We had a long day of driving and border crossing. It wasn't a bad border it just took longer than usual. After that we drove the rest of the day and into the night to Nakuru. We spent the night at a pretty cool place. Cecilie and I upgraded to a safari tent which was awesome. Cecilie packed her stuff for Kili and I read.
The next morning we woke up early and got all of our stuff onto the truck. I wish I knew the name of the campground but if you are at this campground please not there is only one toilet and the wait can be awhile with all the other overland trucks. Luckily there is a bathroom at the bar area. I woke up and ran to the toilet only to find 4 other people waiting. I almost shat myself until Yoshi told me in broken english one toilet no good. One toilet bar good! I ran and found it just in time. We took off at 0630 in what looked like a 14 person mini Rosie truck. We game drove all day and we basically saw every type of bird possible. If you are a bird fan this is the place. I went because the place used to be a Rhino sanctuary and there are tons of Rhinos everywhere (so we heard) Suse exact words (you'd be blind not to see one). Well we were blind until the end. So we saw one black Rhino. He ended up eating in a distance and slowly made his way behind our truck. I won't lie, I was not a big fan of Nakuru. I am not sure if it was because of being the end of my trip and done with game parks or we were told that thousands of flamingos go there and we only 10, or it was the fact that after any animal the driver would stop for a while to take pictures (don't get me wrong that is nice but after 8 game drives I don't want to take pictures of zebras)...
Anyway after the game drive we drove 2 hours to Naivasha. We stopped here for an hour while cook group (suppose to be me but I bailed out) went shopping and Mt. Kilimanjaro people took off. I said my goodbyes to Cecilie, Jareb and Talbot. After they left we took off towards fishermans camp. A really cool campground on Lake Naivasha (Hippos come to the fence at night). The place was packed so I had no chance to upgrade. I ended up setting up Jarebs tent, because I gave mine to Gavin. The next morning the boys (Gavin, Kevin, Nico and myself) biked Hells Gate National park with our guide Peter. It was a really great time. All in all we biked 22 km there and back and we took a 3 km walk through a beautiful gorge (Tomb Raider was filmed here). It was so unique biking while giraffes, zebras, and buffalo's were next to the road. The gorge was absolutely amazing and beautiful. I highly recommend doing this side trip.
After the bike trip through Hells Gate we ended up doing a boat trip to Joy Adamson house. The boat trip was okay we saw a few hippos and then they through a fish into the water and then called the fish eagles (look like the American bald eagle) to get the fish. They did it 5 times and all 5 times I struggled taking pictures. Joys Adamson house was pretty good. We felt rushed so eating high tea was a hurry and the video was very slow. It felt like watching Mr. Rodgers when I was a kid. I feel asleep watching it. After an hour there we took off towards Nairobi to Karen camp for our week off.
On the way to Nairobi Rosie broke down (which is fitting because it was my last drive day).. What suppose to take 3 hours took 5 and we arrived late. Suse ordered us food from the kitchen at Karen camp and free dorm room.
The next morning we took off to the Giraffe center, and David Sheldrek elephant orphanage. We got to the Giraffe center around 0930 and spent an hour there. I felt rushed because I wanted to have more time with the giraffes. Only one giraffe wanted to be feed. Her name was Lynn and she is a fantastic kisser. We all took turns having her eat out of our hands and she got some really good pets out of us. Towards the end of our feeding two large groups came and Gavin had to share his turn with everyone else who rushed in to pet Lynn. We had to leave at 1030 because David Sheldreck is only open daily from 11-12 while the feed the baby elephants. This was one of the biggest surprises of the trip for me. None of us really wanted to go, but felt like we had to, because everyone says its worth it. Once we got there they had drinking barrels and big milk bottles all over the place. A few minutes later a group of 12 baby elephants ages 1 month to 2 years came running down the hill. Ears flopping in the wind as cute as can be. That hour was so much fun. The babies make you laugh just being as cute as can be. It reminded me of a playground in elementary school. There was a bully elephant who pushed the smaller elephants to the ground. You had two elephants play in the mud hole. One wanted to go while the other pushed him in. You had the month old with sunblock on his ears and a working follow him around with an umbrella. What I learned was it takes $900 a month to feed a baby elephant. They have to be feed every 3 hours so the workers sleep with them every night. The workers have to change everyday or else the elephants bond with the workers. I also learned that elephant poaching is still a huge part of Kenya.
