9:21 On the road now to Samburu. Should be 3ish hours I think. I guess I had my first proper game drive experience at Ol Pejeta which is a private conservancy or something along those lines I was told. When we arrived we went straight into a drive with the intent to check in later.
10:26 I guess this is the part where I wish it were easier to look at my pictures while typing this since it's hard to take about the game drive in proper sequence without it. Basically what the drive is is driving though the reserve's many paths and hoping you'll see interesting things. So that's what we did. Notable highlights during that drive were seeing a herd of rhino sort of chase away a lioness and her cub (seeing the lions also a highlight), at some point I took a short video but they were passing right behind the car and I got scared so I sat down. Also got to see a black rhino up close they keep in an isolated area because he's blind and would not be able to survive in the wild as it were. Got to feed him some bamboo and everything! Felt bad for the fellow because he seemed to have two relatively fresh wounds on his side which was coated with mud and a literal mat of flies. Saw a giraffe, zebra, buffalo, water backs? Antelopes of various names, some gazelles, warthog, a couple of elephants, and other assorted wildlife. Also got to see a couple of chimps at a sanctuary they keep for rescued chimps. One thing I realized is how nice optical zoom would have been for picture taking, digital zoom can only do so much unless animals right next to me. Also discovered black rhinos only have that name to differentiate then form white rhinos which in turn only have their name from mishearing 'wide' rhino in reference to their snout.
After that we were dropped off at the lodge for lunch and a break. Lunch was that buffet style thing again. One thing that seems to be the norm here is that the buffet is included but drinks are charged separately, and I don't mean like alcohol, just any drink. Walked around lounge area a bit, it has a watering hole right next to it, and was generally very pretty. It was my first experience with a tented camp which I don't know if this place is representative of. It was very nice inside the tent with a luxurious looking bed, plugs and a ceramic floor tiles bathroom.
11:13 Small interjection from gas pitstop. I'm really terrible at handling people trying to sell me things. Someone tried to get me to buy some bracelets while we were filling up and was very insistent. "just for promote", "something little to get some coca cola", aaaah, I'm so bad at saying no even though I managed to get him to go away by giving him one of those free pens you get from events. In retrospect I forgot I don't have other pens so I'll have to procure one since they're good to have for airports. Anywho, back to the events since it seems this pit stop might go long due to an issue with one of the tires.
After the break we went out for another game drive hoping to catch more lions (unfortunately we didn't, spoiler) though we did see a a bunch more of the other animals. Seeing herds just doing their thing is very cool. One thing I'll have to do if I come back is make sure it's the dry season or that El Niño isn't wreaking havoc on expected rainfall because so many of the tracks were tricky or not really passable. The highlight of the second drive was definitely towards the end where we were almost enveloped by an elephant herd, they were sooo close. At one point a female elephant was standing right in front of the car staring us down, kind of spooky in retrospect. The driver said just being quiet was enough because unlike makes the female ones are less likely to try and assert themselves against something our size. Whew! That level of closeness was pretty great.
We eventually went back to lodge, where I walked around a bit until it was dark, got ready for dinner and was a bit startled that a couple of rhinos were just chilling by the watering hole. Dinner unfortunately had a new selection of desserts which meant I had to try them all again. After dinner not much to do, so since this time wifi kind of worked I read some Manga (Pandora Hearts, very good recommendation!) and passed out around 10? Something around that. I tried to catch sunrise again this time waking up at 6 but was too late again qq, so if the next place has a good view I'll do 5:30. Then breakfast (tree tomato juice not bad) and check out. Now on road to Samburu again and should be around 20 mins away~
Should have been less lazy and done this yesterday so I could attack pictures since I have some good ones, oh well.
10:26 I guess this is the part where I wish it were easier to look at my pictures while typing this since it's hard to take about the game drive in proper sequence without it. Basically what the drive is is driving though the reserve's many paths and hoping you'll see interesting things. So that's what we did. Notable highlights during that drive were seeing a herd of rhino sort of chase away a lioness and her cub (seeing the lions also a highlight), at some point I took a short video but they were passing right behind the car and I got scared so I sat down. Also got to see a black rhino up close they keep in an isolated area because he's blind and would not be able to survive in the wild as it were. Got to feed him some bamboo and everything! Felt bad for the fellow because he seemed to have two relatively fresh wounds on his side which was coated with mud and a literal mat of flies. Saw a giraffe, zebra, buffalo, water backs? Antelopes of various names, some gazelles, warthog, a couple of elephants, and other assorted wildlife. Also got to see a couple of chimps at a sanctuary they keep for rescued chimps. One thing I realized is how nice optical zoom would have been for picture taking, digital zoom can only do so much unless animals right next to me. Also discovered black rhinos only have that name to differentiate then form white rhinos which in turn only have their name from mishearing 'wide' rhino in reference to their snout.
After that we were dropped off at the lodge for lunch and a break. Lunch was that buffet style thing again. One thing that seems to be the norm here is that the buffet is included but drinks are charged separately, and I don't mean like alcohol, just any drink. Walked around lounge area a bit, it has a watering hole right next to it, and was generally very pretty. It was my first experience with a tented camp which I don't know if this place is representative of. It was very nice inside the tent with a luxurious looking bed, plugs and a ceramic floor tiles bathroom.
11:13 Small interjection from gas pitstop. I'm really terrible at handling people trying to sell me things. Someone tried to get me to buy some bracelets while we were filling up and was very insistent. "just for promote", "something little to get some coca cola", aaaah, I'm so bad at saying no even though I managed to get him to go away by giving him one of those free pens you get from events. In retrospect I forgot I don't have other pens so I'll have to procure one since they're good to have for airports. Anywho, back to the events since it seems this pit stop might go long due to an issue with one of the tires.
After the break we went out for another game drive hoping to catch more lions (unfortunately we didn't, spoiler) though we did see a a bunch more of the other animals. Seeing herds just doing their thing is very cool. One thing I'll have to do if I come back is make sure it's the dry season or that El Niño isn't wreaking havoc on expected rainfall because so many of the tracks were tricky or not really passable. The highlight of the second drive was definitely towards the end where we were almost enveloped by an elephant herd, they were sooo close. At one point a female elephant was standing right in front of the car staring us down, kind of spooky in retrospect. The driver said just being quiet was enough because unlike makes the female ones are less likely to try and assert themselves against something our size. Whew! That level of closeness was pretty great.
We eventually went back to lodge, where I walked around a bit until it was dark, got ready for dinner and was a bit startled that a couple of rhinos were just chilling by the watering hole. Dinner unfortunately had a new selection of desserts which meant I had to try them all again. After dinner not much to do, so since this time wifi kind of worked I read some Manga (Pandora Hearts, very good recommendation!) and passed out around 10? Something around that. I tried to catch sunrise again this time waking up at 6 but was too late again qq, so if the next place has a good view I'll do 5:30. Then breakfast (tree tomato juice not bad) and check out. Now on road to Samburu again and should be around 20 mins away~
Should have been less lazy and done this yesterday so I could attack pictures since I have some good ones, oh well.
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