OFF TO KILIMANJARO

It's Friday morning, the birds are singing and the sky is starting to lighten - it's cool outside in Nairobi, around 18 degrees Celcius but warms up quickly during the day. Our backpacks have been repacked many times and every time we unpack because we think of one more item we haven't seen recently - it's there inside the backpack!

Yesterday was an amazing day in Nairobi and an extremely full day! We started at 8am with breakfast sitting on the terrace watching the world go by and enjoying an excellent buffet breakfast. By 9am our transportation was here and after a quick stop at the local Nakuamatt supermarket for a case of water, we were off to Sheldrick Elephant orphanage for

the 11am viewing which happens every morning of the year for a mere 300 kenyan Shillings (less than $5 donation). There are currently 16 orphans and the youngest ones are brought in to feed first with their hugs bottles filled with feeding formula from the UK - they need milk up until 3 to 4 years old and cannot survive without their mother's milk or a replacement. Tal did an amazing

job of explaining the societal organisation of matriarch dominated elephant elephant herds (or ellies as she calls them) and of course we absolutely loved seeing all the young babies pushing and shoving each other and playing in the dust and mud hole - just like any toddler of the human sort would do. Our group adopted another couple of orphans and arranged to head back at 5pm to put our new children to bed.

Then we headed over to the Giraffe Centre where we fed small pellets (treats) to the giraffes at the viewing centre which is raised so that that we are level with the giraffes. These are the rare Rothschild Giraffes and they are so gentle as they take the tiny pellets from you one at a time.

Next was a tour of the Kazuri bead factory where nearly 400 women (mostly single mothers) make and hand paint beads which they sell around the world. This business was started 35 years ago by the wife of the man who started the Flying Doctor organization to try to help the single mothers with no means of income. The rows of ladies sitting next to each other in various stages of making and painting the beads was wonderful to see - then just imagine how we felt when our small group of 6 was treated to this room full of ladies of every age singing a song to us in Swahili harmony welcoming us to their factory, and the next song was blessing because we were visiting the. 75% of their beads are exported worldwide and 25% sold in Kenya. They are in the process of a 2 month order making over 3000 necklaces to fill an order from Canada (just imagine the total number of beads - every style, colour and shape you could imagine). After this it was on to the Utamaduni craft centre - a peaceful haven in Karen district where the crafts available for sale are from all over Africa and such variety. They also have a beautiful garden and verandah with food and drinks to enjoy while you recover from the dust and noise that is Nairobi!

After a welcome cold drink we were off to Sheldrick elephants again for the bed time ritual for the baby elephants - most of whom are victims of poaching. Ivory is at an all time high price on the world market now, and this is resulting in a huge increase in the number of deaths of elephants for their ivory. The babies also fall down boreholes drilled for wells, and can't get out, and the inevitable human wild life conflict as the elephants and farmers try to feed from the same land. The rescue stories of these babies is amazing - how dedicated the Sheldrick facility is in rescuing these babies and getting them back out into the wild again as soon as they are old enough. We watched the youngest elephants racing in from the Nairobi National Park, where they spend their days, back to their pens where they spend the night and are fed their bottles every 3 hors by their keepers. The keepers spend 24 hours a day with the elephants and sleep in the pen with them - getting up every 3 hours to feed them during the night.

It was a very tired but satisfied group that drove back into Nairobi for a gin and tonic at the Stanley Hotel in their amazing bar with my favourite ceiling fan - swishing slowly non stop side to side just like it did in Hemmingway's time. Then we ate a great dinner (pasta, pizza, salad, samosas) before our ride back to the Norfolk hotel to finish packing.

So it's now time to go to the airport - we hope to stay in touch with you - so do keep checking the blog at www.kilimanjarokrawlers.blogspot.com

Excitement and energy is high. We have spent 12 months preparing for climbing Kilimanjaro and the moment is now.

Jan