Africa 2022

 Early wake up call.  This is the view, over my coffee cup, from the room. Its beautiful, but its also time to go.  Water, camera, and an insulated poncho and we're ready to explore.  As I intimated earlier, we have only a short distance to go.  Within 10 minutes, we have found a lion pride.  There were about a dozen cats, from youths to adult females spread across the savannah.  The most interesting group were initially poking around in a hole. There was obviously something there, but they never dug it out.  Later (an hour or more later), it would turn out that it was a warthog in the hole.  He had backed down into the hole and the only thing we could see was his snout, complete with some razor sharp tusks.  No wonder lion cubs couldn't get him out.   This led to cheering from Sue.  If I haven't imparted just how much Sue enjoys warthogs, let me try.  She calls to each one by name.  The name comes from Lion King...

 Up early.  Catch another 12 seater from Ol Pejeta to Ol Seki.  Probably a couple of stops.  I honestly can't remember.  The flights are blurring together and happily they are all basically the same.  Put on a face mask.  Climb in the back, bend way over to get to your seat, what with the 4 1/2 foot ceiling and the 1 foot wide aisle.  Sit down, buckle up.  Listen to the pilot's safety message.  It is very short.  And you're off.  45 minutes, you're coming down.   We were met by Mike, our guide for the next 3 days.  The good news began right there.  The ride to the camp would be 10 minutes.  Not the 40 - 75 minutes we had been experiencing.  This was welcome news. The schedule at Ol Hemingway was 6:00 wake up call, including a coffee tray 6:30 departure 8:30 breakfast in the bush 10:00 return to camp 1:30 lunch 4:00 departure for evening drive 7:00 return from the drive 7:30 dinner rinse / repeat Af...

Yesterday's sunrise was such a smashing success that we were all enthused about another one.  We didn't find quite as dramatic a setting as yesterday, but it was still beautiful. After that, we headed out to the plains.  First we had to cross the river.  It came with this warning. I really enjoy that sort of thing.  This little bit of cleverness brought to you by Ol Pejeta. As we drove around looking for the first big thing of the day, we came across these fellows, just waiting for something to die. Not all that far down the road, we found that their brothers fondest wish had been fulfilled. About now, please allow me to set the stage.  Do you happen to recall our first day out at Inyati in South Africa?  We saw a leopard mother and cub, frolicking on a rock by the riverbed.  It was awesome.  And John said to all of us "I don't see how you can top this". Since then we've seen a leopard kill hung in the tree, hippos and elephants of all manner, lio...