Expected arrival time at home

Good Morning!
We landed safely at Heathrow and are now making our way back to sunny Cleveland.
We expect to be at 40th Middlesbrough HQ at 14:30. We will be in contact when we are approximately 1.5 hours away.

See you all soon,
Paul.

Last few hours in Kenya!

Well here we are relaxing in yet another tent.. After the recent fire at Jomo Kenyetta Airport the waiting area is now a pretty impressive tent outside.

But sitting in the pouring rain would be far better than the old airport building which is rather crispy at the moment..

 

As we are aware no photos have been posted on any of the rest days we thought we would make up for it now.

 

Each day a different group went to one of 4 activities, One group went to Hell...'s gate, another to Crater Gate Game Sanctuary, another to climb Mount Longonot and the last on a boat ride on Lake Naivasha.

A group with Red Okra war paint, as done in a Masai village at the end of Hells Gate Gorge

The view over Green Crater Lake

Descent down Mount Longonot, only 9000ft of climbing!?!

A charming inhabitant of Lake Naivasha

 

 

 



Soggy Scouts!

It's that time again folks with another thrilling edition of the Kenya blog! 

Today has been another fun filled day in Naivasha with the whole expedition going on various jaunts around the area to see some of what Kenya has to offer.

Today was no exception as it saw my team making up for a poor activity on an earlier date with no less than two safari's in one day!, it was a busy day indeed.

The day started with a trip to the green crater lake (although not so green anymore) to see the sights and to proceed with a vehicle safari, with the lake not offering much more than a nice view we headed off to track Kenyan wildlife, and we weren't disappointed as the giraffes had come out to play, and they do make an impressive sight when stood twenty feet away from the car.

And if giraffes weren't enough there were a lot of zebras, impala, warthogs, Buffalo etc which provided a host of photographic opportunity's. The day was off to a great start!

But then came the second activity of the day, the boat safari was a nice little trip in terms of what we saw, but it could have been done in half the time as some of the minor points of interests were quite far apart, so if the attention span of explorers wasn't bad enough we were being flanked by two opposing storm fronts which were about to meet over the lake, which meant some saturated explorers arrived back at Crayfish , which made seeing hippo's a lot more eventful.

After that it was time for some food to tide some of us over until dinner, and despite it arriving an hour late with some of the meat still looking fresh of the carcass it helped us feel a little better after a very wet boat trip.

And with dinner now over as well the evening has entered full swing with the pool tournament now in the finals making for some tense and exciting moments

With everyone now relaxing we all eagerly  anticipate the activites that await tomorrow 

This is Alex Fenton signing off and we will see you all very soon.

Twigga on left, no right, no everywhere!

Day 2 of the relaxation period meant a trip to Green Crater Lake. Initially we had meant to be horse riding, but everyone said it was boring. So after getting up, I learnt I would be going with the afternoon group, leaving the morning free for SWIMMING! Luckily the sun was out in full leaving a toasty morning. After that I had the first hot shower in over three weeks which was AMAZINGGGG....

Soon it was time to set off. We drove for about 40 mins down what appeared to be a dry riverbed, until we reached the entrance. After paying we had a good opportunity to buy some gifts and see the lake up close, before going for a short drive to a viewpoint. We may or may not have taken the wrong path and subsequently went part way to see a sanctuary, though what it was protecting we aren't sure. Luckily the detour was a good idea because we got to see many zebras. Seriously, I've seen so many it's like seeing sheep in the British countryside. A few snaps later and we turned around to take the proper route. The viewpoint in the end was excellent. There was the lake, some mountains surrounding it, a small view of grassland where there were some buffaloes. Then on the other side we could see some more mountains, and a great view of the valley and pouring rain, but we didn't get wet! 

As we were leaving we had a great view of some Dik Dik, which we learnt yesterday live for life in pairs, and a group of giraffes (twigga), one of which walked in front if us, and another that walked right behind us, creating opportunity for astounding pictures. 

All in all today has been very relaxing and entertaining for me. Goodnight.

Chloe

Hells Gate

Hello Internet. First full day in Crayfish Resort. Breakfast was a feeding frenzy as everyone rediscovered civilised food. I then proceeded to spend all of the free time in the pool and getting mildly sunburnt until the voyage to hells gate. 10 minute drive later we met our guide and Safaried the day away seeing millions of zebras, impalas and gazelles. Reaching the rangers ranch we left peg leg (mike) in the bus while the rest of us scrambled down the gorge. After passing many warning signs saying DANGER FLASH FLOODING the ominous sound of thunder unsettled the whole team causing the guide to quicken his pace. After discovering pride rock, we casually walked to the devils bedroom where we all got wet...because it rained! At the devils bedroom there was a school trip in front of us invoking the usual tribal chant of  PHOTO PHOTO LOOK MZUNGU ! As the rain came down on the plains of Africa we made the executive decision to leave the gorge rapidly unfortunately missing the final part of the walk. On the cold, damp, wet drive back through the park we were all morally broken and disheartened at the lack of animals.....OMG A GIRAFFE! Actually there were about ten, as many feet from the car as there were giraffes. On return to crayfish we eagerly awaited the second opportunity of the day to stuff our faces. Paul insisted that I do the blog and here I am....Oh no I'm trapped in an endless cycle. Help. 

I hope everyone has as much fun as I did at hells gate

Mickey (Milkey) McGough

Grrrrr Kenyan roads

Hi mzungos

So, after a long and bumpy drive in which we managed to see zebras and giraffe and even some more mazungu's, we arrived safely (well to a certain extent) at the rest locationy place thing. YEEEEY!!!!! After a quick look in our room (and managing to get my stuff everywhere! No seriously, everywhere) we all decided that it was time to take over the pool and perfect the art of mass water bombing. I don't thing the Germans were verry impressed. Ahhh well I think we deserve a bit of a break. Not really looking forward to seeing you soon,

Lizzy A

Playing frisbe at Crayfish Camp.

It’s finished!!!

After 2 years, several training weekends, 4000+ miles travelled and 19 days of solid work, the classroom is finally complete. Everyone is feeling incredibly relieved and very proud of themselves, and so they should. And so rightly, after a few hours of cleaning up, it was time to party, Kenyan style. Provided with song, dance, lots of food (including a plentiful helping of cake), the school threw us a goodbye party to remember. When asked to provide some entertainment of our own, nobody shied at the opportunity to teach some more of our favoured songs to the Kenyan Scouts and Guides. We built a campfire fit for Commondale and comfortably out sang the distant rumbles of thunder (yes, again…). Anxious as we are for the 165km journey to Naivasha tomorrow, we will all appreciate a final sleep in Marigat, hopefully undisturbed by lightning, or the other, more annoying disturbance – cockerels at 4am.

You stay classy Cleveland.

Brad McHugh