Heading to the Coast

On Sunday the 28th we leave the mountains and head to the coast. We're staying at A Rocha's Mwamba Field Study Centre. Have had great internet connection here, hopefully will be ok there and will update with pictures and stories as we can.

Commenting

Have heard from a few that it is difficult to comment on the blog, not sure why as it is the first one we've ever done! If you have trouble, but still want to get a message to Bobby, feel free to email us bobsluka@hotmail.com. If you put "message for Bobby" in the subject, then I won't delete as junk :)

Learning to Bargain

On Friday we went to the Masai Market.I was looking for one of those little wood carvings.My Dad told me that here you have to bargain,because there is no set price.I wanted a medium sized Gazelle.A guy came up to us and showed me one we asked the price,KSH 3500(Kenyan Shillings),My Dad put on the voice that he normally puts on when he is talking to someone from a different country or language and said,"no,no,no,no,a lady over there was selling something the same size as this for KSH 500." So we walked away and the guy shouted for us to come back,so we came back and walked away again a couple of times.Eventually he offered us KSH 1000 and my Dad said "no, no, no. We'll pay 600." He said "800!" Then my Dad said "you say 800, I say 600, let's make it 700." So we agreed on this price. I walked away happy.

Note: 1 Pound is worth about 130 KSH. So the starting price was about £27 and the final price was about £5.

Our cottage

The skink

Lizard

At last!We've seen a lizard. It was dark grey with two white stripes.We have just gone for a walk and I caught a yellow-black beetle with a trunk like nose as well as a large black creature with huge fangs and a stinger at the end of its tail.Our backpacks still weigh a ton.

Out of Breath

Big Bob here. I was just walking to our room and noticed how out of breath I was. Now, I am unfit right now, but not that unfit! Then I remembered, we are at about 2300 m elevation, which for the Americans reading this is 7352 feet. By contrast, Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the UK is 1,344 m (4,409 ft). The higher you go, the thinner the air and therefore the lower the concentration of oxygen. Hopefully we'll adjust soon.

Some pics from our safari at Nairobi National Park

We're Alive!

We arrived at 8:30 am in Nairobi. We were picked up by a guy named Ben who loaded us into a van with a pop up top so that you can stand up inside. He drove us to Nairobi National Park where we drove around for four hours. We saw ostriches with baby ostriches, buffalo with baby, warthogs, giraffes, zebra with baby, rhino with baby, hartebeast, black faced monkey, eland, impala with babies. Loads of birds and a giant tortoise. No lizards though.The buffalo blocked our path and we had to turn around. We then drove through Nairobi traffic which took ages and arrived safely at our conference centre near tea planations. Our backpacks weigh a ton.

Our new kit

The night before

I just got all my cloths out to pack up later. We are bringing lots of snacks,binoculars and card games. Our  back packs are huge!

Bob with our guide to Kenya

Jabs

Since St. Andrews school have been learning about Africa, they will probably know about the diseases that mosquitoes cause, I know for certain that my class talked about malaria and how it happens. We have to take malaria pills. I had jabs for Yellow Fever, Hepatitis A, and Typhoid. They hurt like heck!

Itinerary

We fly into Nairobi arriving on 22 November. We may try to go to Nairobi National Park that day on the way to our conference. We'll spend a week north of Nairobi at a conference centre and then head to the coast. Watamu is our destination, specifically the Mwamba Field Study Centre of A Rocha Kenya. We finish the trip with a safari in Masai Mara game reserve.

Welcome

We're heading out on our adventure to Kenya in a few days! We hope to keep you up to date on our activities.