Kenya

Our first look at the Kenyan Landscape
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By the time we got into Kenya it was to late to travel as they normally travel in Convoy. The local border police let us stay in the police compound for the night. There wvwn had there own bar called the Prison Bar and yep ajoined to the prison bar was the prison!

The next day we waited from ages to get in the convoy. Eventually our tour leader Kirsty got pissed off with all the waiting and managed to bag us our own armed guards that sat in the back of the truck with us. The main reason for armed guards was due to some Ethiopian Malitia in the local area. This didn't really bother us as once passed the Kenya border all the wildlife came alive, seeing Zebras, Giraffe and loads of wierd and wonderfull bird life.

Then it rained!
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One the way we got our first taste of the Tetse Fly which when bitten by one can send you into a sleep induced coma. The problem with them is they are reall hard little buggers. Even a good couple of wacks with a flip flop sometimes did no damge to them at all. Luckily most of us managed not to get bitten by them execpt for Dave from ireland who had to go for blood test and take a multitude of drugs for the next week to make sure he didn't get anything.

Our days journey took us to Marsabit around 7pm. Everywhere was in darkness as there had been a powercut but the power soon came on after and hour or so.

Our armed guards who escourted us through northern Kenya
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We all got some beers in and had qute a night, including Dunc who couldn't find the lock to the door in the middle of the night and had a pee inthe corner of the room instead much to our amusment... not to Robyns as her pants were there though.

The next day we picked up some new armed guards and continued to Isiola. The roads again were shocking and we soon found out how much when the truck slid off the road and into the soft mud.

After spending about an hour or so trying to dig it out, some locals turned up in an 18 wheeler truck and towed us out. George the driver said if it wasn't for them we could have been there all night. While all this was going on a young Masai warrior turned up from the middle of nowhere on his way to town. We ended up giving him a lift to the local market... Well I say local but it was probally a good hour anf a half drive!

Opps!
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From Isiola we travelled to the Ugande border and stop off at a camp site we now call Heaven just outside of Eldorat. It was run by 2 indian brothers named Raj and Ash. The place was beautiful and Raj took us round the site and even his new house which was being finished off. The bar was out of this world and were we got our first cooked breakfast since leaving the UK.

We then headed off to KAmpala as we were on a mission to get to the Gorillas as we had permits booked for a certain day. We also have had alot of rain considering where we are it was a bit of a shock but apparently the rainy season has dragged on a bit this year! there have been bad floods throughout Kenya and Uganda. so there have been a few wet tents!So we all smell like wet dogs!

A young warrior who turned up at the side of the road while we were digging the truck out.
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We made our way back through Uganda to get to Kenya stopping at the same camp sites including Heaven! We made our way to Nakuru as we were going to do our first game drive in the national park there just in time for GAry's Birthday! This was a fantastic day and we got to see 4 of the BIG 5. As well as giraffes, gazelle, warthogs, hyenas, rhino, buffalo, lots of birds, 1000's of flamingos on the lake. We managed to find 2 lions which were only a few metres away from the truck sleeping, and then a lioness sat up on a hill surveying her territory. On the way out of the park we were lucky enough to spot a leopard sleeping in a tree so we had seen everything there was to see in that park in one day.

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We got back to camp on a high and got GAry very pissed and ate cake!