Lake Nakuru National Park - safari day #1

Mid-term break for all the kids meant that we went on our first trip outside Nairobi. 

We booked ourselves in for a 3 day safari.

Day #1 was Nairobi - Nakuru & tour round Lake Nakuru National Park...

We stopped on the way down into the Rift Valley & had a quick look at some of the curio shops there.

We got back in the car & got to the bottom of the valley & wasn't long before there were zebras on the roadside!

We got to our hotel in Nakuru, had lunch & then got back in the van for our trip to Lake Nakuru National Park. 

Here are some of the photos that Tim & I took...

There were both Grant's & Thomson's gizelles.

 Colobus monkeys...

Marabou. 

 Hippos with a pelican coming in overhead!

This is part of the lake from one of the high lookouts. The lake is full of flamingos, pelicans & lots of other bird life & hippos.

We saw an amazing lizard at the lookout.

Reticulated giraffe.

Baboon.

Zebra & black rhino.

We saw a family of 4 black rhinos!

Hyena.

We saw a lone lioness eating a zebra & felt lucky that we had finally seen a lion.

We drove further down the road & came across a pride of lions in which there was at least 20+ lions in it!

Buffalo & zebra.

 Our tour guide Jumah, Zane & Zoe at one of the higher up lookouts.

Waterfall with lots of water as there had been quite a bit of rain before & during our safari!

Some of the lions in the pride we saw.

We saw so many animals. Including ones that weren't in our photos collection:  waterbuck, flamingos, jackals etc. Saw most things except no elephants as they are not in that national park.

October 2012 - the first 2 weeks

The first 2 weeks of October was spent with all of the kids sick.

Everyone took at least a week off school & was at home with flu like symptoms... Basically it sucked & by the time they were getting better I was starting to get sick... Tim escaped sickness as he had 6 days in Tanzania.

We also managed to wake up one morning & find some slug (which they call snails here) on the roof in the lounge room!

Tim spent 6 days in Dar es Salaam which is the capital of Tanzania which is on the coast. Here is one of his photos from the trip.

Tim also bought the kids a Tinga Tinga painting each done by a different artist. They are fabulous!

Last day of school before midterm break was sport carnival for Zane.

He was an absolute champion!

He even came first place in a race.

And he & Tim went in a race too which was 25m run for Zane & 75m run for Tim & they came second!!!

And then came my birthday... I had a fabulous day & got some great presents.

From Tim I got 2 cook books - a signed copy of thai food by David Thompson (a great Australian!!!).

And an Asian cooking thermomix book:

With recipes from Alvin from Masterchef season #2!

I got a gorgeous soapstone bowl carved into the shape of a hippo from Zara...

From Zane I got a set of stainless steel hot pots in various sizes to keep food warm.

From Zoe I got 3 different packets of chocolates which the kids pretty much ate on me!

Tim cooked pancakes for breakfast.

We went out to lunch with our friends Erik & Jen whose kids Linnea & Garret are the same age as Zara & Zane. The kids played on the jumping castle & playground at the restaurant while we ate lots of food.

Then we came home & had some of the people here come over for cake. I had made an orange & almond cake for adults to eat & chocolate cake.

So, I have survived my first birthday here!