Around the World

We decided to go with the "Big Safari" operator. I had hot chocolate for breakfast. We didn't do much except walk to the bank to get $400 worth of shillings each and $300 U.S. Dollars. We had a pizza at Burger Chef and I got my hair cut. We got some yogurt and dried fruit and went back to the hostel. I sat around the fire a lot. Got my things organized for the trip. Joquin came over and we gave her a 50% deposit. I read about the parks we will be seeing on the safari. It sounds very exciting. We cooked potatoes and mushroom gravy for dinner.

I still didn't feel well. I was dizzy and had an upset stomach. I was up at 6 am, took a hot shower and saw the orange sunrise from the roof. I ate toast and met Donna. Jaquieline from Big Safaris picked us up at 9 am and took us to her office where we paid the rest of the balance. We went to a store nearby and got water and pens for the kids. It turns out that there are only two others in our van, a couple named Ivan and Kathleen from England. The driver stopped for food and at a couple gas stations before we got out of town. I can't understand the Englishman's accent when he talked to us.

After leaving Nairobi, we drove past some coffee plantations, and a farm of French beans. We went by Mt. Kenya but the clouds hid it from view. We stopped at a handicraft shop. They had some shoe plish carvings. We crossed the equator and stopped for lunch, we ate beef and rice. I bought a small wood carving for 40 shillings. I felt like I had a fever so I got some Aspirin at the store. I think I'm having a reaction from stopping the antimalaria medication. We continued on and stopped for petrol at a station full of Samalians selling knives and weapons. It was crazy. One guy had a funny doll I liked but the station guard got mad and chased him away. We came down in elevation adn it got warmer. The paved highway ended and turned to gravel. It got so bumpy that our driver took the path off the side of the main road. It was more smooth but full of dust. I saw some tribesmen on the side of the road. They seem to come out of nowhere. We stopped to put the roof up a young guy painted red with beads on his neck came out of the bush and said "Hello". We turned off the road and went past some cows soon we came upon Zebras! Then giraffes. It was amazing. I saw the reticulated giraffe, burchells zebra, Greyes Zebra, and the African Elephant. They seemed so peaceful in their natrual surroundings. We got really close to the animals. We drove along a river and passed a huge owl and some cranes in the trees.

Around 6pm we drove through the Samburu Park gate. We saw some guys hanging meat out to bait the leopard. Our camp site was run down. It was the worst one in the campgrounds. Donna and I got our own tents. We settled in and I walked by the Uaso Nyiro river to have a look around. One of the zippers on my tent was bad. Our cook made some good asperagus soup, spagetti and a meat stew with potatoes that taste like mom's hamburger pot pie. After I ate, I felt really tired so I laid down in my tent. I went out like a light. I woke up at 1 AM and was very thirsty. I had a bad fever. I was hot and then cold. I thought I heard an animal outside my tent but I didn't check. It was probably a bunch of baboons rumaging for food.

I didn't feel sick to the stomach in the morning. It was a relief. We got up at 6:30 am to take a drive around to find animals. The early morning is supposed to be the best time to see wildlife. There wasn't a whole lot to see except a warthog, grey crowned crane (clown crane) and I spotted a Cheetah. It had a young cub. We watched through binoculars as they played. All the other vans raced over to see what we were looking at. As we drove closer they walked right in front of us. It was amazing to see them. We went back to the camp and ate breakfast. I started to feel strange.

We went back out and found two lions (lionesses). They were sitting on the shore of the river. We also saw giraffes, elephants and a hippo. This is the time of day animals come to drink from the river. We got real close to the lions. We also saw an elephant up close. Watched a giraffe drink. They spread their front legs to drink. There are lots of elephants. Also saw a crocodile. There was a big crocodile near our camp on the other side of the river. We went on another game drive in the afternoon and got stuck in the sand, at the same place as earlier. This time there wre elephants nearby. passing vans stopped and gave uas a hand. We were on our way again looking for animals. We saw some big birds near the airstrip. We went to the lodge, had a juice, but no leaopard came. Went back to camp to eat and sleep. I felt so sleepy.

The Samburu National Reserve is located on the banks of the Ewaso Ng'iro river; on the other side of the river is the Buffalo Springs National Reserve in Northern Kenya. It is 165 km² in size and 350 kilometers from Nairobi. Geographically, it is located in Samburu District of the Rift Valley Province.
In the middle of the reserve, the Ewaso Ng'iro flows through doum palm groves and thick riverine forests that provides water without which the game in the reserve could not survive in the arid country. Samburu Reserve was one of the two areas in which conservationists George Adamson and Joy Adamson raised Elsa the Lioness made famous in the best selling book and award winning movie Born Free. Samburu Reserve is also the home of Kamunyak, a lioness famous for adopting oryx calves.

