Joburg

 Tuesday 29 April

Heading home

Up at 4 am this morning as we have to catch a 6.50 flight to Zanzibar then to Dar es Salaam. Last night we were not going to have dinner, but as we were the only ones at the hotel we felt obliged to dine in the restaurant. Similarly, the night before there was 8 of us and one other family of four! Tourism has been significantly affected by Donald Trumps four week war! 

One of our drivers in Tanzania told us he does not have another booking until July and the other June!

The flights leave on time, the plane is less than half full, but we are still split up. I am sitting with Karen, Ann and Kaye are sitting together and John and Ross are sitting together. We have 20 minutes on the ground at Zanzibar, while 6 people get off but the plane fills up with new passengers. We arrive on time, have a 15 minute walk to the international terminal. It is 9 am and we find the gate for our 10.45 flight to Joburg, only to be told it has been delayed until 2.30 pm.  Lucky we were not continuing on to Sydney because we would have missed our flight!

Now have to wait around in the airport before the gates open at 11. To make matters worse the internet in this area is shit! Plus we have been screened  5 times so far and three times I have had to remove belt, watches and shoes.

We are so over airports!

We line up at 11 but nothing is happening. A young guy comes over and tells us it has been delayed further, now not departing until 4.30 pm. He takes pity on us and says he will try to get us through to the departure area where it will be more comfortable. He is able to check us in, load our luggage and give us our seat allocation. Now we have another security screening with belt and shoes off!

We find somewhere to sit and think about lunch. Find a KFC outlet, feeling a bit better after lunch. We keep checking the board and it still says 4.30, so that is a good sign. With an hour to go the guy that helped us sees us and tells us the gate has been changed so he takes us to the new gate. Boarding starts at 4.10 and we pull away at 4.45. The flight was very good the seating was 2 by 3. It lands on time 8.05 pm  but we gain an hour so it is 7.05 in Joburg.

Now passport check and luggage. By the time we get to the hotel it is 8.30. Now there is a queue of 30 people waiting to get rooms! We skip drinks and food and head to bed - it has been a long and stressful day. 

Apparently Air Tanzania has a record 58 cancellations/delays this month and the queues at the hotel were for people seeking a bed because of mixed connections!

On a brighter note we were successful in bidding for business class.

Mt Kilimanjaro Airport

 Monday 27 April.

Left our lodge at 8.30 and had a leisurely drive to Arusha where we had lunch arriving after 12.30. Had a couple of stops along the way for shopping. Arusha was a nightmare we had to drive through the market area and it was chaotic, cars, trucks, vans, motorcycles, people, tuk tuks and trolleys. Vans doubled parked, road down to one lane in places but motorbikes dodging in and out, but we made it through safely.

Had a farewell lunch with Jason and Melissa, dropped them off at their accommodation and we reached ours around 3.30. It is nearly all over, fly to Joburg tomorrow.

Photos of lion Kill

 

Photos 20 April

 Our accom at Amboseli 

Maasai starting a fire

Maasai Welcome

Leaving the Serengeti

 Sunday 26 April

Our last night in the Serengeti and now we are heading home, but first we have a game drive in the Ngoronoro caldera before we reach our accommodation at the Ngorongoro Coffee Lodge.

We leave early at 7 am and shortly after we reached the main road we saw giraffe, zebra, elephants, impala etc. After a couple of hours of African massage we start to see the beginnings of the mass migration. It is hard to explain the number of wildebeests in particular. They cross the road in front of us and on both sides of the road the numbers stretch almost to the horizon. There are masses of zebra also but the wildebeest dominate. We force our way through the mob and continue on. Then there is a lion laying down just off the road. 

There are another two massive groupings of wildebeest as well as others further out on the plains. We see another lion and then some ostriches. We eventually pass through the Nabi gate and move into another part of the Serengeti where the landscape changes from tall grass to low grass and almost no trees or shrubs. This is because the covering of soil is shallow and beneath the soil is rock.

We then enter Ngorongoro conservation area which is the outlying area of Mt Ngorongoro and here the Maasai live with their cattle and sheep and goats. Now we are starting to climb up the slopes. We reach the caldera gate about 10.30 and start our descent into the caldera. It is an amazing sight. We are half way down and we see a lion in a tree surveying the area. Once we get to the bottom the wildlife are everywhere! Cape buffalo, warthogs, gazelles, impala, elephants, hippos, rhinos and lions, as well as many colourful birds. While there is open grassland at the bottom, in some areas near the bottom of the slopes is a rain forest environment and here we find baboons. What a way to finish our tour of Tanzania.

