Where The Wild Things Are

We headed out into Nairobi National Park at 6:30am on our first game drive not knowing what to expect.

The sunrise was beautiful.

After about 5 minutes, we came across the very rare (around 2000) black rhino and its baby.

We saw an owl.

Then a giraffe.

And many impalas.

And then as the sun started to come up, 20 minutes later we saw tons of animals.  Including zebras

Ostriches...

Impalas...

Hartebeests...

Guinea fowls...

This is bachelor heard of impalas.  One male has a harem of 20 to 30 females and they rotate males when one fights that one off.

We saw lots of babies.  These are baby zebras.

Lots of zebras from a far.  Not in focus, sorry.

Crocodile...

Bird...  (can't remember what kind)

Hippo...

Baby giraffe...

Warthog

And its babies...

That was all before breakfast at 9:30am.  Breakfast was delicious.

Then we went to an elephant orphanage.  There were some wild warthogs running around there too.

Tons of baby elephants rescued from various places (wells, etc.) when mothers were poached.

They had some blind rhinos too.

Saw baboons walking around.

We saw buffalo on the ride back to the lodge.

And white rhinos far away.  White rhinos are the same color but have a wide mouth but people couldn't pronounce wide so they started calling them white.

Then we hung for a bit at the lodge.  They have taken in an orphan impala which we played with.  It likes to head butt in the legs.

That's our villa.

Then back to the game drive.

That's the bridge to the lodge and a Massai Warrior.  The guards are all Massai Warriors.  Massai is a large tribe known for not hunting animals but rather raising cattle and therefore is very spread out in the areas where most safaris are.  Warriors are the more senior members of the tribe.  They keep the lions and buffalos and other dangerous animals away from the camp.

Crested crane...

Large heard of maybe 300 buffalos all around us...

Baby buffalo...

Angry buffalo...

Who charged the car and then stopped when we quickly drove away.

Our first lion sighting.  They are tough to find because there aren't many of them and they are nocturnal.  They start to come out at the end of the day.

They were starting to hunt.  They look hungry.

But it got dark so we had to head home.

We saw some lion cubs near our lodge on the way home.

Then we had a lovely dinner outside.  We are the only guests at the lodge.

And they made a fire in our room as it was a bit cold out.

A perfect first day on the safari!