Two weekends ago, my uncle Harry came through town on a business trip. We spent Friday and Saturday exploring some places in and around Nairobi. My new favorite spot is about an hour and a half out of town on Lake Naivasha. There is a little crescent shaped island on the lake that is connected to the mainland by a causeway. Animals use the causeway to access the island, so there are zebras, wildebeest, impala, gazelle, giraffe, and other fun critters that run around for the viewing. We took a boat across to the island and then walked around.

Yes there were hippos in the lake. We saw at least two large families and then a couple of solitary ones.

I’m not sure why, but there is also a yacht club that lets people sail small one-man boats in the center of the crescent formed by the island. Hippos and yachting? I love sailing but I think that I’ll skip that in this particular area.

As we walked the island, we came around a bunch of bushes and were surprised by this giraffe. It trotted off a bit and then stopped to look at us.

Even more surprising was the small heard of wildebeest and zebras that started running right in front of us. We got a little nervous so we stood very close to a big, thorny acacia bush as they pounded by about 150 yards away.