So I may have bought this on the way out of Tanzania. The artist has glued a piece of fabric on the canvas where the lion is and has crinkled it up, so it’s a little bit 3D.
It’s HUGE. I’m not sure how I’m going to get it back to Australia…
The place we’re staying at is very luxurious, but they have monkeys and baboons on the grounds. We were warned not to leave our doors open. I sat outside to blog, leaving the front door open behind me. This little guy was about to walk straight past me and into the room, as brazen as you like!
I think we’ve been spoiled so far on this trip. We drove back to Kenya today, and we’re staying in a luxurious lodge right in the centre of a game park renowned for its large herds of elephants and gazelles.
Unfortunately, it’s been raining for the past few days, so the animals have all moved higher up the slopes of Mt Kilimanjaro.
We drove slowly around for a couple of hours with pretty slim pickings.
Hyena walking after some cranes.
Jackals appeared out of nowhere, right behind the hyena.
Another hyena was nonchalantly walking, even crossing the road close to the jeep.
The cars didn’t seem to bother him at all.
As we were during, we saw two elephants walking across the immense plain. As they got closer, we noticed something.
The back bull elephant had only one tusk.
“They lose them sometimes when fighting,” said Nickolas, our driver. “Once they lose them, they never grow back.”
As we drove, there was a gap in the clouds and we could see snow on the mountain. We stopped to take pictures. This might be the best view we have of Kilimanjaro, who knows?
Then as we watched, the clouds began to move.
Can you believe that in the space of 3 weeks, I’ve seen both Mt Fuji and Mt Kilimanjaro-and they’ve both been clear?
And to think I thought this drive would be a fizzer!
Then, as the moon looked gorgeous…
…a hippo appeared. They come out of the water at night to graze.
An owl was sitting in the grass. I took this…
… but look what you can see once I zoomed in. I’m so glad I bought this phone!
Later, when we were all in the bar having pre-dinner drinks, a monkey suddenly jumped on the table and started stuffing his face full of peanuts. He was going for his life, because he knew he’d be chased away. He was salty about it, standing up on the roof behind us to intimidate us.
Tomorrow we have to leave at 6:15 for an early morning game drive.
At 8 am we were driving towards the famous Ngorongoro Crater. We were up so high we’ were driving through clouds. The crater was filled with mist. The whole crater is a protected place for the animals.
2.5 million years ago there was an eruption
Largest unbroken crater. No girafffes or impala have..
220 square kilometres and 20 kilometres in diameter.
The first things we saw, on the very steep road down, were zebras and warthogs.
We saw a buzzard in a tree.
Bustard. Most of the time they don’t fly.
We were down by the lake, looking at some flamingos, when all of a sudden Houth said, “Get down!” and the jeep started reversing. One of the other drivers had see a Servil Cat’s head poke up out of the grass. We sat there for what seemed like ages…
… and there it was.
A little while later, it gave up trying to hide and it strolled out.
Here are a couple of Grey crowned cranes doing a courtship dance. They look like synchronised swimmers here, don’t they?
Just down the road, we saw these lions basking in the morning sun. Then, while we were admiring the lions, Houth put his binoculars down and said, “Rhino! Get down! Hurry!”
omg. We saw rhinos from a LONG way away on our first game drive, but I wasn’t expecting another sighting. They’re notoriously difficult to spot.
Black Rhino. This is the most rare, and is very endangered. While we were there, the rangers showed up. The rangers keep an eye on the rhinos, making sure no one is harassing them. Every rhino is tagged, meaning the rangers can keep a constant eye on them.
We stayed watching him for ages. He lay down under a tree forever, then just as I was wondering why we were still there, he got up, started walking in a clearing and I got this shot. My sister and Mum were visiting Dad in the hospital while I was watching the rhino, so I sent her this shot.
We kept telling Houth that we wanted to see a leopard. I don’t think this cuts the mustard, though!
Elephants. There were heaps of them, right beside the road.
We could hear them breaking branches and eating. Also making low noises to each other. There were a couple of babies and their mothers were keeping them between them, away from us. As time went on, more joined them.
