We had a fairly relaxed start to our first day in Kenya with a bit of a sleep in & a decent breakfast at the hotel. The night before we'd arranged a tour of a few wildlife centres on the fringes of Nairobi National Park on the outskirts of the city.
The first of three wildlife centres was the Nairobi Safari Walk. It's basically a small zoo with a number of the popular African animals. The main intent of the place is to educate the local school kids. As a tourist, it also you to see any of the animals you may miss on safari. There are also breeding programs with some of the endangered animals such as the Pygmy Hippos (above) from the Republic of Congo in West Africa.
The interaction people are allowed with the animals is much more relaxed than in the western world. Our guide picked some leaves for us that we were able to feed to the colobus monkeys.
The white rhino (below) didn't seem anywhere near as cranky as it's reputation would suggest. The guide again grabbed some leaves & it came up to the fence for a snack.
There were two albino zebra at the Safari Walk. These were captured from the wild when they were very young to save them from being picked off by predators. In Africa it doesn't pay to stand out from the crowd. They've become a bit of a novelty.
There are a few lions that lay around & sleep a lot (just like most lions). There is also a leopard (below). A mob of school kids had been through just before us & had driven it up the tree. In typical leopard fashion, it made sure there would be no postcard photos.
From the elevated walkway around the leopard enclosure we could see over the fence into the National Park. The impala (below) being wild animals were very nervous & soon trotted off into the scrub.
The Kudu (above) & the Bongo (below) were a couple of antelope species that we didn't end up seeing on safari.
Meet Candy the cheetah. She's the Safari Walk's other spotted cat. Cheetahs are much more slight than their leopard cousins, particularly the females. They're still magnificent cats and much more inclined to allow you to take their photo.
I did mention that the human interaction was relaxed. We were taken into Candy's enclosure and allowed to pat her like a domestic moggy. You would think it would be all very contrived & controlled, but she seemed to enjoy the attention. She was purring the whole time & exhibiting some of the affectionate behaviours of our two cats at home. Many people in Africa keep orphaned cheetahs as house pets as they are by far the easiest of the big cats to tame. I'm not sure how you'd go trying to get them off the kitchen bench.
Unfortunately we had to say good-bye to Candy & rush to our next wildlife stop, the elephant orphanage.
Baby elephants who's families have fallen the victim of poachers are bought to the orphanage & hand reared. Once they are older, they are introduced to wild herds of older elephants that are themselves orphans. It's a great program that has some wonderful results.
The orphanage also adopts rhinos. Many are released into the neighbouring Nairobi National Park. We were busy watching the elephants play around when a black rhino (above) emerged out of the scrub. Apparently this one is an orphan that is now wild & free but occasionally visits the people that gave it a fighting chance of a normal life. This was the best look at a black rhino we'd get on the trip.
The baby elephants all have very sad stories. Elephants are known for their long memories & you have to wonder whether they carry the horror of what happened to their families all their lives.
The elephants are quite boisterous especially when they are near water and when milk is on offer. One or two of the larger orphans took the bottle off the handlers & wouldn't let it go until the milk was gone.
The first of three wildlife centres was the Nairobi Safari Walk. It's basically a small zoo with a number of the popular African animals. The main intent of the place is to educate the local school kids. As a tourist, it also you to see any of the animals you may miss on safari. There are also breeding programs with some of the endangered animals such as the Pygmy Hippos (above) from the Republic of Congo in West Africa.
Meet Candy the cheetah. She's the Safari Walk's other spotted cat. Cheetahs are much more slight than their leopard cousins, particularly the females. They're still magnificent cats and much more inclined to allow you to take their photo.
I did mention that the human interaction was relaxed. We were taken into Candy's enclosure and allowed to pat her like a domestic moggy. You would think it would be all very contrived & controlled, but she seemed to enjoy the attention. She was purring the whole time & exhibiting some of the affectionate behaviours of our two cats at home. Many people in Africa keep orphaned cheetahs as house pets as they are by far the easiest of the big cats to tame. I'm not sure how you'd go trying to get them off the kitchen bench.
Unfortunately we had to say good-bye to Candy & rush to our next wildlife stop, the elephant orphanage.
The orphanage also adopts rhinos. Many are released into the neighbouring Nairobi National Park. We were busy watching the elephants play around when a black rhino (above) emerged out of the scrub. Apparently this one is an orphan that is now wild & free but occasionally visits the people that gave it a fighting chance of a normal life. This was the best look at a black rhino we'd get on the trip.
The baby elephants all have very sad stories. Elephants are known for their long memories & you have to wonder whether they carry the horror of what happened to their families all their lives.
The elephants are quite boisterous especially when they are near water and when milk is on offer. One or two of the larger orphans took the bottle off the handlers & wouldn't let it go until the milk was gone.
At some point the animals decided it was time for stacks on (above). The smaller ones probably weren't overly appreciative, but there was no harm done.
The herd were led off to another part of the complex signalling the time for us to move on as well.
Our last stop for the day was the giraffe centre. This centre was set up to save the Rothschild's Giraffe that were down to a wild population of 130 individuals. Thanks to the centre, the population across four national parks is now at 300. Zoos around the world are now part of the effort.
Once again, the interaction with people is more relaxed. The giraffes come right up to the building where you can feed them little pellets. If you're mad (like Kerri below) you can encourage them to give you a very wet kiss by putting one of the pellets between your lips. Yuk! The giraffe's name is Kelly.
Warthogs are quite the opportunists. They take advantage of the kindness of the tourists scavenging anything the giraffes miss.
We exited the giraffe centre via the Zoovenir Shop & back to the car.
Our driver took us to a garden restaurant near the giraffe centre. The meal wasn't bad if a bit expensive. The setting was nice & there were lots of birds including the weever bird below.
That evening we met the group we'd spend the next 9 days with. As is usually the case with Gap Adventures tours, you have a get together the night before setting off on the trip. There were two missing from the meeting but we met the other four & our guide, Mosses. Suzi, Fabien & Verena were from Germany & Keiko is a Gap tour leader on holidays from Japan. The two missing, Catherine & Peter from Toronto, would appear the next morning. It would be a good mix of nice people to travel with.
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