So many animals!
We have, once again, had an absolutely packed and adventurous month on our trip. We have said goodbye to both the Himalayan mountains and the southern coast of India. We have been in Kenya for about three weeks now, and we are all loving it. The food here is amazing, even though it is hard to find authentic Kenyan food with all of the international restaurants in Nairobi. None of us can believe that we have just two months left on our trip! It feels like just yesterday that we were leaving Nyack.
We visited the Tsavo East National Park a couple of weeks ago. It was definitely a highlight of this trip. Tsavo East is a sanctuary that is home to many animals, including all of the African big five (leopards, elephants, buffalo, lions, and rhinos), as well as zebras, giraffes, hyenas, gazelles, and so many more. There are also over 500 different species of birds that live within the park. We spent two nights there and we went on a total of three drives through the park in search of animals (these are called game drives). It was just incredible to see all sorts of animals living in their natural habitat. We also had a very kind and very knowledgeable tour guide, Ernest, from Beyond Your Dreams Safaris. One thing that was expected was how relaxing the safari was. Since we only went on game drives in the morning and evening, we had a lot of time in between. We were able to just relax at our lodge and read, watch the monkeys right in our front yard, or go swimming in the pool while seeing elephants on the other side of the fence. I think that we all loved the time we spent there.
We have also been spending time at a sports club in Nairobi a couple of days a week . We signed up for a camp there and it has been so much fun to go and practice our skills! We even got our own custom uniforms with our names on them. We went as much as we could so that we could practice our swimming, soccer, and tennis. We are really happy to have gone; Toby and I both made some friends there.
One of the highlights of this trip is getting to hand-feed giraffes. We did it on the same day as we went on safari in Nairobi National Park and visited the Sheldrick Wildlife Fund’s Nairobi location. That means that all on the same day we got charged at by a rhino in Nairobi National Park, touched and learned about baby orphaned elephants and rhinos, and hand-fed giraffes. Nairobi National Park was amazing to drive through, especially since we saw black rhinos, a lion, buffalo, ostriches, and so much more super close to our car! After that, we visited Sheldrick. It was adorable, and yet really sad to see all of these baby elephants that had been injured, abandoned, or both. We even got to feel them! They were a lot rougher and hairier than any of us expected. After, we bought some little elephant souvenirs to help support the organization, then we went to the Nairobi Giraffe Center. It was amazing to see these giraffes come up and just stick their tongues out expecting us to place the compacted grass pellets in their mouths! That was overall a super neat, fun, and really full day.
About a week ago, we drove from Nairobi over to the town of Naivasha. We have been staying in a super nice, little cottage a very short ride from all sorts of neat activities. We got to bike through a park called Hells Gate. It was so cool to bike ride right past giraffes, zebras, and gazelles! We also went on a hike there and got some amazing views of a slot canyon that seemed like it went on forever. We also took a boat to Crescent Island (and saw a bunch of hippos in the lake on the way there). We were able to see animals like impalas, wildebeest, and we even got to feed ostriches! Naivasha has definitely been super cool.
We are just past halfway through our time in Kenya, which is too bad since we are all having so much fun. We are leaving today to go on safari in Maasai Mara, which will hopefully be just as fun as Tsavo was. It is super hard to believe that we have only two months left on this trip. As amazing as it has been and as it still is, I think it is going to be nice to be home.
