Zanzibar is beautiful. It feels like we have stepped into the set of “Death in Paradise”. Palms fig and mango trees, white sands and crystal clear blue sea.

The day started with a walk through the narrow, winding streets of Sonee Town. Stone Town is gorgeous. Population is mostly Muslim so prayers ring out throughout the day.

Stone Town is a rabbit warren of very narrow streets, shared by pedestrians, motorbikes, bicycles and cats alike. For a gorgeous seaside town it is interesting that we haven’t seen or heard a single bird.

There is a mix of restored and derelict buildings so we are seeing the potential for renovation everywhere and dreaming of life change. We opted to navigate ourselves rather than take up one of the many (aka hundreds) of offers from local guides. All greet you with handshake and introductions, and Rogers name seemed to catch on – so after our 6 hours walking round town they were greeting us like long lost friends as we turned every corner.

Our walk very quickly turned into a bit of a shopping spree- basketry and rush mats were stunning (there is a little place in Hong Kong that will be looking much brighter).

The weather is incredibly hot but dry heat so not too draining (at least not for the first 4 hours) nonetheless we were forced to take refuge in numerous coffee houses- it’s a tough job but someone has to do it……

First stop (round first corner from the hotel) was in a beachside cafe where we sat under a massive fig tree on the beach, feet in the sand, watching the local boatmen repair their boats and touting for business.

Zanzibar Coffee house was our absolute fave, best coffee and possibly the best pizza we have ever eaten.

Visited the old Slave Markets. We had a guided tour from a lovely young man (uni student) who reminded us that slavery is still prolific in the world today albeit with a different face- a sobering thought.

Returned to our rooms at 4pm utterly exhausted, to hibernate for a few hours before visiting the night markets in the relative cool.

After much scientific discussion (on my part) the three boys agreed to eat in a restaurant rather than partake in the pre-cooked delicacies from the street stalls.

Tomorrow will tell if that was a good decision….

Well the time has come to say goodbye to Kenya (temporarily for David and I) – can’t believe how quickly the time has gone.
We left the beautiful Ngulia Lodge early after watching the sunrise and keeping an eye on the waterhole all night, and safaried our way back to Nairobi, just in the nick of time to catch our late evening flight to Zanzibar.

Arrived in Zanzibar late. Hotel is a fantastic old ‘Arabic’ style hotel. The rooms are absolutely beautiful and right on the beach – we need to find out more about the building, it’s incredible.

Writing this blog at midnight in a cafe right on the beach surrounded by old style fishing boats one of which has a sign in it “ladies free”.

Arrived in Ngulia Lodge at about 1.30pm, having travelled through Kyulu (chewloo) hills, sheathed in large expanses of Sheteni lava.

Had our first flat tyre of the tour on the lava -the team pitched in to change it (well Rog supervised).

Just got back on the road, literally 10 minutes later and we had another flat – the replacement tyre had jolted off the car earlier in the week and must have been damaged. This time Cyrus and David did the tyre change while Ryan, Rog and I stood watch for “anything that might eat us”. With me armed with a machete, Ryan armed with his camera tripod and Roger ready to kill with his bare hands.

Both spare tyres now used, so fingers crossed we don’t have another flat tomorrow!
Ngulia Lodge is set on a hillside with spectacular views of the valley below (which is a rhino sanctuary). The lodge is built on the edge of a busy water hole with a steady flow of animals day and night.

At 6.30 each night they leave meat in a tree and leopards come down to feed. Tonight one leopard came and stayed for over an hour gnawing away – all within a few metres of us- huge, healthy, handsome, sleek and just a bit scary.

As I’m writing this, sitting in the open pavilion, two enormous buffalo are grazing within 10 feet of me. I don’t think we will go to bed tonight- too much to see.
Feeling just a little bit sad that tonight is our last night in Kenya. Still some game to see on the way back to Nairobi and flying to Zanzibar tomorrow

Sitting at the bar having watched the sunset, exhausted after a fantastic full day out on the volcanic plains of Ambossili. Animals galore and masses of elephants.

Road blocks of a different kind today


We all fell in love with little ‘Elvis’ (as we have called him) the baby elephant. He was within a few feet of us- Mum seemed pretty relaxed but we stayed firmly on the ‘right’ side of him- I’m sure we’d be pancakes if we’d tried getting between them.

Had picnic lunch on top of ‘ Mini Killi’- a short climb to the observatory which revealed fabulous views of the plains dotted with animals.

Being so close to so many animals and so many types of animals is an extraordinary experience.
The landscape is fierce here- a dust bowl with dust tornadoes (ambosellis) with lush oases around which the animals gather and elephants, buffalo and hippos wallow.

We left our Nairobi hotel at a respectable 7.30 and headed east towards Kilimanjaro. Traffic was quite light and roads were tar sealed!!!!

