Carpe Africa

So we travelled to Naivasha, where we were able to go for a walk to green crater lake. this meant a 45 minute boat ride (where i didnt feel sick!) but we did see hippos finally and a python!!! when we got to the land, we had a couple of hours walk to the crater. on our walk we saw zebra and giraffe up close. we even herded the giraffe a little.

the crater was really beautiful, having been formed by volcanic activity. there were lots of flamingos in the lake at the bottom and we saw somer colobus monkeys.

the next day we travelled to the masai mara national park, saw lots of masai women and men. we drove around all afternoon seeing the usual antelope and giraffe. when we spotted some elephants most of the group had not seen them before so gt very excited. we were buzzing through to the driver to stop but he kept going. we then realised that justn a little further up he had spotted a male lion by the road. he paraded around for us for a little bit before settling down, but we could see that he was looking over at something, and when we looked in that direction we saw all his females and cubs under a tree. we headed over there and were watching them for some time. not long after all of the matatus had heard about our find and the place turned into a car park!!! we heard about a cheetah spotting so headed in that direction, but when we got there the guide was stopping people going there, we think maybe there was a cub with the cheetah. so we headed back to the elephants but they had moved on.

our campsite was jsut outside the park, but with no fences up the animals still roam around, luckily a well equiped maasai man was keeping guard. once again we could hear the hyena in the background, and hippos too.

the next morning we stopped the lionesses again. this time they were a little more actve and walked right beside our truck. in total i have probably 100 pics of the lions!!!! still no leopard or cheetah in the wild yet tho, but still serengeti and Nungoragora crater left tho.

from the mara we were supposed to drive to a campsite an hour from nairobi, but we were making good time so in the end we arrived at nairobi at 8pm last night. the cook group were let off cooking their goat meat (it was the only meat the butcher had!) and we ordered pizza!!!!

firstly please excuse my awful spelling in this entry, on account of my keyboard seems to have had all the keys put in the wrong places. stupid french keyboard in rwanda

so last wrote on saturday, since then i have done a couple of exciting things. went to chimp island on monday. it was a sanctuary for chimps, we only had an hour at the sanctuary, but it was really good cos we got to see feeding time. we had to take a boat out there which started out fine but then the water got choppy and i got a little sea sick as well as soaking wet! the chimps were really cool, very full of character but too human like for my liking. they were very playful, and i got some really good photos, even though we didnt get very close to them. we took the boat back which was even worse. i could have swam across the equator, however my stomach was wanting to be sick on the equator.

the next couple of days were spent doing lots of travelling in order to get to the uganda rwanda border. we left some of our group in uganda who either weren't trekking else had applied too late and were trekking in uganda instead.

we arrived in uganda on wednesday and went to the genocide museum, it was very moving and informative for someone who didnt know all that much about what went on. rwanda is such a beautiful country, looking around just a few years later it is hard to believe what went on.

so today (thursday) we went gorilla trekking. an early morning so as to catch them as they are waking up. it didnt take us too long to find them in my group of 8, which was good cos it meant not too much walking through the dense forest. the clock ticing for our hour with them and they were up the trees which looked good but not on the camera unfortunately. however, it wasnt long before they came down and we got much closer than the 7 metres we are supposed to keep, especially when we seemed to be in one of theirs ways. little bit worried that they would turn on us but it was all good. and we say a really small baby one also on its mothers back. there was only one big silverbackm a couple of females and quite a few juevenilles. 9 in total. will try to upload some photos but itss slow here. and also my camera ran out of battery so onlky managed 70 photos!

xx

A bit late with my update this week on account of me getting to the computer on wednesday and not being able to remember what i have done this week! Not that exciting things didn't happen!

We have had 4 owls bought to us this week,Three from the same lady who says they fell out of their nest, and being unable to fly would have died. Another was bought in with a broken wing, so yesterday we had to fix that up and fingers crossed she will be ok. I have named the first to come in Prisicilla. Each night we have to cut up day old dead chick to force feed to the owls. This is a challenge when they seemto resist being fed by using their sharp claws! Luckily i have my garden gloves to wear for protection, but im sure that before my last week here is over, i will be scratched to pieces!

We also had a kingfisher brought in last week. He was unable to fly. We tried to catch grasshoppers for him, but were unsuccessful, catching just a couple and James almost losing a finger when he tried to feed it! The next day the bird had died.

