Well a few weeks ago it was my first adventure into the Nairobi Game Park, and yes it is a game park located in Nairobi, it is actually just South of the City on the way out to Karen (remember Karen Blixen in Out of Africa?).
Well, first of all, I do have to call it an adventure...and I do apologize for not having pictures so that you can see it...but it was impossible to get photos of the adventure part.
Just as the first disclaimer to the build up of our adventure. When I got here almost a year ago, Kenya was in the midst of the worse drought ever, with no good rains during rainy season, many things were drying up, crops were devastated and power rations were normal to be scheduled but were often daily. Well I do have to thank God for providing...providing us with rains that have started good harvests in the field that are leaving many grateful.
So back to the trip in the game park...we, it was Kev, his girlfriend Rachel, a guy from SP that Kev works with Golden, our driver Caleb (ok...he works at the hangar with me, not some random guy I found), and myself. So we started our day at 6 am or closer to 6:30, it was all a morning fuzz to me and I was really sick with a cold, so I had some lemon honey tea in hand, hoping that I wasn't going to loose my voice. We met up and made our way over to the park, the morning was raining sprinkles and the sky was grey. We finally made it into the park shortly after 7 am...
As we were entering we were driving through the roadways until it eventually hit the dirt road...as we came around the corner we were welcomed to the park by the hosts of the day!
Four Giraffes, two babies and two mama's
These Giraffe's were just hanging out on the road, just to think these are the tallest of all land living species, weighing over 1,200 lbs. If you have seen a giraffe walk you will notice that they are one of the few animals that move both their left legs at the same time and then their right. The only other animal I have see do this is a camel.
Cape Buffalo
Ostriches
Then the start of many Ostriches...that are the largest bird in the world and one of the fastest. Sadly we didn't get to see any of them running around.
Hartebeest
Then these little guys were everywhere as well, they are Hartebeest...as much as you would see Wildebeest in the Mara, they were throughout the park.
More Hartebeest
Then the next part of our journey...was me holding on for dear life in the Land Cruiser with my camera bouncing on my lap, my cell phone flying off my lap, and the best when I was looking through my pictures on my camera... a picture of my lap in all the bumps. You see...we took a path that half way down it Caleb says...wow the ground it getting softer. After a week of heavy rains you can well imagine how saturated the ground is with water. Well...at this point we were holding on...and saying don't stop now...we will have to get out and push and dig. Well....we didn't stop and as we headed towards the end of the road...not knowing where to go we started to navigate our way to turn around, with the ultimate goal of not getting stuck. We did it but on the way back we saw another vehicle stuck in the muck, we were unable to stop to help (for fear that we would become stuck as well)... So after our weekend before...and enjoying the mud...lets just say our fun continued. We continued to splash our ways through all the big mud puddles, help someone else that got stuck out, and also...watch silly people try not to get stuck in their little cars.
Here are some more pictures of what we saw...
Our tour markers...the Giraffe
We called this one a Secretary Bird
The Secretary Bird, is the national bird of Sudan...hmmm interesting. It isn't a good shot of it here as I have noticed seeing these ones I have always seen their back sides running away. But something more interesting is that these birds are a bird of prey...like an eagle but they do all their hunting on the ground instead by air.
Rhinoceros
Another one of the Big Five...the Rhino! We saw these from far far away...I looked over and said...it is the Rhinos, apparently there is only five in the park...and we got to see three of them.
More Rhinos!
Here is my poster picture of the day!
Just the park...no animals hiding in here!
there is me...
So for most of the day we were also on a lion hunt...I think cause the park was so wet that we didn't get to see them. We also didn't make it down to the watering hole with the hippos, it was too muddy to trek down there.
So for my experiences of the Big Five...I am still yet to be able to see the Leopard in the wild. I have seen it in Africa, if that counts but I saw it in the Animal Orphanage here in Nairobi.
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