Day 14 - Lions, Tigers and Bears, well Lions anyways

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A personal wake up call at 5:45 (the tents don’t have telephones) to start off the day, along with the sounds of birds chirping, etc. A quick cup of tea and the 3 of us were off for our morning game drive. Today we had Anthony. We thought William had been a good guide, knowing where the rhino was, saving the lion for last, but Anthony was much more talkative and told us more about the park and the animals. Right outside the lodge gate was a herd of elephants. Good morning. We saw a lot of the same animals - zebras, wildebeests, a Hart beast which apparently is hard to get a good shot of because they turn away and show the “backside of Africa” but we got some head shots, some topis, some water buck, different birds, a mongoose. We checked out a lot of areas, looking for prides of lions, but only found one lonely female. Heather was a little disappointed, but there’s always the afternoon drive, and we were pretty cold and hungry by 9. It’s mighty chilly out here in the morning, and then add the wind from driving with no windows. Breakfast closes at 9:30, but we arrived just in time.

We all went our separate ways - Todd had some computer work to do and then had a massage booked. Heather loves the gift shop and wanted to walk around. I headed back to the tent to do some relaxing and journal writing. I then had a snooze, and woke up sweaty, as it heats up in these tents pretty quickly. I stole the computer from Todd’s tent and did some blogging, then Heather and I went for a quickie swim in the pool before our afternoon game drive.

This one was again with Anthony, the other couple that had arrived with us, and a lady named Noreen from Australia who Heather had actually met at the lodge view point earlier in the day. We didn’t really find anything new. A large herd of elephants with a baby. We watched them for a time. Found a couple lions in the distance with a lot of white vans driving off road going to look at them. In our opinion, they were getting WAY too close and should have all been fined. Lions enjoy their privacy too you know. Came across three young lions much closer to the road, we could get right up to them. They just laid, snoozing in the sun, looking at us occasionally, not really concerned about anything. We went looking for the rhino but couldn’t find anything. Finally we started heading back to the lodge.

Afternoon game drives are nice because there are more animals to see, but there are so many more safari vehicles. Everywhere you look, there’s a land rover or a minivan on the horizon or cruising across the plain. It kind of takes away from the majestic nature of the park, but what can you do? Noreen was very enthusiastic and excited to see the animals. The other couple though were making me question - they each had their cell phones and were talking to people or sending text messages periodically. They’d left their camera charger at home so could only take a few pictures on their cell phones. They didn’t have binoculars, and he was wearing a T-shirt and shorts. That’s fine and dandy, but he was freezing by the time we got back to the lodge. If he’s been out here 10 times, why isn’t he prepared??? Heather and I learned after one drive that you bring warm clothes.

Nice supper again, but no Maasai entertainment so we had an early night. Most of our early nights I go to sleep early, but Todd and Heather stay up late, either writing blog entries or playing crib. Tonight I think they went to bed early. It’s been a busy couple of weeks and it’s starting to take it’s toll. So since Todd’s not using the computer, I’m staying up late to catch up on all my blog entries. I tried to use the Business Centre to post some, but the only computer available didn’t read memory cards, and it was really close to closing time. So I’m just finishing up and then it’s time to sleep for another early morning game drive.

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