Well I finally had a chance to draw breath and look at making a blog post, only to discover it’s been A WHOLE YEAR since the last one. Note to self: must do better.
My African horseback safari adventure was truly amazing. After a day seeing the sights in Nairobi, including a visit to a Giraffe Sanctuary and an elephant orphanage, we flew to the Masai Mara wildlife park. We had close encounters with Lions and Elephants, we cantered across the plains with Giraffe, Zebra and Wildebeest, and even got to sit inside an authentic Masai hut and watch a group of proud warriors perform their war dances for us.

Maybe best of all, the trip was all it promised to be in terms of research, and I returned to Australia with full notebooks and scores of ideas for stories. Kenya is a magical, awe inspiring place and somewhere I would love to return to one day. But meanwhile, watch out for my next post about the wonders of Uganda and the amazing mountain Gorillas.

In the photo below I and my trusty ride, Mary, are crossing a fast flowing river. You can’t see them in the shot but to the left are a family of wallowing Hippos. I had to concentrate hard to keep Mary in a straight line and make sure the two of us didn’t drift straight into the jaws of big mamma hippo! Just as well, because otherwise I might have been dwelling on what scaly creature with a huge amount of teeth might have been lurking below the water.

Don't think about the Crocodiles!

On the horses we were able to get really close.