Hi everyone,  More hectic days and no internet and even no power but this is Africa!!  Monday 16th left our Lodge in the Oloolaimutia Valley....the accent of the lodge is built around the indigenous Masai people and the wild life, bird life and natural flora....after the heavy rain on Sunday night what they call roads  were a mud bog and a lot of the time we had to make our own roads...at times I wondered how we would get through but Joseph, our guide and driver is a very good driver...lots of vehicles got stuck and the amount of traffic in viewing the animals in the Masai Mara is crazy with the mud roads which ploughed things up all the more....but we had a beautiful fine day and saw some of the big five...2 lions literally lying on the road and then they went off into the long grass to stalk a topi which belongs to the antelope family...the topi are beautiful beasts and on this occasion the topi won.....it was awesome to see the lions relaxing and then go in for the kill....we saw a cheater as such close range...he was just basking in the sun and kept on posing for us....saw lots of giraffes, zebras, wilder beast, one bull elephant, buffalo, gazelles, so many animals we  have never heard of...so we missed the the rhino and the leopard but the cheater was a real bonus...back to the roads...there were 2 graders there but both broken down....and one of the bridges we had to drive over was partly washed away!! We came back to the hotel for lunch at around 2 pm having been out on safari since 7.30 am....then at 3.30 pm we were off to the Masai village....all a bit touristy but very interesting never the less...the warriors met us at the village entrance and did a dance for us and then we went into the village itself...all surrounded by cut bushes to keep the animals in at night and there was cow dung everywhere and the place stunk...we were taken care of by various warriors...they all speak perfect English and it was interesting chatting with them.....they took us into their houses which are made of cow dung and mud and the smaller animals they house in there at night as well...believe me our stomachs were turning over....you see the Masai men out with the grazing stock everywhere but the joke is they are on their cell phones!! Talking to one warrior who had long hair which we questioned and that's how the conversation started...he had just done his 3 years in the bush and now could cut his hair and find a wife....they are all related in each village so when they marry they have to get a girl from another village...at 15 the boys are circumcised, they have a tooth pulled and then they have to live in the bush for 3 years and then they are classed as a true warrior supposedly!! Their houses last about 9 years they said after which the termites eat them and the houses leak so they always have another village under construction somewhere....in the village we were in it was a family of 250 people and they had 150 cows locked in there at night with 100 goats...they live on meat, and fermented milk mixed with blood...another warrior we talked to said he had a child just 7 days old and I asked could we meet his wife and child but he said she had gone for a visit to the mid wife...the Masai are actually selling plots of land and are quite rich in the same way life has changed for the Bedouin but we are told there is a lot of conflict as they sell the land but still graze their stock on it.....their children go to school, not a great education we were told but all about how their life is changing...they certainly have lots of animals and lots of land but still choose to be nomads but they want the toys of today!!  On our morning drive we got right amongst the wilder beast migrating...there were hundreds of them and Joseph drove right in amongst them as they were all resting, fighting, you name it in an open area....many with lame legs so they will be dinner for the lions somewhere sometime....we were amazed at how open the Masai Mara is....lots of open grassland and not a lot of trees but seeing the lions stalk off, the grass was long enough in places for them to stalk but a lot of the MM is just open paddock...we came across a sort of oasis area with palm trees and what looked like big rocks but it was hippos so we had a great viewing of them too...acacia trees everywhere in Keyna and they seem to survive well in this climate...with the migration of the wilder beast 2 million of them along with 500,00 zebra actually walk from the MM to the Serengeti in Tanzania every year around now, June, and come back 3 months later....a distance of about 2,000 kms!! Lots of skeletons in the MM so you can see where the kills have been and the erosion is terrible as a result of rain like we had last night....interesting that sleeping in this lodge in the MM country it was deadly quiet but the noises in the night at the Safari Park Hotel in Nairobi were like we were sleeping in the bush in the heart of Africa....after our visit to the MM village we did another game drive and saw more of the same animals but the wilder beast were on the move again and talk about take a tricky path, they were literally coming down a mountain but they were all just about falling off the