We've had an amazing day today :) A day long adventure was had, with photos to come, once Marty has finished photo shopping them!
We both crashed before dinner last night and set the alarm to get up for a quick bite to eat, then straight back to bed at about 8pm. I made it through till 6am, Marty 7, and I think we're on Africa time now!
Breakfast is complimentary here and was amazing! They do hospitality different here, but we like it so far :)
Our driver from the airport yesterday had offered to take us on a day trip to see the Elephant Orphanage, Giraffe Sanctuary, Crocodile Farm and Kazuri Bead Factory.
Our first stop was at Shelrick Elephant Orphanage, which rescues baby elephants whose mothers have been poached, injured or have abandoned them. They were the most adorable little elephants, ranging from baby ones to two years old. They are fed 6 times a day from giant milk bottles and you can see the affection between the keepers and the elephants. The little guy above is the youngest, and he needs sunscreen and an umbrella escort as his skin is very sensitive. However, the best part of the visit was the two lions we saw!! The orphanage backs onto Nairobi National Park, and during the feeding time a Simba and a Nala (male and female for those haters who haven't seen Lion King) just cruised on by. We were so shocked we didn't even get a photo. The keepers moved the elephants out of the way while the lions were walking by. As we were leaving, we ticked off another Lion King animal, with a family of Pumba's (warthogs) walking across the path in front of us. Soooooooo ugly! But cute :)
The Giraffe Sanctuary was established when a species of giraffe's numbers were dropping in Western Kenya. At present, the sanctuary has 13 giraffes and they aim to reintroduce them to the wild when they are old enough. We got to feed the giraffe's and 'kiss' them - which involves putting a pellet of feed between your lips and the giraffe licking it off your face with its 18 inch tongue. Urghhhhhhhh. Was an experience! Everyone has so much knowledge to share, and they are so willing to share it :)
The Crocodile and Ostrich Farm was amazing! We have crocodiles in Australia of course, but we weren't aware of how much we didn't know! Crocs live for 100 or so years, and we saw three different pens, 18 years and up, 5 to 18 years and little baby ones, which Marty is holding above. I held one too, was definitely more scared! We also saw Ostrich's, ridiculous looking animals! They look insane because of their eyes. But they do run faster than we can legally drive in Australia so we kept well clear of them! Marty is taking to the African cuisine well, mainly because they do a lot of buffets and he gets to eat a lot! We had a lovely lunch in the sun with our driver. The funniest part of the stop was a bunch of local children asking us for a photo with them - I guess because we looked so different! They loved the high-5's afterwards, it was really sweet :)
We also popped into Kazuri Bead Factory, which was established in the 1960's and provides employment for young single mothers. They create beautiful beaded jewellery and pottery and all proceeds go towards the women and their families. It was a lovely place where all the women talked and sang while they worked, and the products they make are world class. They showed us a board where they list all the orders from around the world, and Australia was on the board :) We will have to hunt it down when we return.
We were stuffed after a long day and enjoyed a lovely evening outside having dinner and Marty photoshopping the above photos, which attracted a couple of the staff - looks like we might be taking some photos for the website! We watched a movie and fell asleep half way through and had another deep sleep - we're both enjoying being relaxed and on holidays!
We're about to go visit the community centre with Leonida so we will say bye for now, off for an eye opening day!
We're having an amazing trip and we're sending you so much love :)
Rach and Marty xxxx
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