Kenya with Langley Park Girls Part 1

So, with an overnight flight from Heathrow to Nairobi, and my inability to be able to sleep on planes, I was pretty tired when we rocked up in Kenya. And I don't think I was the only one! Still, I did finally manage to see Slumdog Millionaire - what an excellent film. We certainly hit the ground running, travelling directly to Lake Navaisha with a mega quick stop-off to change money and buy lunch on the way. Then it was tents up, cook dinner, fall asleep, get up and go walking up a mountain!! Not a bad way to start expedition...

Mount Longonot is a dormant volcano and stands 1,000m from the floor of the Rift Valley. We were a little late getting started (understandable on our first full day having had not much sleep) and therefore were walking in the heat of the day. It was a hot, dusty and steep ascent and we made it up to the crater in about 2 hours. It was a lunch rest there and then off around the 2km wide crater reaching the 2,776m summit about 2 hours later. The scenery was stunning and a great introduction to Kenya with zebra, buffalo and giraffe wandering wild. Unfortunately it was also quite a tough first day leaving everyone pretty exhausted.

Day 3 in country and we were off again, leaving at 7am for Hell's Gate National Park. Why it has such a severe name when it is one of the most beautiful places I have been I do not know! I met my first Rock Hyrax and he seemed very happy to pose for me. There was also a plethera of zebra, buffalo, baboons, warthogs, dik diks and gazelle. And on top of all that, we were able to trek through the magical lower gorge and experience boiling hot water seeping from rock.


Day 4 and we all had a well deserved lie-in. Well, 8am is a lie-in for me!! So after I sneaked off to the restaurant for a cooked breakfast (shhhh, don't tell the students) it was time to pack up, take a few shots of the lake, lie about in the sun for a while and then head to the restaurant for lunch. There's a restaurant?? :) After a delicious and highly filling buffet lunch (and yes, I did go back for seconds on dessert) we got into the minibuses and travelled the 1 1/2 hour journey to Nakuru, where I am now.

Today we went on a game drive in Nakuru National Park. Unfortunately, after only having had 3 hours sleep last night - the hotel bar was a little noisy until about 2.30am!!! - I was not in the best mood as we set off at 7am. Still, the sight of pink flamingos in their thousands over the lake soon changed that. No big cats for us today, but I saw my first white rhino which I am very pleased about, along with buffalo (there are a lot of them about!), zebra (and them!), impala, gazelle, waterbuck, giraffe, warthogs, baboons, vervet monkeys, hyena, hippo and dik dik. That's along with the flamingos, pelicans and storks and many other birds. It was quite a morning.


Now it's raining. Good time to be on the internet then ;) We're off to the Menengai Crater tomorrow which is supposed to be spectacular so no doubt I will be ranting about that soon enough. From there it is on to the big guns of Mount Kenya!!