The journey from hell - to paradise (Eirian)

I’m sitting here at 6.15pm (Kenya time – 4.15pm British time) and can honestly hardly believe what happened in the past 24 hours!

3pm Thursday saw us at Cardiff airport with Adrian, who checked us all in. He kindly agreed to pose with David, when he checked him in, so here he is!

The flight from Cardiff to Amsterdam was short and pleasant, and we had plenty of time, so played around. Here’s Mike and David sitting on the (very comfortable) statues in the concourse, and here’s David letting us know how he’s feeling about things (he’s obviously a Gavin & Stacey-loving dragon, as you can see!

Our flight from Amsterdam to Nairobi was not so pleasant – the plane was full to capacity, and was hot and noisy. To cut a very long story short, we arrived in Nairobi at 5.30am, having had very little sleep, and somewhat jaded!

Our driver for the trip from Nairobi to Sopa Lodges was brilliant. He gave us lots of information about what we were seeing, and stopped on a few occasions to allow us to take photos.

The elephant sculptures on the road out from Nairobi were gorgeous, but were nothing compared to the storks roosting in the trees (later we found out that they’re attracted to the city rubbish dumps which takes the gloss away somewhat!), the baboons just sitting in their family group by the side of the road, and the view over the East Africa Rift Valley. I did take some video of it, and will put it on the blog when I get the chance (for that, read, "work out how to change the format so it'll work!").

Arriving at the Sopa Lodge was a welcome relief. We were given papaya juice as a welcoming drink – David liked it, as you can see.

It is stunning. The rooms are in sets of 4 in 14 lodges and my room has the biggest bed I have ever seen! Note to my children – you are being turfed out when I get home! The grounds of the lodge are full of wildlife – zebra, giraffe, little antelopes, and it takes about 10 minutes to walk to the edge of Lake Naivasha. Absolutely stunning!