After a very close experience with a lion resting on the side of the road we have a picnic lunch and then drive up and out of the caldera. We leave the unmade roads behind us and arrive at our accommodation around 4 pm. It is a beautiful place with lush gardens and a beautiful view out over the forests.

Tomorrow we head to Kilimanjaro airport where we will stay overnight before starting our flight to Johburg.

Serengetti

Saturday 25April

 Last night during dinner an elephant walked across in front of where we were dining, barely 50 metres from us.

Off on another game drive at 7.30. Not expecting a lot but the drivers heard lions roar last night so they think we might be lucky. We are headed to a different part of Serengeti and the landscape is markedly different. There are rolling hills, rocky outcrops and more trees and shrubs around the area. Apart from the usual animals there are a few new ones: mongoose, rock Hyrax, Hertibeest and rock antelopes and some ostriches. We find one lion high on a rock.

We continue on and the landscape changes again to the wide open plains. Our driver tells us this is the path the migration takes to reach the Maasai Mara. The usual animals are around, elephants, giraffes, topi, gazelles, impala, wart hogs and Cape buffalo, but nothing exciting happens. We get back to the camp just after 12. The weather is starting to look threatening for this afternoon. It is cool to cold in the morning but quickly warms up by 11 am.

After lunch we get a heavy shower of rain, this will make the tracks muddy and slippery for our afternoon game drive. The rains clear and we head off at 4 pm. The track is very muddy and the back is sliding around. On our drive out near our camp we see zebra, topi and impala. We reach the main road and drive slowly for 40 to 50 minutes and see giraffe and elephant and a couple of impala challenging each other. We take a turn off which leads to a hippo pool. On the way in there are impala and a pair of dik diks. We continue on and there are diks everywhere, sorry dik diks.

We get to the pool which is formed by a bend in the river and there are over 50 hippos grunting and splashing. We stay for about 20 minutes and then start back. There are more impala and dik diks. We round a bend and there are two cheetahs sitting in a muddy part of the track. We get some great photos. This is a great way to end our Serengeti game drives.

Tomorrow we start to head home via the Ngorongoro crater in which we have a game drive then head to our accommodation. It is going to be a long day.

Serengeti

 Friday 24 April

The place we are staying at is superb, we had a great view of the sunrise this morning and we had a sleep in as our game drive doesn’t start until 8 am. Better still we had hot water bottles in our bed. There is no heating or cooling in the tents.

We wonder what new adventures we will have today. We are getting on great with the Canadian couple Melissa and Jason. We decided that we would rotate our seating so that Jason and Melissa would have to put up with a different couple each day. 

The “main” road through the Serengeti is an unmade road with corrugations and deeper ruts so that you bounce along and then rock and roll in the worst areas. It is a bone rattling ride at 80 to 90 kmph! Once off the main road we are on dirt tracks which are fine when flat, but it is not flat all the time. It is dry and the vehicles create dust clouds as they go by, remember we have the roof raised so we can see out when animals are sighted.

Shortly after hitting the main road we come across elephants and giraffes, then we sight hippos and a Nile crocodile. About 70 minutes in we stop for a rest room break. We then head into the south east part of the Serengeti.

The landscape is grass plains with the occasional tree or rocky outcrop. The grass is about waist high so difficult to spot anything.  There does not seem to be much around but after 80 minutes of rocking and rolling we go to a rocky outcrop where there are a couple of vehicles stationary. There is a leopard resting in a tree but peering out over the plains. Our drive tells us it is on the lookout for prey. He moves around so he can see both sides and we get some great shots, but after 35 minutes we move on.

After a while we come across some Topi, then notice two wildebeest walking on their own, they must have missed the text message to start massing for the migration, we call them Dumb and Dumber! Further on there is a single file of 20+ zebras slowly walking along. As we near another rocky outcrop our driver thinks he saw something. It is a lioness, lying on her back in the rocks with her legs in the air. We stop to watch for a while, in the meantime the zebras keep pacing along about 500 meters from her. She raises her head and looks out, she just ignores us and the other vehicles that have arrived. She sees something and becomes very alert. She leaves the rocks and starts walking along the track we drove up on. We quickly follow as do the other vehicles. Sure enough Dumb and Dumber are walking down the track towards her, she weaves her way around some of the vehicles and heads into the long grass, she is in kill mode, the wildebeest are oblivious. She is less than 20 metres from them when they notice and turn to flee, she is on them in a flash and brings one down. She has her jaws clamped on its neck and a paw over its mouth, it is kicking wildly while on its back, but the lioness has a good piece of it. After about 5 to 10 minutes it is dead and the lioness starts to rip into its belly. Cannot believe we have now seen two kills. While watching Ann was saying go go and when I asked was that to the wildebeest she said no she was barracking for the lioness. Our driver says she is a mother and her cubs would be back in a cave in the rocks, he believes they would be too young to come and feed and are still relying on her milk.