After the great morning, we went back into Karen. I got all my stuff together and said my goodbyes to everyone for the week and headed into Nairobi for the week. Myself, Alexis and Fred were staying at Milimani Backpackers so we shared a taxi. Milimani was a great place, and perfect just to hangout and get caught up on some much needed r and r. That week, I ate a lot of local food, so Taken 2, met some other travelers, and a really good time being by myself. After 5 nights in I went back to Karen and met back with everyone else. I was really excited to hear about everyone week and especially to hear about Cecilie Kili trip. I had to wait all day but when they arrived I got to hear all about it. They went up the hardest route, it turned out that Talbot got malaria the day before he was suppose to climb so he didn't make it up. Which really sucks because I know he really wanted to. It was successful and everyone made it to the summit. After hearing their stories I know I can do it, maybe not the route that they did.
The next day Cecile, Jareb, Talbot met a local guy who's wife had a birthday so they went to his house in the slums and they brought me along. It was really cool to interact with a local but after an hour I was getting extremely hungry and the food wasn't going to be ready for quit sometime. The women were cooking and all the local guys where sitting drinking vodka and shooting the shit. Cecilie and I decided to head back into Nairobi and go to the mall (Junction) for some western food. We stopped by and ate Mexican food and watched the movie Brave.
The next day we spent the day mailing packages off and about one o'clock we heading to Milimani to spend the afternoon while we waited for the 7pm train. We said our goodbyes and gave our hugs. Promised to see each other soon, but the reality of that was that we would probably never see each other again. Within no time we found ourselves on the night train to Mombasa. So after reading lonely planet the train was a mix bag. My thoughts are this take the train for the history of it. Don't bother spending the money on the first class. The dinner was complete shit, and if you are a veggie its worse for you. Second class you have cabins of 4 so you could share, but the train is usually only 20 percent full.
After all night train ride that was bumpy but fun, we made it to Mombasa. We took a tuk tuk to the ferry, after the ferry we got a mottatu (shared minivan) to the a junction. Then we took another tuk tuk to South Coast backpackers. After checking in we headed straight to the beach only to be disappointed. The beach was full of seaweed and we got harassed the whole time trying to lay out in the sun. South Coast backpackers had a pool which we ended up spending the rest of our time there. After the second day I asked Cecilie if she wanted to go north or hit any other beach up. She said yes Thailand... And that is where the fun started. By the next day we booked a 2pm flight on Friday that arrived in Bangkok at 7 AM.
Thursday day we spent the day relaxing by the pool playing 500 and waiting for the bus that was going to take us to back to Nairobi. We decided to take the bus that left close to South Coast. It was budget and a big mistake. We should have gone back into Mombasa and got a luxury bus. But first of all two hours before we got on the bus we think that Cecilie either got her wallet stolen on the mattatu or when they unloaded our bags and she picked it up it fell out of her pocket. Her credit card and 150 bucks gone. Oh to make things worse it was her only credit card. Nonetheless we got on the bus an hour late at 2100 and drove all night on a hot and very stinky uncomfortable bus. We arrived at 830 the next morning not 530 because halfway in the night there was a wreck and both lanes were closed for 3 hours. After arrival we took off straight to the airport and got breakfast while we waited to check in. By 1430 hours we were on Etihad airways (best airlines I have ever flown) You have your own screen with tons of movies to pick from. You can stop, play and pause when you want. They give you a menu where you can pick what food you want and the food was amazing. I highly recommend flying with them whenever you can get a chance. After a stop in Abu Dhabi and 12 hours total we arrived in Bangkok.... Wow!
So I am a little sad leaving the beautiful continent of Africa, I know that so much has happened that after a few months of being home things will become more clear to me. I highly recommend doing an overlanding adventure. Its the cheapest and best way to see Africa.
