I had a very good flight from LHR to Nairobi – we left half an hour late and landed in Nairobi more or less on time, but from then on Nairobi was a shambles. Getting off the flight a mess, passport control a mess, luggage forever to arrive, and then taxi a complete mess. No sign up for me, eventually find a Trailfinders representative, eventually they found my name and after a lot of shouting I got some action and they found me a car. Arrived at the Eka Hotel about 11.15 – was given a Lower Ground Floor room, not the best, and then tried to sort myself out over a strong whisky!
On Sunday there was even more of a mess when I was sent to the wrong airline at the wrong time – and that did me out of half an hour in bed. However I eventually took off in a small plane with two lady pilots and made it to Ol Seki Hemingways camp, where I had a quiet morning and lunch before taking off on my first safari of the holiday.
My guide was a delightful young Masai called Isaac. We had a great evening seeing a lot of game, including a pair of lions who were having fun together. On Monday morning we had an excellent track as we found a leopard early on and followed her for quite some time. In the afternoon I was joined by two others in my car and we saw loads of lions during the afternoon/evening.
I had a bad night on Monday – hyrax were running around inside my roof, and the electrics cut out in the middle of the night so couldn't search out these annoying little animals. All a bit un-nerving. Eventually got up and went off on an early morning game drive on Tuesday, seeing about 12 hyena with their a kill of a baby wildebeest. Spent a lot of the day by the pool and then had a good evening drive, finding a large pride of lions and a big tower [group] of giraffe!
Unfortunately, on Tuesday night I had a really bad upset tummy. I explained to the team that I wasn’t up to a morning in the bush – just as well as I was ‘on the trot’ until 8.30am. I then found my magic pills that can dry you up. Everyone was out for a Bush breakfast on Wednesday morning, so went down for a piece of toast and some juice before returning to my room to relax for the morning. Managed some cheese and biscuits for lunch. At 4pm on Wednesday I decided I was up for a safari for 3 hours or so and we were lucky to see a cheetah. Once back in my room I ordered some soup and then had an early night.
On Thursday we had a great sunrise, and then saw loads of lions, elephants, monkeys, and many birds, and in the afternoon/evening we saw an amazing encounter between a gazelle and a jackal. The gazelle pushed off the jackal time and time again, getting it further and further away from her baby, but after a while the jackal turned on the gazelle. However, it then all calmed down as the gazelle family had hidden the baby, so thankfully the jackal lost out.
Friday was a quiet morning in the bush – we saw very little, a few elephants, quite a few buffalo and lots of babies… zebra, wildebeest, buffalo, warthog to name but a few. As I missed a morning, thanks to my upset tummy, and as I am the only one in the car this afternoon, Isaac is taking me out an hour earlier, so hopefully we will get some good viewings. We had only been out for about 15 minutes when we found a Cheetah, so a good start. Then we went in search of hippo, but got delayed by finding a pride of lions about to chase after a buffalo – we stayed with it for quite some time, but the lucky buffalo got away. Searching for leopards we found a good place to stop for a drink overlooking the Mara, and then made our way back to the lodge, but sadly no leopard sighting!
My last morning was a quiet one, a few elephants and some lovely birds, then I checked out of the Ol Seki camp and my guide, Isaac, drove me to Elewana Sands River Camp, two and a half hours away. The room was nice enough but it took a while to sort a lot of things out. No fridge, so they found one and put some wine in it, etc etc. Then they tried to put me in a safari car with four others – so it was either the seat next to the driver from which you can’t see so well or the seat at the back from which you can’t hear anything. I cried off and went back to my room. Later than evening I went to dinner and met with Nicolene the delightful GM who tried her best to put things right for me. First she moved my dinner table – sitting next to a screaming baby almost finished me off, so she moved me to the other dining area. Then she helped with the safari cars and told me I would be in a car for four in the morning – fine. Then she got me sorted for my breakfast safari. Then she escorted me to my room to explain some of the problems. So by the time I got to bed a lot of things had, hopefully been sorted!
On Sunday morning, I woke with yet another dodgy stomach. Can’t understand it as I am hardly eating anything. However, I took a magic pill and set off. I didn’t feel that brilliant but I survived. It was a very long safari – 6 hours – with breakfast at one stop. We had some excellent viewings, including a leopard, plenty of lions, some elephants, two cheetah, buffalo and many more! The afternoon was spent sorting photos and taking it easy. In the evening I was to be the only person in my safari car, and I had a ball with my guide Charles. We found a leopard within minutes of leaving the camp and spent the evening with this lovely leopard. Lots of lovely photos.
On Monday morning I felt really rotten with my tummy bug, so called for the doctor. He fed me with a pill or two but by the afternoon I was not much better so more pills and lots of rehydration salts. I stayed in my room all day and relaxed. Thankfully by Tuesday morning I was fine again but decided to take it easy in the morning and just do the afternoon/evening drive. That afternoon there was a wonderful herd of elephants directly opposite my room, and they wandered down into the sandy river bed to get a drink from the trickle of water. Sadly the evening drive was a disaster – after half an hour the heavens opened, thunder and lightening, so we had to pull down the plastic sides to the car and head back to the lodge. When it rains in Africa, it really rains!
On Wednesday morning I had breakfast in my room and at 8am went off on a three and a half hour game drive with my guide, Charles. We had a good view of two separate cheetahs and had good viewings of eland and a quite a lot of elephants. In the evening we had a great viewing of some Ground Hornbill feeding their chicks. We also saw a few lions and finished up having a sundowner with elephants!
On Thursday morning we were lucky enough to find a leopard early on and spent an hour with her. We saw lots of giraffe, elephants, buffalo and then found some lions mating, which we watched for a while!!! In the afternoon there was a mother and father of a storm – very heavy claps of thunder and a lot of lightening – did not enjoy sitting in my “smart tent’ that afternoon. I went out on a slightly shorter-than-planned game drive that evening, didn’t see much but finished up with sundowners with elephants!
On Friday morning my guide, Charles, drove me to Keerorok airstrip where I boarded a small Airkenya plane to fly to Nairobi – a 40-minute run, but rather a bumpy one. Thankfully this time I was met at Nairobi airport and driven to the Fairmont Norfolk Hotel, checking in around 1.30pm. I spent the afternoon quietly in my room and checking out the hotel [been before but 12 years ago and needed to remind myself of the facilities]. Ordered myself a bottle for the room as this was yet another hotel with a bare fridge – but at least it had a fridge! Had a quiet dinner in the restaurant and an earlyish night.
Spent my four days in Nairobi by the Norfolk pool. Nice pool but bad service by the pool. At least the sun shone. Flew home overnight on 8th March and landed at Heathrow in a snowstorm! Good holiday although Kenya is not what it was.