Off we go in search of more excitement. On our way to a picnic lunch we start to see larger herds of animals. We have lunch in the middle of nowhere under a lone tree. After lunch we come across a mass herd of zebras around a watering hole and then zebras and wildebeests. The wildebeests go on forever, there are thousands of them and as we watch them cross our path, there are thousands line seems to go on forever, and this is just the gathering before the mass migration. It is starting to get late in the afternoon and it is time to head back. On the way back we see more lions resting around a watering hole and area, a hyena, giraffes, elephants, a jackal and hippos. We arrive back just after 5 pm, a long but rewarding day - again.

Have another game drive tomorrow at 7.30 am, another early start. 

I think we will need a holiday after this holiday!

Ngorongoro

 Thursday 24 April

It was raining during the night and still raining when we woke up. We also had no power so we had to shower with torches! Breakfast was average but none of us were that hungry after the dinner last night.

On the road by 7.30 and after about 500 metres we reach the start of the road to Ngorongoro caldera which is unmade road. It is a long steep twisty climb on wet unmade roads in the rain and fog. What we can see is a jungle like rainforest. 

As we get higher it gets cooler, but the rain has stopped and we are above the fog. It takes a while to get to the top and then we proceed around the rim and get great views to a depression in the caldera before we get to the bottom. It is cold and very windy. On the way up we came across a troop of baboons and as we make our way down there are occasional zebras and wildebeest not far from where the Maasai herd their cattle sheep and donkeys. The Maasai do not hunt wild animals because they believe their meat is unsuitable for their diet, so they leave them alone. However if a lion or big cat takes a cow or sheep they will hunt and kill it! Our driver tells us if a lion sees the red cloak of a Maasai warriors it will flee the area.

At the bottom, after some spectacular views we reach the edges of the Serengeti. The temperature has risen the landscape has changed to open plains. We now start to see more animals with zebras and groups of wildebeest. Then we come across nearly 20 giraffes right beside the road on each side.

As we continue further and enter the Serengeti through the Nabi gate the groups of wildebeest start to get bigger. First it was 10 or so, then in the 20s, 40s and 100s. Our driver tells us it is the start of the mass migration where they walk to the Maasai Mara along with zebras and antelopes and impala. The wildebeest will gather in the Serengeti and at some stage something will trigger their migration.

We can now see vast numbers stretching out on both sides of the road. There are thousands of them. We pull up and hundreds cross the road in front of us.

Continuing on we see a large number of zebras, 100s of them moving and walking in a waterhole. The line of them stretches for 100s of metres. The other driver believes he has seen a lion and sure enough we can see a lioness lying in the grass about 20 metres from the zebras, at least 100 of them milling around in the waterhole.  We see two more lions who also appear to be lying in wait. The zebras are uncertain what to do the lions are in their way and with the ones pushing up from the back there is quite a crowd forming up. 

Then there is a stampede as the zebras start to run in the opposite direction, the lions have made a charge. I am trying to get photos but it is so unbelievable. A big male  lion grabs a zebra at the waters edge, then we see two other lions raise their heads from the long grass. The zebras stop running about 200 metres away and are unsure what to do. Meanwhile the male lion is finishing off the zebra. It is half in the water and a lioness joins him, both lions have a good hold on it. It doesn’t take long! The male lion is lying all over it and one of the other males comes forward but is chased away by the big male. He has the head of the zebra in his mouth and is trying to drag it out of the water. Between us all we have some great shots and video. I did not think it could get any better than what we have seen so far but it has, unbelievable. 

We continue on with our Africa massage to our accommodation and eventually arrive about 1.30 pm - 6 hours of bone shaking travel, but worth every metre for what we have just seen. Before we arrived we passed an warthogs, impala and one wildebeest

It will be hard to come down from the excitement of what we have seen.

The tented accommodation is fantastic, we have extraordinary views over the plains.  Our lunch was delicious and we have an open bar. We are not allowed to walk anywhere after dark without a guard. We are going to enjoy the next three nights.

