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Published: October 7th 2008
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It was a sad farewell to our guide Davis, who we all had grown to love. He thought the world of the girls and bought them a present to remember their stay in Africa.
We left the Serengeti to head back to Nairobi. It took 6 hours in the bus on those typical African roads, as rough as you would not believe. The bus got a flat tyre at the border which slowed things down. Not to mention the bus driver stopping to checkout the shoes strewn for 1/2 km along the road. One of the vehicles in front of us started to loose shoes from a bag strapped to the top of the vehicle, and they were spread out along the road. Quiet a few people stopped to check them out, including the bus driver. We were amused to think it may be difficult to find two shoes the same.
After the road trip from hell, we finally arrived at the hotel at about 9.30pm to find we didn't have reservations as we should have.Luckily they had a room for us, and we were glad to get up to the room and have a shower. We ordered some toasted sandwiches
and had them in our room. That was the end of a very long day, and we were glad to get to bed.
We didn't have to leave to early the next morning so we had a little sleep in till about 7.00am. Breakfast at our leasure and back up to pack for our next safari in the Maasi Mara.
Unbeknown to us our guide was worried about us, as he arrived at the hotel at about 10.00pm the night we did to make sure we had arrived. The staff at checkin told him that we had not arrived yet, but we were upstairs having a feed. Again next morning our guide arrived at the hotel early to make sure we had arrived, and again the check in desk told him we had not turned up. Because we were not where we were supposed to be, he had to report our surposed dissappearance to the police and the Australian authorities in Nairobi, this is apparently the correct proticol to follow. He had people checking other hotels to see if we had checked into another hotel, and called Arusha in Tanzania to make sure we left on the bus. We had
left, and now seemed to have disappeared.
After packing we made our way downstairs to wait for our tour guide to pick us up. It was a relieved tour driver to find us at the hotel. We didn't know what all the fuss was about as we were safe and sound and had a good nights sleep.
The day didn't get any better as we needed to get some money for the trip, but the bank that we could get money from, had all their ATMs down. We tried about 3, but no go. The guide said there would be passing another bank on the way so we could try there. By the afternoon the ATMs were back up and we got some money.
Finally underway, be it a little late, we headed for Cresent Island, where you can walk with the animals. Animals like zebra, wildebeest and antelope, nothing dangerous. We were there for about 3/4 of an hour when a storm forced us to head for cover. This was followed by another one so that bought the day to an end. Arriving at our hotel for the night we found the hot water not working, and so had
to move all our gear to another room. We said jokingly that all we need now is to have liver served up for dinner. Yes you guessed it, not liver but kidney in the meat. But we ate, less the kidney.
Next day found us in Lake Nakaru National Park. This is a small park but very pretty. Most of the park is covered by a soda lake which is home to a large number of flamingos. We got very close to them and got some good pictures. Driving to a lookout area for a view over the lake, Sophie said that she didn't want to get out car. So leaving Sophie in the vehicle, we went to checkout the view. While we were admiring the view there was a scream from the car. A baboon had jumped into the vehicle and sat on the seat beside Sophie. Well momentarily anyway, as the decibel level of Sophie's scream soon sent the baboon packing and it jumped into the next vehicle. The baboon was looking for any food left in the vehicles.When we arrived at the car, Sophie had a big smile on her face after her little adventure. Our guide
couldn't believe Sophie was so brave, not being upset. A tour group of Japaneese weren't so keen to hang around and headed for their safari vehicle. There are a lot of baboons all over, you see them all of the time.
After the little adventure, the view was great by the way, we headed down to the plains again to find the last of the big five. The rhino.
We found them in the open and got very close. They are huge animals, a mountain of muscle. One of the rhinos got a little cranky at an ostrich walking by. The rhino made a mock charge at the ostrich, then stopped and turned back to it's mate. The ostrich continued on with not a feather out of place. The rhino doesn't have very good eyesight, and probably didn't know what was walking towards him, so decided attack was the best form of defense.
After a quick toilet stop we left Lake Nakaru behind and headed for the Maasi Mara.
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