Our first bathroom stop was 5 minutes down the road (one might ask why the culprits didn’t go before they left). After that had few stops.

The first stop was at a police road block – these have made for interesting experiences over the last couple of days- licenses get checked and requests for ‘compulsory donations’ are made- Cyrus is a tough nut to crack and successfully declined all offers to ‘donate’.

Stopped at a Masai village at the foot of Kilimanjaro – they put on a real show for us with welcome ceremony (with Rog & I invited to participare!). We couldn’t quite jump as high, but gave it our best shot. Roger had the facial expressions off pat. The medicine man introduced us to natural cures- including one for snoring (so I might slip some into David’s tea tonight). We also met the chief who told us he had two wives and seven children. They live in round mid houses that are constructed by the women (it takes about a month to build a house).

We had a sumptuous lunch at our lodge (Senterim Amboseli) then finished the day with a safari through the plains at the base of Kilimanjaro. When we arrived we could only see the very top of the mountain peeping above the clouds. By sunset the clouds had cleared. Sunset was exquisite.

Birds and elephants are the main feature of this park – we saw flocks of ostriches and large herds of elephants and their babies.

Tomorrow we climb the mountain (well a little way).

Cyrus’ lesson in Bush medicine for cars:
1. You can’t stop- you have to keep going – in Africa there is no mobile mechanic
2. If your windscreen wipers break down put soap on the windscreen- the water slides off (we tried it- it worked)
3. If your radiator develops a leak add tea leaves or curry powder to the radiator both will form a seal over the hole (we didn’t need to try this one so happy to take Cyrus’ word for it)- you can get either of these in any shop in Kenya.

Another day on the road heading back towards Nairobi, in transit to Amboseli (eastern Kenya)

Only two main stops- the first at our now favourite coffee shop (the only take-away coffee we’ve found).


The second was at Lake Naivasha, a fresh water lake in Nakuru County, north-west of Nairobi.

Here we did a boat safari on a motorised canoe- most exciting find was a pod of about 10 hippos that we got within about 10-15 metres. Had our first experience of the hippo snort for this trip.

Bird life was amazing – loads of fish eagle, pelicans and some tall storky things (Cyrus feel free to help us out here)



Saw our first (few drops) of rain, which helped to dampen the dust a little. Traffic into Nairobi was interesting to say the least!

Heading off early again tomorrow- not sure if we will have internet or not.

Day 1
In Africa anything is possible- this is our new mantra

Cyrus gave us a sleep in this morning, leaving at 6.45, heading south towards the Masai Mara.

The journey was a bit of an off-road adventure, with corrugated dirt roads that would shake your teeth out.

They certainly shook everything else out- about 2/3 of the way there our brake line snapped- fortunately we were just a few hundred metres from a small Masai village with a very resourceful mechanic (luckily an uphill drive so we didn’t need breaks to get there). About half an hour later we were back on the road jolting away.

The trip into the camp was pretty amazing- literally a maze of dirt tracks going in every direction with no signage or anything we could see to differentiate them. Somehow Cyrus managed to navigate through the maze to get us here in time for a late (4pm lunch) and then get us back out again to the game park to see the animals.

The Masai live in small villages within the Mara along with the wild animals. Amazing to see them walking around on foot while we huddle safely in our vehicles.

Had our first sighting of wilderbeast and the black rhino. But spent most of our time in the park gazing at a pride of 10 plus lions waking up from their daytime sleep ready to hunt. The lionesses were HUGE, and made eye contact with us several times- very glad to be in the safety of our truck.

Drove back as the sun set. We did heed this warning….

Day 2:
Another big day today. R & R headed off for their balloon flight at 4.50 (yes Roger did get out of bed at 4). They were driven for about an hour into the Mara to meet the balloon crew. They found it a bit of a challenge to get into the basket but two Masai warriors ably slotted Roger into his spot.

The pilot guided the balloon up to 1000 feet to give spectacular views of the sunrise and the migrating wilderbeast. Then hovered down low just over the animals- lions, rhino, buffalos and cheetahs chasing wilderbeast.

While they were up in the air, David and I explored from the ground. Highlights were:
Driving through huge herds of wilderbeast – such pre-historic looking creatures. 7 cheetahs (including 2 snacking on a tasty fresh wilderbeast), 2 male lions, an albino zebra, and an attempted zebra cfossing – just when we thought they would cross they changed their minds- mind you I’d be a bit shy about jumping into a river full of crocodiles too.

The Mara is 600 square kilometres of long flat plains spotted with acacia trees -some low bushes but those that arethere may have lions under them- which makes the bush bathroom quite an experience- especially for the ‘mama’ in the group….

Today was Cyrus’ birthday, we were joined by our two young Italian friends Elizabetra and Marcos (doing a parallel safari). We had a cake and all the staff sang. Fabulous!