Our afternoon game drive was fine with plenty of giraffes but it was never going to beat the drive in. Tomorrow we have a full day game drive to a different area of the Serengeti. The WiFi is slow and not available in our tents so it is difficult to update the blog, and impossible to upload photos. 

This trip has exceeded our expectations and I do not know how we can ever top what we have seen in the next few days available to us

Drive from Amboseli to Karatu

 Wednesday 22 April

Can’t believe that part 2 of our adventure has finished. Head off at 7.30. We are all going to the border to drop us and the other couple off who are also doing the Tanzanian extension, Jason and Melissa from Canada. The rest will then head back to Nairobi.

We leave in a different way to the way we came in. As we head out there is a lot of water covering the track. We are second in line and we are slowly moving through the water logged bits. It is like a causeway in the middle of the swamp. There is a particular muddy section and the car in front slips sideways and gets bogged. It is the same car as last time! We have to take the luggage out of the back to get the tow straps. We edge forward enough to hook up to the vehicle and we pull him out.

There is no place to go but ahead, so he gets up some momentum and gets through. We follow and on we go. There is another challenge with a lot of water and no clear path. Our driver Abdi goes first and we are through.

It takes two hours over unmade road to get to the border, on the way we came across baboons, zebra, wildebeest and giraffes, one standing in the middle of the track until it decided to move on.

At the border by 9.30, our Tanzania contacts are ready and waiting. We start the bored access process and go through smoothly. Unfortunately the Luggs and Johnstones have no visas, even though they have receipts and have paid for them. After 100 minutes they are granted their visas without having to pay extra.

There are two vehicles for this part so we split up into two groups of four, we are with Karen and Ross and our driver is Today! We now drive for another two hours where we stop for lunch. The roads in Tanzania are a vast improvement on those in Kenya. Sealed roads, no potholes, but still speed humps but only through populated areas. The shops and stalls by the roadside look more solid than the ramshackle ones in Kenya. We have a lovely lunch and by 2.15 we are on our way again to Karatu where we will stay the night.

Just after 4 pm we stop at the Tanzanite experience for a rest break and shopping. We are shown a film on how Tazanite was discovered and mined and marketed. They have an exhibition of a mine shaft and how they work the mine and then there is time for shopping. It was very interesting and informing. We continue on and reach our overnight accommodation in another 30 minutes, it is now 5.15 and it has been a long day. The accommodation is lovely and the surrounding area picturesque and dinner was too much food.

Tomorrow we head for the Serengeti which is another 3 hour drive. We have covered a lot of kilometres by road on this tour.

Wifi is still unreliable but should be OK in the Serengeti.

Ol Tukai Lodge Amboseli

 Tuesday April 21

Forgot to mention yesterday, that at the village there were flies everywhere and we were given fly swatters  which were made from goats hair! When welcoming us they had a jumping competition which was great until Ross and I were asked to participate in the competition. While I participated I was very careful not to jump too high although I was tempted. Ross couldn’t restrain himself! There were no injuries as a result of  our activities!

Another game drive this morning but the plains are so open it would be difficult to see any big cats. The morning was foggy but it quickly lifted. Saw a few animals on our way but after 40 minutes we come across a herd of 40 elephants. After watching them for a while there is a race to get to a good viewing position as the herd will cross the track we are on. There are at least 12 safari vehicles jockeying for position. Abdi gets us into a great spot and we have a close up view as they cross the track. We move on and Mt Kilimanjaro is in the background but clouded. However the clouds break up for a bit and we get a good view of the snow capped mountain.

We get back to our lodge around 10.30 and now plan to have a coffee. We saw the usual animals on the way back, warthogs, impala and one wildebeest. We drop off our things and head for a coffee. As we walk out there are two wildebeest just outside the perimeter fencing.

Afternoon game drive from 4 pm. Not expecting too much. We do get a glimpse of Mt Kilimanjaro snow cap and then we see a herd of Wildebeest. 

The usual suspects are around. Then we find a hyena gnawing on part of an animal. It is really tearing strips off it.  Further on there are a lot of birds hanging around and we can see a carcass. There is a huge rib cage and another hyena that is getting stuck into it while the birds mill around waiting for their turn.

Abdi believes it is a hippo carcass and most likely it died from natural causes. If it was a lion kill they would still be hanging around.

We continue on through this swamp area and come across some hippos. 

The cloud is clearing around the mountain and we get some great views. Then we move on to an observation hill where we get a full view of the plains and swamp area. At the bottom of the hill we use sling shots to shoot seed balls into the area from which trees and shrubs will grow.

