So what to do with those two days? It was too little time for a proper safari in one of the bigger reserves with camping and elephants, so we decided to spend it in Nairobi again. Jaro had some personal business in Uganda, so we were only three.
And what to do during a lazy morning after 8 hours of bus riding? Be even more lazy J That’s why Jana with Marcin insisted on spending the day relaxing in some better hotel with the pool, soft beds and room service. And why actually not to go directly to the best hotel in town, to Hilton. Imagine a comical situation when three dirty backpackers in shorts go to Hilton and want to see the room and hotel facilities. As a receptionist I would definitely think that they are wasting my time and therefore I would be really surprised when one of them would say “OK, we take the three bed room” and would pull out a Swiss bank VISA J
At the end they didn’t need to insist too much, because I had to agree that the idea of drinking blue daikiri in cool roof pool under hot African sun was too tempting. “What the hell…I’m on holiday right?” J
After first pool session we went for lunch for nearby fried chicken and ice cream, stopped by in travel agency to book one day safari for the next day, bought cheese, bread and vine for evening room chillout and went back to Hilton for more pool and sauna J. For one day it was excellent, but spending there more would be just waste of money!!
Originally we wanted to do small half day safari in Nairobi national park, followed by dinner in the famous Carnivore restaurant for some crocodile meat, but those smart trip sellers in the agency recommended us a full day trip to more distant, bigger but also more expensive Lake Nakuru national park. And somehow they presented it that we were leaving with the feeling that we did a good deal J Win-win situation!!
So at 6:30am Teddy our new driver guide picked us up from Hilton and we drove two hours down to flat and large Rift valley where a couple of small salty lakes like Nakuru lie. In Nakuru there are no elephants or hippos, but we were ensured to see rhinos and the rest of typical Africal fauna. “And if you are lucky you’ll see lion or leopard” Teddy baited us, started the engine and drove past the park gate.
Already from behind the gate I could see hers of zebras and various antelopes. The park was packed with life!! Just after the gate we saw black rhino in the distance, but we didn’t stop and went to the lake edge to watch buffaloes, zebras, impalas and gazelles.
We usually stayed in the van just looking through the open roof, because you can’t know from where a lion could jump on you J But shortly after we passed three hyenas resting in cold mud we left the van and went chasing some zebras in open space.
And in this easy mood continued the whole day. We were slowly driving through the forest and plains stopping every time we saw some animals. And we saw a lot of them. We saw white and black rhinos, giraffes, baboons, flamingos, ostriches, secretary birds or warthogs. And all of them from very close distance, because they were probably so used to people starring at them that they stayed in place! As the day was passing, we more and more eagerly were searching for the king of animals of his smaller cousin, but were not lucky that time. Probably because in the whole park live only 6 leopards and 17 lions J
But at the end of the day I felt that this was not a proper safari. I wanted to be inside the park, in the tent, be part of it, be walking though, feeling the nature. But for all this, although I don’t think it is doable in full, you need to go to Serengeti or Masai Mara, which are big enough to preserve its original wilderness. Not like this oversized ZOO J
At the end of the day, when I was slowly walking on the lake shore next to thousands of flamingos, watching a storm coming, I was knew that this trip was going to the end and that those three awesome weeks were over.
No comments:
Post a Comment