Friday, July 12, 2024

Rhinos and Eagles





























The morning didn’t go as expected with the truck breaking down. So the 6.30 dawn game drive became a 9.30 game drive. There was a lot of frustration around it as we are here only this morning. While waiting we did runs around the campgrounds and the village.
 


Where we started the safari I was a bit sceptical about what we would see as there were people finishing their safaris. Luckily the animals were out and about still.

First up were the lions, we saw 8 of them prowling, maybe on a hunt. A pumba ran towards them, thankfully remembered in time that they are dangerous and ran away.

But we were on the lookout for rhinos as this was conservation park for them and there are rangers specially present to guard them. Driving around quite a large hyena crossed the road. We were very lucky to see four rhinos resting, we waited a little and then saw them get up and got a good view of their impressive horns.


Not too far from them we found three more adult rhinos, as we drove nearer we saw a little baby rhino sucking milk from its mother. It then walked around the area and was the cutest thing to watch.


Driving ahead we saw heaps of baboons, a few grown up babies were on their backs, reminded me of how Aanya still loves being carried!!


We then spotted some giraffes, Rothschild variety, so glad to see them thriving from only 130 of them 50 years ago. We spent some time counting ossicons to figure out if they were females (3) or males (5). 


We then had a stop at Lake Nakuru, flamingoes and pelicans galore here. They took to the sky at one point and covered the sky.


At the stop were also lots of school buses on tours. They were very excited to see tourists and we got asked for lots of photos. At one point Aanya was surrounded and I had to rescue her. 


On the way out, cars were gathered as a leopard was around but we did not see it and left as we had other things to do.

Change of trucks, the new one still has the new car smell to it, fingers crossed it doesn’t break down.


We arrived at Naivasha town in time for the boat ride at Lake Naivasha. We had a wonderful guide as our boat operator, Samuel. He was very knowledgeable along with being good at getting the Fish eagles to hunt the fish. Managed to convince Savik to throw a dead fish out for them to catch but not Aanya as she didn’t want to touch a slimy fish!


We spotted a variety of birds, including 4 kingfishers on a tree that represented our family, the kids then spent time dissing  each other about their respective kingfisher representatives. 


We also saw buildings, flower farms and power lines that had gone under in the floods and now abandoned. Lots of hippos in the water including a baby, they can hold their breath for 6-8 minutes at a time and our the number one killer of humans in Africa.


As we got off the boats we saw black and white Colobus monkeys jumping on the trees. They have gorgeous tails and I was surprised that I had never seen or heard of them.


At dinner we had a visitor- a hippo came to the fence (it’s an electric fence), we got to see one up close and personal. 


Not a great start to the day but all is well that ends well. 

No comments:

Post a Comment