Animals abound

Sorry it has been a while since our last entry and that I have not yet to upload the promised photos. Internet access here has proved a bit hit and miss. After my last entry we departed Nairobi again to visit Lake Naivasha a couple hours north. This region is reputed to have having a vast array of animals to see without the constraints of using a vehicle. The campsite we stayed at even had hippos that lived just in front of the camp. One day one hippo decided to wander into the campsite to eat some grass. Luckily the owners were well prepared and had installed an electric fence for just this reason. A bit unnerving but I got lots of photos.

Barry and I also visited a crater lake near the main lake and we saw gazelles, zebras, giraffes, and other animals too numerous to mention. The next day we hiked to the top of another extinct volcano, Mt. Longonot, where we were blessed with the chance to walked amongst a herd of wild giraffes! We finished off our stay by camping for 2 days in Hell's Gate park. It gets its name from the geothermal activity in the region, but it could have easily have been in reference to the heat we had to endure. We have generally been very lucky with the temperature here because much of the country is mountainous. Temperature have been in the mid to high 20's, but when the sun does decide to shine it is incredibly strong. The best experience in the park was pur interaction with the animals. They were everywhere and didn't seem the least bit concerned by the presence of humans. We got loads of photos of zebra, gazelles, warthogs and baboons. We even had hyenas visit our campsite on the second night. It was not very comforting to know this, but they seemed to have little interest in us and i slept though the whole thing. It was only when Paul and Sarah, our fellow campers, told me about their visit did I realize what had happened. The next morning we found hyena footprints all around our site! The rangers claim this is not unusual as they are mostly curious and tend to be harmless. We also saw many leopard prints around, but they keep a wide berth from we humans.

We are currently staying in Kisumu. It is the 3rd largest city in Kenya and is located on the shores of Lake Victoria. It is much more humid here and the temperature is a definitely few degrees hotter than we are used to. We will stay here to check out the Independence day festivities and then head north to maybe do some hiking on Mt. Elgon. It sits right on the Ugandan border and is about 4300m high. There also lives a herd of elephant that mine salt from caves in the area. We hope to check that out before heading back to Nairobi to finalize our safari in the Masai Mara park.