. We stayed in the car and watched them. In East Tsavo the land is flat with the mountains surrounding it.

After lunch we drove around more. Then we went to Tsavo West. Which they say is better but I preferred East because its green and lush where as west was a lot of bush and dried out land.

The brothers we were with were excellent tour guides. They knew all the back roads and even the names of all the birds. They took us through some really deserted paths right along the river. The car kept getting scratched by thorn bushes and we had lots of taxi flies fallowing us. That was because taxi flies are attracted to blue and the car was blue! Crazy huh, I kept wondering why we couldn't get rid of them.
That's the area where we saw a leopard and hippo.

Anyway we eventually got to our new lodge, Ngulia. It was one that a brother in our hall designed and built. It was very very nice. The dining area was outdoors also. But it was more like a covered patio deck. It over looked the vast valley that we drove in.

It also overlooked two water holes so as we ate we could watch the elephants and buffalo drinking. It was gorgeous!

Our rooms were big and all the floors were made of mazaris stone. It had three walls and the the 4th one was a huge tent net and so we could overlook the same view as the dining area. The breeze at night was great. And we had a patio that you could sit on and watch the sun come up!

Yes it was a paradise for sure. The next day we went for a mountain climb. I will write about it in the next blog :)

Till then Kwaheri!

Love drea!

written by  africandre on August 6, 2010 from Mombasa, Kenya
from the travel blog: Mombasa Kenya
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The reason why we wanted to climb it was because Grandma Pot told us that back in her day she climbed it to the top! So Sandra said if mother -in- law did it then she had to. And of course if my mother -in -law can do it I have to as well! So it was a Good thing we did it together, I went as far as she did. That's 3 generations of Pot girls that climbed the same hill! Cool isn't it! :)

Anyway we hired a KWS (kenya wildlife services) lady and her huge gun to go up with us. It is leopard territory so we needed her. Well the guys went to pick her up and found out she was new at her job and never climbed that hill before! You could tell she was nervous.

The owner of the lodge we stayed at was worried for us so he gave us one of his Maasai men! A bit of history on Maasai's is that before you can become a Maasai, you have to kill a lion all by your self. 3 other men go with him to witness the kill. Then they get tattoos of different things to prove they killed a lion.

So in reality we felt completely safer with him than with the KWS lady. Even though she had a gun and The Maasai had only a knife and a long spear.

It was great that he went with us. This was the hardest climb any of us had ever done, we were in the real bush. We had to climb rocks without ropes, and literally cut our way through the bush. At times we found paths cut out by animals which helped but it was a tough one.

You know usually when you have 2 tour guides one stands in the front and one in the back, well,as I mentioned the girl was new, so she was scared. So she walked right behind the Maasai man! And we were all in the back of the trail!!

We never saw any animals thank goodness!. But did find a few leopard dens.

We got to the top and relaxed. The sister got to witness to the Maasai and KWS lady. Matter of fact almost everyone in these rural areas never get a witness so we made sure to leave mags with everyone we met.

The trek down was really hard. It always is. Managed to not break any bones!

Later on that evening after dinner we went for a sun downer. The brother took us to Leopards Rock, we had a aerial view of the entire park and beyond! That hill had some benches so we took out our watermelon, wine, cheese, crackers and chocolate!

On that hill was a huge rock that gave us a 360 view. On one side of the valley was the red African sun going down. And the other side was the dark land and full moon. It was definitely a highlight of this trip.

Now it was getting dark. And your not supposed to be out after dark so we rushed back to our lodge and played a game of Baldadash!! (I HIGHLY recommend that game to anyone)

On day 4 of our safari we saw the sun rise on Poachers View. Then they packed us a lunch to take with us and we started driving back to Mombasa! We needed that vacation! And it was the best safari yet. Even Sandra said it was the best time she had ever had.

After we dropped everyone off we went to grandmas unpacked and went straight to the beach and relaxed.

This is the life no? :)

Ok more stories in the next blog!

Love Drea

written by  africandre on August 6, 2010 from Mombasa, Kenya
from the travel blog: Mombasa Kenya
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We got ready for meeting and headed 40min to the Mtwapa kingdom hall. Soon as we arrived we found out that the English meeting was @ 9 am. This was Swahilli! Anyway me and Sandra just left. We called up some friends and went to their house for tea.

We agreed to do the watchtower together. Turns out that the English had the visit of CO. The exact talk we heard last sunday in Nyali. So this would have been our 3rd time hearing that talk :)

On monday we went again to the beautiful Kalifi beach. Then we met up with Sandras good friend for lunch. I had the best sea food! There was a patio just by the boat decks and we sat under the palm trees and ate.. Kyran took me there the 1st time I went to Kenya.

After that we went to Sandras spiritual moms house for tea and cake. Chatted a bit with her and the family. Her husband and sons own a Deep Fishing Company. They live just off the ocean creek. Her son took us on a wonderful boat ride.

So refreshing to watch the glassy sea and have the wind and breeze in your face. He took us up by the house where Kyran use to live when he was younger. The house was big and had such a nice view of the creek.

Its tempting to say that if this isn't paradise what is? I have already reserved the boat for anyone who comes to visit :)

After that lovely ride we came and chatted some more. The father had some books that talked about the last Kenyan Regiment. So we looked for grandmas brother. The one I mentioned before. And sure enough his story was there :)

Later on that evening we went to Nyali because a couple had invited us for dinner. It was a privilege that they invited us to stay the night with them. It was my first time to spend the night in a missionary home. The house is huge and beautiful. Next door is a Mosque and a Pentecostal house, so its quite a noisy area.

The sister Cooked a large meal and an amazing apple sponge cake! They also had the new magazines up to Oct Nov. So I had a sneak peak! Lol, one article was titled " Surviving the first year of marriage" :) can't wait to read.

In the morning we had breakfast and did the text together. Then we were off.

We went to this construction site that a brother has. He is building Apts and really wanted our suggestions . So we gave him some pointers and ideas. Then we took off and went to Malindi to go shopping!

That was a hour and a half drive. We found some good deals and souvenirs. For lunch we met up with the special pioneers I told yal about earlier on in one of the previous blog post.

After a few hours we drove back to Kalifi to say bye to granny Pot. She got to meet the friends that came with us from Nairobi. And we got to take them to the beach. The tide was really high so we didn't get to pick sea shells.

Anyway that was the last swim! Then we went to Nyali and dropped the friends off at the brothers house. Me and Sandra stayed and her spiritual moms guest house that night so that we could leave early and head back to Nairobi.

As I mentioned the sisters house looks over the water. So it was my last peak of the ocean. The moon was full! Just try to even imagine the beautiful moonlight over the water! It was gorgeousness!!!!!! Reminded me exactly of That special night in Miami :) For those of you who know that story ;)

Anyway today we are on the road back to Nairobi. We just stopped on the side of the road to have lunch under a tree. As we drove off we saw that we JUST missed the baboons!

So here we are at the and of the Mother & Daughter- in - law adventures......
To be continued in on our next Mountain adventure. The Maasai Mara....

Love Drea Pot :)

written by  africandre on August 6, 2010 from Mombasa, Kenya
from the travel blog: Mombasa Kenya
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