Kenyan Safari!

Eldoret, Kenya

On the road from Eldoret to Nairobi today our host Cliff Msioki said, as we were driving through the Rift Valley, "We may see zebras on the roadside, and maybe a giraffe." Are you kidding? Al and I began looking. A few miles down the road and Al says, "There they are!" Four zebras on the other side of the road. Cliff turned the car around and we stopped, and took pictures. After this there were many more zebra sightings, in groups of 5-15. We saw over a hundred zebras!

We also saw baboons on the roadside. One was on the highway ahead eating roadkill. We drive up next to 5-6 baboons. The one feasting on roadkill narrowly missed getting hit by an oncoming car. We were right next to him, and he jumped out of the way. I got a great picture of a baboon, which I'll post when I get my camera back, since I left it in Cliff's car. He'll return it when he picks us up tomorrow to take us to the airport.

We also saw a herds of gazelles and impalas.

And, we saw two warthogs! But we couldn't get photos of them.

We stopped and ate at an outdoor restaurant - the one where the giant 4-foot tall Marabou storks hang out hoping for a free lunch. Check out the link - they look exactly like that. Now imagine they behave like seagulls, hanging very close waiting for you to toss them food. They stand in a circle around your table, with their weird hunchback positions. When our meal was over Al fed them chicken bones, which they swallowed whole without chewing. These things are carnivores! "They will catch small rodents and reptiles and have even been known to pick swallows out of the air!" (see link)

As we were eating an African grey Hornbill kept flying around us and landing in the nearby trees. Cool!

It was an exhilarating time. I felt like we were on a safari that was costing us nothing!

Oh yes, we stopped on the equator and had our pictures taken - it's 9100' above sea level.