This one puffed out her ears at exactly the right time.
Newborn gazelle, only minutes old. Houth says that the mother will hide the baby in the tall grasses nearby, then leave for a while to draw the hyenas away. The baby won’t move until she returns.
They prefer to give birth around midday, because the liquid from the afterbirth will dry quickly. Eagles are also a worry.
We can hear the sound of the baby chirping to her.
Zebras looking for predators. Together, they have a 3360 degree view.
When an elephant reaches its last set of molars, he or she will isolate themselves and stay near food to preserve their teeth. This elephant is old, maybe 60 years old. He will be here until he dies.
Elephant graveyard myth came about because the old elephants die near water, then floods come and wash all the bones downstream to one spot. People assumed the elephants walked here to die.
Mother and baby hipppo.
We ended up seeing 9 Black Rhinos! Houth says we’re very lucky. These ones were a lot further away.
Flamingos.
Just all having a natter and walking along. I love them.
They’re so beautiful, with their backwards knees.
Elan. The largest antelope. They’re very delicious, apparently.
We were looking to take pictures of something else, but this guy was standing, definitely keeping an eye on us. He didn’t move a muscle until we left.
At lunch time, we passed by these two. It looked like they were having a day at the beach.
If you zoom in, you can see how close the lions and the wildebeest are to each other. “The wildebeest definitely know that the lions are there,” said Houth.
Isn’t this just like a painting? We were heading off to a picnic place at a lake full of hippos when we saw jeeps clustered together. Always a dead giveaway that there’s something to see.
These two lions were the last animals we saw in the crater. How funny are they?
On our way back, we stopped to have an hour’s long walk along the rim, accompanied by two rangers toting stun guns. This came as a rude shock to me, as to me, walk are only fun if there’s a dog with you. However, the others all assured me that it was on the itinerary right from the start. (I really should start reading that thing.)
I have to admit, it was worth it for the view down into the crater. If you ever get the chance to come here, grab it with both hands!
Impala with lambs, considerately positioned right beside the road. Today some of the women in our group went on a balloon ride, so we got to sleep in and have a lateish breakfast before going to collect them.
“Giraffes! someone yelled. I was so busy focusing on this one that I completely missed the huge one right outside my window.
Typical.
I was in Houth’s jeep today. He said that these two look very similar in age. It must be nice to have a half brother or sister to hang around with.
Dik dik. Always in pairs. They find an area, drop a poo and wait. If a partner comes along and poos in the same spot, the proposed is accepted and they pair up.
Old Cape Buffalo bull.
This is one of the most dangerous animals in the bush. He’s isolated himself from the herd because he can’t breed anymore. His days are numbered, as lions will target him.
“ I’ve seen many things here,” said Houth. “ But I’ve never seen a buffalo smile.”
It didn’t take long for a tse fly to find me. I’ve read about them, and yes. Their bite hurts!
Elephant. Chased the car in front of us away, but then settled down a bit.
Breeding season. Testosterone is high, which is why he was aggressive.
Just when we came around a corner there was a group of wildebeest by the side of the road. I really love the way the light catches their coats.
This isn’t a good place for them to be. This part of the park hasn’t had rain for a few days, so the grass is dry and the lions can blend in.
“Sometimes, you can be sitting watching them, and all of a sudden a lion will appear.”
Black faced vervet monkey. No blue balls on display.
This is what the underside of the flat.topped African acacia trees looks like.
No leopards lurking here.
Impala. Houth said that the male has a very short life expectancy. He’s keeping his eye on the bachelor males and on mating with the females. He’ll soon be picked off by a predator and some other male will get to have the harem.
After we picked up the balloonists, we were driving around looking for a leopard that was rumoured to be in the vicinity. Spoiler alert: we didn’t find it.
After a while, our jeeps headed for a pile of rocks sticking up from the ground. The cats sometimes go there after a night of rain to get warm.
