Horse riding training centre as we leave the camp around 7:15 this morning.

Nakuru zebra… the common zebra has wider stripes that go through from one side to other side under the belly.

We see quite a number of yellow fever trees. The trunks are “yellow” and people in the past believed that they were the cause of fever. The actual scoop is that they grow in swampy areas where mosquitos breed.

Thomson gazelle

Impala

A lion pride of 2 brothers, one female, 2 cubs plus 2 females coming down from higher up… pretty exciting

Defassa waterbucks

Lesser (more pink)and greater(less pigment) flamingos -the pelicans used to be more pink a few years ago but because of the amount of rainfall has been so great, making it more alkaline. It has diluted the water. It not only has affected the colour of flamingos, it has also caused the trees to die.

Sacred ibis

Stork swimming by

Hamerkop … likes big home/nest

Male lion killed a pumba feeding in the grass

I must say that the temperature here was much more comfortable. There is at least 5 C difference between here and Samburu. After arriving back from the safari drive the skies opened up. Got a really good downpour.

Earlier in the day with the help from one of the other people on the tour, we had wifi so we were able to get out messages that we were all safe. We were not able to post anything since Nairobi.

I keep trying to add pictures and this is as far as I got

I had sent this posting before but now that I am home and have wifi, I am adding more pictures. I have tried this way, I am finding adding one at a time very frustrating so will try another method. Bear with me.

Vervet monkeys in camp

Giraffes

Common waterbucks -male & female

Oryx

Helmeted Guinea fowl

Gerenuk standing up

4 children on back of motorcycle

School children waving like crazy

2 goats besides 2 people on motorcycle… going to market…. Lots of overloaded motorcycles

Isiolo….1 of 4 largest cities in Kenya

Houses with highway frontage- companies will pay owners of homes/shops if they can use their building to advertise.

Stopped at the equator ….. got a certificate and had lunch made by our own chef. Artist coop similar to others we has seen and like the others, the sales people are relentless

Most of food for the country is grown in the Rift Valley.

Tea 1920 introduced …3years cuttings grow into producing plant. Pruning/cutting every three years. Cut 3 leaves, process together…. Smal top is best quality, second is second quality and 3rd…3rd quality. Tea plant can produce for 70 years.

Coffee arabica

We leave for camp at 6:45. The skies are clear. I had the best sleep I’ve had since coming here. We slept in tents on the ground with just a foamy underneath us. We were told to bring sleeping bags but that was pointless. It was too hot to get into a sleeping bag. The “washrooms” are rustic to say the least. The doors are like the opening of tents. If the zipper is down all the way, it’s occupied. The showers are in the “toilet” room…. No temperature control. They are very pleasantly cool.

4 cheetah cubs and a mom. They chased after a dikdik and killed it. You could see blood on their mouth.

Reticulating giraffes galore

Grants gazelles

Female lions on the bank of the river…..later we saw 3 laying on the sand in the dry river. On the afternoon drive in the shade of a tree in the scorching heat, laid a male lion panting. You could see that he was blind in one eye. There was another not too far away but couldn’t see him very well.

Lots of elephants… some digging for water in the very dry riverbeds. The cattle egrets follow the elephants because when the elephant lifts it’s hoof, there are flies that fly away. That’s what the egrets are after.

Giraffes have no noise cuz “by the time it is expended from their chest to mouth, the sound would have disappeared”… lol!

Olive baboon… only in Samburu. Gerenuk …. Giraffe gazelle- stand up on hind legs

At one point there must have been 20 safari vehicles chasing an elusive leopard across the Savannah. One person had seen it jump down from a tree and then the search was on racing here there and everywhere. It was reminiscent of a sports game…..”he’s got the puck, down the ice he races, he shoots, ooooh….he misses”.

We asked about what the law was around gun ownership. Strictly controlled. No one is allowed to own just because.

We have wifi right at this moment but I’m having a lot of difficulty downloading pictures to this phone. I may send less at a time.

Up at 5:30. How to shower in scolding hot water? We were barely able to stand it. Then it’s down for breakfast for 6:30. We are supposed to leave at seven but we’re actually on the road at 7:15. Pretty good I’d say.

There 6 million people in Nairobi… huge! Part of the reason there as many people as there are is that there are lots of migrants that come from the villages because they don’t have employment at their home villages. They come in search of work. They come into the city and then compete with the locals. The locals that have been educated and professions can’t find work in their fields, work at the menial jobs the the migrants work at, for a lower pay… just to survive. There are lots of pop-up “car washes” with just a bucket and hose, along the the highway. Anyway to make a buck.

We noticed many trees along the highways. John says that they are eucalyptus …..used for power poles. They are absolute poker straight. If somebody has a large piece of property they will grow them as a way of making money. The problem with growing eucalyptus is they will suck any moisture there is out of soil. They need lots of water. Some village chiefs will say “no” to growing them at all cuz they will deplete the water supply.

As we get further out of Nairobi you see vegetable stands, nursery plants. A little further they are sell charcoal for cooking.

