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Saturday September 4th
Woke up to an annoying alarm at 7am, time to get up for work as usual... Hang on this isn't our bed and there is a huge net in the way!
Realisation kicks in as we wipe the sleep from our eyes, the bustling sound of Nairobi from just outside our window. We are super excited now, this is the beginning of our safari, something we both have been looking forward to for a long time. Choosing what to wear wasn't a problem today... Shall I wear... Oh exactly the same as I've been wearing for the past two days, great! (Apart from a proud TJ and her spare pair of knickers!) We had a lovely breakfast and bundled into our tour bus excited at what the day would bring.
Luckily Nairobi had this awesome shopping centre that sold just about everything! So we bought a t-shirt each and much needed supplies... There's only so long you can go without brushing your teeth! We headed through Nairobi and stopped at our tour companies headquarters, a lovely villa. After explaining what had happened they again repeated 'Akuna matata' and said we would start our safari, they would do all they could to get the bags to us which were grateful for (TJ was surprisingly fine stating that we 'just had to deal with it', which did shock me a little I have to say!).
We were introduced to our safari team, Rob our guide and Francis our cook. They were both very friendly and we instantly warmed to them, even though Rob was an Arsenal fan! We climbed aboard our safari van for the 3 hour trip to lake Nakuru.
Kenya is a beautiful country, around Nairobi and lake Nakuru it's not the typical Africa, very green and lush with vast forests and rolling hills. You can see the poverty though, Rob informed us that there is still 65% unemployment despite the fact that kenya's new president has paved the way for reform by introducing a new constitution. He seems highly regarded and our crew were both pleased to be rid of the old corrupt government. Every road side town that we passed through there were always many people trying to sell items on the side of the road, from yogurt and corn to plants and furniture. One place we stopped for supplies there were many homeless children walking around in dazed states with glass bottles sniffing glue, a reminder of how lucky we really are. The drive seemed over in no time unlike a sleeping Tejal I could not help but marvel at the wonderful landscape, the many cattle herders and the occasional herds of wild Zebra and Impala.
We reached Nakuru national park by 2 o'clock and drove up to our guest house, a fenced off small dwelling surrounded by lush savannah. The accommodation was again simple but clean, without the luxury of running water which had broken. Here we met up with two other groups who were on safari, a lone woman from New Zealand who was filming for a children's documentary and a group of Mexicans. All were extremely nice and once chatting discovered that one of them, Rodolfo, lived and worked in China. Once he heard that we would be visiting there he offered to help us if we needed it. A father and son he was travelling with were diving tour operators in Guatemala. They were avid photographers and showed us some astonishing footage of a Great White Shark getting stuck in a viewing cage with the divers scrambling to get out! Aswell as some remarkable shots of them free diving with Great Whites and Manta rays. After a hearty lunch of some truly wonderful vegetables we headed out for our first game drive...
Driving through the park was not easy. It was very muddy and sometimes there were broken trees laying on the track. But I don't think we noticed our drivers struggle as we were too busy looking for lions and leopards laying on the trees. Only a few minutes later, we saw a line of stationary tour vans. As we approached Rob pointed right and there standing on a fallen tree was a huge, proud, regal lioness. She was standing tall and still as a statue; it's strong powerful legs tensed ready to spring into action as it surveyed it's prey through the cover of the trees. Although it was a far distance away we both felt it's power and presence, our first sighting of a lion. As we continued on we managed to catch a rare glimpse of a black rhino as it moved, quickly and more gracefully than you would have thought through the forest, a magnificent and humbling sight. As we continued on we saw water buffalo, impala, zebra, gazelle, lesser and greater flamingo, baboons, velvet monkeys and a huge wandering White rhino that was grazing by the lake. Bigger than the black rhino it was rather special seeing him from several metres away, you knew that if he decided to charge it was game over, Rob was careful to switch the engine on if he ever got too close! It was an amazing day and once we returned to the camp each group started to swap stories on what they had seen. It had been an amazing first day and after a magnificent dinner we went to bed excited as to what the next day would bring.
Mark & Tejal x
- comments
Suzanne Andrews Ooops! Sorry - just rated your blog 1 star by mistake!! I meant 5 Star,of course - I'm eager to read your next entry, you are making us feel as though we are on the journey with you. Take care. Love Mum & Dad xx