Donkey's and donkey carts are everywhere!
Driving down the Escarpment Road.
A quick rest stop about half way down. Joy, our leader, April and Laura
A lot of agriculture in the valley.
and wildlife!
and miles and miles of huge greenhouses raising cutting flowers.
We reached our first destination for the day, Elsamere, the home of Joy and George Adamson and Elsa the lioness of Born Free fame. We wandered the beautiful grounds for awhile and then had a marvelous buffet lunch.
We enjoyed our meal out on the lawn with all the birds singing. It was a gorgeous day and the food was marvelous. Right after lunch we headed to the small dock on the lake and boarded a small boat for a ride along the shore. Lake Naivasha is the highest and most beautiful of the Rift Valley Lakes. It's 6267 ft and the water is fresh and cold.
The ride was much like the New River trip on the way to Lamanai for all you Belize folks....even alot of the same birds...
Jacana - "lily-trotter" here but a "Jesus Christ" bird in Belize...
Malakite Kingfisher in the papyrus that lined the shore...
Crowned Cranes and an Nubian Goose on the shore..
Pied Kingfishers...
Lots of hippo!!
and lots of white pelicans...
and many African Fish Eagles.
It was a little tricky getting off the boat into another and then onto the dock.
After our ride on the boat we did a quick walk through the Born Free Museum and watched a movie on Joy Adamson and her life here at Elsamere. Then we hopped into the van again and continued our trip around the lake and then on to Nakuru. The first road was dirt and a bit of an adventure, but the view of the window was marvelous!
Our first antelope sighting.
Cattle grazing...
Huge troops of Baboons
Herds of cattle wandering the road.
Before long we found ourselves on the super highway - four-lane divided with a terrific amount of truck traffic. This is the main highway from Nairobi to Uganda. There is one area where there is a checkpoint and weigh station and we counted 124 trucks lined up waiting.
Not long after that we were in Nakuru and headed up one crazy rutty road to the MIA (Mission in Action) Orphanage where we were going to spend the night. Our first stop there was to visit the children. They had just been put to bed and of course we created fairly well ordered chaos by our appearance.
These are the smallest ones and they live downstairs. Once they conquer bed wetting then they move upstairs. There are 46 children living in the building. All the info is packed right now but will add websites etc of places we visited when we get home. It was spotlessly clean and very warm and caring. We were all very impressed.
The co-founder, Ivan, gave us a briefing as we walked through the building. Ivan and his wife, Mary, live in the building with the children and have created very much of a family environment. They have built a school for the boys and girls and some folks from the community and also do a good deal of outreach in the community. After our walk through we headed to the restaurant and had a marvelous meal.
After some conversation we headed to our thatched roof yurt. It was a GRAND start to our Safari! Everyone slept like babies tonight!
and wildlife!
and miles and miles of huge greenhouses raising cutting flowers.
We reached our first destination for the day, Elsamere, the home of Joy and George Adamson and Elsa the lioness of Born Free fame. We wandered the beautiful grounds for awhile and then had a marvelous buffet lunch.
We enjoyed our meal out on the lawn with all the birds singing. It was a gorgeous day and the food was marvelous. Right after lunch we headed to the small dock on the lake and boarded a small boat for a ride along the shore. Lake Naivasha is the highest and most beautiful of the Rift Valley Lakes. It's 6267 ft and the water is fresh and cold.
Jacana - "lily-trotter" here but a "Jesus Christ" bird in Belize...it has very wide feet & appears to walk on the water.
Malakite Kingfisher in the papyrus that lined the shore...
Crowned Cranes and an Nubian Goose on the shore..
Pied Kingfishers...
Lots of hippo!!
and lots of white pelicans...
and many African Fish Eagles.
It was a little tricky getting off the boat into another and then onto the dock.
After our ride on the boat we did a quick walk through the Born Free Museum and watched a movie on Joy Adamson and her life here at Elsamere. Then we hopped into the van again and continued our trip around the lake and then on to Nakuru. The first road was dirt and a bit of an adventure, but the view of the window was marvelous!
Our first antelope sighting.
Cattle grazing...
Huge troops of Baboons
Herds of cattle wandering the road.
Crossing the famous Kenya Railroad that started the country on it's way.
and small markets along the way.
and small markets along the way.
Not long after that we were in Nakuru and headed up one crazy rutty road to the MIA (Mission in Action) Orphanage where we were going to spend the night. Our first stop there was to visit the children. They had just been put to bed and of course we created fairly well ordered chaos by our appearance.
These are the smallest ones and they live downstairs. Once they conquer bed wetting then they move upstairs. There are 46 children living in the building. All the info is packed right now but will add websites etc of places we visited when we get home. It was spotlessly clean and very warm and caring. We were all very impressed.
The co-founder, Ivan, gave us a briefing as we walked through the building. Ivan and his wife, Mary, live in the building with the children and have created very much of a family environment. They have built a school for the boys and girls and some folks from the community and also do a good deal of outreach in the community. After our walk through we headed to the restaurant and had a marvelous meal.
After some conversation we headed to our thatched roof yurt. It was a GRAND start to our Safari! Everyone slept like babies tonight!
