Zambia World Wide

We have always had an interest in wildlife even before we left England, and would often spend a day at one of the local wildlife parks. One of the parks that we really liked was at Kessingland near Lowestoft, we first went after it had just opened to the public and over the years watched it grow in size. One Sunday it was a bright sunny morning and so we decided to take the boys there for a picnic, my parents decided they would also like to come with us. We packed a picnic for lunch and off we went, there was always lots to see and do, we were of course pressured into going to the children’s corner first. There were the usual hamsters, rabbits, goats, sheep and chickens plus many more small animals which appeal to children. There were also aviaries with a variety of birds, parrots and macaws and many more. It took quite some time to get away from the children’s corner as every time we tried to leave, we were pulled back to look at something else. We did eventually make our escape and began walking through the main park. There were a large number of animals in the park, timber wolves, deer, llama, buffalo and many more. Walking round the park we came across a paddock which had donkeys in. Jan decided to show Gary and Craig the correct way to feed the donkeys, having fed the first she was watching Gary feed the next. Suddenly there was a Yell! The donkey she had fed earlier decided to show his appreciation and gave her a love-bite on her arm, this naturally gave us all a laugh, though she did have a nasty bruise for some days after. We all had a great day out, however I think we were a little spoilt since we moved to Africa, where we saw the animals in the wild, living in their natural environment.

We have now been back in England for over a month, bought most of the stuff we will need to take back to Zambia with us, and are now starting to feel restless. We have really enjoyed our holiday, visiting familiar places and meeting relatives and friends but feel the urge to return to Zambia which is of course our home now. Perhaps our outlook on life has changed and we have become accustomed to the simple life.

Before leaving Zambia we had booked a week’s holiday in Nairobi as a stop-over on our way back to Zambia. We are looking forward to our holiday in Nairobi which we have heard a lot about, but not yet had the opportunity to visit  apart from the one night we spent there on our way to England. Our departure is now just days away and the children are getting excited at the thought of going home, they are of course eager to return to see their friends and Smoky, plus Fred who they are quite attached to. Nairobi is the capital of Kenya and quite a cosmopolitan city by African standards. We had booked accommodation at the New Stanley Hotel, which we had not seen but proved to be the best hotel we could have chosen as they catered for children and our two loved it. We had learnt in the past that when visiting a foreign country to find the tourist bureau first as the information they could supply was usually very helpful. We then went to a local tour company and arranged trips to a Masai Village in the Rift Valley and Nairobi Game Reserve. As we were about to leave the receptionist suggested we should also visit Lake Nkuru which was a bird sanctuary. The thought of spending time at a bird sanctuary really did not appeal to me, however Jan wanted to go and so we booked a trip out to there also. To reach the Masai Village we had to drive part of the way into the Rift Valley, where we stopped at intervals to look at the scenery which was quite outstanding.

We arrived at the village and walked around the huts, which we learnt were built from a mixture of cattle dung and mud. It does seem an unusual mixture however it is right for the climate. It is very waterproof and surprisingly very strong. The temperature outside was really hot but inside the huts the temperature was quite cool and pleasant. The huts are built around the centre of the village which a compacted area of dried earth. As we walked around we noticed that many of the villagers kept touching Gary’s hair as they had done in Zambia. We now knew that it was because his blond hair was quite unusual to an African and fascinated many of them. The men of the village were dressed in loincloths and had dyed their hair with red ochre, unfortunately when they ruffled Gary’s hair they left red ochre in his hair. It was not long before his blond hair was almost as red as theirs. The highest honour that a Masai Warrior can achieve is to kill a lion without assistance. Having killed a lion by himself gave him the right to wear the mane as his head-dress. The women and young girls wore grass skirts with strings of colourful beads around their necks. They also wore beaded earrings and had beads woven in their hair, they were really quite colourful. The women and girls had a variety of beaded items for sale, which they had made themselves. There was a large herd of cattle at the edge of the village, the more cattle a Masai had the larger would be his standing in the community.