Ace Ventura: Nakuru Adventure

It turns out the Mexican guy was also Israeli, having just visited the Holy Land, we naturally had a lot to talk about. He pointed out my first scene of the majestic African land, when we turned a corner on the side of a hill outside Nairobi to see a vast open valley of dry grass, tall but flat topped trees and green mountains. It being the first time I saw the Great Rift Valley, it was pretty breathtaking.

We made it to Nakuru with nowhere to stay. We found the tourist information centre and the guy running it, also running a homestead, suggested we stay with him and his family...clearly there's a market for cheap hostels in Nakuru. We jumped in his jeep unbeknownst to what lay ahead: a nice Christian family oriented household with a spare room and hot shower...or kidnapping? Fortuitously, it was the former...especially because I don't plan on paying for the privelege of being kidnapped.

Peter, the homestead owner, arranged a game drive for 6:30 am with his son. We have just finished it now and I am rpoud to say I have already seen a lion...nay 8 lions...5 females, 2 cubs and one male (or should I say pimp?). Unfortunately the cubs were hidden in the bushes under a tree, so we saw some shadows and rustling, but not the star of a hit Disney movie.

We also saw two rhinos fighting. They kept inching closer, nudging each other until they were about 10 metres away...then the shit hit the fan. They locked horns and thrust against one another. We made a quick retreat to watch them from further afield for the safety our white asses. Our driver told us it was a male and female and joked that the female was kindly suggesting "not today honey, I have a headache".

Giraffe crossed the road in front. Thousands of flamingos followed each other in 6 lane migrations across the lake by foot. Hyenas cackled at jokes we made. And Baboons jumped on the car looking for food.

We have decided to stay here another night and head to Naivasha in the morning, hopefully to cycle around Hell's Gate Naional Park tomorrow afternoon.