From Camping to Conservation (Day 5)
on A Serendipitous Journey (Kenya), 25/Oct/2009 16:49, 34 days ago
(Saturday September 19, 2009)I didn’t get much sleep, due to a critter trying to scratch its way into our banda all night, but I still awoke happy to be with my family and away from Nairobi, enjoying the fresh air, the lake, and surrounded by friendly people.While we were enjoying breakfast in the colourful lounge, my dad spotted a friend he had made the day before named Pope. Pope is a 6 month old orphaned warthog who has adopted Carnelley’s as its home. The previous evening as he was drinking a beer alone in the lounge, Pope confidently ran up to him and tried to drink his beer right out of the glass, then hopped up beside him on the couch! That morning, after eating some toast and having a short nap on the fouton, Pope followed up back to our banda, then pushed his way in and under the bed and refused to come out! It was really funny (a cookie worked as bait in the end).Mid-morning we made our way over to Elsamere Conservation Trust, the former home of Joy Adamson, where we stayed for 2 nights. Joy Adamson is the author of Born Free, a book about a lion cub named Elsa which she and her husband raised more than 50 years ago. She was also a pioneer in the field of environmental conservation, and together with her husband George who was a senior game warden, established one of the world’s first wild animal appeals. Elsamere Conservation Trust now operates as an education, training and wildlife retreat centre at their former home of Elsamere on the ever receding shores of Lake Naivasha.We were greeted with an unbelievably friendly welcome by the receptionist Julie and manager Sam, as my friend Rosemary had made special arrangements with them to have fresh roses and a fruit basket in their room for their 40th anniversary! (And that was just the beginning…)We enjoyed afternoon tea on the grounds overlooking Lake Naivasha with pink flamingoes, pelicans and fish eagles off in the distance, then spent the afternoon relaxing in on the beautiful grounds and back in our rooms.That evening, after a lovely dinner and watching the Joy Adamson video, I had an experience learning how rural medical clinics work. I had developed a pretty severe allergic reaction which was moving its way up my face to my eye, due to something I must have touched in Hell’s Gate the day before. I was surprised to find a clinic in rural Naivasha with an electronic medical records system, however since it was nearing midnight the nurses had no idea how to use it and after being diagnosed in 5 minutes we spent another 50 minutes while they made several phone calls trying to figure out how to put it in the system (they eventually gave up and told me to come back and pay the next day) but all is well that ends well!