Well this is the second from last full day in Kenya, it does seem like ages ago since we started this trek through Kenya, but enough of that this is not the blog entry for the review.
Today we were off to a couple of sanctuaries the first for orphaned elephants the second for Giraffes. On route to the elephant sanctuary we once again had the delights of the Nairobi traffic, now either we are getting used to it or the traffic wasn’t as bad. Gabrielle took us on a short sightseeing tour pointing out the highlights and the low lights of Nairobi.
We passed by the slums of Nairobi, the ones comic relief visited, yes it was big, yes it looked poor with ramshackle corrugated iron buildings, but it wasn’t until you actually thought of the number of people living in such a small area did it really sink in; how can a million individuals live in such a small area with nothing, especially when surrounded by the trappings of modern society?
Anyway, we arrived at the elephant orphanage. Now this place is only open for 1 hour every day, but what an hour it was to be. After standing in a queue for a short period of time we were eventually let in and led down to an area that had a small mud pond, some water barrels and 8 giant babies bottles.
After a short wait there was a collective ahhh from the assembled mass as 8 baby, (and I use that term loosely as some of this group was up to 2 years old), elephants came running down the hill towards the bottles and within inches of us.
Now if you’re a regular reader of the blog you may remember that I stated that the number of pictures taken of the elephants at The Ark was a record, well I’m pleased to say we must have achieved a world record with the babies.
Milk consumed the baby elephants started to play, somebody described this as a giant version of tumble tots, there was pushing and shoving climbing and splashing it was a joy to behold.
Once these little blighters had had their chance to play they went off to graze and out came the bigger kids. No less charming for their size, although still small, their antics were just as charming and adorable.
With the hour rapidly coming to an end, we then had to make our way on to the next venue, the giraffe sanctuary.
Now something I have noticed about the sanctuaries and other venues is that they are not overly commercialised, whereas in the UK every opportunity to sell you extra bits and bobs is taken, it is the complete opposite in Kenya.
Having said that the giraffes were superb, it was one of the few places I have come across that you can actually feed the animals, a unique experience for a lot of us. We are pleased to announce that Chubbs entered into a meaningful relationship with Helen whilst we were at the sanctuary, although they did decide that tongues were not appropriate on a first date.
I should explain that Helen was one of the giraffes and Chubbs put a pellet of food between his lips, we all agree that Chubbs needs to improve his chat up process.
After leaving the giraffes we then moved off to a shopping mall for a quick snack. The mall was quite new and security was amazing. You initially have to get past the guards at the gate, whilst you are in the complex there is more security guards walking around with big sticks and just in case there are two guards with AK47’s.
The evening fast approached and the gauntlet was thrown down, Ian was to take on all comers at the Carnivore restaurant that night. There was lots of banter and jeering as bets were placed, the two major challengers for the title were Chubbs and Alex although Roger was an outsider in this event.
The tension was building as we once again got held up in the Nairobi traffic, but only 10 minutes late we arrived at the restaurant. After being shown to our seats, drinks served and the soup consumed the main event started.
Ian led off with some chicken lamb and beef and was matched by the challengers. The turkey and more lamb and beef was soon to follow, it was a close fight but we were soon to lose some of
the lower placed people when the crocodile and ostrich balls arrived (N.B. these were balls of ostrich meat not the actual ....... ).
We were now down to just a few competitors now, Ian, Tom, Chubbs, Alex, James and Roger; we lost James at the Camel and ox testicles and shortly after it was down to Ian and Roger. Ian had take a walk to help but after sitting down a receiving another helping of beef, lamb and pork he was to fail and we were able to crown the outsider Roger as the Carnivore champion leaving Ian downheartedly munch his way through his cheesecake dessert.
Full of more protein that is possibly good for you we ended the meal with a group photo outside the restaurant causing a traffic jam in the car park before returning to our quarters for the night.
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