Kenya

We crossed the border into Kenya on Wednesday and made our way towards Raj's Camp in Eldoret. We also managed to get some reception on our phone and called home for the first time in a couple of weeks. The drive into Kenya was very scenic with lush landscape and gorgeous views down the Rift Valley. For some reason there are a ton of donkeys in Kenya which is a little odd but then we are getting used to seeing strange things. Africa so far is nothing like we expected. While slightly less civilised than we are used to, it has certainly not been as basic and third world as we had envisaged. There are bars in virtually every campsite (we have massive beer guts), the campsites are barely out bush for the most part and we have never felt scared or intimidated although we are careful not to wander around by ourselves (girls) or at night. At Raj's, we decided to take our first upgrade from tents to rooms which a bit of a treat after two weeks, especially because we had major thunder storms. Unbelievable, but the campsite has a huge bar built underground with waterfalls and bridges crossing streams (all inside) and a bartender smoking pot the entire time. We had an African local meal and tasted our first goat stew - kinda gross. The following day we made our way to our first national park of the trip in Nakuru National Park. We arrived midday and had to secure our tents to ensure the damn baboons didn't break in and then set off in the truck for a game drive. This was one time where we really expected to be in a fenced-in campsite, but no, we were just smack bang in the middle of the National Park and told that we should be wary when going to the toilets as there were hippos roaming around. The park sits on the shores of Lake Nakuru which attracts thousands of pink flamingos and has huge open savannahs were we saw White Rhino, Buffalo, Zebra and Gazelle. After a few hours of driving we also finally spotted a leopard hanging about in the trees watching the Zebra. No kill though unfortunately. That night we both came down with dodgy stomachs (suspect it was aversion to goat meat) and had to go to the local hospital but all good now. We were then off to Kembu where we stayed in a farm park camping ground in the middle of nowhere. Again, it was an awesome campground with a good bar, backyard cricket, darts and table tennis. It hardly feels like we're in Africa. On Saturday we continued our journey towards the number one national park in Kenya, the Maasai Mara, and stopped for the night in a shit hole of a town called Narok. The campground bordered the town and broken glass littered the ground so cricket was out of the question. Herds of goats randomly walked into the camp and stunk out the place. The camp bar was also a watering hole for locals so was an experience sitting down with a beer to watch England play Paraguay in the world cup. The only positive was homemade burgers made by Anna and her cook group. First thing Sunday we were outta there (after visiting the long drop three times before breakfast) and off to a camp in the Maasai Mara National Park. As mentioned the MM NP is the largest and most popular game park in Kenya and borders Tanzania and the Serengeti National Park. We arrived midday and sit off on a game drive in the most scenic terrain. It was exactly how you would picture Africa - with wide open plains and the odd Joshua Tree scattered here and there. There were herds of gazelle, wildebeast, zebra and giraffe as we drove in and it just got better. You would be driving along and in the horizon see a huge sillouette of a herd of elephants. As the sun started to set and we were heading home we saw a group of vans flying towards one particular spot so we followed and found a pride of lions sunning themselves. It was certainly the highlight of the day being just a few metres away from 5 lionesses and 8 or so cubs. As we watched, two of the lionesses took off and started stalking a herd of zebra for a kill - unfortunately one of the vans got in the way and cut them off so they pulled out and came back for a sunbathe. On Monday we did another early morning game drive and saw a massive herd of elephants - around 30 or so - that were all just by the side of the road where we were sitting in the truck. A couple of times, the elephants crossed over the road right in front of the truck. We have now seen the BIG 5 (although white Rhino rather than black) which is pretty impressive for only having been in Africa for a couple of weeks. Also, Team Vietnam - we are excited to report that we saw our first hippos on the way out of the Maasai Mara! Photos to come shortly. After a few hours we were off on a 7 hour drive to Camp Crayfish on Lake Navisha for two nights which was crappy - really bumpy and it took 5.5 hours to go 137km and that was on the main road to Nairobi. In the morning, we headed up to the Crater Lake and walked around a game sanctuary with giraffe, zebras, pumbhas and, supposedly, 6 leopard although we didn't see any which is probably a good thing. We are now in Nairobi having spent the day with little orphaned elephants and handfeeding and cuddling giraffes.