We're having a rhino of a good time!

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Hello all, Hope you all had a good Easter break, and those that are allowed, plenty of chocolate! We had two small marshmallow "eggs" each, eaten while on a game drive round Lake Nakuru NP.

But back to the beginning, or the last place we wrote from. Jinja was our last stop in Uganda, the source of the mighty Nile. Colin spent a day rafting the "source" of the Nile, not really the actual source as theres a big dam that you cant raft over, but more like 6km from the source. There was a mixture of grades 3, 4 and 5 rapids, and they managed to get wet on all of the them except for the one I was stood right next to with my camera. So I have photos of them casually floating over a grade 5 piece of water. I am saving my rafting money for a flight over Vic Falls later in the trip, a microlight or similar would be great!

From Jinja we re-entered Kenya. It took a couple of days of very bad roads to reach Lake Nakuru National Park. We did a couple of games drives here, an afternoon and a morning (with Easter eggs!). Amazing! We saw the usual zebra, impala, gazelle, Vervet monkeys, Olive Baboons, Reticulated Giraffe, Cape Buffalo, a mighty Eland (biggest antelope) and plenty of bird-life including flamingoes. The best part were the White Rhino, and we saw loads of them, and pretty close too so fingers crossed for our photos. They are amazing creatures, slowly munching their way round the park. We saw a mother and baby, an old lone male, a group of three and a group of five. They didnt seem too bothered by a huge yellow truck stopping next to them.

Next stop was Lake Naivasha. Here we visited Elsamere, home of Joy and George Adamson. We saw a video, had a look round a small museum of their effects and hundreds of photos, and had a huge tea. A few savoury things and heaps of cream and chocolate and other sweet delights. Something has happened to our taste buds on this trip and we rued the lack of savoury items and didnt pig out on cakes. Not that either of us really have sweet teeth anyway, but....the cakes were very good! And the fresh juice...yummy, something I have missed especially.

We went on a walking safari in the nearby Crater Lake Reserve. While we didnt see anything special or different, we did get very close to huge herds of zebra, impala, about 10 giraffe, a hartebeest and a pair of secretary birds. We found recent leopard and hyena prints, and saw a 6 month old impala carcass hanging in a tree (leopard dinner). The crater lake was impressive, small and very green, and the crater was so obviously a crater. We had a welcome cold drink at the flash lodge on the lake shore (lake smells a bit!) then went for a walk round it. Mainly birds, flamingoes again, and two camels. Strange. They are apparently being "trained" to be used for camel safaris in the park. A bit different from horse back.

And now we are in Nairobi, and have been having a great time.

All we have really done here has been wildlife related. What else would we do?! We visited the excellent David Sheldrick Animal Orphanage and saw two black rhino and six baby elephant. The rhino were impressive, huge and deceptively stupid looking. The elephant ranged from 1 month to 18 months old and were so cute. The smallest had sunblock on her ears and a ranger with an umbrella for when the sun came out. Lack of a mummy elephant has resulted in sunburn. We watched them all get fed, and the elephants play in the mud, dust and water. The rhino had to leave after about 15 minutes as they get a bit antsy in front of crowds. We also have been to the Langata Giraffe Centre where they are trying to save the rare Rothschild Giraffe. They had three females, a few babies and a huge males there, all uncaged and wild, the male especially. We got to feed the females by hand, some kind of pellets that they loved. Their tongues are long and slobbery, and one, Daisy, headbutts you if you are not feeding her enough!

We went to the Nairobi National Park yesterday. They have what they call a Safari walk just outside the park that was recommended to us. We went round but it was a bit too much like a zoo for our liking, but we did get to see lion, leopard and cheetah quite close up. It may have been our best chance to see them. From there we spent the afternoon in the park, four of us and a guide in a matatu. While we didnt see a lot, what we did see was spectacular. No cats unfortunately, but we did see 8 Black Rhino. Apparently its unusual to see this many. We saw mother and baby groups and lone males. Also we saw zebra, impala, eland, giraffe, Common Waterbuck, bushbuck, scrub hares, gazelle and the usual unidentified birdlife.

And now we are on our last day in Nairobi, tomorrow we are off to Tanzania. First stop Ngorongoro and the Serengeti. Fingers crossed for some big cats!

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Photos

Fred seeing to the chickens for dinner
A nasty job but somebody had to do it! Well done Fred and Kirsten.