éSaturday 15 November 2003 saw an early start at the Tour operator's office. After a bit of a delay we got underway and headed north.

Driving in Nairobi is well, lets just say different!

Within 10 minutes of starting to drive we had seen no less than 3 accidents including a petrol tanker that rolled onto its side.

We headed north past various settlements leaving the town. The shops are mainly stalls on the road side. They were wooden roadside "shack" type stalls, where they sell everything from fruit and veg to mobile phones, car tyres or batteries.

The first stop was a tourist trap overlooking the Great Rift Valley. No sooner had the truck slowed down, had the "sellers" surrounded the truck saying "hello, hello - just look". The people get really annoying and it really makes the stop quite frustrating. All they want is for you to look at their stuff and then buy buy buy. After fighting our way through to the lookout point and a brief view of the valley, we continued our journey north.

We ended the day with a boat trip on Lake Baringo. Fish Eagles inhabit the islands and the locals have "trained" them to catch the fish as they throw them in. Great to watch!

A few mosquitoes later and the next morning dawned.

Day 2: Sunday 16
An early start took us to Lake Bogoria, home to enormous flocks of flamingos, pelicans and Malibu storks waiting to prey on the flamingos.

Further on in the park are hot springs spurting water out the ground. Let me rephrase - Boiling hot springs! Someone had thrown an egg in and one could see that it was now hard boiled! As hot as it was, clear as it was.

After lunch at the campsite, we headed to Lake Nakuru National Park
Loads more flamingos, pelicans and storks. Got to see a family of white Rhino - mom, dad and baby. The baby was just wanting to play - repeatedly charging dad!

Day 3: Monday 17
After a brief stop in Naivasha - the last town with civilised prices to stock up on goods, we headed for Narok.

The tar road to Narok was worse than any gravel road that I have ever been on! This was the equivalent of a national road. At many places we turned off the tarred road onto the dirt siding which as rough and worn as it was, was better than the tarred surface. The surface wasn't just bad, in places it was non existent!

We drove through the Massai Mara on the way to the camp site on the Talek river from Narok. The vista of buffalo and wildebeest was mind boggling. It was amazing to see the herds of buffalo and wildebeest stretch for miles! There was also a small herd of about 5 elephant, one of which was a very young - no more than a few months and a slightly older sibling messing about. On the way back there was a cheetah with 2 newly born (a day or two old) cubs under a bush. We could see the cheetah, but not the cubs.

The camp site, being on the river boundary of the park is known to have uninvited guests. As result, a Massai guard is there day and night to ward off any unwelcome visitors. These visitors range from Elephants to Lions! Apparently we had many elephants visiting at night.

Day 4: Tuesday 18
The morning game drive delivered us to loads of hippos wallowing around. A cerval sighting and then a few more mundane animals before returning for lunch

That evening, after a fairly uneventful day of spotting, we resigned ourselves to not seeing that much, when we came upon a cheetah and her two cubs and then driving off the path to stop and look down on a lion and his 2 lionesses. Just before leaving the park, we came across 2 cheetahs eating their kill. We must have missed the kill by only a few minutes which was really bad luck.The sun was just setting which made very limited photo opportunities.

Day 5: Wednesday 19
An early morning game drive. Well it wasn't such a problem since the morning and sunrises were so beautiful, some of us were up anyway!

After a while of meandering round looking for animals, our guide suddenly haired off to some unknown destination. Out of the bush we saw a lion and then strolling across the savannah, a lioness carrying her cub in her mouth.

While trying to head back for breakfast we were stopped by a heard of buffalo moving from one part of the Mara to the other. The leader must have started moving about an hour earlier, the last guy arrived a few hours later - and they didn't move that far! We were able to "herd" them round to make a break in the line and then sneak through the gap!

In order to not to let the animals seem to be more important than the local people, they try to encourage the tourists to spend money with the "locals". We did this by visiting the local Masi village. It was very interesting. Hearing how they live, looking in their homes (or huts as we call them) and then of course they try and sell their wares.

The afternoon's game drive again lead us to some cheetah. A mother leading her 3 cubs on a hunt. Unfortunately the first buck was spooked and the second time round there where some birds in the area which gave the cheetahs away. You could see they were clearly annoyed!

