Our Shortest Flight Ever!

Our final flight into Masai Mara airstrip was all of six minutes (technically five minutes and 18 seconds, but who's counting?).  Of course, we had a much longer flight before that.  The bush planes are similar to busses.  There are no assigned seats, and they drop off and pick-up multiple stops along the way.  It's possible the six minute flight was our third of the day -- at this point it kind of runs together.

Anyhow, the flights were bumpy so I did something I normally don't need to do -- closely eyed the barf bag in the seat pocket in front of me.  It's an odd thing to have to plan for -- you don't want to throw up, but you also want to know what you are doing so you don't spew all over the airplane.  But of course the more you think about not throwing up, the bigger the risk of throwing up.  

Just to clarify, this near barf experience was not on the six minute flight but the longer one before the six minute one.  None of the other three were impacted, which is good.

Well, my stomach held out and there was no barfing.  The flight was so bumpy I closed my iPad and refused to read the new Gary Myers book on the 1986 New York football Giants, which bills itself as a "story of victory, tragedy, and live after football," focusing on the significant health problems many players have endured since, and the story of their closeness.  It's a pretty good argument against the dangers of pro football, but the players themselves don't regret their football career.

Just getting off the plane helped settle my stomach, so I didn't throw up on our guide for Masai Mara, the very outgoing and gregarious Robert.  A storm was rolling in, so we got into the Land Rover quickly.  After one airplane passenger had said it was a ninety minute drive to the camp, Robert pointed to the nearby camp and said that is where we are going.

To be fair to the airline passenger, she may well have been going to a different camp.  Either way, we were all relieved not to have a bumpy ninety minute drive ahead of us.

We got to the camp around 4pm, washed up, and then had lunch.  If I had been less thrown off by the concern about throwing up, I would have made the case to skip dessert and get into the vehicle for our night drive.