After
all the dramas of previous days, we decided to have a relaxing day on
Wednesday. Karen and Bink headed into town in the morning and went
for a rummage round the shops. On returning to the Backpackers, they
presented Howard with a wooden model Land Rover. In the afternoon we
all visited the National Museum of Kenya, which houses some of the
most important artefacts of human history, like the early Homonid
skulls and the Turkana Boy skeleton. We also visited the Snake Park
next door.
Thursday
was supposed to start bright and early with a 6am departure to the
Nairobi National Park but Howard set his alarm for 5.30pm instead of
5.30am, so we didn't leave until nearly 7am. We were still at the
park in time to catch the busy period early in the morning when most
of the animals are more active. We headed for the Hyena Dam and
found Hippos, Maribou Stork, a lone Buffalo bull and a family of
Grey-Crowned Cranes, then we continued towards the Leopard Cliff.
Along the way we found two large male Lions strolling across the
plain. They flopped onto the grass about 150 yards from the trail
and lay down to sleep, disappearing into the long grass. Moving on,
we came across a herd of Impala and watched as they crossed the road
in front of us. As the passed, we noticed we were not the only ones
watching them; beyond the bushes we spotted the intent gaze of a male
Lion, weighing up whether to have an Impala snack. In the end he
chose not to and the Impala moved off. The lion turned out not to be
alone, but to be with another similar aged male. The pair sat around
for a while and then moved off into the bush, where they too layed
down to sleep.
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| Impala on the move |
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| Spot the danger!!! |
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| Two Kings |
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| Something in the air...Could he detect a female in heat? |
Just
when we thought it couldn't get any better, we found another two
Lions. This time it was a honeymoon couple. Every 10-15 minutes
they would mate briefly, before flopping onto the grass to snooze
until the next session.
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| Copulating King |
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| Yeah Baby!!! |
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| Bink photographing Lion porn |
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| The Happy Couple |
Once
we had taken all the Lion porn we could handle, we headed to the
Baboon Picnic area for lunch, where we found Rock Hyrax. After lunch
we headed slowly back to the main gate, finding large numbers of
Zebra and Masai Giraffe along the way. One of the Zebra had a nasty
wound on its flank, which appeared to be a Lion attack.
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| Cute little Rock Hyrax |
Back
at the Backpackers, we had time for a shower before dinner. Tomorrow
Locks and Pam fly home and the rest of us are planning to visit the
Sheldrick Trust Orphanage, then we too will head home on Saturday
morning.
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