The lioness on top of the rock was keeping an eye on us. .They climb up there in the mornings to get the sun, especially after it’s been raining. Then we moved for a bit and there’s another one up there as well right beside her.
They call rocks like this “The landscape of fear.” There are always cats around, even if you think there’s nothing here. “Not a good place to eat our lunch.”
Bee-eaters. They swoop down, grab a bee and then they’re back to the same branch. They’re beautiful little birds.
As we drove slowly around the pile of rocks, more and more lazing lionesses appeared.
“She looks like she’s sleeping, but if I got out of the car, they’d all be up and after me,” said Houth. He opened his car door and her ears flicked forward.
All up, we saw 11 lionesses. The males stay at the edge of the territory, only coming back to mate, or to get fed when the girls hunt. “ They call it protection money.”
“Do you see how dangerous it would be to stop and have lunch on the road?”
Related females tend to stay together for life, unless the pride gets too big. Then they’ll split up so they don’t run out of food. If food gets more abundant, they might rejoin.
No territorial problems between different predators, but they worry about competition from their own kind, so they’ll kill another lion, for example.
A funny thing is when you need to go to the toilet in the bush. For males? Checking the tyres.
For females? Picking the flowers. Some of us, my roommate included, can’t seem to hold on for very long. Fortunately, my bladder is made of sterner stuff.
Male elephant standing right beside the road. I stood up on my seat and we were almost eyeballing each other.
Soon, we saw more. I didn’t realise at first that they were sheltering a baby.
A hippo pool. Houth was amazed at how many there were.
We drove past them the next day and they looked like they hadn’t moved.
Two lions in a tree. On first glance, you might not see them. One is higher up on the left.
Look at how relaxed she is! It was starting to get hot, but I think she was catching a nice breeze up there.
2 lions under a tree. It was getting towards the middle of the day and they were HOT. There was no way they were moving, even when the jeeps drove right up to them.
We had the rest of the afternoon off. Annette was on the balcony, talking to her husband when I heard her say there was a dik dik outside.
Later, after dinner, there was a Cape Buffalo near the pool. There was a ranger nearby, with a gun, just in case he turned nasty. No wonder they insist on guests getting an escort to and from their rooms after dark.
” What happens if a lion comes?” I asked.
”You scare them off with torchlight,” he said. “ If a buffalo or hippo comes, we all run upstairs!”
I spent the morning catching up on blog posts, looking out over Lake Victoria. Anyone who has travelled with me knows that if I start to fall behind on my blogging, I get a bit antsy. Some of us went across to a fishing village and school. I stayed behind and caught up on the last two days.
Now I feel so much better!
After lunch we jumped in the jeeps to see the Serengeti and go to our new place, where we’re staying for the next two nights. The trip was supposed to take around 3 hours, but due to animal sightings and the torrential downpour we had last night, it took 6 hours. None of us were complaining.
(Well, some were, but they seem to whinge at the drop of a hat.)
Here is our afternoon…
Serengeti means “ Endless Plains” in the Masai language.
Here are the rains down in Africa… (thank you Toto!)
Serengeti chicken , otherwise known as the Guinea fowl.
Impala bachelors.
We saw a zebra wallowing in the dust to get rid of external parasites. We also saw lots of resident wildebeests who don’t migrate because they know where to find food and water.
Flying egrets.
Flying storks.
Hamercop bird. It’s a huge nest that both partners build together. The nests have 2 rooms and can weigh up to 50 lbs. mud and sticks. They always go near water because they eat frogs and fish. Once they raise their chicks and leave, other birds like eagles take over the nest.
If you look down at the bottom left of the tree, you’ll see the bird. It seems like an an awfully big nest for such a small bird.
Here’s what they look like close up.
Blue balls monkey, otherwise known as the Black Faced Vervet. In case you were wondering, their balls are indeed an incredibly bright shade of blue.
This was really sad. This elephant is around 18 years old and has broken his left leg. He can still feed himself, but he can’t walk. This won’t end well for him…
A herd of giraffes took our minds off the poor, doomed elephant. There was a range of all sizes.
This guy was huge.
