Month: October 2019

It has come to my attention some of you have been unable to see video and/or hear audio clips. I think you need to go to the actual website to do that. At least I know for sure it works that way. If you click on the blue date in the email, you will be taken to the website. Then you should be able to view the clips from there. If not, pls let me know. 

I just landed at Dulles—45 minutes early!  What a fabulous trip I had! I saw amazing dramas and magnificent creatures. It was simply stupendous and it is hard for me to believe it is over. Amazingly everything went smoothly—not a single hitch in any connection. 

I’ve enjoyed keeping the blog. Many many thanks to the individual who did the posting to the blog for me of all my many emails. 

If you have hung in there with me, thank you. It was fun to be able to share my journey with you. After I go through the numerous pictures on my camera, the best ones will be posted here, so stay tuned. 

I’m in Amsterdam in my little pod for hopefully a nap. 

I wonder if the terrorism threat has increased since I have been away. I had to go through security here when I got off the plane before I could enter the airport. We came into an isolated area, not the area I came into on my way to Kenya. Perhaps it was because the plane came from Africa. I have gone through security four times in one day. 

A lot happens on an 8-hour flight: I finished  a book, had  two meals, watched a movie, and slept off and on. I have one more 8-hour flight to go. 

I’m finally all checked in at the Nairobi airport. The flight from Diani Beach was uneventful. I was met at the airport with no problem. I may or may not have said two weeks ago that I had been given a nice book about East African mammals that I asked them to keep and bring me today. Of course they hadn’t. So we went to the hotel I stayed at the first night and waited about an hour for someone to bring it to me. It was fine. It saved me an hour wait at the airport.

When we entered airport property we all had to get out of the car and go through security and the car was searched. Then to enter the airport itself I had to go through security again. The chapstick in my pocket set off the metal detector. Finally after I went through passport control I had to go through security for a third time!  We don’t have any reason to complain in the US!

It’s 8:30 pm. We supposedly board at 11:00 pm and the plane is supposed to leave at midnight. Then on to Amsterdam!

I woke up and found the sun is shining! I spent my last morning on the beach. 

Today I feel recovered and energized enough to snorkel in the reef, but alas no time.

It’s hard to believe my trip is over. I’d like to rewind and start at the beginning again!  I miss Kenya and the bush already and can’t wait to return.

On my trip I recorded:

• 42 mammal species including
  • 7 species I had never seen prior
• 50 bird species including
  • 16 species I had never seen prior
• 4 reptile species including
  • 2 species I had never seen prior

But no snakes! There was one in Samburu  but I told my guide I did not want to see it!

I have a couple of long days of travel ahead. My ticket says I have 25 hours of travel which does not include my travel from the beach. I leave here 12 hours before the 25 even begins. So 37 hours —less than coming over and getting up to Samburu but feels like a lot less fun than traveling to Africa!

Ugh. I hate to leave the beach to shower and pack but I must. It’s a gorgeous day!

Addendum

It’s fitting my trip ended the way it began — with a monkey. I was eating lunch and in a nanosecond a monkey leaped on  my table, grabbed all the bread and took off!

And I’ve never seen camels lie down! Another first!

Got up early to see sunrise which didn’t really happen because of clouds.

Took walk and got caught in rain. It’s a rainy day here but I found a dry spot outside where I can hang out.

This beach is so different during low and high tide. Here are pictures during low tide:

High tide:

Here is the ocean during low tide:

And during high tide;

Nothing but rain all day.

Even my sheltered spot got wet. I’m glad I had one nice day here.  It was a reading and nap day!

Coming to the beach has given me a good chance to rest and decompress after safari. If I were still on safari I would not want to leave. I love being out in the bush.  But now I’m getting ready to go home and see my cats and my friends. I also am looking forward to dry clothes. Nothing has gotten completely dry since I left Nairobi. 

I had dinner up on the sole table in a balcony again for my last night.

I am here through lunch tomorrow.

Enjoy the pictures!

It’s been an interesting morning. I got breakfast and tried to take a walk on the beach. I say tried because I was accompanied by teen age boys the entire way. It is not like Costa Rica where the boys try to sell you something : you say no and they move in.  These boys chat you up a long time before making their pitch.

