We drove down with Ally and Don on Saturday morning. It took just under 5 hours to get there even with one breakdown. If you live in Kenya and plan to have a car – you have to be prepared for breakdowns. First of all, the roads are terrible – huge crater-sized holes even on major highways – and those are the PAVED roads. With the sun being so strong and such terrible driving conditions, overheating is as common as the blown tires and cracked windshields that you will most likely encounter. So most of the people here know a good deal about fixing cars and have 2 spare tires on them at all times.

The park was amazing as always. Animals we saw: serval cat (looks like small cheetah with tall pointy ears), lions, giraffes, zebra, impala, eland, hyena, crocodile, hippo, elephant, dik-dik, ostrich, vultures, baboons & buffalo. Plus a ton of other stuff. That night was dinner and a concert just outside of the park and we were up early the next morning to drive around some more before heading home in the late afternoon. That day we saw much of what we saw the day before but also were lucky to see a mother cheetah and her 2 cubs just after they had a feast on a kill of a gazelle. I saw a mother cheetah and 6 cubs here 4 months ago and I'm thinking these could be the same ones only more grown up. They were so cute. They had really laboured breathing from all the food that was visibly in their bellies.

We made our way back across the lovely countryside and as Don (who we got a ride with) was turning onto the stretch of highway that would take us into Nairobi, we were waved over by the police stationed near the turn. There were several other cars and trucks pulled to the side. The officer approached the car:

Cop: did you see the stop sign?
Don: yes, I stopped at it.
Cop: Well, I don't think you saw it – it has a sign on it that says “stay left” and you turned right. And now you are ARRESTED!
Don: What? Arrested? For what?
Cop: You are arrested! You are in BIG TROUBLE. It said stay left! Give me your licence and wait in the car.

First of all, if there even WAS a sign, it was probably hand-written on a piece of paper because no one saw it. At this point more and more people were being pulled over (because the turn was where people normally turned to get to the main highway). A large crowd had gathered around the police officer who kept shouting that everyone was arrested and screaming “IT SAID KEEP LEFT!”. A few people offered the cop money and were able to leave quickly while the rest waited to call his bluff and to be let free without having to give any 'chai' (bribes). As expected, Don and the others were let go with a 'warning' shortly after. This is so common here – inventing of fake offences in order to delay you to the point where you just pay a bribe to get out of the situation. I am so glad I don't drive here – that allows you to pretty much avoid that whole side of things. But despite the delay and frustration we all couldn't stop laughing at the ridiculousness of it all. This place is officially INSANE.