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At Sipi falls we met Elaine and Lachlan from Perth who actually went to school with some good friends, that Gus and I knew in London, (Mel & Simone). I can now relax a little bit in Nairobi knowing that my trip is almost over as we do a few organised trips. We went to the Masai Mara park for a 3 day safari hoping to catch the return migration of the wilderbeest, the largest in the world as they cross the Mara river and return to the Serengeti. Thousands of wildebeest were dotted over the rolling hills and there were recent bloated corpses in the river being fed on by the evil looking maribou storks. But unfortunately there was no actual migratation while we were there and there was no way we could bribe them either.

Eastern Africa - part 4

Stevemonty
2005-09-23 19:01:18

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Kenya
At Sipi falls we met Elaine and Lachlan from Perth who actually went to school with some good friends, that Gus and I knew in London, (Mel & Simone). I can now relax a little bit in Nairobi knowing that my trip is almost over as we do a few organised trips. We went to the Masai Mara park for a 3 day safari hoping to catch the return migration of the wilderbeest, the largest in the world as they cross the Mara river and return to the Serengeti. Thousands of wildebeest were dotted over the rolling hills and there were recent bloated corpses in the river being fed on by the evil looking maribou storks. But unfortunately there was no actual migratation while we were there and there was no way we could bribe them either.

The safari bus broke down twice on the first day on our way and we missed the first game drive but got a refund for it afterwards. The Masai Mara is wonderfull. We saw several cheetah, a pride of 4 lions up as close as 4 metres and a leopard sleeping up a tree. One lionesses was rolling about on her back with her paws in the air looking like she wanted her tummy rubbing. I'm just glad we didn't have to push start the vehicle there.

We bought warm clothes for trekking Mt Kenya at the excellent second hand market in Nairobi full of sold on donated clothes from the west. Then that evening had a riotous evening at Carnivores resturant celebrating Michele's birthday with another girl Jo, both friends of Elaine & Lachlan. Eating zebra, osterich & crocodile, getting drunk and behaving more like the 'Happy Valley' set of the 1930's Kenya.
Then five days hiking to Point Lenana at 4895m, the highest peak accessable to hikers on Mt Kenya was the perfect way to end my trip in Africa. The hike starts off in rainforest and ascends to thick heather on the first day to Old Moses camp at 3300m on the Sirimon route. Even at this height we could feel the effects of low oxygen at altitude and I was glad of the ...