At several rest stops where they had art co-ops …..unbelievably beautiful carvings of all different mediums stone, ebony, teak….you name it.

At one point we passed by Mt. Kenya (5199 metres) but unfortunately it was shrouded in clouds. The further we travel, the warmer and dryer it gets. Hydro power it the source of electricity here in Kenya. We stop near the equator (at Nanyuki) for snacks and drinks …..enough for next 2 days.

Potatoes being sold along the road. Huge number of massive greenhouses used for growing flowers for export. Lots of sheep and goats grazing along the road.

Huge wheat fields like in Canada.

At one point our driver pulled over…. Said he had to “check the pressure”. What he and our CEO (guide) wanted to do was take a pee…… good one, lol!

In Isiolo there was a medical college, airport, huge outdoor market. Gas is cheaper here… about 1.82/L. In Nairobi I think it was 1.97. Still very expensive I would say for here. There is also a school of military engineering.

We stopped at a “Samburu” tribal village. The Samburu are nomads. They live on the blood that they milk from the animals mixed with milk from their animals and meat (no camel blood or donkey).

Usually they spend only 2 years in one place but they have been here for 6 year cuz there is a school nearby. The women “build” the homes, the men use the spear and knife to protect the village and their animals. Some leave the village for other work.

They have now been 6-8 months without rain. There are about 250 in village…..most don’t speak English. Only men are allowed to light fires. The women can then use that single fire to start their own to cook, etc.

the village is very close by, from where we enter the Samburu national park. It’s late but do an afternoon safari drive.

We see:-

-Digdigs, spring-loaded tiny antelope. It’s hard to get pictures of these.

-Giraffes

-Lions can have 4-6 cubs. They have a 3 month gestation period. We spotted 2 females laying on the sands of the “River” …..that has not a drop of water in it.

Females live to 20 years, males only 15 years.

It is actually Sept 6th today. I am going to try catching up on my blogs

We said goodbye to everyone this morning. They were all so very nice and accommodating. We gave Mfaume all the wine we had not consumed including one unopened. We left the hotel around 8:45 heading to the airport arriving at just after 9.

Our driver told us that schools are painted white and blue for primary like their uniforms are and white and black for secondary.

We arrived at the airport in plenty of time but the hoopla that goes along with check-in, showing passports and visas, security, forms to be filled in for immigration….. OMG a little nerve-racking but still in good time (about 10am, for the planes scheduled departure at 11:05…. “On time” it says as we sit down on the departure lobby. It still said “on time” at 1:30pm and no plane in sight. Finally ……we are on “a” plane…. one they chartered that apparently has 2 less seats. (I guess two people had to stay back). The time is 3:30pm. OMG…. it’s been an exercise in patience. I wonder what happened to the other plane.

Sorry but no pictures today. It’s hard to take pictures when you only get to see the inside of a departure “lounge”.

We got a van taxi …..after all we are 5 plus luggage. We were driven to the Heron Portico Hotel. It looks quite a bit better than the last one. Of course we are late for our “briefing” with our CEO (chief experience officer John) and the rest of the group we will be travelling with. Some are still there in the dining room so got to introduce ourselves. Terrible food and very slow service.

There are 2 gals from Idaho, 1 from Oregon, 1 guy from New Jersey byway-of Jamaica , 1 from Ghana, 1 gal from Bulgaria living in Frankfurt, 1 man from India, 1 from the UK and us 5 gals from Victoria, Canada. The first 7 will only be with us for the Kenya camping part. When we get to Uganda there will probably be others joining us to see the chimpanzees and THE MOUNTAIN GORILLAS.

We are all okay. Nothing bad has happened to us. I just want to let everyone know that we have had no wifi for several days and won’t for a few more days. Someone let me use their data so was able to post this.

Incidentally we have seen mega animals… OMG! Wish you we here to see them all.

Our guide met us at the hotel just after 8:45. Then we were walked through the crazy maze of alleys to the car which was short distance away. It was amusing watching I don’t know how many cars, maneuver out of this extremely difficult spot.

We motored out on a traditional dhow, to Kwale Island, an uninhabited island. It is one of the many that dot these gorgeous turquoise seas.

We snorkelled around this island for a couple of hours (I was unable to take any photos of the undersea life…..the water was murky) plus stopped at a sand bar for a while. While there I noticed a very small starfish floating in the water. When I turned it over I noticed that its tiny “tentacles” we moving so I threw it back. Originally I thought I would take it because it was unusual. Our guide later found a couple more very unusual ones.

The guides took the boat to a lagoon that could not be entered until the tide had reached a certain level. As we sat in the lagoon, the waters just poured in. It was very cool with all the rocky foundation of islets. On one rock someone had put a giant clam……a little too far to see it clearly. Apparently the lagoon is surrounded by mangroves but I could not see them.

From there we went to another small island to have lunch. After lunch we were taken to see the apparently oldest Baobab tree in the world. It is 500 years old but 72 years ago it fell but has since continued to grow. What we saw initially, which was huge, were its roots. The tree has since grown at right angles to the trunk.

