Dear blog...we haven’t forgotten you, promise!
Our last month in Kenya flew by! Saying goodbye to little Betsy, the colobus we have spent a great amount of time with over the past 3 months, was hard! we was also sad to leave the colobus trust in Diani, and the extra special people we have met during our stay (you know who you are!) :-) but we was also equally as excited about embarking on the next leg of our trip!
 | ||
| Betsy relaxing on her last full day with us |
To mark the end of our stay at the colobus trust, we did something that is a must for anyone visiting Kenya, and that is to experience a safari of course! The safari took place in Tsavo national park, which is one of the oldest national parks in Kenya! As the park is so vast and huge it is split into Tsavo east and Tsavo west. So the first day of our safari was spent in the jeep with our driver travelling to Tsavo east, which from Mombasa took almost 4 hours.
 |
| At one of the entrance gates to Tsavo eats national park! |
The park was very flat, and dry which worked in our favour as within the first 10 minutes or so we already spotted one of the big five- elephants! After that animals seemed to pop up everywhere, from zebra to eagles to buffalo (another one of the big five) and different types of antelope! An hour into the drive we spotted a leopard (which we was told we only had a 40-50% chance of finding!) high up resting in the tree with his dinner (a big warthog)- so that’s three out of the big five within the hour!
 |
| A male elephant wandering past our jeep- wow! |
Arriving at our lodge in Tsavo east for lunch after a lucky morning of wildlife spotting, we was already looking forward to the evening drive which would follow as we was told the chance of seeing lions was higher...although this didn’t quite go as plan! Unfortunately as we set off for the evening drive, we managed to drive about 200 metres away from the lodge and the jeep cut out. Luckily the battery died as we was viewing some gazelle, rather than a pride of hungry lions! So basically we were stranded until we could call for help, so the driver had to run back to the lodge to ask for assistance... After an hour or so of failing to jump start the engine, the only option was to push the 2 tonne jeep back to the lodge (best watch out for them hungry lions...). It was unfortunate that we missed out on an evening drive, but we still got to see lots of elephants and giraffes in the horizon as the sun set whilst sat on top of the jeep waiting for it to be fixed...
 |
| Observing the jeep being fixed... |
The 2nd day of safari was spent driving through Tsavo east in the direction of Tsavo west! The second day was probably our luckiest day as during the morning we finally got to see a pride of lions, which was made up of 2 females and 3 males. The driver nicely pointed out a pair “making honeymoon” in the bush, and let us use his binoculars so we could get a better view... Next we spotted cheetah, a mother and her two juvenile cubs, which was pretty amazing!
 |
| A not so clear photo of the cheetah family we spotted in Tsavo east! |
As we were leaving Tsavo east a large herd of elephants were drinking by the waterhole, which was also occupied by buffalo, zebra and a little family of warthogs! Arriving in Tsavo west midday it was very hot and the surroundings are alot more dense than east, with more bushes, trees, hills and lots of large rocks which makes searching for wildlife more of a challenge! But as we neared our lodge, a huge male elephant stepped out onto the road, looked at us, and carried on walking until he disappeared into the dense bushes.
 |
| Watching a family of elephants drink at the manmade waterhol as we ate dinner |
We were also lucky to spot our second Leopard of the trip, but this is most likely due to the big juicy piece of meat that the staff at the lodge left out for the leopard each night, so tourists would have a chance to take photos...not quite sure what we thought to this, it’s much better seeing them in more natural situations.
On our final day in Tsavo we visited Mzima springs, which is home to resident hippos and nile crocodiles- both of which we saw from a distance! Going on safari in Kenya was great experience and we felt so lucky at the amount of wildlife we got to see- so make sure you put safari on your list of things to do before you die!!
 |
| "Catch up mum!" an excited little zebra foal and it's mum :-) |
 |
| We didn't find any rhino, but we did spot something it had left behind! |
It wasn’t long after our return to Diani that we were packing our backpacks and saying our goodbyes! We have gained some invaluable experience and memories whilst volunteering at the colobus trust, and also enjoyed living in the Mombasa area.
Kenya has a real charm to it, and although we both felt slightly unsure and out of our comfort zone when we arrived, we quickly fell in love with the place!
What will we miss the most? The crazy matatus, the friendly locals, haggling in the markets, buying a meal and a drink for less than £1, and of course the wildlife (incl. Betsy of course!!).
Things we will miss not so much? The constant humidity induced sweating, ugali [Abi] and the mosquitoes/ sleeping under a mozzi net!!
 |
| Volunteer's weekly sunday dinner at the sundowner cafe in Diani! |
So our last few days in Kenya were spent in the place where we started our adventure, in Mombasa at nirvana backpackers! It felt odd to be back, as though we had never left! From there we got the night train to Nairobi, which took 8 hours... As for Nairobi, don’t listen to all the bad press about this city, it seemed liked a really cool place, with very genuine and honest people.
Our time there was short and sweet, visiting the local giraffe orphanage, observing a dog being trained for a dettol advert and inviting ourselves to a private meeting with the Kenyan wildlife service’s (KWS) assistant director of conservation and education!
 |
| Feeding time for the hippo (along with ducks and vervet monkeys!) in Mombasa |
So thats it. Our Kenyan adventure is over! For now anyway... we will be back! Asante sana Kenya :-)
So now we are “down under” in Perth, western Australia! Australia’s sunniest capital, and so far it is living up to its expectations as its very sunny, warm and has a very nice summary feeling to it! We plan to spend the first weeks exploring Perth and adjusting to the ozzie way of life, before we proceed onto our next line of voluntary work -this time with horses!
We shall keep you update on our Australian adventures... Hooroo for now!