On the way back we see more and more hyenas making their way to the carcass. There are four around the carcass, a couple feeding and a couple spread eagled in a food coma.

Tonight is our last night and tomorrow we head off to Tanzania. We have a farewell dinner and drink with our guide, Juma and the drivers. It was a good night.

Nairobi to Amboseli Mt Kilimanjaro

 Monday 20 April

Off to Amboseli which is at the bottom of Mt Kilimanjaro today. We leave at 7.30 and traffic is unbelievable. When we clear the city after 30 minutes we head to Ocean Sole. This is a private organisation that was set up to recycle discarded thongs or flip flops as they are called over here. 

We spend about 40 mins there and it is fascinating how the operation works. It is all manual labour from scrubbing them clean, to shaping and polishing them and then gluing the shapes together to form pieces of art. They do have polishing machines and a template cutter.

There is a group of 20 women who collect washed up thongs from the ocean and rivers. They are paid for their collection.  They expect to collect 1 million thongs this year. Ocean Sole exports all round the world and have a store in Miami Florida.

Now we are off to Amboseli, we have to head back into the city area. We are told the drive will involve a lot of trucks as we are travelling on the main route between Mombassa and Nairobi, a major transport corridor.

It is horrendous! After about 45 minutes the road becomes single lane each way. The trucks are very slow barely getting above 80 on the flat and going up hills some are crawling at 20. This makes for impatient drivers.

I lost count of the number of head ons that nearly occurred. Cars/trucks are braking to let other cars in or there would be a head on. As you are waiting to pass when the road is clear, suddenly cars behind you come roaring past. On one occasion we were the second car behind a truck when a suv went past us and then a van was outside of the suv! There was a lot of ducking in and braking. We had two occasions where we had to brake and veer off the road or we would have had a head on!

The road surface was good,  very few potholes. We reached the turn off safely, but then we had another 45 minutes of African massage to the gates of the park. From there it should have been another 30 minutes to our site, but rains had caused the direct route to become impassable so we had to go the long way round and it took an hour, with us finally arriving around 1.35. However the cloud cleared briefly so we could get a glimpse of the snow capped Mt Kilimanjaro.

On the way in we saw a large herd of 40 elephants and after lunch, which was pretty ordinary, we saw hippos on our way to our cabin.

For the afternoon we visited a Maasai village. Yesterday in Nairobi at our tour managers suggestion,  we bought some biscuits and lollies to give to the children.

It was an amazing experience where we were welcomed with singing and jumping. They showed us how they start a fire with acacia and cedar wood, they explained some of the medicine they use and how they get from bark and plants and even took us inside a house, built out of wood and dried cow dung. We then had the hard sell to buy something and after that we gave our gifts to the children - pandemonium. Once we started we were swamped, but there was a warriors there who had a thin stick and he would threaten to hit them if they became too greedy and to keep them in line. Did not work!

The tribe consists of two families with a total of 150 members. The men can have multiple wives and each wife must have her own house which she must build. One of their medicines is a bark which they say is their viagra! The husband can decide which wife he will sleep with on any night. The men can only marry someone from outside the village.

It is raining as we leave and raining again when we have finished dinner. I wonder what tomorrow will bring.

The internet is really slow and patchy so photos might have to wait.

Maasai Mara to Nairobi

 Sunday April 19

Not too much to report today. A day of driving! We left at 7.30, had a rest stop after 90 minutes and then a photo opportunity looking down over the great rift valley. After about another 90 minutes. Some of the scenery was spectacular as we travelled up out of the valley. 

Our first activity is the Karen Bixen museum. She is the author of Out of Africa. She was Danish and moved to Kenya with her husband. Apparently she did a lot to help the women and children in Kenya through providing them with education and medical help. She is very well respected in Kenya.

After the museum we had lunch at the Karen Blixen cafe and it was a great meal, the food was fantastic and well presented.

It is now on to the Giraffe sanctuary where we can feed the giraffes. The sanctuary is breeding giraffes who are released back into the wild when they reach two years of age.

The area around here seems more affluent, nice houses but surrounded by high walls and security gates.

We get to our hotel around 4.30. We have been upgraded and the bedroom can be shut off from the other area.

Another big driving day tomorrow, 5 hours as we travelled up out to Amboseli.

Karen Blixen House

Her husband was a hunter

View of the valley

Our Land Cruisers

Maasai Mara

 Afternoon game drive.

