Who went to deepest darkest Africa? We did!! Part 1

Yes indeed we did!

Our time in Oman is drawing to a close and David decided that he wasnt leaving without going on safari.  He'd threatened to go without me once before, but went walking with lions instead.  His 60th birthday was looming and so the time had come.  Tickets were booked, a guide was found (as so often happens here, someone at work was related to someone in the business in Kenya) and David went on the search for accomodation.  I was of no use at all, this was David's baby and he was organising it.  I was just relieved it was going to be cooler down there.

Packing was a bit insane because we were taking stuff to France afterwards (last trip before heading back to Australia and the internet told us that there was secure baggage storage at Nairobi airport*)we were using our complete baggage allowance of around 80kg.  But it all came together in the end (after adding box pockets to linen pants because it's impossible to get safari style pants in Oman and I wanted lots of pockets!!!) and we arrived in Niarobi safely.

Our first two nights were spent in a posh hotel (Four Points by Sheraton - Hurlington for those who'd like a nice place to stay with good food and service) and our only full day was spent being driven about by Erastus  - a man with an encyclopaedic knowledge of his country and very strong views about what we should see.  Our plans changed to what Erastus suggested and we had a fabulous day of elephants, storks,giraffes and museums.

There are many large billboards in Nairobi
and most of them seem to have storks on them.

The storks nest in the tops  of acacia trees

Feeding babies.

Our first stop was the elephant rescue nursery.  It's only open for one hour a day unless you are an elephant sponsor.  I must say that there are very few things cuter than baby elephants, especially baby elephants who are dirt coloured. The elephants are hand reared and then slowly reintroduced to the wild.  It is a long process of gradually introducing them to wild herds until they are adopted by a new family.

Branches are for chewing

Baby elephant toes

Ears - also known as airconditioning

Sunshine on eyelashes 

Chillaxed baby elephants cross their backlogs! Who knew?

After soaking up the elephants, we went on to the giraffe centre.  There is a hotel attached to it where you can stay in rooms that giraffes come right up to.  We decided that we'd like to stay there, but they were booked out for months.  Luckily.  It's mindbogglingly expensive.  I did, however, hand feed a giraffe and buy a very cute pair of giraffe earrings.

Not at the giraffe place, but the first room of the museum.
I was fascinated by the comparative sizes of the animals 

Erastus finally relented and took us to the Museum of Nairobi, where we oggled seriously old bits of human ancestry.

We returned to the hotel for some well earned rest and a cold beer (I heartily approve of Kenyan beer and cider).  Also, the views were pretty awesome. These are some of the views from the rooftop bar.

Cider!!

My favourite view.

* There wasn't any baggage storage of course, so we carted 80kgs of baggage through Kenya - thank goodness for large hotel rooms!