Day off Nairobi National Park
Lucy figured I would need a rest (YES!), so she took the liberty of booking two nights at The Masai Lodge, adjacent to “The Park”. This park is literally next to Nairobi… honking horns and traffic for ½ hour, then we turn onto a dirt road, and within 5 minutes, I see eight or ten giraffe, with downtown Nairobi in the background…look close, you can see the giraffe.
I get a meal and some nice conversation with some locals visiting the lodge for a children’s’ birthday party, and again, everyone is interested and supportive of the work I am doing here.
Linus picks me up at 6:30 am to go on an excursion into the park to see wild animals. We had a great six hour ride, and saw wild dogs, vultures, buffalo, giraffe, ostrich, and many other critters, but the loins were hiding, along with the rhino, hippo, and cheetah, all of which are living in the shadow of the city.
Back at the lodge, I rested, wrote some email (to send later), and then went walking around to take some pics and enjoy the evening light. Nduni, the Masai head of security for the lodge checked-in with me, and next thing I know, we are off the grounds and I’m chasing him through the bush to go find the giraffe… We work with broken English and hand signals to have a good conversation while we walk quickly towards the giraffe – I don’t know how he knows where they are, but we get to a clearing, and there they are…
It’s getting dark, and Nduni wants to cross the river, go back into the park, to get me closer than this pic offered. As much as I would love to have the skills and instinct he has, I’m thinking it’s better to get back to the lodge. These guys don’t think twice about spending days in the bush – they know where to sleep, and they know how to avoid getting eaten while they live in tune with their livestock and the wild animals. He thinks, and understands that I’m a ‘little green” when it comes to night hikes in lion country… He came by for a nice visit while I had dinner.
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