Day 1 : Monday 10th December 2018
Today's map
In the
morning we got picked up by David from Game Watchers, his vehicle was really
nice but the funny thing is that the Weston hotel is directly across the road
from airport, however we had to go down the street and round the roundabout,
then back up the street. All up we travelled about 500m to get to the
SafariLink check in area, 450m of that was going up the street and back.
When we
checked in to our flight to the Masai Mara it turned out we were the only
passengers which made me pretty happy, I said to the lady at the counter I was
going to lay the seats down and pretend I was in first class.
They give
you a coloured boarding ticket, then call up your colour (we were pink) when
it’s time to go. There were lots of people with yellow tickets all lined up at
the gate, but then the staff called us through first – the two of us walking
out to our 12 seater plane! The staff referred to us as the two VIP’s.
Whilst
the flight was short (40 minutes in total) it offers a great perspective of the
landscape when you could see it, because the plane flies pretty low 3,100m
above sea level. (ground level is about 1,500m)
After
about 10 minutes it started to rain so visibility was nil until about 10
minutes out from the Naboisho Ol Seki airstrip where we could see the savannah
and it was pretty clear that it had been pretty dry in the Masai Mara the grass
was short and brown, perfect for game viewing.
The plane and dry grass in the background
George
& Stanley met us at the airstrip… (it looks like your typical dirty road)
they told us they had buckets of rain in the last 2 days and the grass had
started to turn green almost instantly.
Because
of the last two days down pour the drive back to camp was a muddy one, with a
bit of sideways motions etc.
Our new
digs were impressive, it's glamping that has gone up a notch, they really have
thought of everything to make it a memorable stay. We had a big tent by the
creek, which included a very nice ensuite. They deliver hot water for the
showers, but I’m not sure what Lisa liked more the hot water bottles for the
bed at night or the cup of tea delivered to the tent first thing in the
morning. Yep this is real glamping.
Had lunch
with our fellow campers, 3 Canadians, and a local family of 5 and a father and
son originally from Norway (father now lives in Nairobi)
Sarah,
one of the Canadians joined us on our afternoon game drive, as a first up
effort it was pretty damn awesome to say the least.
We got to
see 3 Cheetahs, a mother and her 2 sons, just lazing about.
The cat roll
5 lions
having a nap and they were not going to get up for anyone.
We saw
some Hippos out of the water, it is quite unusual for hippos to be out of the
water before dark, clearly they were pretty happy about life.
Giraffes,
Various birds and Hyena.
Vulture
Zebra's
Dik Dik
I made
the comment that it would be hard to top today’s game watching effort, because
to see everything that we got to see is rare. As an animal watcher this was a
great afternoon’s game drive.
One of
the things that the Porini team do really well is the sundowner drinks whilst
out game watching. We stopped for drinks (G&T for me and Vodka & tonic
for Lisa) in the bush and watched the impending storm clouds approach on the
horizon.
When we
got back to camp, we had a hot shower, they filled the buckets and brought them
to our tent. It’s a bit over the top, but I like it.
Dinner
was meant to be served at 8pm so after our shower we started viewing some of
the photos when we got the call that dinner with the other campers was at 7 not
8, by 8:30pm we were ready for bed.
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