The look on Fi&J's face when Anthony said we were having a 9.00 start, it's like all their Christmas's had come at once. It was still quite a quiet night though as we had WiFi available in the rooms for a change and James is on antibiotics. He had root canal treatment a week before we came out which had just started niggling. We stopped on the road at a pharmacy, Fiona refused to get out of the van so I went in with James. I'd googled antibiotics for teeth so said what I thought we wanted, but obviously I wasn't a pharmacist. He considered and came back with a combination pill, which seems to be doing the trick.
With views of hippos from the restaurant...
It was lovely to wake up in our own time, which for all of us was earlier than necessary, so chill and read all the comments on our Facebook posts. I got a message from Fiona to open the front door, I'd like it. She's right, James was bringing us coffee, what a star!
And crocodiles, fortunately on the opposite bank
Three hours down a mostly dirt track to our next tented camp, but this place was a cut above. The tents are lovely, the restaurant was right on the lake with hippo and crocodile and we were seated and presented with a menu. A beautifully presented lunch in an amazing setting. A little break before meeting with our Maasai guide, Steven, for a bush walk. It was hot and dusty but such a different experience to be out on foot and getting quite so close to crocs! See our Relive video of our walk with photos: click here. Every day feels different with something new and today a second new thing, a night drive. It was sadly disappointing, but that's the luck of the draw. Possibly it was due to all the laughter coming from our van, but that's a different story!
On our walking safari with Stephen our Maasai guide
Back for dinner right by the lake where we shared a nice bottle of wine at a reasonable price. Steven came by for another interesting chat before we all toddled off to bed.
Past a very large crocodile with half his tail missing after an encounter with a hippo
Day 9
Another easy start after a good night sleep. We had all woken at times to noises but had all snuggled down and gone back to sleep. No fan or Aircon, but cool enough to enjoy the little duvet on the bed, inside our mosquito net. It's amazing how much breeze a net can block out, at the previous camp, we had had all the many windows open, because it was warm, the curtains had been blowing all over, but within the net, sadly, very little. I did have my two best nights sleep there though.
Elephant footprints, but we felt safe with our guide who was aware of other animal alarm sounds around him so knew nothing was near us.
A short ish drive, on a proper road, to our penultimate safari night where Anthony has promised Fiona a dip in the pool before lunch. The roads have been something else, this is probably the best we've been on, proper tarmac in good condition and no lorries. We've had tarmac before, on the main Nairobi Mombasa route nose to tail with lorries and safari vehicles taking our lives in their hands weaving in and out. Closing your eyes is definitely the best option! And then we've had dirt tracks, a Kenya massage apparently. With no AC in the van the windows have to be open to avoid roasting, but obviously closed when we pass another vehicle, the dust is unbelievable!
The added reassurance of a man in the bush with a gun gave us added confidence
We have all been pleasantly surprised by the weather, although warm the evenings have been cool and we've had a lot of cloud. Fi and I are not good in the heat so obviously it was probably the sunniest it's been yesterday when we had our walk, but we survived. We've even had a downpour causing us to postpone our boat trip. I have never seen a Google weather forecast like the one I had the other day for by lake Amboseli, 28° and snow. We'd moved on that morning so sadly didn't get to see this miraculous phenomenon.
Walking through African landscapes. The animals didn't seem to mind us being there
The promised swimming pool was beautiful, but what we hadn't realised was that this was where we were having lunch, but not where we were staying so with no shower or room for Fiona's hair we opted for a short game drive. So glad we did as we shortly came upon a cheetah just lying on a little mound right by the road. We had seen cheetahs but all lying together sleeping so this was exactly what we wanted, we stayed with it over an hour! Finally, a picture to send to our neighbour.
And finally, going out on our night safari the cloud cleared enough to give us a view of Mount Kilimanjaro, just across the border in Tanzania
After lunch we went to our hotel to check in. I can't tell a lie I was very disappointed with our view, we had none! I went straight to reception who did manage to move us, so we got a view over the water hole, though not Fi&J, so for the first time we were away from our noisy neighbours! The bar however did have a view of the water hole so we met there, and there we stayed. Not drinking huge amounts, there was tea and coffee, but we weren't sure we could better the view by going out in the van. We were joined by Anthony and spent a lovely afternoon watching the interactions coming and going in front of us. Our position was perfect for elephant viewing. They took about 2 hours to slowly make their way towards us, arrived at the waterhole and continued the next 15' to the artificial river flowing past reception, directly below where we were sitting. We couldn't have had a better vantage point. Shower, dinner and bed at the end of another successful day.
On our way to Saltlick Safari Lodge we stopped in the bush to get a quick, brief photo with Anthony
Day 10
Back to normal, alarm at 05.15, coffee at 05.45, safari 06.00.