How could we top what happened this morning. After about 40 minutes of driving all we have seen is a few elephants in the distance. We have gone a different direction to the previous game drives. A tip truck is coming towards us and we have to pull over to let it pass. Further on there is a quarry where they are extracting the red dirt/gravel they use for making the roads. We are third in line as we drive along. Abdi our driver thinks he has seen something at the quarry. On the top of red dirt piles he thinks there maybe lions!

He pulls over and looks through his binoculars as does Luggy. They both believe they are lions on top of the dirt. I focus with my camera and sure enough there are lions there. Abdi radios the other two vehicles and we head towards the quarry area. There is a crew working there and the lions are less than 80 metres away. As we stop to look, on the other side of the road barely 40 metres away is a young male lion resting.

There are rangers guarding the working crew at a track leading to the quarry. Our tour manager talks to them and we are allowed to approach! As we get closer we have a great view of a large male resting on top of a pile of dirt less than 10 metres away. Then we discover lion cubs on top of another mound and other lions as well. All up we estimate 15 lions including cubs! By now word has spread and safari vehicles are arriving, by the time we leave there are at least 8 vehicles. As we leave the lion on the other side of the track is moving and we are in a good position as he walks across the track right in front of us. Unbelievable!

We head off up to a hill top and find a herd of elephants and after some more hairy driving we start to head home. On the road back we come across a bull elephant walking along the road in front of us. We travel slowly behind him until another vehicle coming the other way forces him to move off the road. Then a little bit further on there are 6 to 8 giraffes heading towards us. After watching them up closely we get past and continue on. A bit further on we come across hyena pups and finally a young jackal!

It has been a day that has delivered far more than we expected.

Tomorrow we drive back to Nairobi, a 5 to 6 hour drive and it is our turn to be in the back!

Maasai Mara

 Saturday April 18

Another early morning game drive, left at 7.30. See the usual suspects but then find some ostriches as well as a big herd of Cape Buffalo where we get quite close. This is followed by a herd of about 12 elephants and then it is off to pick up those who did a balloon ride. We are going deep into the reserve this morning and head towards the Mara river to view some hippos. As we get close to the river it is getting very muddy and slippery and we managed to get bogged After a lot of spinning we break free but the tracks are very slippery. We do get to see a couple of hippos in the water, but it is too muddy to get any closer.

The main roads in the reserve are gravel but they do get rutted and develop some large potholes. Off the main roads are dirt tracks where vehicles drive through the long grass and these are muddy and bumpy in areas. Our vehicle is fitted with all terrain tyres while the other two have mud tyres which give them more traction. We press on and come across a very large bull elephant just off the road. Onwards we go passing herds of topi. 

There must have been a lot of rain last night because the tracks are very muddy. Abdi gets word of a pride of lions so the three vehicles head off onto nothing more than tyre tracks through the long grass. We head in a long way to a cluster of trees, shrubs and bushes along a creek. There looks like a treacherous crossing to get to the other side. Because of our last experience Abdi is a bit reluctant to try it.

One of the other vehicles goes ahead. It is a steep muddy downhill drive and then through water over the track and up a steep slope on the other side. The vehicle takes off and guns it just before the water and then bounces and slides its way up the slope almost bottoming out on a couple of deep holes going up the slope, but makes it. The other vehicle looks for another way while the first vehicle heads along towards the shrubbery. Abdi is undecided. Nothing can be found and as the vehicle starts to move on I and Luggy see a lioness walking towards the bushes. We alert Abdi who radios the other vehicle and directs them to the area. They drive around a bit and then park- they have found her. The other vehicle comes back and makes the crossing almost tilting over. We try to get close from our side but can not get a good view. Abdi decides to give it a go!

He tells us to hang on tight. We start off slowly but near the bottom he speeds up through the water and we slip and slide and bounce our way through. Wheels spinning mud starts to come in through the open roof as we duck, some quicker than others. Having got through it is still a treacherous ride to where the others are. One moves off and we get a great view of the lioness feasting on a dead buffalo.

Now we have to find our way out to a gravel road. It is not easy as the grass is high and you cannot see any gravel roads. We come across a particularly slippery and steep part and almost slide front on into a bush but Abdi manages to get us through. We seem to be getting somewhere when Abdi gets a call on the radio one of the other vehicles is stuck and needs assistance. We head back and the vehicle is bogged side on across the track right near the bush we just missed. We pull it out and head on our way eventually getting to a gravel road. 

We arrive back just after 12.30. What a morning! 

What will the afternoon bring.