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We had rain last night and things changed.  Samburu turned green!

But the most amazing thing was the river. Previously there was water but it wasn’t deep.  Animals could easily cross. This morning when I was getting ready to leave, it was dark outside and it sounded to me like torrential rain was falling. I got dressed in all my rain gear.  When I went out, there was no rain. The sound was the river.  It was flowing so quickly—very deep, with actual waves in it.  

In fact later we went downstream and could see the torrent of water coming.  I got video of it as it came and filled that portion of the river. 

The universe has helped me replace the photos I lost. I’ve seen everything again, and in most places got better pictures than I did the first time.  Today we found the elephant family with two tiny babies that I had seen on the first day.  There is a tiny baby in the front of this picture.

We took breakfast with us and spent the morning at Buffalo Springs Reserve which is just across the river. We knew the two male lions are there.  They cannot get back across the river now.  And we were told they ate an oryx yesterday. When lions eat something that substantial, they sleep for a few days. 

We searched. We found a plain full of grass that probably had 100 antelope of different sorts eating—a fine dining establishment for lions and other carnivores—but we could not find the male lions,  We did have a very nice picnic breakfast by the river.

And we saw two cheetahs! I’ve now seen seven cheetahs!  Previous trips I’ve been lucky to see two the entire trip.  One had just eaten a Grant’s gazelle.

The cheetah looks like she is about to deliver six cubs, but her belly is that large from her meal!

The traveling caught up with me today, and my adrenaline surge wore off, so I needed a break.  I came back and took a nice nap at lunch time.

Then we went out again.  One of the Samburu warriors who works for Ewaso Lions knew where the lioness and cubs that I saw on the first day were, so we went off to find them.  On the way we hit a big downpour of rain. I am so glad I packed my rain pants at the last minute since the sides of the vehicle are open!  We got through it fairly quickly and first and upon the three 2-year old subadult lions who were playing.  They are so affectionate with one another, grooming each other and head rubbing.  

Then the mom and two 3-month old cubs came out.  Everyone played. Mom and the subadults are so patient with the little ones, even when their tails were being chewed by sharp little teeth. 

Then the mom took off on a purposeful walk and the three subadults followed her.  We thought they were going to hunt.  They walked right by our vehicle—- you can see the edge of the vehicle in this picture.

However, they went and laid down.  The interesting thing was the cubs went back to the tree they had been under. They climbed up high inside and you could see their little faces poking out watching everything.  They were perfectly safe from predators.  How she told them to go back and stay there until I come get you is a mystery to me and an even greater mystery is they do it! I expect the older lions will hunt after dark.  There was an impala herd nearby.

On the way back to camp I saw another leopard and something brand new—a striped hyena! I’ve never seen one before.  (The other hyena was a spotted hyena.)

Every single day I’ve seen a cheetah, a leopard, a lion and something brand new.  

Now I’m waiting for a thunderstorm to pass to go to dinner.  The river will be even higher tomorrow.  Folks are worried about flooding.  

Our mission tomorrow is to find the male lions. We are leaving early.  

First of all, I lost all of my pictures and videos from yesterday.  Every. Single. One.  The best I can determine is I was going through them and wanted to erase one. When it asked me to confirm my fat finger must have hit “delete all”. At any rate I’ve been sick about it.  I am grateful it happened on day one and not day five and I will erase NOTHING else before I go home.

The day begins here with a delivery of tea, coffee or hit chocolate and some cookies to your tent — in my case at 530 – to sustain you on an early morning game drive. 

I left at 6 am. The first thing I saw was a hyena! I’ve not seen them up here in Samburu before!  Then I saw a mammal that is new to me — bat-eared fox  

We found a mother cheetah on a rock with her three cubs.  I got great shots of the cubs.  They climbed over their mother to nurse!  

Then we looked for lions.  It’s difficult because you are searching in the terrain in these pictures and they could be under any one of thousands of bushes.

