Just bordering the city is the Nairobi National Park that hosts a variety of animals but we spent our time at the Elephant Orphanage and Giraffe Conservatory. The elephant orphanage takes in baby elephants that have been hurt, stuck somewhere or been orphaned by poachers, some being as young as 5 weeks old. There is only an hour viewing time during their bottle feeding - so so so cute.
I think I'm in love with giraffes. These awkward beauties are gentle giants with the biggest, most beautiful eyes. They even give you kisses with their big black spotted tongues - Karla and I were kissing all of them!
Off to Masai Mara for a safari. Our guide drove like a mad man and I'm uncertain of how his van is still in one piece but we made it to the open savanna to view the Big 5 (lion, elephant, leopard, buffalo, rhino) in their natural habitat. It was so impressive that once we drove through the gates, instantly we saw herds of zebras, wildebeast, elephants, African buffalo, antelope, giraffes, springbok and so much more. The lions are a little tougher to find but we were lucky enough to come across 4 different groups of them. Our first lion spotting was a group of 4 lionesses finishing off last night's kill. Then we saw the king of the jungle's not-so-impressive mating technique (it was, um, quick). Next we were parked about 10 feet away from the king and two lionesses snoozing under a tree - such a great close-up view of these giant kitties.
We were lucky enough to see a leopard, a group of cheetahs, and watched hippos lounge in the swamp. Crocodiles guarding the river, ostriches roaming the plains, baboons crossing the roads, ugly warthogs rounding up their young, monkeys stealing sugar at lunch, and countless poor carcasses that satisfied a cat's and vulture's dinner. It is impossible to get The Lion King movie songs out of your head as you roam the terrain .... Hakuna Matata! And Simba is the direct translation of Lion in Swahili.
We left the savanna to Lake Naivasha, where they filmed Out of Africa, for an overpriced but pleasant boat ride, then off to Nakuru for a good night's rest. Up early for the haul to Lake Bogoria to view hundreds of pink flamingos and a very hot natural spring. To our good fortune, busload after busload of local children of all ages were visiting the area and we got the pleasure of meeting and greeting - the highlight of the day.
Now, John will eat anything - seriously ... anything - but he went too far this time by asking the driver to take us to a 'very local' eatery for our lunch. I'm adventurous in most ways but when it comes to food I like to know what I'm eating and usually stick to the common delights. We ended up at an off the highway hut vendor eating 'food' that was certainly outside what I would ever indulge in. See photo below ...the squiggles are sheep intestine, at the bottom is liver, kidney and stomach liner, the round is a mix of spleen and 'other', and I'm not sure what the rest is. Not enough beer would wash it down and needless to say I was hungry when we got back to Nairobi.
JG: OK, so perhaps the food insistence was a tad aggressive, but I just chalked it up to the how-bad-could-it-be approach. So we'll call it a unique dining experience - one of many.
The safari was great in all of the probing required. There are some grazing and wandering animals, but the real finds are made in the nooks where a combination of a good guide and pure luck results in some very candid views of creatures in the wild. And Sandy wasn't lying - the road to the national park was one of the worst we've seen on this trip, and our guide/driver was a lunatic!
We definitely got our fill of wild animals on this trip, and seeing my boy Dan (and playing two rounds of golf!) was well worth it. His friends and everyone in Kenya along the way were friendly, and we come away with some pretty good memories.
No comments:
Post a Comment