Saturday, October 28, 2006

October 28th, 2006 Lake Naivasha – Nairobi, Kenya

October 28, 2006
Lake Naivasha – Nairobi, Kenya

This morning we woke up at 6:45 to Adam (the Australian) pounding on our door very loudly (we asked him to wake us up). Once we got out of bed B and I packed up our things and then headed to breakfast.

Once we had completed breakfast everyone in the group except for Henry (the old Argentinean) decided to pay an extra $25 and go on a boat ride across the lake. At 7:50 we arrived at the boat ramp. We had about an hour ride along the edges of the lake. We saw tons of different species of birds (including herons and pelicans) and hippos (mating!).

After an hour we went ashore for a long, dusty hike. Eventually we made it to a party of giraffe eating in a field. It was awesome to out of a car and seeing some large animals. We spent quite a while with the giraffe and took numerous pictures.


Ultimately, we made our way back to the boat and started cruising back to the boat ramp. On the way the guide called to a fish eagle and then threw a fish out in the water. Incredibly, the eagle swooped down and grabbed the fish from right in front of our boat. We also made another stop with a different group of hippos.

We returned to the lodge just after 12:00. We ate lunch and then started the drive back to Nairobi. Although it only took 3.5 hours, I was exhausted when we arrived at our hotel. Afer we took a group picture I went up to the room and used the internet for quite some time.

At 20:00 we all went to a nice restaurant for a group dinner. We had a very long, very good meal. In addition to the normal meats they also had camel and ostrich. The camel, while interesting, was not all that great. The ostrich was very similar to beef and quite good...After dinner we said our goodbye's and retreated to our rooms.

It will probably be another 6 or 7 days before I can make another post. Be sure to scroll down and read all that I have posted today! ☺

NOTE: I would like to mention that the names of the Austrians are Marcus, Chris (the most European person I have ever met), Judith, and Julia (they are all young doctors and lawyers). Similarly, the Australians are Adam and Monique (pronounced Mah-nique). Lastly, the clueless Argentinean (who is coming with us to Tanzania) is named Henry (a judge).

AND: I have many more (bigger and better) safari photos that I cannot upload because of the slow internet so you will have to wait until you see me to get them!!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Amazing sites!! Made me think of yout 9th grade geography video project about the wildebeasts...how exciting to see the real stuff!!
PS Beavs just beat USC!

Anonymous said...

right Ellen... he's been gone a while, but who's going to beleive the bevers beat the trojans...
keep the awsomeness coming cuz!

Anonymous said...

I love your blog! And all the photos. We love the vicarious traveling.

Kristine and I are in LA now on the booktøur. We are doing our safari to every bookstore in the LA area. Very exciting!, but not so many photos.

Keep up the good blogging!!
AJ

Nate said...

Wow Sean! And it is true about not getting behind animals when they are peeing... We were in Mexico when we were younger, and Chris took a picture of a lion in a cage. The lion got startled and shot his pee at least 25 feet over onto me... It was pretty gross...

Stu Holdren said...

I miss you...

PS - Ducks just beat Portland State!!!!



HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Anonymous said...

Mating hippos- what a sight to see. Like watching colliding galaxies. That eagle picture is great. Amazing that your guide could just call to it and have it come for food. Very cool!