2022
Hey Guys
I am Girish Barve, currently living in Mumbai, India since 2007. I am basically from a place called Aurangabad, a historic city known for places like Ajanta, Ellora, Daulatabad Fort, the replica of The Taj Mahal called Bibi Ka Makbara amongst many other places related to history, art and architecture.
Right from my growing years i was fascinated with these places around me and have been visiting them countless number of times.This i believe has given birth to the tourist in me. i had never realised about this till now as i have sat down to write this small blog.
I started going to places i had never been, in and around my city Aurangabad. during those times there were no cameras so what i used to see was only for myself. People known to me used to ask me when ever they wanted to go for a days outing with family or friends and i would tell them about these places i had visited, alone for a solace or with friends for fun. This became an integral part of me and became my nature.
And so a traveller in me was born.
As i grew up, finished my studies and took up a job this traveller always kept on travelling to all the places nearby, in the cities where my job took me.
While i have lived in many cities in India early in my life, Mumbai is the city where my base is right now. After being in Mumbai i started travelling overseas and in course of time i have travelled many countries and multiple times.
It was year 2011, when i first travelled to Nairobi, in Kenya, Africa. I was immediately in love with that place. God only knows why. The weather was good. probably Nairobi has the best weather throughout the year. Initially it was quite scary as i was told that i was not to venture out alone - walking, which even now is advised. You have to be Very careful in Nairobi.
While i was meeting people for my work i was told about the Safari and that went right into my head and i just wanted to visit once before coming back. I met one Mr Roland Gomez in the conference that i had attended who is a great guy and a very like minded person. he also wanted to visit the Safari.
My schedule was tight and i had no room for doing that, I decided to extend my stay by 4 days.
So I rebooked my tickets, met some people known to me, they were travel agents luckly. They said that I should be going to a Lodge called Keekorok, so I booked myself and my friend for the safari and just went for it not knowing what it is going to be like.
We reached the airport for our flight and found out that it was very small 8 seater aircraft which would be taking us to the lodge. Now you must know that most of the lodges have their own airstrips. And its only these small aircrafts that fly you there. It was great fun and it was my first time to travel in those little things.
These aircrafts fly at a low altitude and we could see the terrain very clearly. We started seeing animals roaming freely below us. I was overwhelmed looking at this. And we reached the Keekorok strip, the flight landed on a mud strip. As we got out of the aircraft, we had to pullout our luggage from the hold ourselves; we grabbed that and walked to the jeeps parked there to take us to the lodge. These were the open safari jeeps. While we were walking I was so excited to see the zebras, wildebeests around and some elephants at some distance.
So it was about 1030 am when we landed and I guess by 1045 am we reached the lodge. Had our meals and were assigned the cottages. We went to our room in the cottage, I was just too much excited as just out of the window I could see over 100 animals grazing. There was nothing I had experienced which was comparable to this. They were all sorts of animals. The best thing was that there is no boundary in this lodge. So the animals were there everywhere.
Just imagine, you are sitting in the restaurant having a coffee or a drink and there are zebras, wildebeasts etc. grazing in front of you. woah it is a great feeling.
Then we went for the game drive – as they call it. And it was so good that I do not have words to explain the feeling that I had.
3 days and 2 night that I had, were not even close to being enough for me. I wanted to have it more. And more and more. I left with a heavy heart but I knew I would come back again.
After that in 2011, I have been there 12 more times and am still not satisfied.
I wish everyone who loves nature has to visit and experience the beauty of it and understand what it is to be caged in the place where the animals are free in the nature. See the respect that these people have for nature.
If you have any questions please write back to me and I will be more than glad to assist.
