Globus Kenya & Tanzania: The Safari Experience - Leaving Nairobi for Ol Pejeta
We were up and at 'em early this morning. 5:30 wake-up, 6:00 breakfast, 7:00, ready to go. But we didn't go. Instead, we had roughly a 75-minute meeting run by Evans, our Globus Tour Director. He laid out plans for this entire journey, expectations, and so on. It really didn't need to be that long, but it was. We also met five new travelers who joined our group. We are now a group of twelve for the remainder of our journey.
We finally loaded into two Toyota Land Rovers and headed out for the 4-ish hour ride to Ol Pejeta Conservancy, where we will spend the next two nights. About two hours into the ride, we made a comfort stop at a gift store.
Once refreshed, we piled back in and continued on.
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| Our first view of Mt. Kenya - it was shrouded in clouds all day |
Along the way, we transitioned from the Southern Hemisphere, where we had been, crossing the Equator and entering the Northern Hemisphere.
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| You can see in the lower left that we were 0 degrees, 0 minutes, 0.7 seconds (or about 70 feet) south of the equator - well within civilian GPS error |
We finally arrived at the
Ol Pejeta Conservancy.
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| "Welcome" in Swahili |
We had to register with the Conservancy, and that happened online. It was everything we had come to expect with African websites - it worked poorly. Still, we all got it done and were cleared to head to Sweetwaters Serena Camp, our lodging for the next two nights.
On the way to our camp, we caught our first sighting - impala.
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| We arrived at our camp - it basically sits right on the equator, although our tent appeared to be about 1,380 feet north of the equator |
We enjoyed a buffet lunch and then settled into our tent.
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| A nice King-sized bed - they put a hot water bottle at the foot at turn-down |
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| Looking back at the "door" - we were told to keep the zipper tightly closed so things don't get in |
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| The toilet room |
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| The shower, sink, and closet |
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| This was ours - #2 |
The tent faced a water hole where various animals come all day and night to drink. They light it at night.
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| Cape buffalo |
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| Superb Starling, flying through the electric fence |
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| Yellow-billed stork and an Ibis |
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| Yellow-billed stork |
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| Grey Crowned Cranes |
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| The view from our porch |
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| Skink |
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| Common Bulbul |
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| Superb Starling |
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| Waterbuck |
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| African Striped Skink |
After getting settled, we departed at 4:00 for a game drive.
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| Hadada ibises |
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| A contortion-artist waterbuck |
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| Helmeted Guineafowl |
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| Our first African elephant in the wild |
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| Cape Buffalo |
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| Thomson's gazelles |
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| Olive baboons |
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| Hartebeasts |
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| Warthogs (pumbas in Swahili) |
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| White rhino |
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| Black-backed jackal |
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| Crowned lapwing, also known as a Crowned plover |
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| White-bellied Bustard |
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| More white rhinos |
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| Common zebras |
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| Mother and baby white rhinos |
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| Black rhinos - note the sharper horns |
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| A shy elephant |
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| Baby cape buffalo |
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| After the game drive, we returned to our tent and saw an elephant pass by |
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| They hosted a dinner under the stars for us |
We returned to our tent to settle in for the night. The water hole was noisy with birds squaking. We peeked outside and saw a group of zebras walking by.
It was a good day, spotting three of the African Big 5 - elephant, cape buffalo, and rhino - both black and white. We still need to see a lion and leopard. That may not happen here in Ol Pejeta, but we're hopeful before the end of the trip.
Tomorrow will be another full day of game sightings.
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