Jambo! Wow, Kenya is fantastic!  Met Gill at the airport on the 22nd and has a surprise visit from Laura who came to wave me off! Thank you! 8 hour flight went very quickly, lots of films to watch. Flying over the desert was amazing, sand and more sand..... Tanya and her sister Mouse were there to meet us in Nairobi and drove us back to their house in the suburbs. It's her Grandma's old house that all the family use when they need to be in Nairobi. It's a single storey house with all the rooms off a central courtyard which has a pond in the middle complete with very noisy frogs!!! Drove up to Lake Baringo the next day where Tanya's Dad lives with his partner Deena (she's an American and makes quilts). Tanya's Dad used to farm snakes for their venom and medicinal plants. Now he has a fish farm and makes cat food and smoked fish to sell. He's also growing lots of aloe vera. Their place is on the edge of a tiny village and their land runs down to the side of the lake. Stunning views of the lake and the mountains beyond from their veranda. Had to get used to the ants, lots of them especially outside, they really tickle as they crawl over your feet... learning to distinguish between the ones that are safe and the ones that bite! Hardly any mosquitos at the moment which is good! On the way up we saw zebra, baboons, warthogs and storks by he road side. Interesting driving, having to dodge the local matatus (minibuses) and thousands of potholes, goats and sheep - the road resembles honeycomb! On that Wednesday we took their little yellow motorboat out onto the lake and over to a camp on one of the islands which is run by friends of their family. We had a lovely swim in their outdoor pool to the sound of the hippo at the shore! Mouse went water skiing and when we passed the beach she let go, we thought that she wanted to stop skiing so did a big swoop in the boat back to the shore.. when we got closer all we could hear was ' there's a f*&$ing crocodile!' she scrambled back into the boat sharpish! Poor Gill had been on the shore and completely unable to help, what do you do? Jump in the water to save them and get munched yourself! Luckily it was a little one, but we did see two that day, and after the stories of a lady who lives on one of the islands being badly bitten last year we steered clear of the lake for a few days!!! On the Thursday we took the Landrover to Lewe Downs a national park and stopped off on the way at Thompson Falls for lunch a beautiful big waterfall in a lush green valley, having to get used to being bombarded by street sellers every time we stop the car. It's so good to have Tanya and mouse with us who can speak swahilli..... I'm getting very good at my 'ah ah asante' NO THANK YOU! Had to change the tyre on the way there after a particularly rough stretch of road. Mouse and Tan were on the case and teaching me how to do it. We were being watched by a gang of locals who seemed to be having quite a laugh at four white girls trying to change a tyre. Then the jack broke, the tyre had been changed but we couldn't get the car back down again!! After a while the blokes came swaggering over to help.... Ha ha.. they couldn't do it either!!! Not so easy after all! So, half an hour later we were back on the road. In Lewe we were staying with Willy and Sue Roberts in their private camp. They've been living there for the last year and a half right in the middle of the park and are starting up a lodge. We were staying in one of the new tents. And by 'tent' I mean a solid wooden floor raised off the ground with canvas sides bathroom at the back with hot running water, electricity, proper beds, duvets and hotwater bottle put in for you before you go to bed! : ) my kind of camping! The main sitting room mess tent was a real tent, however, this had sofas a dining table music centre etc etc....... we ate our meals on a long trestle table under the trees by their little dam (pond) with geese on. I think it costs about 200 quid a night to stay here normally!!! We are very lucky to know the Leakey's they seem to know everyone out here! I woke up a couple of times in the night to the sound of Grevy Zebra ( they're the rare kind that have straight stripes and there are a lot here in Lewe.. the other sort are here too Burchalls Zebra), that morning Willy drove us about 5 mins from camp to see 6 lions that were resting under a tree... amazing, we got really quite close to them.... It's funny being out here... keep expecting David Attenborough' voice to kick in at any time... 