Dec 26 - 27 - On to the game parks

In many parts of the world, Sunday is celebrated as Boxing Day.  Search the Internet for details.  We were on the road to our game safari and were on dirt roads a lot of this time.  We were picked up at 6:30 this morning and are on our way.   We have a van for the five of us that gives us plenty of room to stretch out. 

Dirt road we took leaving Diana Beach

The first half of the road was dirt but was fairly good with an occasional slow down to a creep to avoid all of us bouncing out of our seats and hitting the ceiling.  Somehow when you are on dirt roads you have not been on before with very few signs there is the feeling of being lost and wondering where the driver is taking you.  The ladies were laughing at me for typing this blog while we are riding on these roads but interestingly if your hands are resting on the computer, most of the time everything else is relative and not that difficult to type.

There is a situation we forgot to blog on but it must be preserved as part of the memories.  Last Wednesday Amanda checked her email and received an email that their flight from Nairobi to Dubai had been cancelled.  Eileen and Kim found they had the same email.  We learned the cancellation was a result of them not arriving on the flight they were originally booked on.  Our evening entertainment ended up being everyone listening in to a call on magicJack to Expedia to resolve the issue.  After a total of 45 minutes on the call with 15 minutes of being on hold while the supervisor talked to the airline, the connection was lost and we had to call back.  As usual there was a need to start over.  During this call, there was a moment of silence and when we asked if he was still there, there was a moment of further silence and we asked again.  We than received the response “Sorry, I was spacing out” and everyone listening cracked up laughing.  He than spent some time reading the record of the account and commented, “my supervisor just wrote he tried to call you back but you didn’t answer”.  When I responded that we were on the call with him, he responded with “Ah … yes, you are talking to me so you can’t answer”.  There were a few other choice parts but glad to say Expedia did get the tickets reinstated and all now appears to be fine.

Sunrise over the water hole at Ngutuni

Back to the safari...  After a short drive in the Ngutuni Sanctuary and seeing only a few animals (it was the heat of the day), we checked into the lodge about noon and had the afternoon off.  We ate lunch and than took a needed nap.  We all needed it with an early start and a jarring ride on rough roads where every core muscle was exercised due to sharp turns, quick application of the breaks to minimize the impact of bumps or potholes, and the corrugated roads vibrations.  The result of these rides is not realized until the vehicle stops, you get out and are able to stretch your legs.  This is such a relief.  Even some of the paved roads have potholes and these are more severe.

Looking for animals in the van

We went on evening and morning game drives and were able to see a good number of animals.  We are in a van with a popup top and are able to stand and look across the savannah for game.  The drive includes driving on dirt trail much of the time looking for animals.  The perception is you see them all around you but 10 minutes may go by without seeing any.  It is easy to imagine …  and likely true …  how many animals are out there looking at you but due to their camouflage we can’t see them.  

We were able to see elephant, giraffe, zebra, warthog, impala, grants gazelle, jackal, kudu, waterbuck and various kinds of monkeys.  We were told where there was a couple of Cheetah laying the grass but when we got to the location indicated, we could not find them.  Cheetah’s blend into their surroundings so well it is difficult to see them.  After 15 minutes we went on with the drive.  The biggest challenge is being able to get near them as the van in not allowed going off the road.  Just standing and being able to look for animals from that perspective gives a true feeling of being in the bush on your own.

Jan’s PS…

Eileen looking at elephant pictures she just took

First I have to say…Roger is so impressive when talking to Expedia.!  Impressive and the guy on the other line was hysterical.  We all had a great laugh at his expense and of course have repeated the phrase…oh sorry I was just spacing out for a moment…many times over.  We did have a good drive to the game park…the back roads we took that were so bumpy and full of Africa’s red dirt were much more scenic than the 2 lane highway we could have gone on.  There were many small villages or mud huts along the way and so the girls were practicing their parade waves at all the kids waving at us and running along side holding out their hands for sweets.  As we drove into the park there was a rock cropping very similar to what is in the lion king movie and so the girls were commenting on it and looking at it and taking pics etc. and then someone said look at the Impala and Amanda said “oh I thought they were plastic statues “ because they were not moving at all.  That cracked me up as we are in a game park…not touring a neighborhood where you might see something like that in someone’s yard ..ha ha.

At Ngutuni Lodge

The lodge we stayed at was very nice…with a true African feel to it.  There was a water hole near by and we could see it from where we ate our meals, which by the way were delicious.  There were not a lot of animals that came during meal time but maybe at night when we were sleeping.  Some people stay up to see them but we were all wiped out and knew we would head out in the morning at 6:30 for another game drive.  When we got up in the morning it was cool enough to want a sweater on and the sky was so clear after a hard rain in the night.  We were fortunate to see quite a few animals.  As I write we are cruising on the “highway” to Amboseli national Park where our next stop will be and more drives looking for animals.  Its so nice having Eileen, Kim and Amanda with us here..such a treat…I will write more later..