You’ll have to excuse me for not being overwhelmed by the African crocodiles on show, after the hundreds I saw in the Northern Territory last September.
We saw a baboon troupe on the road in front of us.
We’ve already reached the stage of “Seen one baboon, seen ‘em all!”, but this baby was cute.
Wildebeest were everywhere. The Great Migration isn’t due to start yet, but there are thousands of resident wildebeests who stay put in this part of the Serengeti.
These ones were impossible to resist filming.
This photo has a lion in it.
See?
To e fair, it took me ages to spot the lion. I’m pretty unobservent at the best of times, so I was looking at anything other than “the rock.”
Elephant dung is used to start fire, as we saw in theMasai village , and also as a mosquito repellent if you burn it in the house. Ifyou inhale the smoke if you’ve got a headache it’ll relieve your sinus passages too.
Never say that I don’t give handy hints.
Two lionesses. Easy food for them with all of the wildebeest and zebras around.
A journey of giraffes. They’re way off in the distance, but I love the shape of them.
Baboons. They were putting themselves to bed up in a tree to be safer from predators.
A baby hyena wanting to be fed, and asking Mum. After I finished filming, she gave up, lay down and let him suckle. I just love the noises he’s making!
More of the wildebeest migration. We could hear them, and Awade said that it’s mainly the little ones looking for their mothers. As we drove the herd just kept on going and going and going. There were thousands of them. It was absolutely incredible.
The Great Migration must surely be a sight to see:
Just arround the corner we came upon a massive herd of Topi. Awade was blown away by how many there were. The rain might make the roads slippery and boggy, but it’s certainly helping the grazing animals.
Town eagle.
Awade asked for my phone because I was on the wrong side of the jeep, so he took this shot.
We took a lot longer to get to the lodge than we anticipated, because the rain made some of the roads boggy and exciting. It wasn’t bad though. We saw some beautiful African skies.
Pink rain on the Serengeti. Have you ever seen anything more beautiful?
Crowned Crane, which is the national bird of Uganda. Just a bit of trivia for you.
Today was certainly a day that if we were ever going to get IDO syndrome, it would be today.
IDO stands for “Internally Displaced Organs Syndrome”, otherwise known as getting a Kenyan massage. Seriously, the roads in Kenya are really bad.
Though bits and pieces remind me of Australia. Remember the hills that ring Alice Springs? This reminded me of them, though they’ve had more rain.
The rest of the photos on this post are taken from the jeep’s window. We were driving like the fast and the furious today. We had a lot of k’s between us and our accommodation in Tanzania.
Everywhere we went, there were small boys looking after livestock by the side of the road. One photo I missed was a boy with his herd, looking at his phone.
This is my last Kenyan photo. Our jeep paused to turn into the border crossing and these boys waved.
Tanzania now.
I love this one.
Women getting firewood. Our driver said that they can walk as much as 10 miles a day to find enough.
This is one of my favourites for the day.
Kids everywhere call out and wave as the jeeps go by. Usually, I’m too busy waving back to snap a photo, but I got this little guy.
I don’t think he’s wearing a seatbelt.
We kept seeing these houses with really steep roofs. Our driver explained that they’d seen movies from colder climates where the houses had these roofs because of snow etc, and they’ve now become a status symbol.
We passed by one place with an impossibly steep roof. “Look at that,” he chuckled. “ He could have built another house instead of that roof!”
There are so many 3 wheeled cars in Tanzania. These guys were kind enough to pose for me.
This looks like hard work.
Kids playing with tyres, just like in “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
And finally, if you zoom in on the ends of the branches, you’ll see Weaver bird nests. The males build the ests. If a male doesn’t do a good enough job, a female will destroy it. and make him do it again. Once she’s happy with the nest then she’ll breed with him. Fair enough, too. 😀
I was going to have a balloon ride over the South African countryside when my sister Kate and I were there 11 years ago. Unfortunately, the weather stopped it happening. We were disappointed, but today was the day I’d get that job done.
My first hot air balloon ride and it just happens to be over the Masai Mara.
