After a couple of days in and around Nairobi getting stuff organised, we were getting itchy feet again, so decided to head off. Only problem was where.... our initial thought was to head south back to Aboseli and Tsavo, but it had started to rain quite persistently, so we decided to head into the Rift Valley instead.
We decided not to head through the city centre to get to the Northern side of Nairobi, instead we found a way through the southern suburbs. This was in itself interesting, passing through some "less affluent areas" in the rain. There's a lot of road building going on around Nairobi - it looks like there will be a ring road at some stage in the future, but at the moment there's loads of mud.... We finally arrived at the main road out towards Naivasha - a 4 lane road, but it's been pretty much destroyed by heavy traffic so in reality it's really only 2 lanes as you're forever weaving around potholes. Not too far later the heavy traffic seemed to have turned West and we were on a good road climbing slowly towards the Rift Valley escarpment. We climbed and climbed, passing through villages with vegetable sellers ranged alongside the road with some very colourful displays. The rain stopped but the mists came down, suddenly we were on the edge of a cliff with small stalls between us and the drop, this was clearly the Rift, but not much to see today. At the very top we stopped for fuel, but still no view, however only about half a mile further the clouds lifted and we were in full sunshine - we'd crossed into the valley and were heading down, down, down towards the lakes that we could see in the distance.
We decided to stop off at Lake Naivasha rather than go all the way to Nakuru in one day, we were glad to have - the campsite (Carnelleys) was fabulous - under large shade trees on the lake shore with abundant bird life. Sue was really in her element here. We spent a couple of days not doing much except watch birds and the odd hippo before heading north again to Nakuru. The main entrance to the park is approached through the town - in reality the town borders onto the park, not a good sign, but once inside the park the difference is surprising.
As we hadn't prepared any food to eat in the cab, and with lunch approaching, Sue persuaded me to head for a lodge where we would be able to park and get out without having to worry about predators (although we don't usually worry too greatly anymore). On arrival at the gate, it seemed that the Askari on duty was very wary about stepping outside of the gate - so maybe there are lions around after all.... We parked up, grabbed some drink and cashew nuts and headed back into the wild. Munching nuts, watching birds and buck, we headed towards the south end of the lake to find a viewpoint. On arrival Sue suddenly felt unwell with stomach pains and cramps - she lay down on the bed and we tried to work out what was going on. After a couple of hours she felt a bit better so we decided to head for the campsite we'd booked at the southern end of the park. On the way there were giraffe more birds and buck, but the most interesting sighting was most bizarre;
On rounding a corner we saw one of the few other vehicles around ahead pointing towards us - it was stopped and there was a small white egret on the road under its front bumper. As we watched, the egret cautiously walked out, looking around, and almost instantly a pair of large eagles took off from a nearby tree. The egret instantly retreated under the car again. This continued with the egret hiding and the eagles trying to get closer. The car started to move slowly forward, the egret ran alongside it, the eagles circled overhead. After a while the car drive off leaving the poor egret without it's hiding spot - it took off and was soon being chased all around the sky by the eagles - no chance we thought - but after a few minutes of aerobatics it became obvious that flying for its life, the egret was slowly wearing the eagles down until it suddenly put on a burst of speed and disappeared. The eagles, beaten, settled back down in their tree, probably to wait for the next opportunity!
The campsite was idyllic - no one else around, silent with only the noise of the birds and insects and the occasional buffalo to interrupt the peace. We walked to the waterfall a few hundred yards away, not spectacular but peaceful. Back at the truck Sue went to bed feeling unwell again, as she dozed the sun was going down and then the noise of an engine - an overland bus, followed by another. Oh poo! They weren't too bad - but starting generators in this environment, and "curious" visitors were a bit annoying.... Overnight Sue really wasn't well.
The buses set off early the next day, leaving us alone again, but we had to leave, so headed back up the park on the other side of the lake. We managed to find a pair of white rhino eating peacefully, a few giraffe and more buck, but apart from yah this park wasn't that spectacular (surprising as it's one of the premium Kenyan National Parks).
On exiting Sue still wasn't feeling very well, so we decided that we should probably head towards "civilisation", ie Nairobi - we'd already learnt that Naivasha has a thriving expat community, so decided to stop off there en-route as we thought that we'd find some form of medical help there if we needed it. Back to Carnelleys, but on arriving it became apparent that Sue was getting worse - she needed to see a doctor but couldn't travel any further, in fact she couldn't really get out of bed. The campsite owners kindly called their friendly neighbouring flower farmer who it turns out has an on-site medical clinic for his staff! He turned up with his doctor and a nurse. Doctor Chris was obviously slightly bemused by the "home visit in a truck", but he and nurse Catherine were very professional, they prescribed medicines and went away to get them for us. Dr Chris asked Sue if she wanted to come into the clinic for the night as he wanted to examine her more the next day anyway, Sue decided to stay "at home" instead. The next morning we drove next door (maybe two miles down the road) to find Finlay's flower farm and it's clinic. Dr Chris saw Sue promptly and asked her to get some blood rests done in the lab and an Ultrasound. It turns out that this farm has a fully functioning mini hospital complete with lab facilities, ultrasound and even x-Ray. Remarkable. Armed with her results Sue saw the doctor again, he diagnosed gall stones and suggested she should get them seen to immediately at a hospital near Nairobi. He agreed instead to give Sue enough medecine to get her home as she was going to be travelling in only a few days anyway.
Later that day, back at the campsite, we got in contact with Clive and Ann to see where they'd got to - it turned out that they were at the campsite next door - literally next door! They wandered round and we chatted about all that had happened in the last week and what our plans were for the next days. Ours were to get back to Nairobi to get Sue home and sorted, theirs were to head towards the west and Uganda.
The next day we left again, back to JJs to get everything ready for the trip home via Manfreds and Kilimanjaro.