The next morning we woke up early and got all of our stuff onto the truck. I wish I knew the name of the campground but if you are at this campground please not there is only one toilet and the wait can be awhile with all the other overland trucks. Luckily there is a bathroom at the bar area. I woke up and ran to the toilet only to find 4 other people waiting. I almost shat myself until Yoshi told me in broken english one toilet no good. One toilet bar good! I ran and found it just in time. We took off at 0630 in what looked like a 14 person mini Rosie truck. We game drove all day and we basically saw every type of bird possible. If you are a bird fan this is the place. I went because the place used to be a Rhino sanctuary and there are tons of Rhinos everywhere (so we heard) Suse exact words (you'd be blind not to see one). Well we were blind until the end. So we saw one black Rhino. He ended up eating in a distance and slowly made his way behind our truck. I won't lie, I was not a big fan of Nakuru. I am not sure if it was because of being the end of my trip and done with game parks or we were told that thousands of flamingos go there and we only 10, or it was the fact that after any animal the driver would stop for a while to take pictures (don't get me wrong that is nice but after 8 game drives I don't want to take pictures of zebras)...
Anyway after the game drive we drove 2 hours to Naivasha. We stopped here for an hour while cook group (suppose to be me but I bailed out) went shopping and Mt. Kilimanjaro people took off. I said my goodbyes to Cecilie, Jareb and Talbot. After they left we took off towards fishermans camp. A really cool campground on Lake Naivasha (Hippos come to the fence at night). The place was packed so I had no chance to upgrade. I ended up setting up Jarebs tent, because I gave mine to Gavin. The next morning the boys (Gavin, Kevin, Nico and myself) biked Hells Gate National park with our guide Peter. It was a really great time. All in all we biked 22 km there and back and we took a 3 km walk through a beautiful gorge (Tomb Raider was filmed here). It was so unique biking while giraffes, zebras, and buffalo's were next to the road. The gorge was absolutely amazing and beautiful. I highly recommend doing this side trip.
After the bike trip through Hells Gate we ended up doing a boat trip to Joy Adamson house. The boat trip was okay we saw a few hippos and then they through a fish into the water and then called the fish eagles (look like the American bald eagle) to get the fish. They did it 5 times and all 5 times I struggled taking pictures. Joys Adamson house was pretty good. We felt rushed so eating high tea was a hurry and the video was very slow. It felt like watching Mr. Rodgers when I was a kid. I feel asleep watching it. After an hour there we took off towards Nairobi to Karen camp for our week off.
On the way to Nairobi Rosie broke down (which is fitting because it was my last drive day).. What suppose to take 3 hours took 5 and we arrived late. Suse ordered us food from the kitchen at Karen camp and free dorm room.
The next morning we took off to the Giraffe center, and David Sheldrek elephant orphanage. We got to the Giraffe center around 0930 and spent an hour there. I felt rushed because I wanted to have more time with the giraffes. Only one giraffe wanted to be feed. Her name was Lynn and she is a fantastic kisser. We all took turns having her eat out of our hands and she got some really good pets out of us. Towards the end of our feeding two large groups came and Gavin had to share his turn with everyone else who rushed in to pet Lynn. We had to leave at 1030 because David Sheldreck is only open daily from 11-12 while the feed the baby elephants. This was one of the biggest surprises of the trip for me. None of us really wanted to go, but felt like we had to, because everyone says its worth it. Once we got there they had drinking barrels and big milk bottles all over the place. A few minutes later a group of 12 baby elephants ages 1 month to 2 years came running down the hill. Ears flopping in the wind as cute as can be. That hour was so much fun. The babies make you laugh just being as cute as can be. It reminded me of a playground in elementary school. There was a bully elephant who pushed the smaller elephants to the ground. You had two elephants play in the mud hole. One wanted to go while the other pushed him in. You had the month old with sunblock on his ears and a working follow him around with an umbrella. What I learned was it takes $900 a month to feed a baby elephant. They have to be feed every 3 hours so the workers sleep with them every night. The workers have to change everyday or else the elephants bond with the workers. I also learned that elephant poaching is still a huge part of Kenya.
