Gorillas, Chimps and Game Parks

29 November, Monday; Nakuru to Eldoret, Kenya. We woke up on a chilly Monday morning and the Baggage Dilemma was ancient history, nearly erased from our memories. We emerged from our tent after a somewhat sleepless night and greeted our travelling mates for the next 2+ weeks. To our luck, they are a fantastic group. The age range is from mid-to-late 20’s to 35 and Ben is the second-oldest by a few months. Everyone is down-to-earth, friendly and helpful. In addition to fantastic travel mates, we also have a friendly crew of three. We lucked out with a small group. There are 7 of us on a truck designed for 21 (plus 3 crew). This means we have lots of space to spread out and everyone has a window seat and easy access for photos.

After a quick breakfast, we set off for our first game drive of the safari and my first game drive ever. The day before, the group had seen 3 lions! No lion sightings this time, but we did come across zebra, hyenas, water buffalo, impala, pelicans, vultures, rhinos, baboons ad probably other animals I’m forgetting.


Maribu Stork	Common Zebra	Water Buffalo

Lake Nakuru	Vervet Monkey	Vervet Monkey

To top it off, we were able to spot a leopard, though he was mostly hidden in the bush. I’ve obviously seen all these animals at a zoo before, but there is something so majestic about seeing them in the wild. It’s fantastic!

We then returned to our camp and had a tasty lunch accompanied by a troupe of monkeys. Before Ben could even eat his meal, a stealthy monkey darted in and stole the pancake right off his plate before we could do anything. It was a comical lunch, as many of the monkeys had nearly no fear and it took the boys to chase them with anything – chairs, pots, or whatever was around. Apparently they are less fearful of girls and white people! Although it was a bit of work to keep tabs on them while eating and cleaning up, they were quite fascinating. Ben and I studied a momma monkey with her baby, watching while she constantly chased him down.

After breaking down camp and packing up, we made a pit stop in Nakuru town. We were lucky to come across a cafe that had wireless and feverishly posted a few blogs. And of course, Ben enjoyed a latte. Then it was off on a drive towards Eldoret. It’s so fascinating to see the village life along the way. I know we’re only seeing a small bit of it since we’re mainly seeing villages along the ‘highway’. The one thing that is quite difficult to deal with is seeing the slums and the basic ways some locals live. On the other hand, it’s fascinating to see all of the shops in these very old or basic hut-like buildings. Some of our favorite shop sightings – “Highway Butchery” and a salon offering “Money Cures and Penny Cures.” We’re doing a lot of overland travelling, so I’ll surely get a chance to write about this more later. A bumpy drive brought us to tonight’s campsite. We were blessed with flush toilets and hot water showers – a real luxury. We also stumbled across a plaque commemorating a visit by Bill Gates last year. I’m positive he didn’t pitch a tent like we did!

We are finally getting it in our heads that we’ve just started a fantastic overland adventure. We are so excited to visit game parks and trek for chimpanzees and gorillas.