Firsts.......

 09-01-13

I've always loved the quote
           
              "When was the last time you did something for the first time?"

Well I can honestly say, on Sunday just past I went on safari for the first time in my life.  I saw so many firsts, if I blogged them all, I'm sure I couldn't do them justice and I would just bore the tan safari suit off you all........But I can't let some of the sights and experiences go by unmentioned.

With the past few blogs having had a slightly negative bent to them, it seems like a great time to lift the mood, and be reminded, whilst this is fundamentally a working trip, their is nothing to stop me having some fun along the way.

Ive frequently mentioned the German organisation HHF, and also as mentioned I helped them over the weekend, as they hosted yet another free medical camp at Gioto Garbage Slum.  Knowing I was alone in Kenya, they had kindly invited me to join them on safari the following day, I gratefully accepted their generous offer.  This was great for me, because otherwise I would have just had to do the touristy bus experience, and chances are I would have ended up just not doing it....

So with expenses being split five ways it proved to be an economical way to get to see the Nakuru National Park and all its wonders... And oh my goodness what wonders there are.

I promise I'm not going to rabbit on endlessly about every animal, and every amazing sight I saw, and just count yourself lucky you won't be one of the unlucky few that are subjected to the hundreds of photos I took... But as I mentioned earlier some things can't be ignored....And to be ironically the two best stories, happened in the first and the last half hour of the day....

Upon arrival at the park we had gone through the formalities of signing and paying, Oswald our driver and guide had to be issued with a new safari card for 2013 so that took up some time, and whilst we were waiting for all this to be completed, we all became quite excited when a very vocal and quite large troop of grey baboons came gambolling through the car park, many with babies hanging under them, and all with very sore looking red bottoms.....of course this being our very first safari "moment" we all began clicking away like the tourists we were...with guide card issued, entry fees paid, we were on our way.

As we made our way through the main gate, the armed guard at the checkpoint signalled to our driver that he wants to sight his new safari card, so Oswald pulls over and hops out the van, and walks a matter of a few meters over to the checkpoint....

Suddenly, from out of nowhere comes an enormous baboon, it runs towards the van, and in a single bound leaps through the drivers window, across Oswald's empty seat and plonks itself down in the passenger seat, it immediately leans forward into the foot well and rummages through the picnic bag the HHF team had put there and pulls out a loaf of bread and rips at it with his teeth....

All the while, we are all laughing hysterically/nervously with one of the Germans yelling "stop him!!!!"

 Yeah right! ....I'm the closest and have a clear view of those enormous claws, as far as im concerned he can have that loaf, and he knows it... He continues to sit in the passenger seat for just a little longer, then tucks the loaf under his arm, looks around at us with a "so are you going to stop me?" look on his face. He leaps back out the drivers window and legs it up the nearest tree, hotly pursued by half a dozen jealous baboons. With that Oswald returns and hops in the van totally oblivious to the commotion that has just taken place... (I actually have a great set of images to accompany this story, Im so pleased I had set my camera on continuous shot mode, as its a fantastic series of about eight shots of this greedy bugger demolishing our loaf of bread.....)

The other high point of the day happened as we were leaving the park, but unknowingly we had been witness to part of this event not long after baboon debacle.

We had slowly made our way into the park, with the pop up roof open, cameras at the ready, unashamedly being total tourists.  We were all ooooing and ahhhhing at the; flamingos, gazelles, water buffalo, the zebras roaming free (within hours we are almost blasé to the beauty of these amazing beasts, no longer pointing them out to each other) we were yet to see a giraffe, and I won't deny it, I was nearly in tears at the sight of these most beautiful of creatures.....

But as we slowly made our way along the edge of the lake, we became aware of a lot of bubbles forming, "wow!" there was a hippo or maybe two on the lakes edge.  Oswald pulls over for us to all take a look, he was quite surprised by this, as he told us its quite unusual to see hippo at Nakuru National Park, they are usually much further out into the lake and there aren't too many of them here.

So we carried on our day, thinking how lucky we had been to have seen a hippo.....Hours later as we are wearily making our way back towards the gate, all a bit tired after hours and hours bumping over dusty tracks in the african heat......at exactly the same spot on the lake shoreline the hippo is still there, but this time she is far more active, and we become aware that only a short distance away, another two, possibly three adult hippos are surrounding her... As Oswald pulls the van to a halt, we are already up and pointing our cameras in her direction, two boys in a van with their parents have also stopped to watch excitedly call out to us..... "She's just had a baby!!!!!"

And sure enough, we can now see the mother hippo is actually supporting, with her head an incredibly small baby hippo, the infant appears to still be attached to its mother and the other hippos are acting as guards to protect the two of them.... We are all in awe of this, literally blown away to have been so privileged to have witnessed something this amazing... And how fantastic for those two little boys to have witnessed the birth, a story they no doubt remember for the rest of their lives, just as I will too.    

As promised I won't bore you with the whole days events for the list is endless.....more crazy tales of monkeys grabbing food, the dozens and dozens of elegant giraffes many with their young, or the two sleeping lions perched in the trees legs dangling lazily like they would do us no harm......but how could two such memorable events not be shared..?They made my day, my week..heck maybe even the trip... I certainly won't forget them in a hurry, and if Im never blessed enough to return to Kenya, they are two images I will carry with me forever....

Asante sana