My awesome fellow interns
We started the day early with a sunrise safari at Nairobi National Park. The park is a beautiful nature preserve tucked right into the city, and it's an incredible juxtaposition of wildlife and city skylines-- recently some lions even escaped and were caught lurking about in Nairobi! One of the highlights of our safari was witnessing a hilarious ostrich lovers' quarrel. There were a pair of ostriches minding their own business when we saw a male approach the couple and do a ritualistic dance. After that he started chasing after the other male (ostriches can run up to 40 miles per hour!) trying to beat him up so he could win the female. It was like watching an episode of Jersey Shore.
Quintessential Safari
Ostriches are dramatic actors & extremely gross looking
After our safari we headed to the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage to meet the baby elephants that have been rescued. The orphanage cares for the babies and then releases them back into the wild after a couple of years- it's a really neat organization and the ellies are absolutely adorable!
Collective "awwww!"
Our final stop of the day was at the Nairobi giraffe center, one of my favorite touristy activities in Kenya. Giraffes are my favorite African animals (I think because we've both got the height thing going on :)) so I loved the opportunity to plant some kisses on them!
Sunday was another big day-- I went hiking to the Mount Suswa caves. There's a group of about 15 American and Canadian interns working at various companies and NGOs around Nairobi who get together to take weekend trips and I went with them to this hidden gem. Despite being a gorgeous crater and having awesome caves to explore, Mt. Suswa is totally un-touristy (we didn't see another group of people the entire day!). We found out why on the drive there-- even though it's only 3 hours away from Nairobi, the roads are CRAZY. We had to hire two Kenya Wildlife Service rangers to come with us and show us which paths were passable, and they had everyone get out of the van and walk for portions of the drive so there would be less weight in the car going over some of the intense bumps. We still ended up pushing the van when it got stuck 3 or 4 times.
When we arrived we were greeted by two Maasai guides who took us spelunking into the caves. It was my first time ever going into caves like this, and it was quite the experience. I could have done without the huge amounts of bat guano, but other than that it was a very fun time.
Our guides leading the way
About to enter the caves
It was a wonderful weekend!
What an amazing weekend, Molly! Glad you can take cool trips like this between nursing things. How car sick were you on that van ride...
ReplyDelete