since then, i've been on a mission to use social media to showjust because i'm blind, it doesn't mean i'm broken. how does a blind girl play tennis? girl organise her wardrobe? how does a blind girl ride a motorbike? she revs the engine i don't, my dad does. i'm going to get off this now because it's scary! she screams when i first lost my sight, it felt like my world had shrunk forever, but now i'm embarking on a great big african adventure in kenya. with the help of my cane and a guide, i'll tackle some challenging terrain... and you were using my cane, weren't you? she laughs it's the toughest. it's the toughest thing i've ever done. ..come face—to—face with the effects of rhino poaching... you know, he's meant to teach people a lesson. mm. he was meant to... he was meant to be here to get people to understand that you shouldn't be poaching these beautiful animals. ..and end up metres away from some very hungry lions. the lion's here. here he is. i can hear a lion and a buffalo. yes. 0h! he wanted to hunt. lion snarls but the real highlight of my trip will be experiencing what's been called one of the great spectacles of the natural world — the great migration. so this is the eighth wonder of the world. each year, tourists from around the globe flock to see over 1.5 million wildebeest risk their lives, avoiding predators like lions and crocodiles, as they make their way from the serengeti in tanzania to the masai mara in kenya, in search of fresh grass. but how can someone like me experience a must—see spectacular like this? well, i'm going to try and find the answer to... how does a blind girl go on safari? this is my little make—up bag. i like to have things all in their set places, so i get everything on the bed first, then i'm like, "right, let mejust, you know, sort my life out." i was 17 years old when i lost my eyesight and, since then, i've had to discover a load of life hacks to make tasks like packing a suitcase a lot easier. where is it? oh, yeah, there it is. so, these are little packing cubes. basically, i put bottoms in one, tops in the other. i'll zip it up. and i might even label, like, "day one" in braille, and then i'lljust pack it. i live in the uk, with my two guide dogs — olga, who's now retired, and miss molly. oh, i want you two to come so badly, but i don't want you to be eaten by lions. you are, you're going to be eaten if you come, so you've got to stay with nanny. got to put you in the car now, my lovelies. it's like my left arm's being chopped off, girls! she ultimately allows me to experience the world in a way where i don't get overwhelmed, because she's got it. # you spin me right round...# and it's not going to be like that in kenya. it's going to be me and my cane. not being able to take molly, it does scare me. so i've got a new passport and it has braille on. it says "passport" there. the flight from london to nairobi takesjust under nine hours. i can't articulate properly, i'm like... are we going to be ok?! bye now. bye— bye. bye—bye now. oh, it's somewhere here. it says 0.3 away. here it is. no, thank you! nairobi. kenya's capital has a population of around 4.5 million people and is the country's largest city. it's my first—ever morning here in africa, and i'm in a completely new environment, without the help of my guide dog, miss molly. nairobi is a place where many safaris begin. right, going from... ..left to right. but as i'm only staying here for a couple of days, i'm going to try and explore a bit, and my first challenge is to cross this busy road. that was so close. 0k. still hear it coming. yeah, i'm crossing. thank you so much. thank you. that's lovely of you. this is the middle section. nairobi is very overwhelming. zero out of ten accessibility when crossing the road. actually, possibly one out of ten because of the lovely people. broken pavement. a guy actually grabbed my cane, but i didn't know what was happening. and that, to me, kind of puts me in a panic mode because i'm like, "how can i control this situation? what am i going to do?" i really wanted miss molly because she just tells me with her little face, she, like, tilts it to the left or right, where shop doors are and things. so relying on my cane, it's, like, there'sjust so much stuff in the way. music playing it feels like i'm in a festival, actually, with all the crowd noises. a matatu is a party on wheels, and a very popular form of public transport here. each one is decorated with images of famous tv shows, rappers and sports teams, which is great, unless you're visually impaired. untranslated speech hello, there. hi. can i get on the bus? yeah. is that 0k? thank you. let me help you. thank you so much. slowly, slowly, slowly. yeah. right foot up. yeah, slowly. step here. this is really not like the 110 to birmingham that i used to get to school. loud music plays i can't hear anything! other than the music. how am i meant to know where i am? i don't know. finally, i've come across a market. but notjust any market — a masai market. lovely. these are people, these are sailors. a masai market means that we, as the kenyans, we have to maintain our traditional culture, and the traditional arts. the masai are a tribe in kenya whose homeland is the masai mara, a savanna wilderness in southwestern kenya, and the scene of the great migration that i'll be heading to when i leave nairobi. this is the wildebeest. this one is the wildebeest. so what does he look like? these are the legs. here? here is the ears. oh, that's the ears? yeah, the ears. so... oh, they've got weird ears! i didn't know they felt like that. yeah, yeah. they are these ones, yeah? yeah. how much is he? 500. could you do me for a00? i can do for you. the market was great fun, and ifelt like i really got to experience nairobi. but beneath the smiles, i must admit, i'm completely overwhelmed and really missing my guide dog, who helps me to make sense of the world. back in the hotel room, and it's currently... electronic interference ..10.26pm in nairobi, and it's been such a full—on day, full of so many emotions. i am so excited for what's in store, but i cannot believe this is only day one. i am one of the 340,000 people