Our Rough Ride Home

We filled our bellies at the Midland Hotel early Sunday morning and hit the road to hopefully get home not long after lunch.  We'd barely gotten out of Nakuru when Jonathan and Chris heard a clicking noise coming from the back tire.

Praise God this tire repair shop was about 100 yards from where they discovered a nail in the tire.

Plugging the tire

This man in the hard hat to the left was quite entertaining during the wait.  We were about to hit the road again...

All fixed!  Check out the cow in the back of this vehicle.  There is also a goat in there.

This looks like a great produce stand!

Looked like a family homestead similar to the one we saw at the museum.

The start of a beautiful ride through the city of Kericho.  These are tea plants that seemed to go on for miles and miles.

This is a photo of a tea plantation.  The homes in the front are housing for the plantation workers.

More tea plant fields...

The kids really were troopers the whole trip!  Hannah and Connor sang for us a lot of the trip, because the Pages car radio doesn't work.

The ladies car had a blow out!!  This time, there was no "puncture repair" close by, so our men came to the rescue!

Kids waiting patiently by the highway

Apparently, this is the Kenyan way to announce road work ahead.  Because the roads are dusty dirt or muddy, the green branches stand out to warn other drivers that vehicles are broken down in the lanes ahead.  There was no where to pull off the road.  They had to put on the spare in the middle of traffic.

That's one flat tire right there (said in my best eastern NC accent).

18 wheeler passing and several onlookers...

Tammy had the brilliant idea of this make shift tent to keep our little mzungus from frying in the scorching sun while their dads changed the flat.  Notice the beautiful Maasai blanket!

The jack was too small, so they balanced it on stacked rocks.

We prayed through this whole process.  Do you notice the jack leaning to the left?

One of my favorite photos from our trip.  The jack on rocks makes a great picture, but notice the kids' tent in the background!  

Rice paddies near Kisumu

More rice paddies...

We made it home safely and the kids pitched in to help Charles wash Blake's truck.

Thank you, God for a safe trip to and from Nakuru.  It was such a gift to take this awesome road trip with good friends and marvel at God's mighty creation.

Please pray for our activity time tomorrow afternoon with the boys.  Pray that we make connections and that the boys talk with us during all of the things we have planned for them to do.

SAFARI at Lake Nakuru

This was an amazing life experience.  Unlike heading to a park in the US, there were basically no rules whatsoever at this park.  Other than not "hooting or causing loud noise", bringing in a firearm, or feeding the animals, we could do pretty much whatever we wanted to do.  These were the only rules.  They let 4 adults and 8 children loose into a 6400 acre park full of lions, rhinos, leopards, cape buffalo, and treacherous baboons.  Thankfully, we only had one close encounter while in the park!

Park Regulations

Pelicans

Pelicans taking off

Water Bucks

Cape Buffalo

Zebra

How do you like the zebra photo border?  He was about 5 feet from the car.

After a quick family photo, we noticed 3 cape buffalo walking toward us.

Jonathan was driving, but we wanted to show you how close we were to the buffalo.

Jonathan and Chris trying to determine the best route through the muddy terrain.

Chris and Tammy slingin' mud

Impala

Thompson's Gazelles

Hannah in a tree at Baboon Lookout

Jonathan, Jr.

The Perry Clan at Baboon Lookout

View from Baboon Lookout

Another view

Pages and Perrys

Common Agama

Cape Teal

Dung Beetle

Egyptian Geese

Family of Rhinos

Giraffes

We let Jonathan drive for the first time in his life.  If he has children one day, I'm sure they'll hear this story over and over again.

The kids wanted a photo by Willy Wonka's chocolate waterfall.  Actually, it was just muddy water.  This picture just doesn't show how massive this thing is.  

Take a look at our picnic sight near the waterfall.  Seems peaceful enough, right?!  Wrong.  This is where our close encounter took place.

Here is the vicious baboon.  Little did we know that these animals are so aggressive when they are near food.  During our picnic, we noticed this guy coming closer to us.  We fully intended to obey the park rules and not feed the animals, but there wasn't much we could do when he charged towards us, snatched up this bag of bread, shot up the tree and ate it right in front of us.  In the meantime, another baboon came to join the party.  He ate some chips, took off, and we captured it all on video.  While videoing a sign restating that we are not to feed the animals, this baboon in the tree, made a b-line for my window, because Rachel's leftover sandwich was on my dashboard.  Unfortunately, you can not see the actual baboon hanging from the side of the car, but you can definitely hear the reaction from me and my family from behind the camera as I kicked the baboon in the face to get him off of the car.  We are uploading the video now and we'll post the video soon.

Secretary Bird

Warthogs

Water Buck

Lazy Hyenas

Flamingos

Grey Crowned Crane

We named this the "toothpick tree", but it's actual name is the African Thorn tree. 

This pic is blurry because it was getting dark out.  It is of some Hottentot Teal.

Helmeted Guineafowl

We did not see any big cats, basically because we were on a self-guided tour and didn't know where to look, but we have no complaints or regrets.  We had an amazing day!