The Ocean is beautiful. It’s turquoise. And it honestly feels like warm bath water. I put my feet in the Indian Ocean!

Here is where I’m parked for the day

With this view

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As far as the beach is concerned I don’t understand why it’s one of best in world. Lots of seaweed and high tide completely covers it.

This is low season and there are very few people here. Lots of hotels are closed. Mine only has 8 rooms and they seem to be filled.

Kenya as outlawed single use plastic bags and water and soft drinks are in glass bottles.

I had two naps this morning and then went swimming. So now I can say I have swum in the Indian Ocean! The  water is so clear That Standing in shoulder deep water I can see my feet! Quite a change from the Atlantic. The water is warm.

So that is what I’ll be doing today and tomorrow— reading, napping and swimming.

This hotel is so small they really pay attention to the guests. The manager is always walking around. I asked him to ask the chef for half portions For my meals . There is too much food and I feel bad wasting it. Last night I had snapper just caught that day. Tonight it is beef because the seafood choice is octopus and I’m allergic. 

There is a pool outside my door so I can wash off my feet before I go into my room.

Later I put on shorts and moved to this:

With this view

A new kind of monkey, a Sykes monkey, joined me today on my porch.

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Dinner on the beach.

Day 1 at the beach has been a gorgeous day!

After about an hour wait at the airport I boarded a plane to Diani Beach. It’s a big plane.

People are carrying big suitcases, not the duffles we carry on safari. I’ve entered a whole new world—noisy, many people. After the quiet expanse of the bush it is quite a shock to the nervous system.

It was raining when I arrived. We landed on a real runway with an airport! Not out on a dirt strip somewhere!

I’m staying at a small place. I think it’s loud but that’s just me coming from the bush I think. It’s just kids playing. They take your lunch and dinner order in the mornings and go buy your food for the day.

Here Is my room.

And here is the view from my room— the Indian Ocean!!!! 

I took a much needed real shower and discovered they do laundry!  Everything I own is filthy!

They put me up alone on a balcony for dinner. It’s a little odd. But I can hear the ocean!

And the waiter spoke to me in Swahili and I answered so it looks like I’ll be practicing my Swahili here.

It will be an early night tonight. I’m looking forward to tomorrow!  I hope it’s not raining so I can take a walk on the beach.

My bed with its mosquito netting. I’ve been sleeping under mosquito netting everywhere.

Sunrise my last day on safari.

This morning when I got up we had a giraffe and two waterbucks in the camp!

What an amazing final game ride I had. There was so much drama!  Especially wonderful because I spent it with lions!

We first found a sleeping hyena.

Then far off in the distance we saw a lion sitting at the edge of some trees. As we got closer we saw that nearby was a cheetah eating her kill. The lion was one of the 2-year olds we have seen every day. The young male (aka boy 1) started walking slowly toward the cheetah. The cheetah saw him and watched. The lion kept walking. In the meantime two more 2-year olds, a male  (aka boy 2) and a girl,  came out of the trees. As the lion got closer, the cheetah grabbed a piece of her kill and took off. Boy 1 chased the cheetah who of course easily got away. While Boy 1 was chasing the cheetah,  boy 2 picked up the kill (a full grown Thompson gazelle) and walked off with it. As he was walking the monkeys made a loud warning cry. Boy 2 jumped and dropped the kill. It was funny!  These are the same boys who tried to be tough with the buffalo the other night.

Boy 2 picked up the kill, carried it away and started eating it. Boy 1 and the girl came over but to my surprise they did not try to get in on the action. I was expecting a fight  over the food. We watched Boy 2 eat for awhile. Boy 1 eventually came over and laid down beside Boy 2, even rolling around.

Finally the fight I had been anticipating occurred. Boy 1 (who frankly had done the work of getting rid of the cheetah) tried to get some of the meat. Boy 2 growled and snarled at him. The girl came over, more growling. Boy 1 finally grabbed a leg of the gazelle. Boy 2 then laid down in top of the kill and hung on with his paws. Boy 1 kept trying to get a piece but Boy 2 was not letting go. He had his entire body weight on it.