On the return journey, the guys put up the sail. What a nice way to end the day out on the ocean. Because it was very choppy when we returned (perfect for sailing, we had to come ashore at a different spot. It was interesting trying to get out of this dhow to a smaller motor launch to the rocky (like lava rock) shore.

We returned to the hotel somewhere around 5 and just relaxed after getting cleaned up. Tomorrow we fly to our next stop….the first of our real adventures. The last 4 days were to recover from the flights getting here, in an amazing place on the ocean.

In yesterdays post I mistakenly said the Sunset Bar was at Indian House. It was at the African House

Jomba, our guide tells us there is an archipelago of more than 50 islands of which one is Prison Island. Local people call Prison Island Changu Island after the fish they fish for. They are white snapper. The island was called Prison more recently after the fact the British built a prison on it.

Baobab tree … they make juice from the seeds from the fruit. Also the Tamarack tree they use to make juice

There are 130 tortoises now on the island from the original 4 ….. a gift from the Seychelles Islands. They are land turtles. It takes only 3 months for the incubation of eggs. The underside is concave for the males with humps on the their backs while the female has a flat belly and rounded shell. Males have longer tails for balance when “making out”. If you massage their necks they will stretch their necks and their legs as they are relishing the treatment.

The prison was built in 1893. It was never used as a prison because of an outbreak of cholera or yellow fever as was being finished. It was then used as a quarantine station where people arriving, had to stay for about a week before being released.

Everybody has to learn Swahili language so that all the different tribes of which there are about 120, can understand each other. And then there’s those that are in the tourism industry that have also learned to speak good English with a bit of an accent.

Before heading back Pam and I were going to go for a swim in the gorgeous turquoise waters. She went but I left my bathing suit etc at the hotel. While we there on the beach there were a group of gals on what seemed to be a girls trip. Oh my they were having too much fun especially a couple of them….flinging themselves into the water.

The trip back to Stone town of only about 1/2 hour was just a wee bit choppy, dousing us all, especially the two in the front.

Later we ventured to the Sunset Bar at the Indian House, to watch the sun go down as we ate dinner

We were off to good start….lol. The first of our flights was about 45 minutes late in leaving Victoria. It was a beautiful and sunny day although the skies were filled with smoke. I had trouble seeing the islands between YYJ and YVR from the air.

To get better, “whole” pictures, click on each to enlarge, please.

We had requested assistance when we checked in. We were all so glad. It was so far from our arrival gate to the departure gate in YVR. We are all a fine bunch. One has sciatic problems, and other asthma and me numerous aches and pains (I always use poles when walking more than 100 feet). Another of the group has major spinal problems (she didn’t ask for assistance) so…..the extra help was greatly appreciated.

Next flight (on Air France)was only about 20 minutes late. Nice BIG plane….probably close to 400 passengers.

We arrived in Paris….now it is the 28th. Getting between terminals at the Paris airport (CDG), and again we are so grateful for assistance. They got us through sneaky passageways, to the head of the line at security and a bus to the other terminal…..amazing! OMG we would never have made it without their assistance.

Next flight to Zanzibar, again on Air France is almost as long as the other to Paris. Marilyn, Linda and I managed to doze off a wee bit but not nearly enough. Again the assistance came at the airport……got us through immigration and security licking split. There was Pam waiting patiently for us, thank you Pam (who had been on tour in South Africa’s Kruger NP), along with a “transfer” to our hotel. That was interesting trying to get to our hotel in Stone Town through the maze of “streets” that are really just crooked alleys. How were are going to find our way around should be interesting!

A change of rooms once we got to our hotel…because one room had some kind of issue, took a little finagling but got it all figured out……Pam, i thank you again. My very huge king sized bed was so high off the ground that i have to use a stool to get in but when I hit the pillow (around 11pm, i think), it was lights out ….till 10 am.

August 29/23 after which included breakfast on the top of 6 floors…with no elevator, we went in search of and found a recommended restaurant called the “Sunset Bar”. What a spectacular view of the beautiful turquoise ocean….wow! From there we wandered along the main road adjacent to the waterfront of this protected town with buildings from the 18th and 19th centuries with Swahili, Indian, Arabic and European (Portuguese) influences.

Some people seem to be having trouble getting connected …..some I am not seeing on my end so I thought I would send out another post before we head out. Also, if I see a name that doesn’t look familiar to me, I might just delete you so please let me know either by text or email or phone if you have an unrecognizable “handle”. I don’t like that someone I don’t know if following me….creepy!

For those of you that have just recently signed up to receive notice of me posting my blog, it is a good idea to click on the link “gailstraveladventures” to see it properly (like have the description of pictures under the picture horizontally. If you find the description is one letter at a time ….vertically …its kind hard to read), press the link.

I usually don’t reply to enquires on the blog esp. if it somewhat personal. If it requires a reply, I will email or text you.