rock face on the descent so we could see why there were so many leg injuries...Tuesday 17th June we left our hotel at 7 am...road out of the MM much the same as the road in but Joseph seemed to vary it where he could and so often we ended up making our own road again...still very boggy and the road very much under construction supposedly!! Again lots of MM villages, children going to school (I don't know how many different school uniforms we saw)...the usual zebras, giraffes, zebras etc grazing on the road side and often animals crossing the road not to mention the Masai people with their herds of cows...the people here in Keyna seem so poor...everywhere there are villages, shack houses, shack shops, rubbish and it seems to be the same wherever we go...we got to our next hotel at 2 pm at Lake Nakkuru...en route to LN we travelled across the breadbasket of Keyna again with acres of wheat and barley being grown...and we went back through the town of Narok again...had lunch and then at game drive at 3.30 pm....LN is 50 sq Kms and the LN Park is 200 sq Kms and fenced...Nakuru is the 4th largest town in Keyna...here we saw the white rhinos....lots of baboon, buffalos that had rolled and rolled in the mud...pink flamingos but they were at a distance....the rains of 2 years ago have made the Lake level a lot higher and the birds have moved further out as there is no algae in the water on the edges of the lake....Joseph showed us where he used to drive out to and it is amazing how the water level has stayed so high 2 years after the flood killing lots of trees that are now submerged in the water....but the highlight in this park are the Rothschild giraffes...they are beautiful and we had a wonderful viewing with them...lots of hyenas in this park too and no skeletons from the kills as the hyenas eat the skeletons.... en route today as we have noted other days there are lots of girls boarding schools in Keyna....the names on buildings make us laugh....Sweetheart Guest House, Dreams Guest House, Silent Pub....Wednesday 18th June left hotel at 7.30 am and did a 1 and 1/2 hour drive to Lake Naivasha, a fresh water lake...they are suffering from the flood of 2 years ago too in that water level much higher thus drowning the trees...had a great viewing of more hippos here....LN 140 sq kms and we went in a boat out to Crescent Island 4 sq kms where they filmed some of Out of Africa...amazing bird life here...then it was on the road to Amboseli Park Lodge...a long drive and oh the trucks...this is the main road from Mombassa to Nairobi and it is their main highway and the equivalent of our old Great South Road...you can only average 60 to 70 kms...the trucks just keep coming from Mombassa as it has a big port that serves 5 countries,  Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Zaire and Malawai and the distance from Mombassa to N is 500 kms and then you have the police checks all the way stopping trucks and causing more traffic jams...utter chaos...going back to N we climbed Mt Longonot again looking down into the Great Rift Valley and driving on the road that the Italian POW built...we stopped at a hotel in Nairobi for lunch and oh the traffic...I went to sleep sitting at the lights...finally to our hotel 7.30 pm...a 12 hour day...checking in the lights went out...came on and went out again...all on generator here and with them watching the world cup the generator is over heating...power is on the way to this lodge but not here yet...power on at 6 pm so I'm going like mad to get this done before dinner at 7.30 pm...Thursday 18th June...breki at 6.30 am in the hope we would see Kilimanjaro but she has been in cloud all  day...we went game driving at 8 am and the elephants have been the big highlight here in Amboselli park...we have had a fabulous viewing of them today...A Park is 392 skq kms...climbed a volcanic plug hole in the park today and gave us a great view over the whole park.. as we left this morning for our game drive Joseph pointed out what was an air strip but since 9/11 it has not been used....tourism used to be around 1 million here but since 9/11 number dropped to 700 to 800 thousand we are told....A Park a lot drier and oh the dust and we have a pop top for viewing the animals so very dusty....Amboseli means dust but not as many vehicles here and oh the corrugation on the road...the Masai people here wear blue where as on the MM they wore red....we had a Masai guy in the hotel at Lake N to keep the animals out and here we have a Masai guy as well to keep the animals under control and as always lots of security....the swamps in A Park from the snow melting on K is all that is keeping this park going water wise...we read today that all the animals cold die in this park by 2033 as the snows of K are getting less and less and so there will be not water for the animals...seeing these elephants in the swamp areas  in their various families, grazing has been a great sight today as we have been so close to them and some of the little ones are so cute when you see them against the big bulls!!...Keyna tourism number 1 export, coffee 2nd, tea 3rd and flowers 4th...seen lots of cloth and glass houses for flower growing....Tanzania tomorrow!!