Jakey Jake

Wednesday 30th June
This morning we went to a nice restraunt for some english breakfast. We managed to sit next to a party with about 12 kids who were being very loud and obnoxious (seriously who takes their kids out for a birthday party to an expensive restraunt???) After lunch/ breakfast we walked home. Rachael, my other cousin was coming over and i was going to meet her. She was very easy to talk to and like sam was very grounded and lovely, and she looked a lot like kylie minogue. We all went to Harrods to have a look around, there was a big sale going on and i just wanted to see what it was all about. It was pretty damn nice, incredibly expensive, and to me, it was a glorified department store (im sure my mum would be having a fit if i said that). THere was pretty much nothing there i could afford, especially the 17,000 pound mobile phone. seriously?!?!?! We even got to see muhammed al fayed walking around his store… celebrity spotters eat your heart out. afterwards we went home and then we went to a local tappas bar to watch the soccer. then we went to a steak restraunt for dinner, and i had a 40pound steak, i have to say it was the best steak i had ever had. We left David and Georgia and Sam and i went to a bar nearby where we started talking about family stuff. Its amazing how even after never having met this side of my family we get on so well, there seems to be a lot in common. there something to be said for genes having a big influence on personality. the bar shut at 12… couldnt beleive it, everything here shuts wayyyy to early. As we left to go home we stopped in to a bar that was closing where sam knew the people that worked there. We sat with them for their closing drinks and they were a freindly bunch. THen some drunk english guy came in and was rambling on about crap and when they said they couldnt serve him he got nasty saying asutralians were dickheads, without being able to justify himself, clearly a case of penis envy (he not having one).

Tuesday 29th June
Arrived at 5am at Heathrow with Jeremy. Was a pretty uneventful flight considering we went through 3 sets of luggage xrays and metal detectors. Jeremys friend Al came to the airport to meet us and he took us on the train into town. I got off at Earl Court station and funnily enough the first thing i saw was the tardis… for those of you non geek types that was dr whos time transport machine After a short walk i came to my cousins house, tregunter rd chelsea…. nice area, porsches are common and more often you see ferraris, maserattis, bentleighs etc, not to mention teh women here are phenomenal. anyway i was greeted by Georgia and we had a chat before Sam got up and we got chatting for ages, great guy, very down to earth and friendly. after a few hours Georgia took us out for brunch, a nice dish of salmon and spagetti marinara mmmmmmmm after lunch i went for a walk into town. I walked through Hyde park, down to Buckingham Palace, through St James park, past the old war offices, to westminster abbey and big ben. I saw the london eye, and theres no way youd catch me on that thing, great view or not i kept walking into coventry square, picadilly circus, and down onto oxford st (all the street names made me feel like i was walking on a monopoly board). Eventually i got home and i was exhausted but

Monday 28th June
Wasnt feeling so crash hot today, mustve been something i ate. SO we just chilled out and watched video and played pool. At 10.45 ill be heading off to europe and to meet my cousins should be fun!!!

Sunday 27th June
Joe left us this morning, then we drove back to Nairobi with another passenger. Sharon was a doctor that was travelling for six months, and managed to kick all our butts at ‘arsehole’ (a card game). We stopped at the rift valley for some photos and some more harrasment, before finally returning to our campsite. We spent the afternoon clearing our gear out of the truck and doing a spot of cleaning. Tonight was our final night together and we went back to carnivores for dinner. We didnt get the buffet this time, instead i just got a plate of ribs. We seemed to get ripped off the whole night with the waiters not giving us the right change and a pool shark who kept swindling us. Still we managed to have a great night and we met a bunch of girls from liverpool that were good fun too.

Saturday 26th June
We hired some bikes this morning so we could go for a ride around. The bikes were in a dubious state and it was only 15 minutes before my back wheel buckled so badly that the bike was no longer rideable, so i spent 45 minutes walking back to the campsite. When i returned they tried showing me some other bikes, when i saw the first ones front derailer sitting between the rear wheel and the frame i decided it would be a stupid idea to take out another bike as precisely the same thing would happen again. I decided to head out on foot and i walked down to the lake and up to hells gate national park. When i got back we went to Joy Adamson’s old house for afternoon tea. Joy is probably the worlds best known conservationist for her books written during the time she raised a lion cub called Elsa. Her books made her very wealthy and she used her wealth to help other animals and help take care of the environment. Unfortunately she was murdered by one of her ex employees and her husband was shot by a poacher. still their legacy continues on.

