I got up early today and got ready before going down for breakfast at 630. It was a really nice buffet breakfast with pretty much anything you could want including sausages, weird potato things, fruit, cereal and also a chef that would cook eggs or omelette for you.
After getting my bags from the room we checked out and headed to the truck for about 7am. We loaded the bags into the truck as Den arrived with shopping and started chatting to each other. Our truck is called Oscar and has an African God statue called a Tokoloshe on the front of it – I can see it causing many laughs over the next few weeks.
Traffic through Nairobi was pretty bad, but got better as we started making our way out of the city. The scenery changed from city, to outskirts, to slums, to little stalls selling things at the side of the road and soon after to lovely countryside. We also passed several police check points at regular intervals with vicious looking spike strips which would destroy any car that drove over them.
We drove past Hells Gate National Park before arriving at the town of Nakuru where we spent a while shopping for souvenirs, getting money from the cash point etc. It was a nice town but while getting into the truck this guy tried to sell me a hat and nothing I said would make him back down. He started at $30 and came down to $5 but I still didn’t want it as I have a good hat – I showed it to him and he tried to just swap but I said no and he worked out I wasn’t interested. People that won’t take no for an answer tend to frustrate me but they’re all part of the African shopping experience.
After Nakuru we drove to Lake Nakuru NP and went for a short game drive to Baboon Cliffs where we had lunch overlooking the lake – seeing Zebra, Flamingo, Rhino, Baboon, Warthog, Rock Dassie and many more animals on the way. While at the cliffs a baboon stole some food from somebody and ate it on the edge of the cliff, which seems quite normal for them, although it was surreal to see it sitting down eating a sandwich.
After lunch we had another short time game driving but it was soon time to head on to the camp site. The camp was a bush camp in the park itself and Amanda said that last time she was in the park they stayed at the same place and a Lion killed and ate an animal right behind their tent. This made us all nervous but we all relaxed after tasting Dens cooking for the first time – steak, chicken and salad. LOVELY FOOD!!
