A nasty 7 o'clock start meant we arrived at the park just after sunrise with our driver Francis. The minivan roof opened up to allow standing space which often gave a better view of animals and better photograph opportunities. As Francis left us parked up to pay our entrance fees, we were surrounded by baboons, some of which carried babies on their backs or clinging to their underbelly. Noticing that Francis had left the front windows open, we talked ourselves into the possibility of an attack and decided that the best plan of action was to sit silently still so as not to attract the unwanted attention.
We now believe Francis to be a relative of Fred's, after spotting a three-legged baboon and asking him how that could have occurred. He replied "that baboon is injured". Groundbreaking logic.
Lake Nakuru contains over 1200 species of birds and so is famous for its bird watching; a fact of which Grace's dad would not let her forget. Perhaps we shouldn't have mentioned John's obsession to Francis though as he then stopped the van for every single bird we saw.
At the viewpoint we took some breathtaking pictures of the park which looked like a scene from the Lion King, before being rudely interrupted by a baboon who was casually sat on a nearby bench and chose that moment to relocate causing Nat to run away and Hannah to nearly fall over a rock from fear (it was almost as traumatic as Grace's turkey incident). As we were having a photo taken on Hannah's camera, we became the newest attraction for the Chinese tourist, who lined up with their big-ass cameras to take photo's of us.
We were lucky enough to see every animal that lives in Lake Nakuru National Park, from giraffes to (very rarely spotted) lions at close range. We even got a Beatle-stlye photo of two rhinos crossing the road in front of us.
Towards the end of the trip we were surprised to come across one baboon orally pleasuring another one, just next to our car window. Turns out the trip wasn't as PG-rated as we'd expected.
On our way to Thompson Falls we had a near death experience. Francis chose to ignore the dip in the road and so we went over it at full speed causing us to get some serious air-time (and injuries in Grace's case).
Having brought some chocolate along for the ride, Nat and Grace were both very disappointed to discover that it had melted within 10 minutes due to the extreme heat. Grace later stood on one bar causing a chocolate explosion and apologised to Nat before realising that she had just waste 149 shillings of her own money.
On our way to Thompson Falls we crossed the Equator.
Moving on...
Thompson Falls was as exciting as one could expect. While innocently admiring the view we were pounced on by two women and led to their stalls. All three of us were skint and irritable from the long trip and so were not in the mood for haggling or spending any money. However after expressing brief interest in a banana leaf picture Nat was harassed into the shop and effectively bullied out of buying anything (she refused to be forced). The attitudes of these sellers were a world away from the cooperative stall owners we've befriended at the market.
We left ASAP and once home enjoyed the comfort of Disney film Finding Nemo, which Ariel had brought with her. It was an easy way to end an exhausting day!
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