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Published: April 27th 2014
My bags are packed and I leave for the airport later on tonight. All that is left to do is complete this last blog entry to draw this African adventure to a close. Thank you all for reading my entries so far. It has definitely made a big difference to know that you have all been following and supporting me on my trip.
The flights have been more of the same – gun shot victims, malaria, heart attacks, sepsis, cerebral insults of various forms etc etc. Nothing beats landing on an airstrip that is basically a meadow full of flowers that had cattle grazing there moments before! I have completed 52 medical evacuations and have flown 76,098 miles which is more than 3 times around the world! Shame AMREF don’t have an air miles scheme.
Mum and Dad enjoyed their trip to Kenya. We went to the Aberdare National Park for a weekend and stayed in a boat shaped lodge called “The Ark”. We saw a leopard on the way to the Ark so my big 5 sightings are now complete. Yay. The lodge is located adjacent to a salt lick and watering hole so we were able to
Leopard
We were so lucky to see this leopard sitting so close to the road. view animals all night. At around 4am, a pack of hyenas tried to kill a young buffalo. It was pretty gruesome viewing, as hyenas tend to eat animals alive by taking bites out of them. The buffalo put up a good fight, was still alive and kicking by dawn and managed to run away. We spent my birthday visiting the elephant orphanage and then feeding giraffes – definitely a good way to pretend that I am not getting old!
Friday was my last day at work and I have spent this weekend in the Ngong hills. I had a fantastic time. The journey there was frustrating – the driver got us completely lost, so the usual 2-hour journey took 6 hours, 4 of which were on a really bumpy unpaved road. We stayed in a house with a beautiful view of the hills and apart from a minor incident of a gas explosion (escaped with just a sore knee thankfully) we all had a great time. One of the girls had taken along a couple of lacrosse sticks so I spent my last day in Africa in the Ngong hills playing lacrosse with a Canadian! Totally surreal! On our
way back to Nairobi we were pleasantly surprised to see zebras by the side of the road. I felt like they knew I was leaving and had come to say goodbye.
I am definitely pleased that I have spent these past 6 months working in Ethiopia and Kenya. I have learnt lots, met wonderful people and now appreciate things that I used to take for granted. Travelling to places on holiday is never the same as staying somewhere for a period of time and really immersing yourself into a new way of life. I may be leaving today but I will definitely be saying “see you later” to Africa rather than “Goodbye.”
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