Road trip road trip road trip etc

Gazelle outside the guest house window, early morning
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Today started off as a great day. We got up at 0500 for an early morning game drive, sneaking up on animals still groggy from sleep. In fact, when we opened our curtains to the pre-dawn mist, we found a herd of dozens of gazelles grazing literally on the other side of the window. The horrific sight of our faces made them bolt to safer pastures.

Driving through the park was incredible, and becoming a standard tourist was inevitable - every flower and living creature was justification to stop the bus for a picture. Each flower would be more beautiful than the last, each bird closer and more tame than the previous... until a point. The perfect example of this is the Superb Starling - an incredibly beautiful bird with bright blue wings and orange belly. This rare sight earned dozens of photos early in the day, but by afternoon, we were trying to scare the damn things away from our food.

During our puncture, we had to keep guard for unfriendly animals, while Charles changed the tyre, deep in the reserve

Rather than describe the animals we saw, I'll put some photos up when I get them. But we had some great opportunities to get close, not least of all during our puncture, when we had to get out to keep guard for unfriendly animals, while Charles changed the tyre, deep in the reserve. We think the birds circling overhead were pelicans, but they could have been vultures...

The only disappointment was that so far, we hadn't seen a single big cat. But, there's still plenty of time.

After lunch, we left for our next port of call, Naivasha. The four hour drive took up most of the remainder of the day, and took us along the Trans-Africa highway. Don't let the name deceive you - this dirt track was no better than any other road in the countryside - but it just so happens to nicely dissect Africa, so gets a special name. But, things are on the up, thanks the generous spirit of the EU who are funding the development of the highway into a smooth tarmac strip (obviously as a charitable gesture, and surely nothing to do with the benefits this will have in reducing the costs of transporting European produce).

We arrived at Elsamere in time for 'cream tea'. Elsamere is the former home of Joy and George Adamson, of 'Born Free' fame. This British colonial enclave is their home, on the shores of Lake Naivasha, in sprawling grounds; the style of the house, and the traditional afternoon tea, are testimony to the British influence on Kenya. We saw a (highly pretentious) video about Joy's life and work and about Elsa, the lion cub who they reared. George, the conservationist who was murdered by poachers, is barely mentioned in the exhibit.

Arriving at the campsite, the four of us prepared dinner together, and sat down together. Charles seems very uneasy to sit with us - he is the most courteous and friendly man I've met, but seems to feel subordinate to us - even after he sat down, it took a lot of coaxing to persuade him to move over to our table and share the table cloth!

After a short walk down to the lake to try and get a glimpse of hippo, we went to sleep, anticipating a bit more action tomorrow.