Friday 25th June
We continued driving around the park looking in vain for these tree climbing leopards before leaving the park at 11. We stopped in Nakuru town for a while before we set off for Narvasha. The roads were incredibly bumpy but we finally arrived. As we entered we saw a familiar truck and we were all like, oh oh its going to be a big drinking night. We started off playing a bit of footy before quickly heading out to the bar. We watched the soccer before heading upstairs to the disco which had the most horrible floor that felt like it was about to fall down any second. There were a lot of locals there and they were pretty good fun, and they even started a couple of conga lines

Thursday 24th June
After an early morning breackfast of pancakes we jumped on the truck and headed out towards Nakuru national park. Its one of only 2 places that have leopards which climb trees. When we got to the gates of the national park we stopped for some lunch, we were surrounded by baboons and monkeys and it quickly reminded me of when we were in India and they attacked us, so i was a bit more cautious of them than the others. As we started making lunch one of the monkies jumped into a park car and started stealing their food, which was pretty funny, and then Chris deided to shoo away one of them he felt was getting near, he didnt notice another monkey coming from the other side which grabbed his lunch. We jumped back into the truck and started our 24 hours in the park. We came across another million zebras and water buffalo, tonnes of flamingoes and impalas. We also came across quite a lot of Rhinos, but unfortunately we didnt come across any tree climbing leopards. As dusk approached we headed to our campsite in the park (yes we were camping in amongst all the animals), we were lucky to make it there though as we passed a waterfall and the truck came to a steep ascent which Johnnys skilful driving managed to get us through. As we were setting up camp we were surrounded by about 15 baboons and they started to chase chris when he got too close to take photos. It was pretty funny but it couldve easily been a whole lot worse. Another Worldwide truck pulled into the campsite and started to setup camp. Corrado cooked a delicious dinner, and we started asking lisa about some of the more dangerous things which had happened on tours. She told us about a 94 kumuka trip into rawanda where all the tourists and crew except one were hacked to death. And another truck had a passenger die, but they all decided not to head back and wrapped his body in a sleeping bag and kept it on the truck for 3 days while they explored serengetti. She also mentioned numerous others had been eaten by crocodiles and lions as well as being poisoned by snakes. After our lovely conversation we decided to go and make friends with the other truck. They had 33L of red wine to drink and everyone decided it was a good idea to play some drinking games, and in the morning everyone agreed that it hadnt been such a good idea

Wednesday 23rd June
This morning we drove to Nairobbery (its real name is Nairobi) but most people have given it this nickname. Well deserved apparently, one of the girls on the other bus was telling us how she and her boyfriend were walking down the main street when a guy setupon them trying to rip out her cheap earrings. We wanered around town for a few hours, but it didnt seem to be living up to its reputation while we were around. It seemed to me to be an even more modern city than delhi, in terms of its buildings. We headed back to the campsite and shortly afterwards left for carnivores for dinner. We had the all you can eat buffet, and they brought out endless amounts of lamb, ribs, impala, crocodile, ostrich and lots of others. I ended up drinking a few drinks called dawas which were delicious, they were a shot of vodka on ice with a few half cut limes and a dash of honey at the bottom. DELICIOUS.

Tuesday 22nd June
JAKE ON SAFARI…. felt like something out of a movie, my weapon was loaded (sony digital camera) and we headed out in the busted up landcruiser to the crater. before we got to the crater we stopped at a Masaii village. The massai are the warriors that you think of when you think of Africa, painted faces, huge ear lobes, long walking sticks etc. The thing is though theyre culture has fallen prey to the curse money, and they were selling all their warez and charging for photos, without really imparting any of their culture. sad really. The crater musnt have been more than 30kms wide, and the wildlife that was in there was in a way trapped by the perimeter of the crater. There were heards upon heards of zebras, and wilderbeast, there were elephants and flamingoes and we were lucky enough to come upon two prides of lions. The first were sitting in tall grass so it was difficult to spot them, so i decided to make some noises to see if that would move them, suddenly one of them lept up and roared like it was about to attack. Needless to say i shit myself, then they all bolted off, it was pretty magnificent to see these animals in full flight, it wouldve been great to see it attack some prey. Then we came across another pride which had 2 lion cubs, and at first they too were sitting in the long grass but after some time they got up and started walking around the car, they were no more than 2 meters from us. It was awesome. The animals really are the main attraction of africa. afterwards we went back to the campsite for a nice dinner and some rest.

Monday 21st June
We headed off early this morning, and we passed Mt Killiminjaro which was difficult to see due to all the clouds. then we headed off to arusha where i scoffed myself with some nice patisseries. mmm after that we headed off to the camping ground before we got picked up and whisked us away to karatu. We stayed the night at the camping ground there and had a delicious dinner. Tomorrow we were heading off for a safari in the arusha crater.