So Thursday morning (6/17) I woke up at 4am. I don't know if I kept waking up so early because of the screwy time difference or because I was just so excited for more Africa... but anyway, I spent about an hour looking at the pictures from the day before on my camera. Then I was up and showered and repacked as we were leaving that morning for our next lodge at Lake Nakuru. We headed to the restaurant for breakfast at 6:30 but were re-directed as Benjamin had arranged a surprise private champagne breakfast for us! This was slightly ironic as he was always on our case about being on time in the morning, and it was his special breakfast that made us late to the van :) But anyway, after a yummy breakfast, we piled back in Jesus and headed south. By this time the novelty of driving through Africa had worn off a little and the roads were worse which made for a really not fun couple of hours. Also, every time the van stopped (at checkpoints or to get gas) we were just accosted by people. It is a very strange experience to be such a minority - and as such a minority we were very interesting to anyone who saw us. In addition to that, with the poverty in the country, we were a target to sell to and beg from. We closed the windows every time the van stopped, but this did not stop people from knocking and yelling at us. I never felt like we were actually in danger, but it was uncomfortable - even worse when it was children. This was probably another reason that the government and safari companies set up established stopping points (where we could get out) along the way.
So our first real stop was the equator! The big science nerd that I am found this to be very exciting. Our demonstrator had a bowl with a hole in the bottom which he would fill up with water. First we walked about 20 yards north of the equator. He filled up the bowl and then as the water drained out the hole, he floated a match stick on the water. It spun counterclockwise, and even if you physically stopped it or spun it the other direction, it would correct itself to spin counterclockwise. Then we all walked about 20 yards south of the equator. This time the match spun clockwise and again would correct itself even if you changed it. Then the coolest part was we all went and stood on the equator - and the match does not spin at all!! If you make it spin in either direction it just stops! It's so neat :) Our demonstrator told us that the indigenous peoples of Africa have used this method for a long time to determine their north/south location. Very cool :)
After taking some pictures, we were off to our next stop, Thompson Falls. In order to get there, we started down into the Great Rift Valley. We didn't stop to take pictures as we were coming back on the way back to Nairobi... but it was a better view on this day than the day we ended up with. Anyway - it's huge. Enormous. Really REALLY big. It's been a long time since I've been to the Grand Canyon, but the rift is much much bigger. For a quick geology lesson - it is an area where the current African Plate (as in tectonic plate - not time-for-dinner plate) is being split into two plates. The area that we drove into (which includes Lake Nakuru) is known as the Eastern Rift valley. It is much more lush in vegetation than the Shaba area we had just been and was also cooler. There were a lot of coffee and tea farms along the road. So eventually we got to Thompson Falls (named after a Scottish naturalist - also who Thompson's Gazelles are named after) where the Ewaso Narok River jumps 243 feet down. (Just FYI the Ewaso Narok River is a tributary of the Ewaso Ngiro River - the same river we were on at Shaba - which also FYI translates to "the river of muddy water"). I have to say that Thompson Falls was just a big waterfall. Nice, but not all that impressive. I had more fun playing with the chameleons that a local guy had for tourists to hold (for a price of course!)
After Thompson Falls it was off to Lake Nakuru which we could see from a distance for a while driving down further into the valley. Lake Nakuru is an alkaline lake as it has no outlet and thus evaporation concentrates the minerals that are deposited by inlet sources. This makes it a perfect home for flamingos who feed on the algae that grow in the warm shallow water (by the way, flamingos are pink from the algae they eat - NOT shrimp!) So first we went to Sarova Lion Hill lodge. Honestly, this lodge was a disappointment after Shaba. The rooms were not as nice (especially mine which was like 5 miles away (slight exaggeration)) and the staff was certainly NOT as friendly or helpful (we had some issues here.) But anyway, we dropped our stuff and had lunch (one thing I never got use to on this trip was having an early breakfast and late - 2:00ish - lunch) but the bbq chicken, creamed spinach and waldorf salad was yummy!! Then we met Benjamin at the van around 3:30. He practically threw us in the van and floored it into the park. We were a little dumbfounded as we went flying past rhinos and buffalo and other animals we hadn't seen yet, but Benjamin said he had a surprise for us. So we finally got to our destination, and Benjamin told us that there was a leopard sleeping in the ditch about 20 feet from the car. (All the safari vehicles have radios to stay in touch and in case of emergencies) Now I was SO tickled as a leopard was #1 on my Africa list, and it turns out that it is also Benjamin's favorite animal. He had not seen one in over a year, so he was as excited as we were. Unfortunately, the leopard was apparently in no hurry to get up from her nap. We stayed there for a while watching for her, and watched as the troupe of baboons discovered her and barked an alarm... but she didn't get up. Fortunately, very nearby we saw a momma and baby rhino... and thus we met Julian. He was the most adorable little stinker :) We had a blast watching him challenge huge buffalo with no fear. It was hard to tell if the buffalo thought it was funny or annoying! At one point he was surrounded by about five or six adult male buffalo and you could kind of see him thinking "oh crap!" at which point Mom kind of strolled over to rescue him. We also watched him napping and nursing. He was SOOOOOO cute!!
AND THEN... we saw this beautiful spotted head appear from the ditch. I was so excited :) We watched the leopard watching the gazelles for a long time. You would think that all the willpower we were throwing out would have just sucked a gazelle right towards her, but they wandered close, and then far, and then closer, and then father... and then FINALLY she went for one. She was incredibly fast, but the gazelle spotted her and she gave up pretty quickly. Then she turned around and I think was quite surprised to see the audience that had gathered to watch her. She played it very cool and elegantly disappeared into the grass. It was the most incredible experience :) Benjamin was also thrilled as in the 10 years of being a safari guide he had NEVER seen a leopard hunting. So now in addition to the "happy bus" we were the "lucky bus" too :) We headed down to the lake to say hi to the flamingos (Ben named them Reginald Pinkington Smythe the I, II, III, etc... hee hee!) and then drove back to the lodge in the misty twilight. All the trees around Lake Nakuru are yellow-bark acacia trees. They really are this weird greenish yellow color and make the forests feel very alienish. We had another yummy dinner and then it was early to bed! This wasn't the best overall day of the safari (that's still coming up!), but the leopard and Julian were my favorite animals of the trip! Click on this link to see the pictures from this wonderful day.
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