Day 123...It began in Africa-ca-ca-ca - 27th October

Woke up, had a mug of hot sweet tea and marvelled over what Mr Elephant got up to last night. Basically he did a big pee right near our tent, and then a big poo right near the toilet block. He must of wandered a bit around the camp last night, and around our tent. How amazing. We went to the toilet block and I did a count of the steps of how far away he was. It was 17 steps. 17 steps from such a massive wild animal! It was so exciting. As we were sitting having tea, I saw a really small animal dart into the bushes near our tent. For a second i thought 'rabbit' (stupid I know) but it was so small, but then I saw it looked like a little antelope. I assumed it was a dik dik as I had never seen one before but read about them in the Wilbure Smith novels. I asked Stanley and he agreed that it was. How cute! A tiny antelope the size of a rabbit. So cute!

We packed up, everything now getting quite dusty and put everything into the van. The shower in the toilet block was ice cold and the equivalent of a tap. We showered yesterday but we didn't today and just jumped into the car. James packed up fairly quickly and it wasn't long before we were driving through Amboseli on our way onwards. On the way out of the camp we waved goodbye to the Masaai and saw old Mr bull elephant eating from a tree not far from camp. We were pretty sure that it was the same guy and man, he was huge!
Stanley tried to take us out another way to be quicker and we got to watch some monkeys for the first time near the game keepers lodge on the far side of the camp. THen we did the equivalent of bush bashing, as I don't think Stanley or James knew too well where we were going as there was a bit of animated conversation in Swahili. The animals seemed a bit more skittish as well as if they didn't expect us out this far. We were far from the water supply so everything was incredibly dusty and dry. We bounced and jostled along while jackals and wildebeest ran and scurried from our path.

We were all pretty sweaty and stinky but I was beginning to understand why the Kenyans on the flight were stinky. WHen you stink, you don't seem to mind other peoples stink. So we all stank together and it was actually pretty cool to notice that.

We left the park and bounced along dusty roads. The landscape was red dotted with blue and green bushes with a blue sky dotted with clouds as far as you could see. The occasional hut would flash past and occasionally we would go through villages where Masaii sat under trees or traded goats and veges. If you stop at a town you have to look in one direction as all the women come up and knock on your window and try and sell you stuff. So if you go there, remember to roll up your window as well!
Although we left early in the morning, we didn't reach Nairobi until lunchtime. We didn't even know we were going back there, such was Stanley's excellent guide skills. But they dropped us off at a cafe with a prepaid lunch while they went and organised some things. I took to opportunity to use the bathroom as I decided not to poo while in camp. Its amazing what you can train your body to do. Also how your standards change. In Europe if we got a bathroom in our bedroom it was luxury! Now, if we have a flushing toilet its luxury! And for some reason the toilets in Kenya don't have seats so you ride bareback alot of the time. But it was better than a dirty drop hole in Amboseli let me tell you! :P
Nathan and I looked like the only white people in town. Definately in the cafe at least. Nathan felt like he stood out like the proverbial but I didn't feel like people were really looking at us at all. We ate some chicken and then got back in the van and drove out of Kenya.

The surrounding area was very different from where we had been. Whilst the landscape was red, it was a light to orange ochre red. Now the air got cooler and the red was a deeper rustier colour, the soil seeming very rich. ANd it was, as this was the area that the Kenyans grow all their coffee and flowers.

We drove along until we were driving past the Rift Valley, with it on our left. The Rift Valley runs through the centre of Kenya and has been established as the 'cradle of humanity' as some human remains - one estimated to be 2 1/2 million years old have been found there. A recent discovery belonging to a six million year old hominid has him as a strong contendor for mans oldest anscestor. The Rift Valley is more a series of valleys than just one. As we crested along the top, it was beautiful to see. The sun was bursting out in rays behind the clouds, then hitting and lighting up several parts of the lakes that dotted along the valley. The land was a rusty red with rich green vegetation. I couldn't help but think that this was one of the places that it all began. How rich in history! We stopped for a few photos, got hassled, Nathan got cranky with Stanley and then we were off again, heading down into the valley. The usual TIA, we didn't arrive out our lodge until 7pm.
Driving to Nakuru we passed a few towns, the last one quite large. We saw a few mosques and lots of people to market. It was a bustling, vibrant town and James ducked out and bought some potatoes. The game park was on the edge of the town, so it didn't take long to get to the lodge. The lodge used to be a white farmers farmhouse, which was then taken over by the Kenyans and turned into a lodge when it became a game park. It was luxury to stay indoors again let me tell you! It was two single beds in our room, complete with mosquito nets hanging over the top. And the shower was warm! (Kind of). The shower room floor was cold and wet and there were clouds upon clouds of mosquitoes in there. YOu could hear them buzzing so loudly in your ears that as you frantically scrubbed in the luke warm water you had to try and protect yourself from bites as well.

After we had washed off the dust and sweat (and I managed to brush my hair finally) we felt all fresh and clean. We wandered into the TV and eating room (wow electricity, that was also a luxury) and met two other couples that were on tour. They had paid for private tours each, and were having the same experience as us but we were paying less. I felt pretty good about my planning skills. hey hey! Dean and Emily were living in Dubai. Emily was Australian and Dean was Canadian. Andy and Doris were from luxemberg. THey were fantastic.

It was a great dinner as we all shared travel stories (both Kenyan and elsewhere). Emily had us in stitches as she managed to do the 'external verbalisation' that americans seem to do. Andy loved diving and told us a scary story from when he was just learning to dive in Asia and got left behind. He was incredibly lucky to get picked up by a passing fishing boat or he'd be dead. Needless to say he punched the guy when he got back to shore. (They guy that left him behind, not the fisherman).

So we spent the night laughing and sharing stories with these couples. It was nice to speak to other people about travels and share stories - and not just with tour guides. I was glad that Emily gave us a warning as they had come from the Mara and there are Masai's who guard the camp there but they weren't told. So they bumped into a guy skulking around in the night! One other girl didn't know and bumped into a guy sitting outside her tent!
Emily also had a spider in her tent and freaked out. A masai came in and hit it with a bone (a BONE mind you) and said 'oh its dead now' but she didn't see the body so she assumed he missed and lied. Both couples had also had the tyres on their vans blow up and thir guide spend hours trying to fix it in the hot sun.

After a few hours of laughing we all headed to bed. Quite a long day.