Wednesday, April 27, 2011

All Was Well Till The Car Shut Down

Yesterday I decided to organize a day trip to Lake Nakuru National Park to do an entire day of game drives in order to get an understanding for the wildlife there and to have some fun. Unfortuantly this was supposed to happen on Monday but because of things going wrong with the driver and the car we had to do on Wednesday. We (being Duncan, Kerry, the driver, and I) left the research center at 6pm but the car wouldnt start unless we pushed it a few feet so we had to bring it to the mechanic in Soysambu before we could make our way to the park. This delayed us a little bit but the sunrise was nice and we still got to the park gate entrance at 7:30 but once we arrived there the driver realized we had a flat tire and that the spare was somewhat deflated. So we had to pay the entrance fee and switch the tires and then go to the mechanic in the park to put pressure into our tires. We eventually got to the game drives around 8:30 - 9:00 but once we did we saw lots of unique animals. Rhinos were everywhere, both black and white, baboons were too, zebras were common, we saw a secretary bird or two, lots of flamingos and pelicans, giraffes, a hyena, and some rock hyraxes. Towards around noon the vehicle that we had been driving broke down right next to Lion Hill. Unfortunately we saw no lions and our car wouldn't start. We tried pushing it, towing it, and just plain restarting the engine but it was too over heated and old to restart again. We eventually got a jeep from the KWS (Kenya Wildlife Service) to tow us to the entrance of the park where Kat Combes was going to meet us in order to assist us and drive us home. Her car could only fit a few though so Kerry and I and two others including Kat drove home in the rain and then we had to wait at Kat's home in the conservancy till she returned but she got caught up with other things so her friend Alex drove Kerry and I back the research center but we took the long way because we were in search of some animals. We saw one Sykes Monkey and a Peregrine Eagle which was cool but other wise it was the usual wildlife. Dinner was normal that night and I went to bed early after a very stressful day. I hope some more fun stuff will happen soon.

No comments:

Post a Comment