WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? PART 1

So it's been a long time since my last post.  I am sorry for the wait.  My sister, who runs a dynamic blog (www.fancyfootballs.blogspot.com), along with some other minor responsibilities, such as a photo company and 5 children, reminded me during Christmas that having a blog is a major "responsibility.  People want to see continuous posts.  You can't stop."  Ok, so I've been completely absent.  Well hopefully some of my travels make-up for the delay.

The Middle East has a week-off right before Thanksgiving occurs in the US.  At the same time, I befriended a fellow classmate at Thunderbird who lives in Kenya with her family.  I emailed Manya and asked if she was up for a visitor in Kenya.  Hey, I'm low maintenance and ready to adventure.  She was all game, so I bought my ticket for a 6 hour plane flight from Qatar to Nairobi.

A number of people in Saudi asked me if I was going on a safari.  I wasn't sure about that, as I only had four days in Kenya.  Well when I arrived Manya had arranged 2 major "Animal-Viewing" adventures.  My first full day I drove to a wildlife park that was about 3 hours north of Nairobi.  A robust Nissan Sentra was to  be our safety wagon.  If you've seen wildlife programs on TV, most safari parks haul people around in Land Rovers and large buses.  Not this trip!  The Nissan Sentra rolled-up to the park and I got my first glimpse of how "wild" Kenya's parks can be.  Small monkeys roam around the entrance gate.  A restaurant provides an opportunity for food.  Now these monkeys don't sit by the table waiting for a hand out.  They just jump up and take your food.  If your car window is down, your car will be burglarized of all edible items.  Check them out.

After we bought our tickets and avoided the criminal monkeys, we cruised on into the park.  Our Sentra would prove to be one of the smaller items in the park.  We bumped and bruised along the road seeing amazing wildlife.

These water buffalo were huge.  They had the right of way when confronted with the Sentra's might.  There was always a male water buffalo checking everything out.  If you expand this picture you can see the big guy staring us down. 

Zebras were everywhere.  They are very skittish.  A slight noise from the car and they would jump.

There were all sorts of these Emu-Gazelle type animals.  They cruised in packs and were on constant look out for predators.  Like the zebra, any noise and they were on instant alert.

Manya told me that many people travel to the safari parks and never see a Rhino.  Well I was blessed to be 100 yards from one.  This guys was gigantic.  He just sat there and ate.  He didn't look at us once and I'm sure wouldn't have been frightened if he had noticed us.  Look at those horns, and those birds weren't a bother at all.

Giraffes weren't too concerned about the gnat-like Sentra.  It is hard to explain how large these animals are when close-up.  They just hung-out and ate from trees that no other animal could get close to.

Baboons have serious attitude.  Whereas the little gate-monkeys want to swipe your food, baboons will come up and challenge you for your food.  They are much larger than I was comfortable with.  Manya told me that many tourists get out to take pictures and smile away at the baboons.  Well apparently that is a sign of challenge to a baboon, so oftentimes these smart little mammals will rear-up for a fight..."Ok, everyone back in the van!"

Leopards, Hyenas and Lions are all residents at the park we visited.  Unfortunately they are all nocturnal, and leopards, in addition, like to hang-out high-up in trees.  It was a real long shot that we would see any of these three animals.  We were launching into the home stretch of the park drive (hour number 5) when we got word from a passing visitor van that a lion had been spotted with her cubs close by.  We squeeked up to a grassy area and sure enough, this lioness had been woken-up.  This was as good a shot that I could snap, and I think it's a winner. 

Day 1 was overwhelming, but I was in for more.  Manya had big plans for Day 2.  We were heading to an elephant nursery and a giraffe camp.  The elephant nursery was amazing.  The nursery has discovered a formula for baby milk for elephants.  As parents are poached the babies are left to fend for themselves.  In the past, baby elephants couldn't survive in a nursery because the milk available didn't provide the nourishment they needed.  Well the formula has been discovered so these baby elephants have a much better chance of survival.  Each elephant has a trainer that acts as a parent.  They feed them, sleep near them, and generally help raise them until they can be returned to the wild.  The nursery is open for visitors 1 hour a day.  These little elephants came trooping down the trail and socialized with us for an hour.  I eventually sponsored a little guy named Chemi Chemi and my nieces/nephews are closely tracking his development.  Here are some pictures.

Manya and I with the elephants in the background.

Here's one of the baby elephants cruising around.

After the elephant nursery we headed to the giraffe camp.  One picture will best represent the park.

So we got to feed the giraffes, which was a blast.  Yours truly wasn't into the kissing-the-giraffe-challenge.  Manya, you are very brave!

On Day 3 I had an awesome lunch with some of Manya's old co-workers.  They were wonderful people and immediately welcomed me into their community.  The trip was overwhelming.  I can't thank Manya and her family enough for giving me a room to sleep in, a driver to and from the airport, and for organizing so many awesome events.  I haven't listed the entire slew of activities because it would take too long.  I encourage everyone to visit Kenya if you are ever traveling in the Eastern hemisphere.  The people are great and the experience is amazing.

So that put me into December, and my next blog will cover the second adventure I had leading up to the holiday season...