After the eventful drive to JNB and another night in comfortable airport hotel with very nice bathroom, I flew Kenyan Airways to Nairobi. Smooth flight, really nice food and a perfect landing. Nairobi airport was very chill, friendly immigration and customs that lasted 2 minutes putting my checked luggage through the x-ray machine and then all of a sudden I was outside, All the meet and greets were outside as well as about 200 (dont quote me) military personnel with… RIFLES. Im Aussie, Ive barely seen a plastic watergun, I dont know what an AK47 looks like, but lets say it was giving AK47 vibes. Intimidated much. My Intrepid meet and greet popped me in a vehicle to take me to my hotel. On the roads ‘everyone’ was walking, from work to home by the looks, men were walking around the traffic islands selling items from steering wheel covers to thongs. I was staying at the Nairobi Hill Hotel, which was in the gated area, so my hotel had a BIG gate, electric fencing, an xray machine and security checked through arriving vehicles. I pretty much just stayed here at the hotel for 24 hours suntanning by the pool, drinking cocktails and eating and going to the day spa, until I met the others on the Overland Bus tour and we left,
First up we left at 5am, packed our luggage in the lockers, grabbed a seat and drove to Lake Nakuru via the Rift Valley Lookout where we were mobbed by vendors. I just give them a smile and then look away but I understand they are trying to make a living. On arrival at Lake Nakuru, more AK47 vibes at the entrance and a 4 hour game drive. I don’t know how to describe the scenery, but it felt so vast and as If I was looking at a painting. There were zebras (which were more brown striped than black compared to Kruger zebras), impalas, rhino, giraffes, blue ball monkeys and Cape Buffalo to be seen on the way to the campsite where we all pitched in to make dinner, set up tents have a dinner cooked by our chef and went to sleep. Or not. About 10 minutes after settling into tent I hear hooves clomping around the campsite and bushes rustling. At this point I was questioning my life decisions and picturing a cape buffalo (which are apparently aggressive) picking my tent up with its horns. It went on for about half an hour before all of a sudden it scurried away as if something had scared it away. I didn’t sleep well, I heard hyenas and a dog? barking. I was way too scared to walk to the toilet and as soon as it was light I was up packing the tent away. Next experience….we were all putting our breakfast on plates when we all noticed a troupe of baboons coming our way, One of them ran right up to one of the girls and she dropped her plate and this baboon stole her food. We actually had to eat our breakfast inside the caged kitchen to avoid being food robbed and the tour leaders got out their slingshots to scare the baboons away LOLOLOL. We drove back to the entrance via the Lake, which had the most AMAZING birdlife and I got my first sneak peak at some flamingos, some very cool Ugandan storks and a pretty surreal scene of many giraffes and zebras eating and wandering in the same area. We had lunch back at the entrance, with AK47 vibes and another troupe of baboons which led us back into the locked bus to eat our lunch before heading to Eldoret for the night (where Kenyan runners come to train).
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