We left camp and made our way to the gate. We saw a cheeta on our drive out. We stopped at the Equator and saw the demostration of water swirling in opposing directions when you walk past the equator sign. There were many vendors next to the sign. One Kenyan woman asked how many children I had. She was shocked to learn that I didn't have a wife and kids. She further told me that I could marry her. I politely declined even with the opportunity of having my own souvenir shop with her.

When we got back to the tarmac the guy with the Turkana doll was waiting for me. Donna and Ivan got one. We went to the gas station and I bought one from a guy for 100 Shillings. It was bigger and had a baby on the back. The Turkana dolls were used by young girls to ensure fertility and also by women who were enable to conceive. They were dressed and treated like real babies and kept for many years in the family. The face is flat with angular, mask-like features showing no expression of individuality or emotion. In contrast the breasts, belly and hips have been emphasized because these features are important to giving birth and raising children.

We stopped at Thompson's Falls for lunch. It was freezing cold. The restaurant looked like a ski lodge. There were mostly African families eating there. It seemed like a local vacation spot. Thomson's Falls is a 243ft scenic waterfall at the Ewaso Narok river, which drains from the Aberdare Mountain Range. The Ewaso Narok River is a tributary of the Ewaso Ng'iro river. It is situated near the town Nyahururu in central Kenya, at 7,750 ft. Discovered in 1883 by Joseph Thomson, a Scottish geologist and naturalist who was the first European to walk from Mombasa to Lake Victoria in the early 1880s. The mist feeds the dense forest below.

After visinting the falls we drove into the Rift Valley. And it started to rain. We settled in at the Crater View Lodge near Nakuru. I was feeling very sick. When I went to dinner I threw up and didn't eat anything.

We got up at 6:45 am, got in the van, and drove to the Nakuru National Park gate. The guards said our ID was too old for student entry so we had to pay an extra $17. It cos $27 adults, $10 students (under 23). We drove out to the lake. It was freezing cold and it stunk real bad. I saw the pink flamingos. I trodged in the mud but it was too thick. The freezing wind drew me back to the van. We saw two buffaloo battling it out on the road. We had to back up to avoid getting in the way. I could hear a loud crack as their horn collided. Then we saw some White Rhinos in the mist in front of a row of trees. One of the three was a yound one.

Lake Nakuru National Park, created in 1961 around Lake Nakuru, near Nakuru Town. It is best known for its thousands, sometimes millions of flamingos nesting along the shores. The surface of the shallow lake is often hardly recognizable due to the continually shifting mass of pink. The number of flamingoes on the lake varies with water and food conditions and the best vantage point is from Baboon Cliff. The flamingos feed on algae, created from their droppings mixing in the warm alkaline waters, and plankton. There are two types of flamingo species: the Lesser flamingo can be distinguished by its deep red carmine bill and pink plumage unlike the greater, which has a bill with a black tip. The Lesser flamingos are ones that are commonly pictured in documentaries mainly because they are large in number. Also of interest is an area of 188 km around the lake fenced off as a sanctuary to protect Rothschild giraffes and black rhinos.

The park has recently been enlarged partly to provide the sanctuary for the black rhino. This undertaking has necessitated a fence - to keep out poachers rather than to restrict the movement of wildlife. The park marches for 12.1 km on the south eastern boundary with the Soysambu conservancy which represents a possible future expansion of habitat for the rhinos and the only remaining wildlife corridor to Lake Naivasha. The park now has more than 25 Rhinoceros, one of the largest concentrations in the country, so the chances of spotting these survivors are good. There are also a number of Rothschild's giraffe, again translocated for safety from western Kenya beginning in 1977. Waterbuck are very common and both the Kenyan species are found here. Among the predators are lion and leopard, the latter being seen much more frequently in recent times. The park also has large sized pythons that inhabit the dense woodlands, and can often be seen crossing the roads or dangling from trees.

We stopped at the lodge and picked up a couple from Belgium. We went back to see the pink flamingos again. I watched them eating, swimming, wading, and flying around. Its still very cold. When we got back to the lodge I was feeling the worst. I threw up, felt dizzy, had a high fever, no appetite, and my body was weak and ached all over. I wanted a doctor but didn't want to go to any hospital. After throwing up I started to feel well enough to travel. We packed up, checked out of the lodge, and drove to Masai Mara. We stopped for lunch at a cafe on the road to Narok. I thought I caught malaria because I had a fever for 3 days. I took a larium that evening as I slept in my tent. I didn't sleep. I felt the tent spinning around me as I laid on my back with a fever all night.