Meanwhile the girl just calmly went to the other side , ignored the boys, and began eating what she could reach. The boys kept tussling. The girl kept eating.

Then an all out fight broke out between the two boys. It was violent and loud. The girl leaves out of the way.  Boy 2 got a bad scratch on his nose and cheek. They ended up tearing the kill into parts and they each had something to eat.

All the racket brought mom up but when she got there everyone was eating in his/her own corner.

Then two jackals arrived. They kept trying to sneak in and get a piece of meat but the lions would not let them.

The girl and Boy 1 had less to eat so they finished and went over to mom. The jackals went for the scraps and so did an adult tawny eagle  and two juveniles. Mom and the girl and Boy 1 left the area. We followed a bit to see where they were going. In the meantime we found the cheetah eating  the scraps she got.

Finally Boy 2 who had eaten nearly the entire gazelle finished. When he left his kill the jackals and eagles swooped in for scraps.

Boy 2 saw the cheetah and chased her off again and ate her leftovers.

Then He started walking and he went the wrong way. He would stand still and do very soft roars. It was pitiful. They sound like cries. He would walked some more and then stop and softly roar. He was not going the right way and I was convinced he was lost.

We stayed with him. He by accident ran into a family of elephants. They trumpeted. He backed up and went another way. Finally going a roundabout way he found his family and was reunited. Now I could leave without worrying he was lost all alone.

I saw this same group of lions every day. I felt like I got to know them, especially the two silly boys. So although I saw far fewer different lions than I did in previous trips, it was special getting to know one part of a pride and learning their personalities. The girl I saw today was always with her brothers and there was always much head rubbing whenever she saw them.

On the way back to camp we saw our mom cheetah with the four cubs. The cubs were playing— wrestling and climbing a tree.

It was a great morning!

My new things today were seeing lions steal a cheetah’s food and two lions fighting over food in the wild ( I’ve seen it at the zoo but not in the wild ).

I got back to camp, ate breakfast and packed. Now I’m in a plane headed to Nairobi. I’ll change planes there for the beach.

I’m really quite sorry the safari is over.

This is the plane I’ve been flying in.

Here is the inside of the small plane.

Final count of individual animals :

• Lions: 34
  • Males: 6
  • Females: 11
  • Subadults: 15
  • Cubs: 2
• Leopards: 7
  • Cubs: 1
• Cheetahs : 28
  • Cubs: 10

At night I’ve been hearing a hyena. I tried to make a recording. You will have to turn the volume up to hear it. It sounds like “whoop” comes at :04, and about ev 4 seconds following. The crickets are loud. You may not be able to hear it.

Today we went to the very large Mara Reserve.  It was 15 miles away yet it took two hours to get there over very very very bad roads. I now feel the need for a chiropractor!  In addition, it was extremely windy (but no rain!!) I feel like I’ve eaten a sandbox. Everything is covered with dust.

It was worth it.  Yesterday was an elephant day.  Today was a carnivore day. We saw many jackals, one leopard, six hyenas, six lions and seven cheetahs, plus a cheetah kill.  A real cheetah kill—where the cheetah ran at top speed.

There was a single Thompson Gazelle lying down in the middle of an open field, no herd in sight. He was oblivious to everything and had no idea a cheetah was watching him.  She was behind a small hill, and the only thing you could see was her head. She watched the gazelle for about 10 mins.  Cats are so patient.  Then suddenly she shot over the hill at top speed.  The gazelle saw her then and started running.  Antelope zig zag and make sudden turns to fend off a predator.  It works for a lion or leopard. niynfir a cheetah. I was amazed to see the cheetah made every sharp unexpected turn while running at top speed. Of course it didn’t take long for it to be over.  In reality, it was over for the gazelle as soon as the cheetah started running.  Watching a cheetah really run is an amazing experience.

I had my last meal in the bush overlooking a river full of hippos and crocs.  I have one more game drive early in the morning, And then it’s a travel day to go to the beach.  I hope the rain has stopped there.

It’s quite odd being here out of touch.  I have no idea what is going on in the world

Current count:

• Lions: 34
• Leopards: 7
• Cheetahs: 27

Enjoy some photos from today.