Safari celebration!

I have officially lived in Kenya for a month! In celebration of this (well, actually it was just a coincidence really) I went on safari in Nairobi National Park on Saturday. Su who lives just up from me had a friend to stay and so we all went together with Su's little boy Zac. He was extremely good and we were able to stay all day - from about 9am till 5pm! The park is literally in Nairobi itself, I hear it's the only city worldwide that can claim to have this feature.

By the way, I feel I should mention that things like this which are none-essential are not coming out of the money that I raised as I feel that should be used for my daily expenses and things for school. This is also true of the church retreat which I am going on next weekend. These things come out of my own money, I am trying to be careful about how I use the money I have been given.

Anyway, we entered the park and quickly came across this buffalo:

A well-hidden bee-eater followed:

And then several zebra and hartebeest:

We passed a waterhole with beautiful waterlilies and birds:

And then came the sight that every visitor to the National Park hopes for:

We were alerted to her presence by the fact that a couple of other vehicles had stopped and then she appeared, stalking through the long grass and coming really quite close to us.

Then she crossed the road in front of us and moved off into the grass on the other side and out of sight. Meanwhile a nearby gazelle seemed distinctly unbothered by her presence:

 After that we saw ostriches...

...several baboons...

... a rhino pretending to be a rock...

... some giraffes from a distance...

... and closer-up.

This one was sitting down:

We came to the Athi Dam where we stopped to eat lunch and watch the wildlife around us. There is a big lake so there are lots of animals to see. At the edge of the water were lots of marabou storks... and in the water was... a crocodile!!! At some points he even had his mouth open, but he didn't catch anything that we saw.

Here are some more animals we saw there, including some babies:

I found it hard to stop taking photos of the zebras! Then we moved on and went round some other areas of the park, where we saw more hartebeest, giraffes and rhinos as well as a secretary bird, some vultures and a different stork.

 

It was a brilliant day and an amazing encounter with God's creation. I am very thankful to have the opportunity to experience this beautiful country and its wildlife. And it's possible we may try to organise a trip for the children of Mahali to the park next year - apparently it's been done before using a coach or two and it would be so good for them to see the animals they learn about. Because of their poor circumstances many of them would otherwise never have the chance to go into the park even though it's on their doorstep. Watch this space!