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After being woken by the Egyptian Geese (so much for s bloody lie in), we had a leisurely breakie and then took a boat safari to track down more hippos and many birds along with stunning views of the surrounding volcanic landscape. Highlights had to include Rupert's take off of the titanic scene at the front of the boat with his arms out and a very becoming orange life jacket on as well as a fish eagle demonstration, which kind of didn't go to plan - just going to show you can't stage nature and if the bird isn't hungry or feeling like showing you up then they will and there is no amount of fish that will change their mind!
A short drive and an experience in a Naivasha and Nakuru supermarket we were back in a national park and had found our digs for the night - a very cute and very basic cottage, but the kitchen had all you needed, there was a veranda to have our pre dinner drinks on, an outside eating area for dinner, three beds in a room and a hot running shower, what more do you need?! Tonight was my first ever experience of game driving! Knowing the roads would be relatively easy compared to the Masai Mara Daubs let me drive! Sensible guy! Ok so if I am really honest with you, I stalled before getting outside the gate of where we were staying - but hey come on, I haven't driven a manual for 18 months!
The landscape here was vey different to the Masai Mara, much more bush and forest with the lake as the centre piece. We were lucky enough to see lots of birds here including flamingoes, pelicans, stalks, African spoonbills, ground hornbill, hammercop and cranes. We also saw lots of rhino, more hippo, zebra, hyena, antelope, buffalo, giraffe and lion however the stand outs for me were seeing a group of ten rhino together, a rhino with a massive horn (just realised how rude that sounds) and the Jackle family playing around their den. The views from the numerous lookouts are breathtaking, the light is crystal clear, the sun reflects off the lake and that high up you feel like king of the world.
The plan on the second night in Nakuru was to camp, however we didn't realise that you had to book this at the main gate and by the time we worked it out, there was no way on earth we would have the time to get back to the main gate, book and pay and get back down to where we wanted to camp - up nice and close with some lions - night drives are strictly prohibited and no one should be driving after 6.30pm. So the decision was made to head back to the main gate and book the backpackers campsite which was next door, Rupert though insisted we had a backup plan and phone Eric, our friend from the cottage last night to see if he had space just in case. Daubs and I of course didn't think we needed a back up plan the bloody mavericks we are, but, thank god Rupert was with us because 10 minutes from the main gate and already dark, a tree had fallen down meaning that we had to turn around and go back around the park anti clockwise - a further hours drive in the dark when fines of around 10,000 Kenyan shillings are enforced for anyone night driving - Brilliant! Again calm in a crisis, Daubs didn't tell us until we were back at Eric's with a beer in our hand that he wasn't as worried of being fined as he was of a black rhino ramming the truck!
So it seems that last night when I cooked the boys beef stu, I actually chopped up 6 sirloin steaks and used that instead of the diced beef that Daubs had bought for the stu (ooops!). So expecting a steak dinner (remember the plan was to camp and cook on fire, hence the slabs of steak), we all had to adjust and come up with something using what we had - it was like a Kenyan version of backpackers on Ready Steady Cook, but all good in the end - a kind of beef stir fry come stu with corn on the cob!
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