Day 8 Journey to Mombasa.

Day8 Journey to Mombasa.

A long day. Up early, long  (8 hours)and bumpy ride to Nairobi to catch flight to Mombasa. Arrived at Pinewood village after another hours drive followed by ferry crossing. Total time travelling, about 13 hours. Accommodation looks nice but have yet to explore outside because it’s dark and I’m tired.

The Rift Valley

Jackals

One of many goat herds

Day 7 Masai Mara

Day 7 Masai  Mara

Today  was supposed to be the day of the ballon safari but two things put us off. First was the fact that we would have to be up by 4am and then drive for an hour and we were both very tired after the previous days drive. Secondly, the price. $450 each and,  he wouldn’t budge. So we had breakfast with the hippos instead  which also meant we could lie in until 5.30 am. Later in the day went out again and explored more of this vast wilderness. A good decision, breakfast with the hippos was great.

Dawn

The balloon ride we missed

Ostriches

Cheetah

Tired Lion

A nice tree

Marlene with more buddies

Breakfast with the Hippos

Marlene enjoying her Hippo Breakfast,
see hippos in background,

Day 6 Masai Mara

Day 6  Masai Mara

This is what I call a National Park. A wilderness teaming with wildlife. Our tent accommodation is great although the view from the tent is not as good as at Samburu. We saw lions, cheetah, elephants, giraffes, hyenas to name a few. The afternoon game drive was even better. We came across a pair of the Lions, the female obviously looking for a bit of the other, the male, well, I think he had a head ache. I took some video which I will attempt to attach to this blog if the connection allows it.

Hyena

The Masai

Masai kids

Lion with cub

Cheetah

Jumbo

Randy Lioness

Day 5 Lake Naivasha

Day 5 Lake Naivasha

Once again, an early start to the day . It was a very long and uncomfortable journey which I could have done without. We entered the national park and straight away it didn’t seem like a national park, more like Marwell Park. I later learnt that this park was actually man made. The animals were placed there to help form the park. They didn’t appear to mind being in an un-natural environment but it wasn’t what I thought was worth travelling miles to see. The lake, home to thousands of pink flamingos was also a bit disappointing as there weren’t actually that many there. So we left the park somewhat tired and disillusioned. We had the option of a boat ride before going to our accommodation which some of us took.  The boat ride turned out to be the highlight of the day. It was a small boat powered by an outboard motor. Long an narrow. We were given life jackets that didn’t fit and with zips that didn’t work but I felt safe because the water was quite shallow and we weren’t going out very far. That was until we saw the Hippos. I can now say that I have first hand experience with an aggressive Hippo. We were all enjoying watching them with their young, wallowing away when one of the adults  sudden launched itself at us. The young lad on the boat open up the throttle and we sped away. I think it scared us all but it gave us something to laugh about when were safely on dry ground. We arrived at our lodge just after dark very tired a weary. We had just eleven and a half hours  in this lodge before moving on for our next stop The Masai Mara.

Me and thee

Poor chap went down hill to fetch a pail
 of water and then had to push it back up

Black Rhino

Happy Hippos

A Big Kingfisher