I woke up at 5:30 on Wednesday morning to walk Basil. At 5:45 I called Joerg to wake him up. Naddel is coming today! We packed a picnic and left for the first time around 6:00. True to form we forgot something and had to go back. I wonder what the guards at the front gate think of us. Naddel was coming on a Lufthansa cargo flight from Germany, but not until 11:00am. Rather than sitting in traffic for 2 hours to get to the airport at that time, we had decided to leave much earlier and drive through Nairobi National Park, which has a gate very close to the airport.
Surprising enough, you can drive into downtown Nairobi, narrowly miss multiple car accidents, choke on dust and exhaust, navigate one rotary after another, and then take a left hand turn and find yourself in the pristine wilderness of Nairobi National Park. And on an early Wednesday morning you have it almost all to yourself.
We drove down to an overlook with buffalo grazing below. In the distance there were also zebra, hartabeast, ostrich, and the Nairobi skyline. We got out of the car a little later to hike closer to an eagle and its prey (another smaller bird). We didn't go far because Joerg was worried about lions, and I was already finding ticks on my feet.
Next we stopped at a picnic area to eat breakfast, but first I had to chase the zebras. I just wanted to run with them. They didn't let me get very close. When I stopped they gave me a look that said "what the hell?" and I felt kind of bad. I wanted them to like me. But Joerg assured me that they hadn't liked me to begin with so there was really nothing to lose.
We drove on, hoping in vain to see a lion or an elusive black rhino. Mostly we just stopped to see birds, but there were other animals as well. The grass was tall enough after the rains to hide many of them. I was staring out my window when I heard Joerg squeal "Lion! Lion! Look, right there!". And sure enough, there she was. Holy shit. Only yards from our car. She came slowly to the side of the road, mouth open, calmly surveying the grass in front of her. She seemed to ignore us completely. Joerg took pictures while I tried to catch my breath. She was so amazing. She sauntered into the road, stopped to pose for a few shots, and then crossed to the other side. I had the camera at that point, so I could see her from an even closer perspective. A car came towards us but the lioness was in the tall grass at the side and they didn't see her. We didn't stop them. We watched her as she slowly disappeared into the tall grass. My heart was still thumping in my chest.
We finished out the morning with a few more bird sightings, and even a rhino way out in the bushes. I climbed on top of the car to get a better look. I was not about to chase after him, although Joerg said he would take more pictures if I did. On our little detour to the airport and in only a few hours we had seen so much amazing wildlife. But now it was time to get down to the business of the day and go find Naddel!
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