A DRIVE THROUGH THE PARK.

It’s so nice to get away for a quick escape from reality, even if it’s just for the weekend. If you’re ever feeling stressed, lacking inspiration or wanting to travel & don’t have the funds, perhaps take a booking somewhere not too far away from your surroundings. What better way can you spend your lazy Sunday afternoon other than decide to explore your country in this case my county, Nairobi.

A couple of weeks ago on a fine Sunday afternoon, I got to experience the thrills of the Nairobi national park. Upon our arrival, I was greeted by the large multitude of nature lovers gathered at the entrance patiently waiting to feast their eyes on the park’s spectacular wildlife. My excitement was slowly building.”It’s going to be a good day after all,” I told myself.

As we went to pay for the entrance fee, we made a queue on a booth that had been set outside and it was only after many minutes later that we realised that was not where the payment was being made. That little mishap wasn’t going to ruin the mood for me. Luckily for us at the correct paying booth there was no queue. After paying and reading through few rules and regulations to observe while at the park, we were set to go.

The first animal we got to spot was a flock of birds basking in the sun along a puddle, some of us couldn’t hide our excitement as we took out our gadgets to capture this rare spectacle.

About a hundred meters away, we spotted a pride of Ostriches. There was a bit of excitement when we heard hisses from some of the ostriches. We thought a fight would break out amongst them. I wouldn’t lie that I was a bit scared as the rest of the guys cheered on the fight that was about to happen. After restoring silence and warning us against making noise, the driver explained to us that the hissing was a sign of disapproval amongst themselves. He also went out of his way to tell us about the mating patterns of the ostriches where; during breeding season (March to September), the dominant male performs a ritualized courtship dance by shaking his wings and tail feathers. If the main hen is impressed, the two will mate. The other hens in the group may also mate with the dominant male or with other lesser males. I also got to learn of their social organization where they are usually in groups of ten led by a dominant male and their feeding habits. He even threw in some few fun facts about them being the world’s fastest and fattest birds.

After a few kilometers drive we approached a zeal of zebras. Were it not for their black and white stripes,they wouldn’t be so different from the donkeys. Before this trip, some of us only knew zebra crossing in some of our roads. The driver once again spoke into his mike and dropped some knowledge on us as we slowly passed through the dazzle of grazing zebras.

Our next stop was a crash of rhinos and wow those animals are huge. These ones were very huge with one long horn. By the way, did you know that the is no longer a male white rhino? Sudan, the last of the male white rhino species passed away last year at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy. This species is on the verge of extinction and only the female remains but this has been disputed in some quarters about the last male white rhino . We all know the story. As we passed the rhinos, we were cautioned that when disturbed, these beasts can charge at the bus.

Our next stop was a cackle of hyenas. Not team mafisi just to be clear but the true owners of the name. Fun fact, hyenas have the strongest jaws in the animal kingdom and has a bite force of up to 15,000 pounds. In other words, the bite of a hyena is equivalent to being smashed by two pickup trucks. They also don’t give up easily when they hunt.

We saw a herd of buffaloes; these are cows with a fearsome reputation. Why do I call them cows you may ask? Well one is because of their striking resemblance to our domestic cows and secondly because the two are ‘cousins”. Another fun fact, think you can run away from a male buffalo by climbing a tree?

After stopping for lunch at a picnic site, we boarded the vehicle once again for our final tour. I thought I’d leave the park without seeing any elephants. Those behemoths really amaze me and I couldn’t help wonder what fact the driver is going to drop next.

I came to learn that there are no elephants in nairobi national park, but here’s a fun fact: There is actually an easy way to tell the African elephants apart from their Asian cousins – their ears! African elephants have large ears shaped like the continent of Africa! Asian elephants’ ears are smaller and shaped like India. Cool, huh?

The sections that followed just had a repeat of some of the animals we had previously seen with an exception of the chimpanzees, Warthogs, Giraffes, some impalas and many more. It was a bummer that we didn’t get to see the lions. Even though my trip wasn’t really planned for, I do not regret the impromptu visit to the park.

Later on, once I got home, I thought about all that I had learnt from my little adventure and I couldn’t help but think about how every creature was designed to serve a purpose.

As someone once said, “Learn from animals for they are there to teach you the way of life. There is a wealth of knowledge that is openly accessible in nature,” and I couldn’t agree more. Our ancestors knew this and embraced the natural cures found in the bosoms of the earth. Their classroom was nature. They studied the lessons to be learned from animals. Much of human behavior can be explained by watching the animals around us. They are constantly teaching us things about ourselves and the way of the universe. I hope you enjoyed my adventure to the end and before I leave, one more fun fact: Did you know that the Nairobi national park is the only protected animal reserve to be in the capital city?

**Lot’s of Love**