This especially caused problems because of the 24 children that we had visit last friday. to fill their day we had pl;anned for them to catch grasshoppers for the kingfisher. we still had them do this tho, but lied and said they were for the snakes and to be frozen for birds that get bought in. In the end we feed them to the monkeys, who really enjoyed eating them. One of the girls had caughgt 50+ grasshoppers, because the children themselves eat such insects they were much better at catching them.

we also had the children draw monkey pictures,they were all quite good. They all seemed to enjoy their day,and it is good to have educated the children about their countries wildlife.

We have been having some probelmswith week with the damn monkeys in quarentine escaping. they are smart critters who manage to undo the bolts that shut the doors. not sure why they dont use padlocks on the doors, would save a lot of problems. ONe of the monkeys from quarentine also bit james this week, his lame attempt to get man point, i say!

We had another monkey die from worms. she had been in one of the intro enclosures. it is always very sad. Also one monkey was found dead when Matthew was showing the 2 new german girls around the place, not a nice introduction for them.

It is very cold at night here now, but still warm enough for shorts and skirts during the day. Apparently their worst winter for a while. Hopefully be warmer when i getup to kenya.

We had to go to the bar to watch the rugby last saturday, Englanbd vs SA. Shame we lost, which meant the south africans being very happy! Return leg this sat, fingers crossed for some english glory!

Bob and Lynne returned on sunday from england. they had been over to visit some kids from lewisham who had been over as part of a tv show that will be on channel 4 this month. so look out for it on the tv schedules.

Had a bushbaby get itself into one of the small enclosures, i noticed on my way up to do morning chores. it was the first time i had seen one, they are very cute. matthew caught it and let it go into a nearby tree.

went to jruger national park for the weekend. it is the biggest in south africa and possibly africa. the big 5 are all there as well as lots of bird species and lots of other mammals.

we had to be up early to get to the park for 6am when it opened. morning is the ebst time to see animal activity becaus they dont lie to move about too much in the midday heat. we saw ltos of giraffe, which are my favourite because they are so graceful. also zebra, wildebeast, impala (distinctive by an M shape on teir butt, which looks like the mcdonalds logo which is appropriate beause like mcdonalds you see them on every corner, and are a favourite snack for many of the carnivores), otehr antelope, hippo and rhino. i say we were confronted by an elephant becuase he was pretty close and the car behind us was trying to piss him off. but we escaped unscathed. we did see a couple of lions from a distance. we also went on a night drive which must be with one of the game rangers. the lions had killed a giraffe and at ngiht the hyenas were busy feasting. they laugh jsut like in the lion king! we had a mini braai and threw a left over piece of meat over the fence behnd our tents (dont tell the rangers!) so that the hyenas would come close. they also make a strange wooping sound which i didnt realise and so thought it was one of the boys messing around. the ngiht sky was so clear that we slept with the tent door open so we could see, but woke up very cold in the morning! we fell asleep to the sound of hyena and lions in the distance. in the morning we went on an 8km walk to see soem of the wildlife close up. well we didnt get all that close, but we saw lots of tracks, and some plants and small animals. we then drove around in the car again, desperate to find the cheetah and leopard, to no avail.

however, we did get to go to a cheetah rehab project so i did get to see them. not as good as seeing them in the wild. but still good to see. we also went to a reptile place. and i held a snake, scorpian and baboon spider.

hopefully attatching some photos for you.
xxx

So the baboons are runnign riot!! Well they aren't too bad, jsut smashing a window here and there! and stealing food etc, nowt out of the ordinary!

I have been busy taking advantage of some of the activities here. So far I have gone down what is supposed to be the worlds longest zip line, and also been parasailing. I have uploaded a photo of me doing the zip line, because I remembered the CD. unfortunately I forgot my USB cable to upload some photos from my camera! Both activities were a lot of fun. Though I did have to put a lot of faith in the ability of 2 men to tie a good knot when I did the parasailing. I have faith that people are good at their jobs. And I was up for 6 minutes without a hitch! I know I keep promising photos, believe me you will get them soon enough!

We rescued a monkey from being a pet, because it has now decided to bite its owner, no shit! I wonder if it has ever seen another monkey, this is always the problem that they are too used to humans and do not react well with other monkeys.

I should be returning to Riverside at the weekend. Else go to the release site.

Mum can you send me family addresses because they were stored on my zen that I can't turn on!! Thanks!! xxx