A cloudy, hot and humid day greets us as we sail into Mombasa, right on time.  We are greeted on the dock by a welcome committee that includes a dancing troupe and drummers plus more dignitaries than you can imagine.  This is Journey’s first time here and it is obviously a big deal for Mombasa (as a matter of fact, we find tons of news stories about our arrival on Kenyan news feeds later that day).  It’s a mad house down there, and very fun to watch from Deck 5.

Once most of the crowd is gone, we head out to the parking area to try to find Juma, our tour guide we have booked through Get Your Guide and have been communicating with for almost a year now!  He had already WhatsApp’ed earlier with a picture of the car we will be using today, so we knew what to look for when we left the terminal.  Unfortunately though, he can’t get inside the port facility, so after a few minutes of waiting, we messaged to ask if we had to leave the port – we did – and told him we’d meet him shortly. 

Managing to navigate our way out of the port, through some weird pedestrian exit where you had to punch a call button to exit, we finally make it out into the madhouse that is the commercial port area.  Ay yi yi!  Tuk tuks, taxis, hawkers, you name it – they are here hustling us.  But we have our car in sight and make our way across the road to the lot where we meet up with our driver, Boniface, but no Juma.  A couple minutes later Juma comes over, confused, asking us if we are William.  Um, no, we are the people who have been messaging you for almost a year!  Oh yes, he says, but he also has an email from William who is looking for him.  Huh?  To make a long story short – Juma had double booked and our private tour is now a shared tour with 2 other cruise passengers.  Bummer.

We have already hopped in the car when Juma comes back with these 2, meaning we have to rearrange our seating – fortunately Ed gets in the front with Boniface, I stay in the middle with the woman, and William gets in the way back with Juma.  Awkward.  And to make matters worse, it stays awkward all day.  I try to introduce ourselves and be chatty, but they aren’t chatty, so, ok.  Awkward silence is the name of the game.  William is asking Juma what we are doing today (really?) to which Juma explains the itinerary.  William sort of pushes back on the reverse schedule, saying Azamazing doesn’t start until 6:45, so we have time.  No. We don’t, as Juma explains about the traffic.  Not to mention this is our tour buddy!  We have no idea how this happened, but we’ve been planning this for almost 1 whole year.  Deal with the schedule.

Fortunately that was the end of that discussion – all discussions, really – as we make our way to Haller Park, about an hour away from the port.  Driving through different sections of Mombasa, Juma really isn’t engaged at all.  No explanations or anything, which is disappointing.  I try to engage him by asking questions as we drive past a golf course in Bamburi – finding out we are in the rich section and that Golf is only for the rich people here, not something the average person would do.  Sigh. 

Once at the park though, he does become more animated.  Haller Park was a once-barren limestone quarry that has been saved and regenerated into a thriving nature sanctuary with giraffes, hippos, reptiles, butterflies and more.   In order to get to the park, we literally drive through an active quarry which only reinforces the amazing job they have done to make this area into an active nature park.

Our first encounter is with one of the Tortugas – over 150 years old – just hanging out in the lawn, eating.  We can walk right up to him and touch him – as you can see here.  Amazing. Just have to remember they can bite, so stay far back from his head. 

Then we meander on through the hiking trails with the monkeys everywhere – and I mean everywhere.  They are very small and cute, but we know not to trust them – I’ve already hidden Sunny inside the backpack.

We pass huge fig trees on our way to the reptile section where we watch a yellow crocodile sleep under the water and other black crocodiles floating aimlessly in their section of the man-made pond.

Next we’re onto the snake section. Eek.  Fortunately they are all behind glass, but still.  Puff Adders, African Rock Pythons eating their chicken lunch, Giant Spitting Cobras, vibrant green Boom Slangs, a Black Mamba that Boniface plays with to make it move! 

Then we are onto the Boa Constrictors, who are chowing down on their chickens.  It is awful but amazing watching this one Boa unhinge his jaws and swallow that chicken whole.  You can see I became a little too grossly fascinated with these videos. 

Next up an Eagle Owl, which Boniface and Juma explain bring bad omens, curses upon you if they are seen/heard near your home.   A poisonous Nile Monitor Lizard – you will die in seconds from his bite (which btw, later, we find him out of his pen and crossing the trail right in front of us…um…..scary!) and more monkeys.  Always monkeys.

Finally we reach the Hippopotamus lagoon, where only Potty remains.  He has been here since being rescued in 1986 from a zoo in Germany and is over 50 years old.  His companion, Sally, sadly died a week or so ago, so he is all alone now after being with her for all his years here.  While we won’t be here for his feeding (due to our timing issues, we can’t see him fed or the crocodiles being fed), he at least does surface so we can get a glimpse of his massive body and snout.

Making our way back toward the carpark where the giraffes are located for their 11am feeding, we pass by the huge crocodile lagoon with 20 or so crocs of various sizes swimming around,  sunning themselves, or just hanging out in the water, keeping cool.  Creepy strange creatures.  Those open eyes and that prehistoric looking jaw.  Kind of happy we won’t be here when they are fed!

We luck into a Waterbuck sighting on our way to the giraffes.  Juma is highly impressed, he said it was unusual to see them this close.  He is just happily munching away on insects and things in the lily pond, minding his own business.

Finally making it to the Giraffes, who live in an open area, much more reminiscent of a reclaimed quarry (you can actually see the real, working quarry in the background), grab our food and begin to feed these majestically graceful guys.  Those tongues!  And the slobber! 

Fortunately there is a water dispenser where we can wash our hands – but only after our sweet little monkey baby has his drink!  There are, of course, tons of monkeys here because they can grab any dropped giraffe pellets, scrabbling around on the walkway between us tourists and the giraffes. Besides the cute baby running around, there is a teeny, tiny infant being carried around my the mother.  Tons of fun to just hang around and watch.

We are scheduled to leave now to go back to the city, but wait!  We find out that they will be feeding a teenage Hippo in 15 minutes – so we all troop over to another lagoon to wait for that feeding.  The Hippo is hanging out in the water, with a croc sunning right in front of him, just waiting – you know they know the timing – and they can see all the people.  Eventually he lumbers out of the water, chasing off the croc and trundling his way over to all of us, standing on a little bit of a rise above the feeding area. 

And there he remains, looking up at us, opening those massive jaws, snorting and snuffling, basically asking for his food.  Looking at us with those baleful eyes, almost pleading with us, “Why aren’t you feeding me?”   Finally the park ranger comes over and the feeding commences – sort of anticlimactic and gross  if you want to know the truth, but we did get to see him chomping down on his cabbage quarters.