Here are the lions we saw yesterday. Most of the pride had moved off, as there were buffaloes and warthogs nearby, but a couple of lionesses and some cubs were still there. Zero in and you can see them.
I’ve never been able to drive binoculars very successfully, so this is the view of the elephant herd I saw. Zoom. In, and you’ll be able to see them. They have babies…
Here’s a wonderful silhouette. The balloon pilot was trying to go left, but the wind was pushing us to the right.
”You don’t take up ballooning if you need to be in control of everything,” he said. “You can control the actual balloon, but with everything else you have to be adaptable.”
It was nice up there. You could see for miles, of course, and the sky was changing colours every second.
The wind blew us over the river. “The guys have to find a way to cross to pick us up,” he said. “ It’s almost at the hour now, but we can’t fly for a bit longer.” We had no problem with that.
We were heading straight for a tree with a vulture perched on it.
”I’ll fly over this,”he said, giving the balloon a bit of a kick of flame. “It’s a waste of energy for him to fly if there’s no need.”
After an al fresco champagne breakfast – don’t mind if I do – we headed back out for a game drive.
Almost immediately we were face to face with three of these.
We were so close, we could hear him chewing.
After a while, we left them to it and drove off to see what else was out there.
We couldn’t believe how close this hyena was to the road. He wasn’t moving for anyone!
Can you BELIEVE this?
A pride of lions with a fresh kill. When we were up in the balloon we saw some lions chasing a warthog. The balloonist said they were just mucking around, but maybe things turned serious.
Do you notice how the boys are eating first. The girls do the hunting, but the boys eat their fill first.
This was sad. The baby Cape Buffalo still has the umbilical cord. We all assumed it was with its mother, but then Martin said, “ These are male buffalo. They’re trying to make the baby go away.”
One of the two very stupid women we have on the tour said, “Oh, surely they’ll take it to a mummy who’s lost her baby.”
”No, no,” said Martin. “They don’t adopt other babies. This one will almost certainly die.”
Hooley Dooley, it was a good day for lions!
Look at her swinging that snack around!
After a little while, they walked off through all the parked jeeps to find some shade from the afternoon sun.
I have heaps of photos of this guy, but I couldn’t resist showing you the video. I always try to be in front of, and at this moment I was very glad I was.
Another jackal. I think they’re beautiful.
See?
Then we found another courting couple. Look away now if you don’t want to see the full extent of a lion’s bonk.
All 12 seconds of it.
A giraffe hung around for a while.
Then guess what? We drove up to a river bank and we were allowed to get out of the jeeps.
Hippos!
We could hear them grunting and bellowing as we stood on the bank. We stayed for quite a while, watching them disappear and reappear from the water. This day was EPIC. Then after lunch, we had a couple of hours to chill – and when I said a few swear words about the non-existent wifi – then we were off to a Masai village.
Here’s the famous jumping dance.
We were given a fire-making demonstration. I tell you what – these guys should go on Survivor. A handful of elephant dung, a knife and it was away, even on a windy day.
We were given a tour of the village. The guy who took our group was telling us how the women make the houses, bring up the kids, do the cooking and make crafts to sell, while the men protect the village and look after the livestock.
Janet, a woman on the tour who is distinguishing herself by her lack of filter, said to him, “That’d be right. The women do all the work while the men just laze around.”
omg.
Sylvana, the team leader, and I looked at each other, appalled. The man impassively looked at Janet for a couple of seconds, then invited us into the house. I saw Sylvana tap Janet on the shoulder and whisper something to her. Janet was well-behaved for the rest of the day.
The village was surrounded by a thick fence of thorn bushes to keep the animals out. It’s crazy… people are scared of Australia’s wildlife, but we don’t have things like lions and hippos that can rip you limb from limb.
Inside the fence, the village is built in a circle. The “village green”, if you will, is where they bring their cows and goats in at night for protection.
There are 350 people living here, which means that these huts must be packed. Polygamy is allowed here. The houses have a tiny window, presumably for safety if an animal does break in, so it was almost pitch black inside. I don’t know how the women are able to do their cooking.
