Africa 2022

We started the day early, as in very early.  We left camp at 6:00 to be on the open plains by sunrise.  Was it worth it? I just love that picture.  I've made it my wallpaper, I just think it is so amazing.  The zebra with the bird on his head, greeting the new day.   The Ol Pejeta area is best known for its rhino.  There are only a few places left in the world where you can see rhino.  Especially in any numbers.  And you might recall that the 2 that we did manage to see in South Africa had been shorn of their horns to make them less attractive to poachers.  Well, in the Ol Pejeta area they have very good rangers and they leave the horns on.  This makes for a more natural life for the rhino.  The males in particular use the horns in determining dominance and breeding rights.  Who can tell who is the baddest of them all without a horn.  Without further ado, here are 2 shots of white rhino, full shot and close up. That h...

 We started the day with breakfast at the Elerai Camp. Followed by a long, dusty, bumpy ride to the park and the airstrip.  I'll bet you are glad that's over!  Me too. Two flights.  First back north to Nairobi.  Remember Wilson Airport?  Puddle Jumper Central?  It is even busier today.  Quite the melting pot.  Then another 1 hour flight north to Ol Pejeta Conservancy.  Its pronounced "peh jet a".  Don't know why. Our guide for the 3 days, Duma, met us at the airstrip and we loaded up the land cruiser for a ride to camp. It was shorter, it was smoother and it wasn't nearly as dusty.  You won't have to hear anymore about that. Our tents in this camp were also excellent.  Large.  As in about 12 x 20 feet in the main room, plus a bathroom, shower and toilet area.  Much larger than a Maasai hut that would house 7 for the whole year.  The phrase "glamping" has a very clear meaning. One interesting feature of this ...

 As per usual on safari, we started before sunrise.  This is because it is cooler and the animals are more active.  We got up in the dark, flashed our big bright flashlight up the hill to request an escort and went to breakfast.  As it has been everywhere else, the food was outstanding.  Your choice of fruits, cereals, muesli, yoghurt, eggs, sausages, bacon and more.  We're all expecting to gain weight.  It is so good. Oh crap!  We have to make that hour long drive back from the conservancy to Amboseli Nat'l Park.  I'm going to bring that up every time, because I grew to hate it.  The other three were better about it and I didn't gripe too much to them (I say), but I'm going to tell you its a bad road and a bad way to start or end a day. To some degree, we repeated Day #1, except that we didn't spend much time in the really dry parts of the park and much more time around the swampy sections.  That means more animals and more variety...

 If getting there is half the journey, we're in trouble ! We flew from Livingstone to Nairobi at about 6:00 at night.  With some delays, some misery in customs and losing an hour, we got to our hotel in Nairobi after midnight, with a 6:00 am departure to another airport, Wilson Airport.  Wilson Airport is "Puddle Jumper Central".  You've never seen so many small prop planes in your life.  And they're all going somewhere different I think.   Our flight was about 45 minutes south to Amboseli, in the shadow of Kilimanjaro.  When we landed, there it was in all its glory. That's not actually the view from the airport, its a little further along, but its my favorite so I'm using it out of sequence.  Please don't bother filing a complaint with the management. You'll be wasting your time. You've probably all seen pictures of Kilimanjaro in all its glory, with a brilliant blue sky and snow covered.  That picture is actually pretty hard to get....