in the uk who's registered blind or partially sighted. but visual impairment is on a spectrum and everyone is different. and if you're wondering what i can see, it's pretty much this, wherever i am in the world. when i first went blind, the world became a scary place, and i never dreamed that one day, i'd be going on a safari in africa. i've come a long way since those early days, but there's no doubt i'm going to need some help. so i'm heading to the nairobi national museum to meet william, who says he will be the perfect guide to take me to the masai mara. hi. hello. are you william ? lovely to meet you. i'm lucy. i'm william. pleasure to meet you. i know that this is a little bit forward, as we've just met, but i wondered if you could audio—describe yourself, just so i can build a picture of you in my mind? so i am 59". ok. yeah, i can hear where your voice... yeah. i'm 5'9". i like short hair. you can touch my hair. i love short hair. 0h, 0k. lovely. i don't have any beard. 0h, 0k. and what are you wearing? i'm wearing a green sweater. lovely. fluffy sweater. oh, yeah. and i'm wearing khaki shorts. shorts. yes, i'll be your eyes for today. and i have a small surprise for you. you do? i do. 0h, 0k. that sounds really cool. my big surprise is getting to meet some of the stars of the savanna. the great hall of mammals is a collection of taxidermy animals which have been in the museum for years. but not every visitor gets to get up this close and personal. so, a zebra has one colour, and the other colour on the top. the whole of the mouth is black. 0k. so we say a zebra is black, and white on the top. i think...touching taxidermy animals, initially, was like, "oh!" do the teeth look like traditional human teeth? like human teeth, but much bigger than human teeth. two times bigger. they're a bit, you know... how are they going to smell? how am i going to feel when i'm touching these dead animals? let's put it bluntly. yes, i want you to touch the eyebrows. i was like, "no, lucy. like, just experience it completely and wholly. this is one of your main senses now — touch." and how you know an elephant is right—handed or left—handed is by the tusk. so this elephant is right—handed. is right—handed. he's right—handed. the shorter the tusk, that's the side that it uses most, most of the time. and another thing, when he wants to warn you, you will see him flapping — one, two, three. another thing about the giraffe, it has the biggest heart. the heart of a giraffe is if! to 15 kilos... wow! ..so that it can pump the blood up there. for me, i last saw nine years ago. so when i think of visual memories, or anything that i used to be able to see, it's like someone has taken a picture and put that picture in a drawer and locked it away for nine years. so that's what today was about. it was reimagining things that i used to be able to see and now can't. the next day, it was time to leave nairobi and begin my journey to the masai mara with will as my guide. after a couple of hours on the road, it was time for a spot of lunch and a chance to use another of my senses that i've come to rely on more since going blind — and that's taste. jambo! jambo. oh, my gosh. it feels spiky, like a pine cone. what colour is it? it's green... oh, yeah. it smells... ..and yellow. it smells like a green apple. thank you. yes. oh, wow. the thorn melon was like nothing i've ever tasted before. it was a cross between a banana and melon. thank you. because i can't see the world around me, i need to be able to taste it. and how i digest a culture is through their delicacies. 0l pejeta. leaving the city far behind, we reach ol pejeta — a 90,000—acre conservancy located on the equator in central kenya, and home to some of the big five, including lions. this is where i'm hoping to have a first encounter with the animals that have made kenya a top safari destination. the smell is different here, as are the sounds. i'm told 60 to 70 lions called ol pejeta home. but with many endangered species also living here, it's important to keep a track on the lions and check they aren't preying on any of the rare animals. we have managed to put a collar on one of the lionesses' neck, and once we're able to track and find that one lioness, we'll be able to see the other members. so this is a sample collar. can i have a feel? yeah, you can have a feel. it's not that heavy. you know, lions are strong, because we have the gps tracking machine. and then i'm going to put it on, so you can hear the sound which comes from it. interference 0nce...once the machine communicates with the collar, this sound will change... 0k~ _ ..to a kind of a heartbeat. in front of me are elephants. and elephants. so these two are young males. 0h. they're very close. i want you to listen to them. mm—hm. because they are eating grass just close to me. 0k. soft crunching so... whispers: that's so beautiful. yes. it's making me cry. she laughs i feel really emotional. i don't know. i haven't been able to watch documentaries in years about nature, and they used to be my favourite. so, it's really sweet. she sobs thank you so much, will. it's really lovely that i can hear them in real life. i didn't know it would make me this emotional. 0k. it's good you can hear them. yeah. it's a good moment for me. yeah. i really feel it inside of my heart. yeah. thank you so much for sharing it with me, because it means the world to me that you're talking to me about all of this amazing culture around you, because it's just so special, because i can't see it. ican hearthem. so, yeah, thank you. you're so welcome. so i hope we'll see more. yeah, hopefully. and i want you to listen and smell the environment. yeah. and i'll try my level best to teach you whatever i have inside my heart, and whatever i know, i will try my level best to do that. sounds amazing. i will. safari is said to be a game of chance, and you aren't always going to be lucky and find what you set out to seek. but when it feels like all hope is lost... interference eight... louder. so they're in this direction. i know that the lions won't get me, but i... yeah. do they come close to the car? can you hear them? there's so many