These kids were mucking around with me, so I took their photo for them.
His kids.
After this, it was back to the game park for another drive. We only saw one main animal, apart from the usual zebras, gazelles and such.
But WHAT an animal.
A cheetah.
There was a documentary film crew following a cheetah around, and the other drivers had to hang back until they got their footage. Our driver was looking, looking, then he suddenly floored it when he heard something over the radio.
For ages, no one could see where he was, until Liz, who has eagle eyes, spotted him hiding behind a bush.
Rangers were there, and they allowed us to leave the road and slowly drive close to him.
Just stunning.
The Masai Mara park certainly delivered today! Tomorrow, we’re off to Tanzania.
Today was a long driving day, but with the promise of another Game drive in the Masai Mara game park.
In the morning, all I did was take photos of the people I saw along the way.
These little boys were outside the place we stopped for a morning coffee. I bought a painting of some Masai warriors here. We’re seeing a Masai village tomorrow, so they say.
So many donkeys! I love how donkeys look.
We eventually arrived, after jolting along the worst roads I’ve ever experienced. Our drivers have all said that Landcruisers are unbreakable, and they’d have to be.
We drove in and the magic began to happen.
So many zebras. Look at how brown this baby is.
A hyena, so close to the road.
Then our driver suddenly floored it. We rounded a few bends, hanging on for dear life as we stood, then we saw a big clump of jeeps.
It was a pride of lions, next to a kill that they’d made yesterday. The aroma was pretty rank, but who cared?
They were sated, sprawled out across the grass, uncaring that we were all so close. Occasionally, one would yawn, stretch out its legs and roll over.
A couple of lionesses and some cubs were still fooling around with the carcass.
I mean… are you kidding me? We could hear them breathing.
As we were there, word had spread over the short wave, and more jeeps pulled up.
I know I call myself Fortunate Frogdancer, and I’m obviously not deluding myself!
After a few minutes, we left so that other people could see them. The lions couldn’t have cared less. The sunset was beginning to appear.
Not five minutes later, we saw a small cat dart across the road and into the scrub. It was a Seville cat, and they mainly eat birds. It was so small compared to the lions.
I’m very proud of this shot. Everyone else in the jeep was stampeding over to get a copy.
Ostriches!
Thomson’s Gazelles were everywhere. Aren’t they beautiful?
And then, as if we weren’t spoiled enough, we came across this couple. They were on their honeymoon.
When lions hook up, they stay together for around a week, ignoring food and mating every 15 minutes. These two were exhausted, but they were still holding hands. After a minute or two we left them to it.
After all, dinner was waiting.
A silver backed jackal. It looks like it has a coat strapped around it.
What an amazing afternoon.
We have the whole day here tomorrow. Can’t wait to see what else we can see.
This morning was a driving day, where we headed into Lake Nakuru National Park. This place used to be known for its flamingos, but since the 90’s the lake has gotten bigger and now isn’t salty enough for much of the food that the flamingos prefer, so there are fewer of them.
Fruit, anyone?
We stopped along the way to take photos of the Great Rift Valley, where it all began…
The Lake Nakuru National Park is188 kms square and has an electric fence around the perimeter.
The only one of the Big Five that this park doesn’t have is the elephant.
It was heavily raining as soon as we got here at 12m, but I remained optimistic. Our first big game drive wasn’t until 4, so as far as I was concerned, it could rain all it liked until then.
The first animal we saw was the Cape Buffalo, one of the Big Five. “This animal hates humans with a passion,” said George, the driver of the jeep I was in. “You could bring a baby one home and keep it in your backyard, and when it gets big enough it will try to kill you.”
They didn’t seem very pleased to see us.
Then zebras! Lots of zebras.
”A passport shot!” said George. Their tails looked like someone had plaited them.
We discovered that there are many troupes of baboons here. The rain had stopped.
Hippo!
All of a sudden, George stopped the car, came in the back where we were and lifted the roof. As long as we took our shoes off, we could stand on the seats and have a clear view for photos.