Today started and ended with a bang. We got up early, had a quick breaky and set off at 6.30 for Lake Bagoria. The flamingos were nothing short of extraordinary. There were literally thousands of them chattering away, bright pink legs reflecting in the water and flying in amazing formations.
Getting up early paid off as we had the place to ourselves and were able to creep down closer to the waters edge and get really close. Ryan and David took about a million photos and videos – Roger picked up feathers.

Literally had to drag ourselves away- it was the most beautiful thing we had ever seen.

Picnic lunch on the equator en-route back, with a visit to the local craft shops (all 17 of them). A pretty amazing group of women with the most gorgeous little children.

Ended the day with a couple of hours in the Lake Nakuru game reserve, ticking off animals on our must see list. Highlights were the Rothschild giraffe (dark markings & white socks), a (very fast moving) hyena, the Thompson’s gazelle, more white rhinos and zebras, a couple of sleeping lionesses, and the piece de resistance- an adult male lion who strode across the road right in front of us.

Arrived back at the lodge 13 hours after leaving this morning, dusty, exhausted all agreeing that we’d had a wonderful day.

Obviously the female of the species is more resiliant[/caption]
No. One sign for the day

Long 8 hour drive from Sambaru to Lake Elementia but great to drive through the local towns and villages and see the real Kenya.
Very glad that we weren’t the ones doing the driving however, with a mix of roads including some Tarmac, dirt roads and some full of potholes and sand.

Lots of unique advertising slogans along the way- our top 4 were:
1. “Show us your metal”
2. “If you like it Crown it”
3. “Salon Beauty and Meat”
4. “Shuggies”
There will be a small prize for anyone who correctly guesses the products sold in each of these businesses.


We had a brief stop at Thompson Falls on the Ewaso Ng’iro River, beside an old colonial home – now hotel with beautiful gardens – great place to stretch our legs.

We are now at our next home away from home – the Senterim Lake Elementia Lodge. Gorgeous cabins right on the edge of the lake, with lovely views.

Tomorrow we are off to see the flamingos!

No we weren’t eaten by lions! We have been out of phone and internet for a while so no blog for a few days- a couple of posts to catch up on. Internet still not strong so having trouble uploading pics- so if you want visuals, sorry, will add ASAP.

Day 1:
Left the beautiful Sweetwater Camp at 6.30 to head north to Sambaru. Less than than 1km Down the road we were stuck by nature at its most incredible and terrible. A giraffe fending off a pride of 9 lions who had killed her baby. After an hour of kicking and spitting the lions backed off- we like to think that they didn’t come back, but didn’t stick around to find out. There is now a special place in our hearts for ‘Lucy’ the giraffe (or so we have named her).


The drive north saw some interesting transitions in geography and climate. We left the relatively lush, red-earth terrain, through agricultural areas that included corn and wheat crops and huge glass houses for vegetable farming, into increasingly arid, baron and rocky areas.

The Sambaru Park is in central Kenya, on the main highway to Ethiopia. It is currently in drought (no rain since last year) so very dusty, sandy and dry.
Our camp Sambaru Sentrim is in the Sambaru game park on the banks of a (croc infested) river which has water and so is a haven for wild life and grazing animals (goats & camels).

It also hosts the ‘special 5’ – the grevy zebra (with dominant white rather than black stripes) the Gerenuk gazelle (very tall & long necked) the reticulated giraffe (special pattern but we think all giraffes are special, the oryx (antelope with long straight horns) and the chetah. We saw 4/5 just on the way in. Also impressive were the Somali Ostrich (famous for its blue legs) and the dic dic (the chiuoua of the deer world).

Weather is very hot up here (well into the 30s and dry). Luckily it cools a little at night, but still tough sleeping. We are limited in how much we can open up for airflow because of mozzies. Our little cabin is very cute and has great mozzie nets over the bed, so we sleep in out net cocoon.

Day 2
Set off at 6am with packed breakfast to try to catch animals before they hunkered down in the heat.

A long drive along the river was really fruitful – big herds of giraffe and zebra, a huge array of deer and antelope and
a quick glimpse of a leopard.

We stopped for a bush breakfast of boiled eggs, cheese sandwiches, banana and mango juice, then headed for a Sambaru village where locals put on a traditional dance ceremony (with Naomi taking one for the team and joining in- sorry no pics allowed)
Arrived back at camp at 2 hot, dusty and ready for our hearty lunch (beef stew) and a long afternoon siesta.
Cold showers are the only relief from the heat. Showers are shared with very cute little geckos- or so we thought, until Cyrus told us that geckos love to chew tooth brushes! This was enough to send R&R scurrying to their cabins to secure brushes.
Finished the day with a late afternoon cuppa by the river, and camp fire. If we were any more relaxed we’d be unconscious.