We got up entirely too early and headed out toward the Mara. This involved passing Aberdare and getting to Lake Nakuru for a late lunch. On the way we passed through a fair sized city in the south of Kenya and had to pull off the road for the presidential motorcade which was headed in the other direction. Lake Nakuru and Lake Elmentieta are lakes with a high concentration of salt and attract huge numbers of Flamingos. Up to about 2 million at Lake Nakuru alone if conditions are right. In addition, we saw our first Hippopotamus, with a baby, just past a wave of flamingo (seen at left).

It took us awhile to get to lunch because there were animals everywhere. It was like being at a zoo. After leaving the "flamingo pond" we got in our little buses and stopped over by the Rothschild Giraffe - the rarest of the giraffe. Next we parked next to the White Rhino family. Complete with mommy, daddy and little 400 pound baby. It was nice to see the rhino so close and during the day. Note that these pictures came out a bit nicer...and in color! Then we stopped to see the Rock Hyrax, which is the closest living relative to the elephant. This despite its size - it looks like a ground hog. It also makes quite an elephant-sized sound.

We finally made it to lunch and the trees were full of vervet monkeys. William told us to close the top and keep the doors shut because the monkeys were not above stealing from buses in the same way that the ocean is not above the clouds (not his exact words but you get the drift). So we sat down at picnic tables and ate while the monkeys silently plotted. One clever monkey climbed up a tree above one of the tables - about 30 feet above one of the tables - and proceeded to go to the bathroom. The patrons of said table were fortunate to not get seriously hit but they vacated the table rather quickly. The clever little monkey then climbed down the tree and took some food off the table. Almost like he planned it. Hmmmmmm.

Well we weren't going to get fooled by some stupid primate a second time. So we kept a careful eye on the trees and made sure no monkey got above us. It was at this point that one of the monkeys got into one of the other vans. I told you William was the best driver. He (the monkey) grabbed a bag. Fortunately he dropped it when persued. OK, well this time we are really not going to get fooled again.

There was a nice big tortoise on the road as we were leaving and we headed back to the "zoo." This time we stopped off to see the leopard in the tree, complete with a baby warthog carcass. Mmmmmm, pork for lunch. Well, that was about all we saw in the park. So it was off to Lake Elmenteita for the night. We stayed at a lovely inn overlooking the lake. It had great gardens and a beautiful view.

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