Pelicans.
Pelicans do communal fishing in a clump and when one dives they all dive. If one doesn’t get a fish then one who has already eaten will give them their fish.
It was get later. We could hear monkeys calling, and George said that they were warning of a big cat prowling in the area.
Rhinos!
And then the most exciting thing of all… a lioness perched on top of a dead tree, with a lion directly below her.
We were thrilled. To be honest, after all the rain, I thought that the chances of seeing cats were pretty low. Yet here they were.
A Glossy Starling. Pretty, isn’t it?
And to round off the day, I SPOTTED these guys. Spotted hyenas.
Just before dinner, there was a cultural show at the lodge. It’s going to be an early start tomorrow…
It’s not often that two siblings are at the same airport at the same time, unless they’ve decided to travel together. Kate was flying to India and I was headed to Kenya, and our flights were 2 hours apart . We met at the pub near gate 12 for a celebratory drink. This was complicated by the fact that when we were both making our way to the airport, Dad was being admitted to hospital because he’s so weak. The man hasn’t eaten more than 3 consecutive bites of food since he broke his hip in January. (This is a slight exaggeration, but not by much.)
He’s definitely in the right place, with many more eyes being on his health. Our first night was fine. We went to a restaurant called ‘Carnivore’, which my roommate wasn’t rapt about, being a vegan.
I’m sharing a room with Annette, who is the sister of a guy I’ve known for 26 years. I told her to about this trip last year and she rang the company to book a place. They said that it was all booked out, “ but if Frogdancer shares a room with you, you can come…”
Well, what could I say? Besides, it saved me $1,800 from a solo booking. That pays for a balloon ride over the Serengeti, plus other travel bits and bobs.
5.5 million people live in Nairobi 10% of the population and there’s 1.5 million commuting and out of the city every day
Pedestrians far more than a home people coming up to the cars when we stopped to traffic line are begging or trying to sell stuff. We were warned to keep our phones between our knees if the windows were opened in the jeep because people have been known to reach through the open window and steal the phone. Imagine! That’d be the end of the holiday…
Traffic lights are here “just for suggestion” said our driver.
The first night was enlivened by Annette briefly playing with the radio beside her bed, which resulted in an alarm going off at 3AM. A Mexican mariachi band was suddenly playing very loudly in our room.
She was so embarrassed, but honestly, the music made it so funny. Africa it certainly wasn’t!
The sanctuary has only 5 permanent residents- 4 female and 1 male.
It’s a breeding sanctuary.
You place the pellets on the top of the tongue. If you get some spit on you, it’s all good. Giraffe spit is antibiotic.
Rothschild giraffes are endangered, so this is why they were chosen for this breeding program.
They move the babies back to the wild when they reach sexual maturity at 3 – 4 years to make way for the new babies.
Males fight to the death. So only Eddie is here.
Gestation period for giraffes is 15 to 18 months. They can hold back their deliveries for 3 months if the environmental conditions aren’t good. Dry season is preferred.
28 to 30 years in captivity.
24 they reach menopause.
25 years life expectancy in the wild.
Their leg bones have no marrow, so they’re very strong. This is their main defence. Their only predator is the big cats.
They sleep only 5 to 10 minutes per day.
Pumba means stupid in Swahili.
The two annimals are symbiotic. Giraffes have great vision, whereas warthogs don’t. Predators will prefer to kill warthogs rather than giraffes, so the giraffes use the stupidity of the warthogs to their advantage. Warthogs forget things after about 5 seconds.
We drove 20 minutes to reach the elephant sanctuary. This is a rescue service, with rangers bringing backpacks orphans to be raised to go back to the wild.
The baby elephants were introduced to us first, with them racing out to collect milk bottles from the keepers. One guy gave a running commentary about how each elephant baby came to be at the sanctuary.
Talon was with a herd of bull elephants who were looking after her which is quite unusual, as normally the females do it. She was rescued because obviously baby elephants need milk for at least two years so they weren’t sure how long she would survive with the boys.