 |
| That is sunblock.. the mothers usual lick them and their saliva has a natural sunblock to it. |
After the great morning, we went back into Karen. I got all my stuff together and said my goodbyes to everyone for the week and headed into Nairobi for the week. Myself, Alexis and Fred were staying at Milimani Backpackers so we shared a taxi. Milimani was a great place, and perfect just to hangout and get caught up on some much needed r and r. That week, I ate a lot of local food, so Taken 2, met some other travelers, and a really good time being by myself. After 5 nights in I went back to Karen and met back with everyone else. I was really excited to hear about everyone week and especially to hear about Cecilie Kili trip. I had to wait all day but when they arrived I got to hear all about it. They went up the hardest route, it turned out that Talbot got malaria the day before he was suppose to climb so he didn't make it up. Which really sucks because I know he really wanted to. It was successful and everyone made it to the summit. After hearing their stories I know I can do it, maybe not the route that they did.
The next day Cecile, Jareb, Talbot met a local guy who's wife had a birthday so they went to his house in the slums and they brought me along. It was really cool to interact with a local but after an hour I was getting extremely hungry and the food wasn't going to be ready for quit sometime. The women were cooking and all the local guys where sitting drinking vodka and shooting the shit. Cecilie and I decided to head back into Nairobi and go to the mall (Junction) for some western food. We stopped by and ate Mexican food and watched the movie Brave.
The next day we spent the day mailing packages off and about one o'clock we heading to Milimani to spend the afternoon while we waited for the 7pm train. We said our goodbyes and gave our hugs. Promised to see each other soon, but the reality of that was that we would probably never see each other again. Within no time we found ourselves on the night train to Mombasa. So after reading lonely planet the train was a mix bag. My thoughts are this take the train for the history of it. Don't bother spending the money on the first class. The dinner was complete shit, and if you are a veggie its worse for you. Second class you have cabins of 4 so you could share, but the train is usually only 20 percent full.
After all night train ride that was bumpy but fun, we made it to Mombasa. We took a tuk tuk to the ferry, after the ferry we got a mottatu (shared minivan) to the a junction. Then we took another tuk tuk to South Coast backpackers. After checking in we headed straight to the beach only to be disappointed. The beach was full of seaweed and we got harassed the whole time trying to lay out in the sun. South Coast backpackers had a pool which we ended up spending the rest of our time there. After the second day I asked Cecilie if she wanted to go north or hit any other beach up. She said yes Thailand... And that is where the fun started. By the next day we booked a 2pm flight on Friday that arrived in Bangkok at 7 AM.
Thursday day we spent the day relaxing by the pool playing 500 and waiting for the bus that was going to take us to back to Nairobi. We decided to take the bus that left close to South Coast. It was budget and a big mistake. We should have gone back into Mombasa and got a luxury bus. But first of all two hours before we got on the bus we think that Cecilie either got her wallet stolen on the mattatu or when they unloaded our bags and she picked it up it fell out of her pocket. Her credit card and 150 bucks gone. Oh to make things worse it was her only credit card. Nonetheless we got on the bus an hour late at 2100 and drove all night on a hot and very stinky uncomfortable bus. We arrived at 830 the next morning not 530 because halfway in the night there was a wreck and both lanes were closed for 3 hours. After arrival we took off straight to the airport and got breakfast while we waited to check in. By 1430 hours we were on Etihad airways (best airlines I have ever flown) You have your own screen with tons of movies to pick from. You can stop, play and pause when you want. They give you a menu where you can pick what food you want and the food was amazing. I highly recommend flying with them whenever you can get a chance. After a stop in Abu Dhabi and 12 hours total we arrived in Bangkok.... Wow!
So I am a little sad leaving the beautiful continent of Africa, I know that so much has happened that after a few months of being home things will become more clear to me. I highly recommend doing an overlanding adventure. Its the cheapest and best way to see Africa.
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