Nairobi

We left Cape Town and our amazing host Sarietha at a ridiculous time on Saturday morning (got up at 3:30!). We were at the airport before the ticket counters opened. Oops. Our flight to Nairobi was through Johannesburg. We weren't so excited about returning there after the last connection in that airport, but as it turns out, taking a domestic flight and then international worked out much better. 

When we arrived in Nairobi we weren't expecting much since the international terminal burned down not so long ago. Immigration was easy, although slightly make-shift. We stood waiting for our bags for a long time. Mine finally came out and Mo's followed about 5 (tense) minutes later. We made our way through a jam packed customs area - they seemed to be stopping almost everyone. There was meant to be someone waiting for us "in the arrivals hall" but clearly there was no arrivals hall, after customs we were basically outside the building. It took quite a while, but eventually someone with our names came running up to us and showed us our driver.

We got to the Kivi Milimani hotel and the meeting for our next tour was shortly after. There are 3 different tours combined into one for the first week- 20 people. Only 4 of us are doing the full 22 day tour, but the will meet the rest of that group next week.

We left Nairobi at 7:30 Sunday and headed to the New Hope Children's orphanage. We had a tour of the facility and the children sang for us. They then had us introduce ourselves - I went first. Jamie from the USA...and then the children cheered!?? Slightly awkward after 20 of us did that.

Then the kids ran up to us and held our hands and asked us questions. Mo and I got dragged to the table to buy bracelets - they were about 2USD. We talked to the kids a bit more and Mo kicked a soccer ball around with some of them. 

We got back on the truck - it's a bit different to the Shire. Smaller lockers, curtains (woohoo! No blazing sun!), and no tables in the back :(. Mo and I are sitting in the front where there is lots of room for bags (to act as footrests!) but no pockets to hold things. Either way, we'll only be on thus truck for a week.

We stopped at an overlook to take photos and get harassed by the people selling stuff. I've found 'I have no money' was a good way to get them to leave you alone!

We drove a bit more to our camp for the night. This was the first camp where there was grass instead of sand. There was also a dining room where we could eat lunch and dinner.

After lunch there was a few hours break and then we went on a game drive in Lake Nakuru National Park in our truck. We saw a few new animals - flamingos and gazelles. We also stopped at a waterfall where all of the smaller vehicles had a hard time following directions.

We went back for dinner but it was quite a dark dinner since the generator at the camp had a problem. I wasn't feeling great, so I went to bed shortly after dinner. That night was so uncomfortably cold. From 2am I'm sure I don't sleep more than 30 minutes at a time. I was really hoping for a stop to buy a Masai blanket the next day!