Maasai to Nakuru

We somehow managed to wake up right on time at 6:30. Sweet Thing was packed so she helped me get a few things around the room. The baggage guy was outside as we were ready to leave. We had breakfast at the restaurant then met up with William for the trek to Lake Nakura. Heading out of the hotel, we hung a right, something we had not been doing during the last two days' game excursions. Almost immediatelty we arrived at an exit gate. The road did not look familiar for a while, but we then joined up with more dirt road we had travelled Sunday to get to the maasai. We remembered a stretch of the road that was being paved. The crew places rocks and branches across the road at regular intervals to deter cars from "sneaking" onto the gravel bed that is ready to accept a layer of asphalt. The majority of the roads we travelled today were gravel and some quite wet and bumpy. Interestingly enough, just about the same time we seemed to tire of the rough ride, William announced that we were a few kilometres from pavement. There was an abundace of schools, all the way from nursery through secondary, spotted during the last half of today's drive. The further we got from the maasai, the more plush the surroundings. The grass-feeding animals no doubt are in better "health" than those doing their best to survive on the slim pickings in maasai. As well, the closer we got to Nairobi, the more western the mode of dress of the people became. The city of Nakura is close to 1 million people, one of four of the country's biggest after Nairobi, Mombasso, and one other I cannot remember. The hotel we are at is another in the Sarova chain. Just like what we are used to seeing in the western world, some properties are A-1 and others are heh. This lodge is the latter; housekeeping brought in a top sheet and there was an impromptu lesson on laying a second sheet on a bed over the blanket. Professor KA explained she had been head of housekeeping at a few spots in Canada (visions of my whole career based on the Oracle software) and the attendant was pleased. There appears to be a higher occurrence of potential malaria-bearing mosquitoes near the lake as the bed here has netting all around. Apparently the room attendants come in and zip up the protection before bedtime. The walkways here are a collage of red brick and concrete. I have already experienced first hand how slippery the concrete can get. I have been advised to always place my crutch bottoms on the red flavour of brick. There is a painted up/down ramp leading into the restaurant here which can be VERY slippery. I have not yet figured out how to navigate that part of the lodge but will figure something out come dinner. We drove around the park for a while before coming in to the lodge. The attractions here include buffalo and rhinocerous not to mention an absolute sea of flamingos. The water is very very low and the sand leading up to the shallow lake has signs of being recently under water. I did not test the looseness of the sand with my crutches and sat in the vehicle while ST clicked away at the sea of pink. The rhinos can weigh in at over 4 tons and have a thick turtle-like shell protecting them. Interestingly enough they too are herbivores. Outside of the "real killers" in the maasai (the big cats), William mentioned most animals that will do fatal harm to humans are provoked by our going too close to their young. Apparently there are more people killed yearly by rhinos than the big cats. We are heading out at 4PM for the next game excursion. My Sweet Things is fighting sleep as she reads her book and is wearing her new ONESIE! The afternoon drive was about 2 hours. At the beginning it seemed like a convoy there were so many vehicles all bunched together. As the time wore on, we all ended up going our own way. The highlight of the drive was a toss up between the rhino family and the impalas running around and jumping like puppy dogs. We got very close to a foursome of male rhinos and we got some nice shots. ST thinks they are so ugly they're adorable. We did end up seeing a few gaggles of rhinos. The impalas were playing like a bunch of children and there was a lot of running with sudden stopping. They were jumping 4-6 feet in the air as they played. William told us they can jump as high as 8 feet. The drive started with a bunch of monkeys who looked like they were wearing masks like so many of their species do. We got very close to some baboons, and ST felt a bit uncomfortable with one of them in particular. She did end up getting its cell number and will give it a call when we are back in Nairobi. The buffalos as well were plentiful, their size somewhere below that of the rhino but they were still quite large. Tomorrow starts with a 7:30 departure from the lodge, and a picnic lunch in Nairobi probably about noon. ST went to the internet cafe to check her email (what a geek) and I went to the bar. As I arrived, the fire had just been started. There were a few gentlemen in native garb preparing for what seemed to be a concert. I do remember reading something about a Kenya music extravaganza nightly at 7 so it all made sense. They were helpful assisting me getting seated, what with my cast and all. The music and dancing was interesting and I could not place the beat they were using. It almost fit into 4/4 but not quite. I tried tapping 5/4 and that did not work either. There were 4 women and 8 men on the stage and at one point they dragged people out of the audience to help assist with the gyration of the dance to the music. Of course ST was up there looking so Kenyan and loving it. We ate, then hung around the fire again until 9:30 or so, striking up a conversation with a Finnish couple who live in Nairobi. We lost ST's camera but it miraculously turned up somehow, much to my relief 'cause I am so forgetful with what I do with things and am so cluttered in hotel rooms it drives ST nuts. By the way, at least 2 people here told me they have no mosquitoes at the lake we are on, so the netting business is all a big show. They are hoping we will return to the west and proudly answer "yes" when we are asked if we slept under netting 'cause malaria is so easy to catch in Africa. By the way, 1 coke and 2 Tusker beers here cost 860 schillings or about $12 USD. There's roughly 72 schillings to the USD.