As you'll see from all of the pictures, the day was completely overcast, which made made for pretty terrible lighting. On the upside, it kept the day cool and allayed our fears of sunburn!
Our driver was AMAZING, offering so much great info throughout our drive. He was extremely knowledgeable and great at locating different animals. One thing we really liked was that each of the tour guides in the park spoke over walkie talkie, sharing with each other where certain animals currently were. We loved that our guide drove very quickly to those spots; he was bound and determined to show us as many animals as possible!
Please enjoy these pictures that try, yet fail, to capture one of the best days of our life! I've included a mix of ones from my phone and the ones C took with our regular camera, as well as some videos I captured of the animals in motion! Please note we are completely amateur photographers AND capturing wildlife in bad lighting is a challenge! LOL!
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| this was our vehicle for the drive |
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| interior of the vehicle |
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| the roof popped up so that we could stand to observe and take pictures |
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| the "Lion King" decal made my day |
Jackal:
Neither of us were able to get a good pic due to lighting, but what a cool creature!
Ostriches:
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| male |
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| females |
Black Rhinoceroses & White Rhinoceroses:
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| this baby was so cute!!! |
mother and daughter black rhino
crossing the road
Giraffes and Zebras:
I grouped these together because both were at several of the same locations!
Guinea Fowl:
Impala:
Eagle:
Hippos:
Crocodile:
Lion Pride:
One male and 6 females!
Lion Cubs:
there were several cubs in the bushes with their mom
Lioness:
This was such a phenomenal encounter...worth your time to watch the short video clips. She is talking in a few of them! Such a magnificent creature!
After our game drive, we went to the elephant nursery run by the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust is located with Nairobi National Park. They rescue orphaned elephants, rhinos, and giraffes, rehabilitate them, and then release them back into the wild. At this particular moment, they have 14 orphaned elephants in their care. The elephant nursery is only open to the public for one hour each day, during midday feeding; visitors get to see these beautiful animals up close and listen to an educational presentation by the caretakers at the same time.
One amazing thing we learned was that when the elephants are released, they are neither tagged nor microchipped, but just allowed to return to the wild. Even then, they don't forget who rescued them, and will often return with their own offspring years later to show off their babies to their former caretakers at the nursery! AHHHHHH! My heart nearly burst upon hearing that!
We were so fortunate in that our tour guide was able to get us a viewing spot right up front and if one of the elephants came close enough, visitors were allowed to pet them which we most certainly did!
Elephants:
The video clip shows them coming out to be fed! So precious!
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| the littlest orphan they have right now was only rescued a week and a half before our visit and he has to wear a blanket for warmth! |
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| the "older" females (they are young orphans themselves!) are very protective of the little guy and watching how they look out for him was so heartwarming! |
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| I was not going to pass up a chance to pet an elephant! |
This elephant stopped right in front of me and he played with a rock, kicking it with his feet and pushing it around with his trunk! It was so cute to watch!
C and I try try extremely hard to never give our tourism dollars to any experience that exploits animals (for example, riding them); we do a lot of research before we go anywhere that animals are featured because we only want to support rescue and rehabilitation efforts. We were so impressed with the Sheldrink Wildlife Trust that as soon as we got back to our hotel in the afternoon, we immediately went on the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust website and "adopted" a giraffe, a rhino, and an elephant!
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| we chose this one because we thought her name was cute! |
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| we chose this one because we love all things space and the Apollo Program in particular! |
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| we chose this one bc her name is similar to one of my friends! |
After spending eight hours with our tour guide, he dropped us back off at our hotel at 1:30 pm. If you read my previous post, yes, we experienced the same intense security procedure, but this time with a Black Lab!
Happy Tails to you!
