Kenyan Safari (work in progress)

[CrispyA]

Your trip sounds amazing, really loving the pictures so far.

[DisneyDaffodil]

Originally Posted by skalexander

I think officially its around 9 hours, but I think we were 8 hours on the way out and 8.5 hours on the way back. No worse than a trip to Florida!

This is the trip we did - newmarketholidays/...ay-at-treetops - we literally didn't have to organise a thing apart from visas, jabs and anti-malarials. We booked through a local travel agent, which was bizarrely cheaper than booking direct with Newmarket.

See more...

Thank you, it’s something we will be definitely looking into. I have sent for a brochure from Newmarket and will enjoy reading the rest of your report 😀

[Melbatb]

Looks fabulous! How wonderful to see so many animals in their natural habitat.

[Disneyphile]

Sounds like an amazing trip. The photographs are fabulous.

[skalexander]

Day 3 - Samburu National Park

Today was a 6am start, ahead of a 6.30am departure on a game drive. Although the sun wasn't up yet, I was plenty warm enough in short sleeves, although I wore long trousers on all the game drives to reduce access for bugs!

A brief word on bugs. Normally I am a delectable feast for the little suckers, and every bug within a 10-mile radius flies in, but I came home with 4 bites - 3 on my ankles from one night in Samburu when I didn't use bug spray in that area when I changed into cropped trousers for dinner, and 1 on my face in Maasai Mara which somehow got past the bug repellant I covered myself in. I applied bug repellant, the 50% deet, at least twice per day and I did an all day suncream every morning and after swimming.

Our first stop this morning was dikdik antelopes - they're the smallest of the antelopes, around 4kg, and they mate for life. If their mate dies, they kill themselves

We saw a lot of these trees, acacia trees, with these nests on, which are created by weaver birds.

We also saw lots of interesting birds but I’m terrible with names. The green chap is a bee eater but I’m not sure about the rest.

This chap is the gerenuk, or giraffe antelope, one of the Samburu Special Five. As you can see, they stand up to eat, so they can access the leaves higher up the trees.

We were lucky enough to see more elephants, impala, giraffe and grevy’s zebras, but the highlight of the morning was still to come…




Baby leopards! I thought we’d hit the jackpot when I saw the first one but seeing the 2 was so special. Unfortunately, someone has gone wrong with the lighting on my pictures, but I’m hoping my clever father in law might be able to work magic. If not, someone else on our bus was going to share his, as he had a serious camera and got some amazing shots.

We got back to the hotel about 9.30am and went for a late breakfast. I then put my cossie on and headed to the pool with my kindle. It was only a small pool area but plenty big enough for those of us using it, which included people outside our group. I’m a shadebather, and had no trouble getting a parasol. There were also towels there for our use. I spent an enjoyable few hours dozing and reading, before heading for lunch – another buffet, also very nice.

After lunch, we had some excitement when a puff adder was spotted. Rashid left his lunch to come and identify it, bless him, and seemingly they’re very rare. He works full time as a guide and hadn’t seen one for 6 years. They are very dangerous, bites are often fatal, so when it tried to come up towards the hotel path the staff bumped it on the head and put it in the river – I’m assured it was alive and wouldn’t die, they just wanted to make it disorientated as couldn’t take the risk of it harming staff or guests. I don’t like interfering with nature but I do understand the hotel’s position.

There are lots of monkeys in the grounds, and my Dad learned that to his cost this afternoon. He went back to the room with his hands full – camera, phone, liquorice allsorts, room key etc. – and one of the monkeys snatched his sweets from him, ran off up a tree and started eating them in front of him. I wasn’t there but when he told me I couldn’t stop laughing, and I’m still laughing. He took a picture and you can just about see the red clip which was on the top of the bag…

Some of our fellow guests didn’t shut their doors properly and had their rooms ransacked. One couple lost 2 bags of Haribo and in another room they stole the hotel’s torch.

I went back to the pool for a dip before we headed out for a game drive at 4pm. We were still hoping for a lion sighting! We went across the river to another part of the reserve and found the Somali ostrich, another of the Samburu Special Five – the black one is male and the brown is female.

The guides in the park all communicate via a radio. All of a sudden, Rashid took off and when we asked what we were heading to, he said “something special”. When we got there, it was clear he was right – 2 cheetahs! A mother with her almost-adult cub, and we were fortunate enough to be able to watch them for quite awhile, they seemed completely unconcerned by us. A lady I work with has been to 4 countries on safari and never seen a cheetah, so I felt very lucky seeing them.

We saw a few more giraffe and birds, and headed back. We changed and went for tea, another tasty buffet, before retiring to bed early for another early start.

[MichelleS]

Lovely photos ,we have happy memories of Kenya as our dd lives in Nanyuki

[DisneyDaffodil]

Another wonderful day, you were very lucky with the animal sightings especially the leopard cubs.

I’m pleased the 50% deet spray worked well for you as I always get loads of bites too, but I have bought the 50% deet for our trip to Vietnam next month so hoping it will work well for me too

[skalexander]

Originally Posted by DisneyDaffodil

I’m pleased the 50% deet spray worked well for you as I always get loads of bites too, but I have bought the 50% deet for our trip to Vietnam next month so hoping it will work well for me too

See more...

It was spot on. I bought the Boots own brand lotion, not realising it’s a gel and actually a bit greasy, wouldn’t bother again. I definitely exceeded the recommended dose, as I applied it in the morning, before afternoon game drives and before tea (after a shower), but it’s only for a few days and I didn’t feel unwell.

[Wordsworth]

Really enjoying reading about your trip!

[skalexander]

Originally Posted by Wordsworth

Really enjoying reading about your trip!

See more...

Thank you!