One was surrounded by lions, so he definitely needed to be rescued! They use a helicopter to scout around and he was spotted. Most elephants are orphaned by direct human actions, such as ivory poaching, or by indirect human actions, such as falling down wells or mine shafts.
They are fed human baby formula because obviously it’s a bit hard to milk a wild elephant. One thing I really liked about this place was that they try very hard to keep the animals as detached from humans as possible. They rotate their shifts so that the elephants don’t get attached to any one person.
The baby elephants need to be fed every 3 hours around the clock, so they have a different keeper sleeping in the same room as them every night. Apart from the hour where they come to be admired by tourists, the rest of the time they’re out in the National Park, with keepers assigned to each group to keep them safe.
.
You another stupid question asked by a tourist after them explaining with great detail that they rotate the keepers so that the elephants don’t get attached to one human. Somebody else. If you sponsor an elephant can we feed them? And it’s like you are an idiot of course not though the guy answering the question was a lot more tactful than I would’ve been.
How incredible is this? I’m standing so close to these animals… though not so close that I couldn’t leap back if one suddenly started to pee.
Our next one stop was a women’s collective, where they make beads to sell. Most of them are single mothers.
We saw how the beads were made, from the raw clay right up to the finished product.
Henna hands!
We had a sumptuous lunch at the Karen Blixen restaurant, then it was off to the other side of town to visit an orphanage.
Look at what we saw on the street?
It’s not every day you see a camel in traffic.
Our second-last stop for the day was at an orphanage called The Children’s Garden Home.
200 kids live here.
In 2001 this guy and his wife started with 5 kids under a tree. It’s called The Children’s Garden because the kids are the plants who bloom.
Bigger kids watching the little kids play soccer. It’s expected that the older kids help bring up the younger ones.
The kids are pretty much found on the streets, or neighbours alert the people who run the place if they know f kids who have been abandoned.
This is the school library. Joyce handles all of the textbook, stationery and wide reading books from here for all of the children. In our jeep the next day, we regretted that we didn’t know more about this place before we left. We could have loaded up our suitcases with exercise books and pencils.
This little girl was very cute.
After a while, we were all herded into the hall and the kids performed for us. This was the last song they sang, before we were all grabbed by a child and danced with them all up on the stage.
Batman here was part of a posse of small boys who giggled and wriggled together. He was tickled to see himself on my phone.
These two photos are of Lynette, who was my guide around the place. She finished year 12 last year and hopes to study tourism.
Our last stop was to have dinner at a private house, which turned out to be the owner of the travel company, Twiga Travel, which we’re travelling with. Talk about a stark contrast!
Tomorrow, we travel into the countryside and have our first game drive.
Dad Joke of the Day:
Well, not really a joke this time. I just thought that this sounds like ME!
On Sunday, we gathered at Kate’s place for Dad’s 87th birthday. She made individual chocolate mousse pots insteadof a cake, because Dad was more likely to attempt to eat mousse. It was a lovely day.
Both Kate and I are flying out of the country today, me to Africa and she to India, so we’ve passed the baton of Mum and Dad’s care to our sister-in-law Liz, who is married to our brother. She’s devoutly hoping that nothing goes wrong in the 10 days Kate will be gone.
I’ll be flying into Kenya on Wednesday and spending a few days there before moving onto Tanzania and Zanzibar. I’m sticking with just taking carry-on, though I’ve invested in a new cabin bag after seeing a couple of Foldies on my Japan trip. I’m thinking of taking them both with me but keeping one folded up, just in case I buy something crazy while I’m over there. I won’t (much) mind checking in my carry-on suitcase if I’m on the way home, and it’ll give me options…
I’m also experimenting with how I’ve packed. This time around, I’m trying ‘bundling’ rather than rolling my clothes. We’ll see how well it works as I travel around. For the initial pack, I’ve been able to fit in more clothes than usual – and 2 pairs of shoes! Naturally, I’m bringing Deanna’s pink socks and Wanda the waterbottle with me.
