Nairobi National Park

Jambo! Swahili for Hello or Good day! Fortunately almost everyone here speaks English, as their schooling teaches them English and Swahili, and they also speak their local village language, which only their villagers understand. Anyway you will learn a little Swahili along with me. Now, on with the show. Oh My God! Nowhere in the world can you jump in a car in the center of a city of 3.5 million people, drive 4 miles and enter a nature sanctuary that you can drive through and see such a great variety of birds, game animals and the carnivores that hunt and eat them! Nairobi National Park is that place! I spent all of last Saturday riding about the 44+ square mile park in utter wonder of a time long ago. I was literally in a National Geographic video. I was no sooner in the park taking pictures of birds and animals, when a warden (with a carbine) came walking alone down the dirt road. My driver, David, stopped and began to chat in Swahili. I only understood one word of the conversation - Simba. Yes, he was asking if any lions were around. The warden walked around and jumped into the car and said, "I'll show you a lion!" Who was I to argue with a cop with an automatic rifle. So off we went, and I mean backroads. A sampling of the sightings: Zebra, Gazelle, Impala, Wildebeest, Buffalo, Ostrich, Nile Crocodile, Warthog, Hunting Dog, Hippopotamus, Bushbuck, Masai Giraffe, Black Rhinocerus, Eland...but no Simba! As I was standing "outside" the car taking a photo of a Giraffe, the warden quietly said "Simba," and I was back in the car in an instant! I thought he said it to get me back in the car, and it worked as technically you are not supposed to be out...and there she was. 150 meters away walking slowly through the grass, slightly panting. We slowly drove up the road, passed her and stopped. I took a few photos as she stood there gazing at prey, and yes we are prey in her eyes! We were about 10 meters away. She then went into the bushes back the way we came. We were very, very lucky to see her. The warden said she was very hungry to be out in mid-day like that. We took the warden back to where we picked him up. It turns out he had worked the night shift and was going back to his station to sleep when we met. I had asked David earlier if it was okay to tip him and he said yes, but 100 Kenya shillings would be more than enough...I gave him 200, after all he did show us Simba. (77 Kshs = $1.00) I'll try to post a few pictures and videos in each update. Kwaheri (goodbye) for now!
Note: Turn the sound ON to hear the warden & David chatting in Swahili, over the english on the car radio.