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Published: July 10th 2015
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Mt Kilimanjaro #1
Hidden behind the tree Our trip across the border proved to be fairly painless and after a few hours we descended into Nairobi where we said goodbye to the majority of the truck which left only four of us remaining – Lauren, Stacey, Luke and myself. We had a couple of days free time here so we went out and did some souvenir shopping and caught up on all those travellers tasks like washing and e-mails. We also visited a local mall a couple of times which was interesting for the fact of all the security. Every car entering the compound was scanned for bombs, and every person walking in was also scanned more so than you would be at the airport. A sad situation but necessary considering the recent terrorist attacks in Nairobi.
But before long we were back on the truck and onwards to our next adventure. As we drove out we went through the Great Rift Valley which provided some spectacular views over the land. The first stop was Lake Nakuru where we went on another game drive and we were lucky enough to see a few white rhino. We spent several hours meandering through the park and saw
plenty of amazing animals but annoyingly for me, I didn’t spot a leopard as that would have been the last animal for me to see of the Big Five!
The next day was our last in Kenya before crossing the border into Uganda and we stayed at a small town called Eldoret. The best thing about the accommodation was the pool and as we arrived in quite early, we spent the majority of the day relaxing by the pool in the sunshine. This travelling life is tough!
To read about my Ugandan adventures, see the next blog but I’ll now continue with the rest of my time in Kenya following my time in Uganda and Rwanda.
After we crossed back into Kenya, we headed to Lake Naivasha which was our destination for the night not far outside of Nairobi. We were all a little exhausted but still in denial about the trip coming to an end! For our final day, I was the only one who was keen to participate in another game drive – this time via bicycle into Hells Gate National Park. Though I count myself fit enough to
cycle around for 25-30km, I still would have been in trouble if a buffalo decided to charge!
It ended up being one of the highlights of my trip as the scenery was superb and it seemed more natural and real viewing it from a bicycle rather than a safari truck. I also enjoyed the looks of confusion from the animals as they saw us trundling past! Though there were no lions, we did see warthogs, antelopes, buffalo, zebras, giraffes, and plenty of others. We cycled into the centre where we hiked into a gorge and out to a rock which was the inspiration for the Lion King’s Pride Rock. On the hike back, I was also very lucky to see a very rare oddity – a zebra up a tree! Though it was not alive, it had been dragged up this tree by a leopard for a meal which would have been an incredible effort as it would have been a good 4-5m up and the zebra would have outweighed the leopard quite substantially.
After some photos we cycled back and I got to rest my weary legs as we drove back
into Nairobi. We spent one final night together as a group and we headed out to Carnivore restaurant which as you could guess from the title is a smorgasbord of meat. I definitely got my money’s worth and did not feel like eating for a couple of days! The next day we said goodbye to Chanel and Marc and the four of us headed out to our hotel. I had planned it so I had one night of luxury there before I flew back but I made a big mistake. On my final day before my flight in the evening, I chilled out at the pool with Stacey but did not put any sunscreen on as I figured as it would be overcast I would be fine. Very, very wrong as I got supremely sunburned which made for some very uncomfortable flights! Oh well, not a good ending but it could not spoil what was an amazing experience. Africa is an incredible continent of which I have only seen the smallest part so I will be back!
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