At the beginning, our groupmates and I were disappointed that there was no game drive in the morning. We really enjoyed the drives in the Samburu Game Reserve. However, as we were leaving, we saw giraffes, elephants, ostriches and kongoni which was new to us. We had a game drive after all without needing to open the safari van’s roof.
After a four hours drive, we arrived at a spot that was the equator. My schoolmate, Alison, and I took lots of photo with the school flag below the billboard. Most people commonly believe that the equator is very hot, but the reality is not. The temperature of the places along the equator depends on many factors, like cloud covers, winds and insolation. I bought a certificate showing that I have been to the equator. Although the certificate was quite costly, I thought that it is a great souvenir for myself.
Before we left the spot, a local showed us an experiment of water vortex. The water vortex runs in different directions in the North Hemisphere and the South Hemisphere. However, there is no vortex along the equator. During the geography lesson before, I heard about this but that was nothing to prove this. Today, I had the chance to watch and make a recording of this actually happening. I can't wait to show it to my classmates.
Upon arriving at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy we had a game drive and visited the Chimps and Rhinoceros Conservancy Centre in the afternoon. The visit to the Chimps Conservancy Centre had great effect on me. In the beginning, there were four chimps sitting in front of the visitors. They were like orphans without communication with one another. The centre manager told us that most of the chimps there were smuggled as pets but confiscated by the Kenyan customs. I visited a wooden house with information about the chimps and news about chimps being abandoned by people or treated coldly. Now, the chimps are endangered. I think the people should think more before they choose animals as pets and treat them with care and love.
We had a very short game drive afterwards in the reserve. Surprisingly, there was a heavy rainstorm. I did not expect to have a rainy day in my journey as I thought Africa was always in drought. However, the rain could not dilute our excitement to see more animals. In the end, we saw four lions before we returned to the lodge.