things running through my head at the minute. when the signal is strong enough, samuel is allowed to take his vehicle off—road. they are there. do you...? do you see them? whispers: oh, ican hear her a little bit. she's breathing quite heavily, isn't she? so we have two female lions. we have one which is called lucy. so this is lucy. behind me? yeah, behind you. how far away? it's very, very close. and vanessa is just on the branches, sleeping. so they are two sisters. and there's a cub. lucy's cub is just right in front of you. just about six metres just from me. lions are like cats. mm—hm. daytime, they are sleeping. yes. they are... they hunt early in the morning or at night. does she look like the lion king? that she would come out of the lion king? because that's the last memory of lions i have. yes. she looks like the lion king. yes, she does. lucy laughs and the cub that we see there looks like... exactly like the cub which was in lion king. aw! exactly. i don't really look at photos like everybody else, and i don't remember things through looking at a photo. iwould... bird tweets ..remember the sound of that bird. and remember the time i spent here. i'm going to take an audio recording tonight. sound is an important sense for me, but sight no longer is. so when night falls around here and darkness descends, i'm no longer at so much of a disadvantage, as the bush really comes to life. ok, lovely. i prefer night safaris because i feel like all the animals are at my level. she laughs and ifeel quite equal with my environment at night—time. rustling there he is. whispers: oh, you can hear a lion... yes. they wanted to hunt. where? animal growling no way! see the lion chasing them? do you see? are they running away? yeah, from the lion. 0h. he's chasing them ? two lions? yes. let's get closer. let's go, let's go, let's go. loud snarling they have already killed a young buffalo. no. . .way! it's on your left. urgh, what are they doing now? are they...? and it was... you heard the rip. and that smell, it's so disgusting. yeah, the smell. it was like they were chewing something really soft. that smell can attract other scavengers, like the hyenas. lions groan loudly the sounds and smell of a bush kill are like nothing i've ever experienced before. things have just turned wild. i can't believe i've just heard what i've just heard. singing hello there. good afternoon. well, it's still blustery for this time of year, but the keen south—westerly wind is falling a little lighter for most areas than it was yesterday. another day of sunshine and showers. shower clouds building here in clacton—on—sea, in essex. and a lot of sunshine recorded by our weather watcher in east lothian. so the general theme is just set to continue. but the showers will be less heavy, less frequent for most places than we saw yesterday. still some sharp and thundery showers, though, always possible close to that centre of low pressure out towards the north of scotland. there's another system, too, approaching from the south—west by the time we get to the end of the day. so it will cloud over by the end of the afternoon across pembrokeshire and parts of cornwall. the showers will gradually fade away through parts of england as we head through the afternoon. some brightness out towards eastern areas of england will help to lift the temperature to 23 or 2a degrees. cloudy across western scotland. a rumble or two of thunder always possible across the moray firth. and then overnight tonight, this rather large area of rain isjust going to be pushing its way further northwards and eastwards across central and southern england, and into northern england, too. certainly very wet across wales tonight. mild and muggy underneath that rain. clear spells across northern ireland. and for scotland, watch out for a few showers still. now, that rain continues to push further northwards and eastwards through the day on monday. it's a rather messy area of rainfall, a lot of uncertainty still on the timing of the clearance of it. there are localised met office weather warnings in force for heavy rain across wales and for much of northern england, east and west of the pennines. rainfall totals of around 30 to a0 millimetres, but higher than that with any embedded thunderstorms. brightness developing later on through the day across wales and south—west england. warmest out towards eastern areas of england, with some brightness here. we should see sunshine and showers across much of northern ireland and scotland on monday, so a quieter looking day here. it will be windy in the south, but the winds ease down considerably on tuesday, so a much quieter day of weather. that system has now pushed off into scandinavia. there could be a few showers breaking out through the afternoon, but also some sunshine on tuesday, with temperatures rising for most areas into the low—20s in celsius. and then we start to see high pressure building in from the south, so towards the south of england and south wales, temperatures could rise into the mid—20s in celsius. always a little cooler, a bit more showery towards the north and west, but still some sunshine here. this live from london. this is bbc news. a warning of a "significant" rise in the death toll from hawaii's devastating wildfires. 93 people are confirmed dead so far. when we find these, you know, ourfamily and ourfriends, the remains we are finding is through a fire that melted metal. the british government is under renewed pressure to stop migrants crossing the sea in small boats — after six people drowned in the channel. ukraine claims "partial success" in its counter—offensive against russia. and a stargazers�* delight — the annual perseid meteor shower lights up skies across the world. hello, we start in hawaii, whose governor is warning that the death toll — following the wildfires on the island of maui — is likely to rise still further. 93 people are now known to have died as the inferno razed most of the historic town of lahaina to the ground. so far, only a tiny fraction of the worst—hit area has been searched for bodies. more than 2,200 structures — homes and businesses — were damaged or destroyed.