We had a 3 day stop over in Nairobi as we start our African adventure.

Limited on time, we kept things simple with a visit to the Natural History Museum as a start.

The museum is interesting and includes a small but important exhibition of early Hominid skeletons. This includes a cast version of the famous Turkana Boy skeleton which is 1.6 million years old.

The museum has another building named ‘Snake Park’ with some live exhibits. That’s where we encountered the two, er, engaged, giant tortoises above having a little public display of affection!

We spent the evening at a well known restaurant called The Carnivore. It’s a meat feast with skewers of different meats brought to your table until you turn your table flag over in surrender! For the adventurous you can taste Ostrich and Crocodile too!

The next day we headed out on a day trip for a mini safari at Hell’s Gate Park.

En route we stopped at a view point for the Great Rift Valley. The valley is where three tectonic plates are slowly edging away from each other.

The valley runs for some 6,000 to 7.000 km and is 100km wide at some points. It euns across 12 counties in Africa and the Middle East.

The geological movement creates geothermal and volcanic activity. It is also one of the most biodiverse areas on our planet.

Next stop was Hell’s Gate National Park. It’s quite a unique park given there are no predators, so you can cycle through it safely, spotting Zebra, Baboons, Giraffes, Warthogs (aka Pumbaa!) etc as you ride along!

Further along runs a gorge which is fuelled from an underground water source. There was little water when we walked along it, but a flash floods have killed a number of visitors in the not too distant past.

We gratuitously thanked our guide for the information!

Given this risk there are now numerous exit ramps should such events happen again…

That’s us above sampling the hot geothermal heated water running from the rock bank.

On our way out of the park we passed more wildlife.

See the Zebras in the woods below, retreating from the hot midday sun.

Our final stop was at Lake Naivasha to see some Hippopotamus in action!

It’s a beautiful lake, which has expanded, flooding trees and buildings along the waters edge.

There are all sorts of birds around the lake, an Ibis is shown below, but there are Cormorants, Storks, Pelicans and more to be seen.

The usually resident Flamingos had migrated when we visited.

Below is a tree on Crescent Island laden with Cormorants.

We spotted a number of family groups of Hippopotamus along the water edge.

As wonderful as the look in the wild they are renowned to be fiercely territorial.

They are estimated to kill 500 people a year protecting their young or their territory.

We clung firmly to the sides of the boat!

The Antelopes above are Waterbucks, know to be good swimmers, they often sleep in the water and also head there to avoid predators.

A long day indeed but a great introduction to Kenya’s wildlife and the roads!

Next we head to the Masai Mara for our first proper safari…