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Published: April 5th 2007
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Another 7am start (by now, this feels like quite a sleep in...) for our trip to the Kenyan border. Luckily we were at the border by 9am and managed to "beat the rush", getting through pretty quickly. Biggest highlight of the border was queuing up with our $50USD each to find that NZers are free but everyone else (including the 11 Aussies!) had to pay up. Fantastic! Helen Clark must be on good terms with Kenya - thank you Helen! There were loads of hawkers at the border, including this crazy, bent up old lady that was skulking around whacking everyone with a big stick! Martin had a great time with the hawkers, constantly surrounded by them! He finally decided to buy us each the cool copper bracelets they make there - and managed to get 2 such bracelets for all these odd coins from countries we'd already left and were therefore no good to us anymore - classic! ;-) A guy on our truck, Mic, also managed to swap a biscuit he didn't like for a bead bracelet ;-) We drove through to Nairobi, stopping off for pics of Mt Kili and Great Rift Valley. Lots of people bargained
for masaii blankets. We upgraded to a room at Nairobi for a bed but nothing to write home about there.... luckily it was only $14. Then we had a FANTASTIC night at Carnivores! For those who live in Auckland, its kinda like our "Wild Fire restaurant" - meat is served all you can eat, at the table. However, the restaurant was decorated in complete African theme and was awesome! There were African dancers as well. Plus as well as the chicken, piggie, beef and lamb etc, they also had Ostrich and Crocodile on the menu! We stuffed ourselves silly and there was no way most of us could appreciate the nightclub next door as full of meat as we were so called it a night.
The next day we headed for Nakuru Lake and Game Reserve. We drove on a shocking dirt road with the craziest drivers we've ever seen! We stopped breifly at Nakuru Town for a much needed supermarket/beer stop. Martin managed to get a cool Masaii blanket very cheaply - so cheaply that the rest of the truck who had already bought them thought we were lying! We camped that night at the 'Maingate' camp site
inside of Nakuru national park - was more-or-less a bush camp, but quite nice all the same. There were baboons everywhere and they they thought it was extremely fun to jump on our tents, bounce off then run away shrieking like loonies (just like being back at school!)
We wbnt on an afternoon game drive and finally saw some RHINOS!!! Yippee! Actually we saw heaps of them, including heaps of babies! One angry rhino even tried to charge a 4x4 that got too close - magic! The lake at Nakuru is spectacular - the pink flamingoes look like a giant pink islad on the lake - amazing- must have been millions on them - got some awesome photos 😉
That evening we had our last camp dinner - spag bol!! Yummy! Had a great big bonfire and wasted away the evening eating roasted marshmallows and drinking Armarula hot chocolates - were careful not to use the skewers from the tree that can give you diarrhoea!
We packed up camp early a last game drive. As luck would have it, we managed to spot our first leopard! (on the last game drive of the tour!!) We got very lucky I
think, managing to see all of the 'big 5' on one trip!
Left Nakuru and headed to Lake Naivasha, and 'Crayfish camp' for our last night on the tour 😞 Naivasha is a huge flower growing area - they supply well over 80% of the cut flowers you find in Europe - including tulips and poppies to Holland!! Green houses everywhere and they were HUGE! A pretty cruisey drive, as there was much less traffic than expected. The camp was massive - full of africans on holiday for the weekend, unlike anywhere we had been before - was a bit like Paihia at new years, buit for africans! Had a lazy afternoon at Crayfish camp, including a lovely buffet meal at the main camp restaurant. A few of the group stayed up and went to a disco in the camp, but Krsiti and I were pooped so we crashed after a few drinks! The camp is right on the edge of the lake and there are warnings everywhere about rogue hippos - seriously a rogue hippo charging around doesn't sound too fun!
We had a nice sleep in then Kristi and I made pancakes to celebrate our last
meal together - were very popular as usual! We packed up camp, had a bunch of obligatory group photos and then drove back to Nairobi and the Boulevard hotel for our last night in Kenya 😞 We Had a few sad farewells - especially for Patrick and Mwangi, so sad to see them go! We had a lazy afernoon, wandered around city and said goodbye as various people made their way to the airport for different flights. Were very sad to say goodbye to Matt and Ange, it was so great to have a couple of like minded kiwis on the trip with us - they were awesome, will def catch up with them in london 😊
Had a yummy dinner at the hotel restuarant and then went to bed for our last night in Kenya, the tour officially over 😞
The next morning we had several hours to kill until our flight back to South Africa, so we trouped off to the Elephant Orphanage with a few of the tour group who were still around. This was a magic way to finish our time in Kenya! The orphanage is set up to look after baby elephants and rhinos
whose parents have been victems of poaching, starvation or simply getting lost! Was soooo lovely - the elephants were tiny!! The only rhino at the orphanage was away having a an operation on his eye - he was blind when he arrived - by following a herd of elephants! The orphanage is right on the edge of a national park and the babies are re-introduced once they are old enough. There is a huge female elephant (she was one of the first orphans) who has become matriarch of a large herd, and she comes and takes all the babies they re-introduce!! Soooo sweet - apparantly she looks after them herself, or allocates others females to do it. An amazing situation really, the keepers spend 24/7 with the babies, then live with the herd for a week or so to help them adjust - and this herd of WILD elephants are sweet with it, it really is incredible. The orphans sometimes come back to show the keepers their babies when they have them!! It was an amazing place and the babies were all incredibly cute - a fantastic way to finish off our time in Kenya 😊
After the orphange
we popped back to the hotel, grabbed our stuff and headed off to the airport, then back to Johannesburg AND OUR LUGGAGE - WHOOPIE!! (yay clean clothes!)
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