'and here in the shadow of an acaia tree the lions are keeping out of the sun after their nights hunting.....' On our game drive we saw Elephants, Giraffe, White Rhino, Eland, Buffalo, Impala, Thompson Gazelles, Grants Gazelle, Zebra, Water Buck, Guinea Fowl etc etc..... That evening we drove up to Jane and Ian Craigs house on the hill (where Prince William spent his Gap year!) to see two baby rhino that they are looking after. One is a 5 month old black rhino and the other a 15 month white rhino (both of similar size!) and were found abandoned - they're only chance of survival being if someone took them in. We saw them at feeding time, each has a man who looks after them and acts as a 'mum', they were out where we'd parked our car and they did try to charge us at one point! Quite scary at only about 1m tall with that amount of weight they'd knock me flat! We helped to feed them, milk from an enormous old water bottle with a teat on the end.... They make the most endearing squeaking noises at this age! Also saw rock hyrax (small furry creatures) up by their swimming pool that looks over the whole park! Best views from rooms and pool that I've every seen! All the houses out here are very open, big windows, some with a gauze built in to keep the creatures out, no glass or shutters or anything, stone floors and sheep skin rugs by open fires. I love it. That night after we tucked up in bed we heard something munching grass outside, it was very cold that night and so we reluctantly left our warm beds and snuck outside with our torches to see what was out there...... glad I did, less than 10 m from our tent two enormous hippo were grazing!!! We got our jumpers and sat out watching them for as long as we could before we got too cold, also saw jackel and ostrich! From there we drove to El Karama a cattle ranch which Murry Grant (friend of mousse) is building a lodge on part of his parents ranch. River down below the mess hut and elephants wandering past on the other side of the river!!! Quite amazing. Had a very silly drunken evening that night on safari cane and were all curled up on rugs by the open fire at 2:30 am when one of Murry's men came rushing over to tell us we were needed. We piled into the landrover complete with dog shot gun and two trackers on the roof with a spotlight and drove off into the night!! Turns out that two lions had tried to take on of the cows and our job was to go and check it out and scare the lions off!!!! Amazing trackers, we thundered through the undergrowth thorn branches through the windows and at one point a tree on the window screen!! A little too much for the wipers to cope with! We chased them about 1km from the cows and they fired shots toward them to scare them off. It's very important that the lions don't get used to the idea that they can get an east meal if they get the cows. Down hill for the ranch if that happens. Lazy morning, had a swim in the river before breakfast, freezing water and surprisingly strong current. Visited Murry's friend Cobb who lives nearby and went on a long walk to try and find leopards... first walk I've ever been on and needed a gun!..... sadly no luck with the leopard...., but we did find and old hand axe. Murry dug out a couple of great books which is if you want to find out about the animals out here I thouroughly recommend you read (it's better read out loud by Murry however who is very good at the animal sound effects) 'Death in the Dark Continent' is one of them, but I can't remember the author...someone double barreled anyhow! Drove from their to their stepbrothers farm, the family weren't there, we stayed in their little spare holiday house and hardly slept a wink. It was a really windy night and the tree branches were scraping on the tin roof....were up at 5am to go to Nakuru Park.... We wanted to be there the moment the gates opened at 6.30.. luckily due to our usual style of faffing and not being anywhere on time we arrived late to find that the workers had had car trouble and were not there yet either. By about 7:30 we were driving round the park.... All the usual animals.... Tee hee we're getting a bit blaze about giraffes and rhino and the such like!!! Here the amazing thing is the flamingo's,...... thousands of them covering the surface of the lake so it looks bright pink from a distance. When we drove up close and got out of the car to have our picnic breakfast the sound was amazing, a strange buzzing that the flamingo's make to each other, really odd and quite unexpected. There are loads of beautiful birds here, even the starlings are a stunning bright blue! Back to Baringo for a couple of days to relax and wash all our clothes.... Really hot here.. very close to the equator and still hot at night, unlike Nakuru. Here we met David Robert (nephew of Willy and sue) who live next door to the Leakey's, they grew up with him and his brother. Also the Archer family who are running the camp nearby that belongs to Betty Roberts (the grandmother) who we'd met in Lewe. Some of Mouse's friends came over so there was a gang of 12 of us between 18 and 23. Great fun, spent the day on the lake and then had an amusing evening at the Thirsty Goat (the bar on the camp) with rapido (a game like pictionary with playdough)... got into bed at 6am I think!!! Tee hee...... Now we're back in Nairobi for Gill's last weekend. Going to go to markets, a Giraffe Sanctuary and to soda lake... In some ways I can't believe we've been here two weeks, it feels like we've been here ages we've done so much. When we went out for dinner last night we bumped into Willy and Sue, we've been here long enough top bump into people we know!!! It's a small place really! All in all it's been amazing, everyone is so kind and friendly. So then, I hope you are all well. I've got another week and a half out here and will probably be back in email contact when I'm in Sydney. You can send texts if you need to get in touch, but the reception out here is not great, often they are very delayed. I hope you are all well, miss you heaps, Lots of love Zoë xx