A little further into the drive and another pride of Lions - the one lioness just wanted to go out for dinner - there was a lovely deli just further on with an all you can eat/catch menu of buck and or buffalo. Alas, neither her husband nor the other two were interested and she just kept hearing moan at them as she walked to dine alone!

Day 6: Thursday 20
All packed up and rearing to go! Clambered onto the truck which promptly stopped running! Off ran the guide and came back a while later with diesel. Engine open, priming, pumping messing and splattering later, we were on the road again. Due to the delay in getting going we had a quick last game drive through the Mara, not stopping until we saw the cheetah with her two cubs from the night before with a freshly killed buck on their dinner table!

An uneventful drive back, drinks in the local pub with some of the group before getting a cab back to my cousins.

Friday 21st

I was fortunate enough to have someone take me round before heading off to the airport. First stop was the Daphne Sheldric Elephant orphanage. They raise baby elephants and rhinos. It is the cutest thing. The animals follow their keepers like babies and listen like well trained dogs! Even the adult rhinos when they come to visit still listen and behave like a mischievous child!

Visiting hours is only for an hour (I didn't know that but we arrived just in time) I had to leave early to get to my ticket on the way to the airport to get to Mombassa.

Security at the airport well was interesting - great for me, I just walked out onto the apron and watched the planes come and go while waiting for my flight. My luck, just at boarding time, it starts pouring with rain so by the time we got to the plane we were all pretty soaked.

Once at Mombassa, headed off to the Tamarind where I was staying. Chilled out there for a while by the pool and listened to the sound of the various mosques in the surrounds.

There is a restaurant on the premises. While walking down the steps in the dark there was a movement of a rather large animal that wasn't running away but it was to dark to make it out. After asking many people around I managed to find out that they were monitor lizards. (I had heard explanations ranging from snakes to other dangerous animals)

Saturday 22nd
An early start and off I went to Likoni Ferry to walk (as the guidebook suggested) past the Baobab forest along the coast to the town. Well…the area is interesting. One HUGE market with the Matatus (taxis) testing their hooters, sound systems and crash avoidance systems. Well the forest wasn't that spectacular but the walk was interesting.

It ended at Fort Jesus. Once there, a guide decided that he should take me for a tour of the city. As with any deal, once the negotiations were complete and we'd agreed on a price considerably lower than the asking price we headed off. We meandered through many interesting side streets that I wouldn't have ventured down on my own. It was interesting to see how run down everything was, how many empty places there were with so much outside in the street. Passed the Jain Temple, through the Moslem section of town, Dhow Harbour (nothing worth writing about) through the fruit and veg market into the meat market (there was no refrigeration but plenty of flies), through the "black section" (as it was described) of town and then to the infamous Tusks which really aren't that spectacular.

For the afternoon, I was going diving at Whitesands, a few km north of Mombassa. Since this was also the final of the world cup rugby, found a screen a watched. I had noticed that most places had their own generators, I just didn't realise how much of a necessity they were! About three outages during the game, luckily the first was during half time!

The dive was great. The water 29 degrees! As we walked into the sea to get to the boat, the water was warmer than the air! I thought that the vis was great, but was told that it is often better and fish were had brilliant colours. A tough choice if I had to choose between here and the Great Barrier Reef!

Sunday 23rd
Had a late start to the morning. Took a walk round the suburb and ended up at Nyali Beach. This beach was just an expance of white sand. For those who know me, know that I don't wear sunglasses. Luckily I had a pair as the glare was to bad! A chap on the beach befriended me and once he heard that I was from South Africa, Bafana Bafana and was interested in hiking and outdoors he became my protector on the beach against all other sales men! (He was a soccer trainer)

Back to Nairobi that night and to the Carnivore for supper. It was great to finally see a place that I heard so much about. I was under the impression that it was just a large restaurant - was I mistaken! The place is massive with different sections for different activities. Not having a huge meat meal, we sat in the Simba Saloon.

Monday 24th
Up bright and early for the flight back to SA. AS we flew over Mount Kilimanjaro the pilot announced that if we all look out the right hand window, we would see into the volcano (omitting to mention that it would also cause the plane to lean over). He banked so we had a great view of the crater. Truly amazing!

After a very bumpy flight to Cape Town, returned home. The worst part about the holiday is how quickly it becomes a distant memory!