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Published: September 30th 2009
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4th August Friday DAY 14 ELDORET to NAIROBI
I didn’t sleep so well as my rash was really itchy and it has gotten worse. I have put on antiseptic cream but it didn’t do anything and now I think my ankle is swollen. We stopped for lunch overlooking the Rift Valley, seeing flamingos in the distance. There was a guy who had a chameleon on his hand and I went to get a photo of it on my hand but he wanted to charge me for it, so I said no and handed it back. It reminded me of the Gibbons in Thailand and I am glad I know about this so i didn’t get a photo.
Once through the traffic of Nairobi we reach Karen Camp and as soon as we arrived it started to rain so some of us hung out in the truck waiting for it to stop. Robin decided to dorm it again so I was to share with Cat. We decided to just set it up in the rain and as soon as we did it really started to bucket down; it was hilarious, and meanwhile Robin changed her mind and I gave her a
THE HORNS
illegal in some of the African countries hand setting up her tent, while it was still pissing it down. We were both drenched. I still can’t wear shoes due to my rash and my pants even have to be rolled up, anything touching the rash makes it even itchier, so my feet were drenched and muddy.
Dinner was at Pampa Churrascaria Restaurant (not for the vegetarians) as it was our last night all together before people leave and or change over tours. We caught our cabs in the rain and all but one cab had arrived but we waited for the last one as we wanted to eat together. They eventually turned up, being late after having an accident. Not a bad one luckily and everyone (Robin, Oli, Clare and Daz) were ok. Our table at the restaurant had small cards at each seat, one side was red and the other was green. You place the card green side up if you want the waiters to come to you and serve you different dishes. And if you don’t want them to come to you, you flip it over to red so they leave you alone. I gave the green light to food such as Crocodile, Camel,
Guinea Fowl, pork ribs, beef, Ostrich, Chicken. The croc tasted like fish, the camel was nice but chewy and rubbery, but the pork ribs and ostrich were delicious. So to were the chips, onion rings, and matoke (banana) chips. For desert we had banana friters, deep fried bananas, and hot pineapple in cinnamon which was so so sweet but mmm.
We said bye to Clare and Andy, Robin ended up having to sleep in the dorm as her tent was flooded, and Cat and I had a great chat in the tent but again I didn’t get much sleep due to my rash driving me nuts, I kept waking up and ended up sticking my feet out of the sleeping bag and continually putting on more cream.
5th August Saturday DAY 15 NAIROBI
Barking dogs all morning…arrggghhh! We grabbed some cabs and headed to our first stop; The African Fund for Endangered Wildlife Giraffe Centre, where we only had 40 minutes but it was great. I got to hand feed a Giraffe; its huge long tongue was like sand paper on my skin. I also got to put some of their pellets in my mouth between my lips
and I got a few big kisses and even a hug. Robin did the same and the Giraffe almost kissed her face off. If you don’t continuously feed them they can get a bit fired up and head butt you. There were wort hogs rolling around in the mud and a cute little baby Giraffe too. I would have loved to stay longer but we had to get a move on. The house in the background will be mine one day too.
The next stop was the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Elephant Orphanage (http://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/ check this out, a very worthwhile cause. If you ever wanted to donate money to a charity and were not sure of a good one, i have found it for you!!!) They only feed the elephants for the public between 11 and 12 so their time with the public is limited. At first we got to see a 3 year old baby Rhino which was absolutely gorgeous, and about to be released back into the wild. Its mother actually died of old age and they have been looking after it. They need to release them between 4 and 5 years as they are ready to
Group 1
in our truck/bus. Don't let Pat hear you call it a bus! breed between 5 and 8 years. His name is Shiba which means problems. Rhino’s reach an age of about 45 years, are mostly solitary, are up to 2,500 tonnes and gestation is 18 months with babies weighing about 100kgs, and females are ready to breed at a younger age to males.
Then the elephants came out. They were so tiny (a little smaller then us) and went running over to their bottles. There are currently 7 elephants in the orphanage of different ages and are all there for different reasons. Most of them were there from poaching, although old age and starvation is also a reason the mothers are not around. So far they have released 70 elephants back into the wild that were all saved by rangers. Gestation is 22 months and poaching is still occurring, however since the 70’s it has decreased. If the rangers find poaches they shoot them on the spot, which is absolutely fantastic! Some of them even act like sisters and brothers to each other. Watching them was so emotional; they would scratch one leg with the other and even walked close enough for us to touch them. They were very muddy and
had tough skin with strong bristles of hair scattered over their backs. As one walked past me it touched my foot with its trunk, so cool!
Apparently each elephant gets its own keeper that looks after it 24/7, even sleeping with them in their houses at night making sure they have a blanket over them (pneumonia is a problem with the babies) and giving them their feeds which are sometimes every 3 hours. Robin and I donated some money and bought a few souveneers.
On the way back to Karen our cab ran out of petrol! It was hilarious and the driver had to leave us to go and get more, although we didn’t have to wait that long when he gets dropped of by another car and we are on our way, dropping the others off in town and Robin and I head back to camp to watch the Wallabies play South Africa and Australia won! We found out the group would now be splitting up, those who were finishing their tour in Zanzibar will be going on the other bus tomorrow, there will be people joining both buses and ours will now be full (24 people)
and we were all a bit pissed off.
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