Kenya - Maasi Mara 1 (Aug '12)

Welcome to Maasi Mara

It's a bit difficult to see, but the first thing we saw was a herd of tourist vans.  The further into the park you go the fewer vans you see.

There were zebras everywhere

Can you spot the baby?

A pretty bird

We visited just on the time of the wilderbeest migration.  There were literally hundreds of thousands of them.  And wherever there were wilderbeest, there were zebras.

Up close and ugly

These guys were taking a siesta after a big feed

A lion and his lady - they refused to show their faces

Migrating wilderbeest - I could not capture the length of the line

Kenya - Lake Nakuru (Aug '12)

We had a great driver, but our car had a few problems.  I think this was the 3rd time out of 4 in one day.  We were travelling between Amboseli and Lake Nakuru.  Made for extra fun and smiles :-)

Ready for action...

Pretty scenery and baboons

Kirsty, Sonia and myself at Lake Nakuru

How would you like a herd of these nasty looking creatures?

Flamingos

Rhino

Lake Nakuru.  I think this was the prettiest park we went to.

Some of the birds we saw.  There were a lot of water birds at Lake Nakuru

Kenya - Amboseli (Aug '12)

Our campsite was at the base of Mt Kilimanjaro.  Here are my travel buddies - Sonia and Kirsty

Our first elephant - but not our last...This one was HUGE!!!

Some pretty birds I have forgotten the name of.

African sunset

A funky shot of out safari van

The line of elephants extended on both directions, there were literally over a hundred elephants, 'teenaged' and calves as well as immature bull elephants

You did want to see me, didn't you?

Hippos

Emus...er...no...ostriches!!!

Keeping an eye on his lady friends

I love this giraffe shot

Banana Party

Aladine cutting down the banana tree

Becca, Rayda and Thumbati and our bananas, fresh off the tree

Removing it from our back yard

Halima and MaToiyfia

Cooking cassava over the fire

Cassava over the fire

Nayda and MaAladine braided hair in the quiet moments

Thumbati frying green bananas

The whole family :-)

Village life

Our neighbour lady and mother of the two girls in the photo below - MaToi, and one of our compound sisters - Betty.

'Our' girls, Toi and Halli.  They are the joy of many of our days!!

Three of our little friends, Toi is in the middle

Halli and her cousin Suki

Meal time.  They eat with their hands around a communal bowl.

The fishermen came in while Sonia and I were waiting for our boat.

Our garden with corn and watermelon

The ants came when the rain came.  Yuck!!

I found this on the path outside our house one day

The remains of a giant centipede who dared enter our house

Local food - Mataba

This is the beginnings of what we call 'Mataba'.  These leaves are from the Cassava plant, add some garlic, onions, chilli peppers and salt and away you go.

Pound it altogether in this giant mortar and pestle.

After pounding, it ends up looking like this.

Grate some coconut (thanks Becca), then squeeze out the milk.  To get the milk you add small amounts of water and squeeze the shavings.  You repeat this until you have your desired amount of milk or until it gets to watery.

Add the coconut milk to the leaves and simmer away until the milk has evaporated.

The green on this plate is the final product.  This was our Christmas lunch last year.  I forgot to take the final product photo of my cooking session.  It may not look like much but it really is delicious!!