Finally we found the lions again.  Seven of them, the male was not there.  The same lions as yesterday . They were sound asleep.  

The cubs were hidden in the bush behind the mom.  You definitely cannot see them on this photo but they were tucked away where the red circle is. 

It’s quite clever. The cubs were well hidden and any predator would have to go through four lions to get to the cubs.  The cubs were awake.  What I don’t understand is how the mother gets them to stay there.  They are rambunctious playful cubs and I would think they would wander out, but  they don’t.  I cannot see human toddlers minding like that! I was corrected today on the age of the cubs — 3 months and on the mom’s name.   There were three cubs as late as last week.  Something has happened to one of them. 

We tried to find the male. We found fresh tracks ….

…and very fresh lion poop down by the river.  We think he crossed the river. His brother was calling him from across the river yesterday. 

I came back for breakfast at 10 and we left shortly afterwards to go to the Ewaso Lions camp. It’s an hour away. As soon as we got there they served lunch, I couldn’t eat as I was full from breakfast! I spent until late afternoon there with my friend Shivani Bhalla who runs Ewaso Lions. She showed me changes they had made to the camp.  They now have an office that is an actual building.  They sleep and eat in tents.  It was great to have relaxed time to catch up on each other’s lives. 

Late afternoon we left there and found a leopard.  A beautiful leopard! He was around in the morning but there were so a many cars around it was ridiculous. We didn’t’ get in the crowd.  In the evening there were two others there. The leopard was asleep. The others left.  We waited. The leopard woke up and went for a stroll looking for something to eat.  I got the most amazing pictures! He came right up to the car and passed within inches (literally) of it. I got a closeup of his gorgeous eyes.  It was amazing. I could have taken a picture with my cell phone but I didn’t want to put my camera down, so you will just need to wait for the good pictures!

I think I did pretty well for someone who woke up at 2 am and hasn’t been to sleep yet!!

I was fortunate to do my first safari with Shivani who taught me to remain a respectful distance away from the animals, to be very still and very quiet, and to wait. They will eventually do something.

Oh that monkey is still camping outside my tent. When I walked out at 6 am she was right there. I told her to have a nice day. I’ve named her Gertrude. 

I’ve been getting back after 630 pm. I plug everything in to be charged, shower, wash clothes and go to dinner at 8 pm. The power is cut off where I am staying between 3 and 630 pm and between midnight and 5 am. 

Tomorrow we are taking breakfast with us and eating out in the bush and going across the river to look for the two male lions.  

Current lion count: Still 8

I had the most fantastic day!

I flew into Kamala, and Jelly – my guide from 3 years ago – picked me up.  He said it would take about one hour to get to camp.  Well, it took two because we saw so much along the way!  

I’m in the high desert—at about 4,000 ft above sea level. It reminds me a lot of Arizona. 

My first animal was a goat! Ha! 

My first wild animal was a dik dik. A cute tiny antelope that reminds me of an Italian Greyhound.  It’s about the same size and has tiny thin legs.

We saw a cheetah!

We saw Samburu’s big 5 – these are five animals that only live in Samburu:

• The genernuk — an antelope with a long neck.
• The Somali ostrich which has a blue neck and blue legs
• The Beisa oryx — a very large antelope
• Grevy’s zebra
• The reticulated giraffe

We also saw a herd of about 20 elephants , including two babies which are less than one month old).

The elephants walked right by us — about 6 feet away.

Before I even checked in I had seen a total of 13 different mammal species! After lunch I unpacked. We have to do even more to keep out the monkeys now.  We have to hook the tent with a carabiner clip. Then put a mat against it and then a table!

I sat outside and a monkey joined me like she owned the place. 

Then when I went in, she started crawling under the tent flap to come in while I was inside!!

I went on an afternoon game drive with Jelly. We saw a leopard!  And EIGHT lions!  One very fat and full male.  He had obviously just eaten.  He has blood on his face and paws and a big belly. He was so tired that he laid down on the road.

