Day 137 - 140 SAMBURU and THE GREAT HOBNOB HEIST We spent a couple of days relaxing at Timau, walking off the Christmas lunch, eating turkey sandwiches, turkey soup, turkey hot pot and Thai turkey curry until everything was gone...then we drove north to the Samburu National Park. The dry, barren area was in stark contrast to the lush mountainous foothills of Timau. The park was an interesting blend of dry bush and forested streams which meant we saw lots of game - we had two very special moments when a herd of elephants crossed a river bed and three lionesses basked in the evening sun on a fallen tree. We camped at a great spot on the banks of a river where elephants walked through at night, leaving huge droppings behind! As the sun was setting Jilly and Camilla were captivated by the sweet baboons who were innocently sitting near the cars (so we thought) with their young minding their own business. Little did we know that they were already staking out our patch in preparation for their morning heist. As we rose early the next day for a game drive we decided to eat some of our Christmas presents, including a packet of Hob Nob breakfast bars (brought out especially from the UK). Whilst we were still wiping sleep from our eyes we were all stunned when a baboon with a baby clinging to her tummy walked up to the table and grabbed the packet! Operation Hob Nob didn't stop there...whilst we were all distracted by this blatant raid, a male climbed into the Range Rover (where Dad was sitting) and grabbed a whole loaf of bread! The whole operation was timed to 'Brinx Mat' perfection. The baboons climbed up the nearest tree and proceeded to eat all the Hob Nobs and the loaf of bread, slice by slice, in front of us. That taught us a valuable lesson - Nairobi might be known as 'Nairobbery' because of all the muggings but no one had warned us of these hooligans and Samburu's organised crime scene! After Samburu we spent a night back at the base of Mount Kenya near Naro Moro and we spent a morning doing a massive wash and clear out of gear we either haven't used or don't need anymore. This seems to be a regular task as we are trying to lighten our load and have less 'gubbins' each time we need to get something. So we undid the 'ruddy ratchets' and unpacked the 'bloody boxes' along with the promise of having less stuff and more space at the back of Biggles. We then hit the road towards Nairobi, where Gareth was to have his first puncture. Whilst being surrounded by the usual gaggle of interested locals, Gareth and Richard set about changing the tyre. At that point a white Land Rover with British plates stopped to assist us...and our world was about to get smaller. We were greeted with 'Hi...we know you...you're Richard and Camilla'. Although we had never met Bill and Claire, a charming couple from Bristol, they had been following our website in preparation for their trip down to Cape Town...we felt like celebrities! As luck would have it, we are all heading in the same direction to Cape Town and we look forward to catching up with them on our trip to Uganda. With a new tyre on we headed to Nairobi. For the past few days we have had a leak in the fuel tank (the one we got welded in Ethiopia) and although we had rubbed it with soap (apparently the soap acts as an adhesive when in contact with diesel - an age-old bush mechanics trick), and tried to fill the gap with other bits and pieces, it seems to be getting worse and worse. We are now losing about two litres in twelve hours so we hope to buy a new one in Nairobi. We had a very different experience this time from when we visited Nairobi 18 months ago on our honeymoon. Back then we stayed in the very plush Norfolk Hotel and went around in taxis. This time we camped in our roof tent and walked around the city centre - and in fact this time we enjoyed the city far more. We visited Rich's old house where he grew up and went to the famous Carnivores restaurant (recently voted one of the top 50 restaurants in the world) for a huge meat feast. We felt that most of the Serengeti's wildebeest migration was going on in our stomachs after we had finished. We had a lovely morning at the David Sheld*** Elephant Orphanage and fell in love with a 3 month old baby ellie who was abandoned by her parents as she was blind. At the orphanage she has been allocated a keeper who walks in front of her and bangs a stick on the ground to guide her. He is her new 'mother' and as well as shading her with an umbrella, rubbing sun cream on her ears and talking soothingly to her, he even sleeps next to her in a hammock in her stable! This will go on for up to 10 years until she is ready to go back into the wild. ( For more info see wwwsheldickwildlifetrust.org ) Ginger went back to Roving Rovers and we were lucky to be able to leave Biggles in Nairobi at the Bristow's, a family that live on the same road as Gareth and Jilly in Alresford. We are grateful to the Bristow's for looking after Biggles and for their help on our return to Nairobi. Whilst Biggles was having a well earned rest we went for our very generous Christmas present from Gareth and Jilly...five days on the island of Lamu, off the east coast of Kenya...