This little tortoise was lucky. He was crossing our track, but Anthony saw him and managed to avoid him. Here is is scrambling to safety
We hoped for cats and we did find a couple of lionesses sleeping on lion rock. We were happy to see them but they didn't do much so we moved on. We didn't see much more before returning to the lodge for breakfast, but this coincided with the elephants arrival and they just kept coming. I got to 40 and they were still coming so we went to breakfast where we managed to get a table at the window. What a way to start the day!
I think this is a Brown Snake Eagle
After breakfast a short drive through the park, an hour along the road to our last park, and here we are.
A 4.00pm game drive didn't fill any of us with excitement, as it was very hot. With not many opportunities left though we went out in the search of cats. Looking in bushes and under trees we were most surprised to spy a dozen or so on a small rise in full sunshine. We watched for a bit and although there was lots of fidgeting there was no real movement. This combined with fidgeting from Anthony so we headed off to the water hole where we were entertained by the elephants having a mud bath. Anthony obviously didn't want to go back to the lions but we told him that's what we wanted so off we went. We had been one of two vans, we were now one of many, just as well there was lots of space. The pride had spread out a bit, so we were now certain there were a dozen including at least one young male. With the light fading fast and the 18.30 deadline for return to the lodge fast approaching there was some movement. Four of the lionesses made their way towards us to cross the road. It had been worth the wait.
As we've gone further east the temperature has risen and lizards have become more common. This is a Red-Headed Rock Agama lizard, currently eating a frog. We saw this one at the Taita Hills Safari Resort, but they are everywhere here
Day 11
Same timing as yesterday, coffee, safari, breakfast, exit the park on our last game drive. Elephants, zebra, buffalo, giraffe, water buck, and gazelle came to say goodbye to us as we now head to Diani beach, for our last three nights at an all inclusive beach resort.
Our first game drive from Saltlick lodge was mainly taken up watching this cheetah. He/she was alert and looking round and we were hoping it would take off hunting at any moment. Unfortunately no prey came within range but he remained alert the whole time. We ended up watching him for about an hour and a quarter, all of us quite happy to forfeit the rest of the drive for this rare sight
Stopped at the Best Memory Safaris office on our way to the resort to say hi to Isaac where we were given safari hats. Very sweet but we were so hot we didn't really care.
Needless to say, I took many, many photos and selecting the best was very difficult
We just wanted to get in the pool to cool off, so dumped all our stuff in Fi&J's room, went for a snack and then to the pool. Started on the drinks and that's going to be it for the next few days.
Even when he was asleep he was photogenic
Meanwhile Anthony had a snooze while waiting not believing how long we wanted to take looking at a cheetah!
On to Saltlick Lodge and its excellent position in front of a manmade waterhole in the middle of the bush. It meant that animals came here from miles around to take the water. As we had such a commanding view from our rooms and the bar we could while away hours watching them all come and go
We cancelled our afternoon game drive and invited Anthony to join us for a drink to watch the animals come to us
I can't put photos of all the animals on, but here's a few. This warthog wandered up...
Zebras took their turn
A proper African scene from the bar at our lodge. Why go out on a game drive when they come to us?
Elephants arriving at our lodge to take the water. We waited two hours for them to finally arrive with us
One of the two lions sitting on Lion Rock on our game drive the following day
Arriving at the gate of Tsavo East National Park, our last park, on our way to Ashnil Aruba Safari Lodge
In addition to the usual animals we are used to this monitor lizard wandered across the track in front of us
And a now very familiar, but always lovely to see, elephant crossing in front of us
These, I think are Vulture Guinea Fowl, very pretty
On our very hot game drive the next day, nothing was stirring until we saw this pride of lions sitting on a distant bank. Zooming in we counted at least a dozen of them, but the heat meant that they were going nowhere until it cooled down
They relaxed, shuffled around and generally lazed the afternoon away
We had driven off, watched a herd of elephants have a mud bath and returned as it went dark to see then finally making their move
On our final afternoon game drive James managed to snap this fabulous photo of a male elephant who came over to our jeep to study us. It was a profound moment for all of us, he stood looking at us and us looking deep into his eyes for probably 30 seconds before finally turning and walking away. It was a magical connection and one a photo cannot convey
This is a little out of order (due to slow wifi here), but this is a video of two male giraffes we saw on our walking safari having a fight. It was brutal and, apparently Stephen told us it can often result in the death of one of them. On this occasion the loser walked away to fight another day
Leaving the park and our last safari and pausing for a photo with Anthony at the gate
After a brief stop at a shopping centre in Diani to buy Fiona a new suitcase as her old one had fallen apart, we arrived at the offices of Best Memory Safaris and here we are posing outside for the last time with our excellent guide Anthony. We'll miss him!
This is Isaac, the owner of Best Memory Safaris and the man who arranged the whole thing for us. He is the man to contact for a fabulous Kenyan safari
So finally we said goodbye to Anthony and embarked on the final part of our journey, a three day all inclusive stay at a beach resort on the Indian Ocean, the Diani Sea Resort and here we are dipping our feet in the Indian Ocean. More on that on the next and final blog of this holiday.....
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