Then across the road was the rest of the pride. A mom (Nashira—whom I have seen on previous visits), two 4-month old cubs, and get 3 subadult children—about 3 years old. It was getting too dark for my phone to take decent pictures but maybe you can see a cub here lying in front of her mother 

We stayed with them awhile.  Mom and cubs got up to go down to the river. Finally dad got up and decided to join them.  He passed about 10 feet beside the car.  The white border at the bottom of the picture is the window sill of the car. 

Finally I saw a mammal I have never seen— a genet. They are nocturnal and we came back after dark, so no picture.  They look like they are in the raccoon family.  

I cannot believe how much I saw in only 6 hours!!!!  This place feels like home!

Once I checked out of the hotel this morning, my driver took me to a supermarket to get my adapters. I had to go get wanded (for metal) to enter the supermarket. This is something Kenyans deal with on a daily basis—constant security no matter where they are going. I got my adapters which unfortunately were expensive and took out a chunk of my spending money, but they were necessary. 

As I was waiting at the small airport for my flight to Samburu, about 60 cases of water were delivered to the small snack bar there. Each case was sent individually through a metal detector. 

Then I board my small plane for my flight to Samburu. There were nine of us on board!

I’m in Nairobi! I got to my hotel about 11 pm. It’s just after midnight now. 

It’s surprisingly cool here in Nairobi. I planned for heat!!  Samburu where I am going next should be hot. 

I received a gift when I arrived of a beautiful book of East African animals. I love it. But I can’t handle the weight of a book. I’m going to give it to my driver tomorrow and ask him to bring it back to me when they take me back to the International airport for my return. I hope they are not offended by my rudeness. 

My only other glitch is two of my adapters don’t work. I suspect they didn’t last trip either. This time I’m tossing them. There is a gift shop here in the hotel that opens at 7 am. I’m trusting they will have some. 

I leave here at 8:20 am to go to the little airport. My flight on the small plane is @1020. 

Time to try to get some sleep. 

I arrived in Amsterdam. Checked into the Yotel for 3 hours to have a rest in a “capsule”.  

The capsule does have a tiny bathroom too. 

Then it’s another 8 hour flight to Nairobi.

I’m all checked in and sitting at the gate about to begin this journey. I’m not very excited about the 48 straight hours of travel ahead … wish I were like Hermione and could apparate!!

I heard from Shivani Bhalla, at Ewaso Lions, whom I am headed to visit. She said “lots” of rain on the way. And she said wildlife viewing will be “low”.  They are thrilled it’s going to rain. I certainly am not. I was even less thrilled when I pulled up the weather and saw rain every single day of my trip no matter where I am. The rains are early. They usually come in November. So I threw a pair of rain pants into my duffle. I do hope I see plenty of wildlife. And I hope the lions are not all taking cover under bushes. 

My bags are overweight. On the small planes we are allowed a total of 33 pounds INCLUDING hand luggage. They weighed my duffle at 23.5 pounds here. I know my backpack is more than 10 pounds. We will see what happens in Nairobi Wednesday morning. 

In the meantime a lot of time in planes before then.

I wonder…….

I wonder how many different lions I will see? 
In 2014 I saw 117 different individual lions.
In 2016 – 94.
I wonder how many I will see this year?

I wonder what will be the first mammal I will see?
In 2014 it was a zebra.
In 2016 – an impala!
I wonder what it will be this year?

I wonder what new things I will see?

My trip to Kenya is getting closer!  

Here is a map of where I’ll be going.  

• A: Nairobi, where I land and spend a quick night.
• B. Samburu: where my friends at Ewaso Lions live and work. I’ll spend the bulk of my trip there.  
• C. Then I move on the Massai Mara for safari.  
• D. Finally, Diani Beach on the Indian Ocean for a few days of relaxation.  
• A. Back to Nairobi for a flight home.