We arrived in Nairobi (known locally as Nairobbery due to the crime there!!) mid-afternoon and were pleasantly surprised as it was very modern and green with open boulevards - looked like a really nice and 'happening' city so I'm looking forward to my 2 weeks there volunteering at the end of this trip. That night was weird as we said goodbye to most of our group.

There were only 5 of us continuing onto the gorilla section; the rest were either going home or heading up through Ethiopia and Sudan to Egypt. Saying farewell to Kian was very tough as we had become good friends and were kind of 2 peas in a pod in terms of background and experiences. I'm sure we'll catch up again another time and hopefully get to travel together again.

The 5 of us carrying on went to the welcome meeting with the new group - only 3 guys - yikes! We also had 2 Germans (mother and daughter and the mother didn't speak a word of English - double yikes!). Of course we were all so sad to leave our previous group that we kind of weren't interested in the new people. Anyway, by the next morning we had sorted ourselves out and were ready and willing to be nice and integrate. Despite being very girl heavy, there are no girly girls which is a Godsend and everyone has been getting on great. Maria, the older German lady is fab and a real laugh. It's great for me to be able to practise my German again.

We set off to Nakuru and stopped at the Saidia Orphanage on the way for a few hours and lunch. I was immediately accosted by Gracie, a tiny tot who started to show me around the place. She was very cute (even by my standards!). There were around 70 orphans in the home from the age of 5 months to about 19 - most had been abandoned by their parents. When the manager started to tell us the history of the home, I started to get very upset as it was so sad. There was also a tiny tot who had spina bifida and they needed money to help her walk. Heart-wrenching. You can find out more here: http://www.saidia-gilgil.org.uk/

We then headed to Nakuru National Park where we had our first group meal and I fell in love with a beautiful (and huge!!) speckled Great Dane. We were up early the next morning for a game drive in Nakuru which is supposed to be the best place to see leopard and rhino. It was a very unexpected and great drive. We didn't see any leopards but we did see 1 black rhino (pretty rare!) and TEN white rhinos, really close to the road. We also saw 7 lions padding along by the road, loads of pelicans and a sea of pink flamingos, buffalos, lots of baboons, zebra, giraffe etc. My expectations were pretty low there after the Serengeti but I had a fab morning! All good so far on the new leg of the trip.