…Surprisingly, very few challenges.

Colin was asked to guide a trip to Kenya and Tanzania in August/September, here is his diary of events!

The good news is we did it, and we all had a wonderful time!

I started out of Glasgow with Laura driving me to the airport at 4:00am to catch a flight to Nairobi via Amsterdam. Riddled with guilt leaving her to toil over Covid samples whilst I went on safari “working”. Prior to this I had arranged my Kenya visa, all very simple and done online, then a pre departure covid PCR test, once I had that, I registered with the Kenya Health department to get a QR code needed to enter Kenya, again with some trial and error it worked.

The flight was full! Which surprised me somewhat but showed travel is back, and we were on our way.

On arrival at Nairobi Airport I was expecting chaos and hours of waiting, however to my delight the health officials met us off the plane, and accepted the QR code I had printed out before departure without giving it a second glance! On I went to immigration who instantly stamped my passport. As I was travelling with only carry on, I was straight through customs and met by my smiling taxi driver, well I assume he was smiling behind the mask?

I had to self quarantine for 7 days and take a PCR test on day 4. This is a regulation only for UK passengers, added after the UK moved Kenya to the dreaded Red List!  A nice seven days to order my thoughts and get in the safari groove.

I met the clients at the Nairobi Airport at 9:00 pm, They looked a little shell shocked!

We headed through the construction site that Nairobi is at the moment. There is huge investment into the road infrastructure in the city, thanks to huge loans from China but that’s a whole different conversation.

The clients wondering where the hell are we? Fortyfive minutes and we were at the wonderful Hemmingway’s Hotel in the heart of Karen, a suburb of Nairobi named after Karen Blixen from the movie “Out of Africa”.  A Hot shower and restful sleep.

An early start to the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage, Feed time is 9 AM and hungry little elephants don’t like to be kept waiting! We had a private viewing booked just for our group and the experience lasts an hour, just fabulous and clearly not enough time for us, but the little orphans can’t wait to get on their walk into the forest. We finish with a tour of their stockade and a visit to little Maxwell the blind rhino, who on this day could not be bothered to get up.

Then followed a visit to the Giraffe Centre, where we each get to feed a handful of pellets to a group of greedy but very rare Rothschilds or Nubian giraffe. Here we had an informative lecture about Kenya’s Giraffes.  We also had a chance to look at a warthog skull up close and surprised ourselves at the golf ball sized brain cavity of our not so crafty “pumba”. No wonder they forget about the lion they’ve just seen! But the brain is big enough to realize that if the Giraffe runs you run! Explains why they are often found next to each other in the wild.

A delicious lunch at Cultiva, a hidden gem restaurant that grows their own produce and turns out some award winning fusion food, a visit to a collective curio shop and an afternoon of leisure back at the hotel.

The next morning we head to the domestic airport, about 30 mins drive, and catch our private charter flight to Tsavo East National Park, south east of Nairobi, and home to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trusts reintegration unit at Ithumba Hill. After an hour we land, and are met by our vehicles and immediately drive to the waterhole where wild adult bulls are already mingling around, and the little orphans are coming in for their mid day feed and mud bath. Time just whizzes by as you watch the goings on, it is truly magical! But humans need food too, and off we go to get settled into our camp which is rustic luxury.  Your “tent” is built on raised platforms against the various rock structures on the hillside each with a cleverly incorporated outdoor bathroom.

A sumptuous lunch, a plunge in the pool to beat the mid day sun, a cup of tea and slice of cake, and off to the stockade to see the youngsters come home for the night. Sundowners and a mini night drive back to camp, we even spotted a striped hyena.

Then more food, some wonderful stargazing, and off to bed to hyenas whooping in the distance, and a leopard gruffly asserting his territory on the rocks above camp.Ithumba is an Elephant experience and as the feeding times are strictly adhered to the game drives are limited and short but we did see some animals we would not see in Serengeti like: Lesser Kudu , Reticulated Giraffe and Yellow Baboons. Also some wonderful birds not found in the Serengeti ecosystem like Golden Breasted Starlings, Vulturine Guinea Fowl, Yellow-billed Hornbills and others.

After three nights we headed for Tanzania by road crossing at the Taveta /Holili border post. Not to be repeated! Well, at least until covid testing protocols are a thing of the past. It took four hours (!) and plenty of back and forth. Let’s just say we were all tired and stressed by the time we got to our lodge in Karatu for the night.

Unfortunately, we arrived at Plantation Lodge in the dark and left the next morning for the Ngorongoro crater so we didn’t have much time to enjoy this lovely little oasis. However, we were all refreshed from the day before and off we went into the crater and were not disappointed. Coming across a pride of lion on a kill and plenty of other animals up close. We did spot a couple of Rhino from the view point on the crater rim but none close by. Time was marching on and we headed out and onto Ndutu Lodge. We had planned a visit to an authentic Maasai Boma en-route but due to covid we decided it was probably best not too, a pity for everyone.

Good old Ndutu didn’t disappoint, with good old fashioned home cooked food even if presentation lacked inspiration, comfortable rooms and great game viewing. For those of you who are not aware, Laura and I were the Lodge managers here a while back so it is bit like coming home, even if it now has new owners. The welcome from the staff is always warm and well meant. The Lodge has had a quiet couple of years due to Covid and is ticking along with a limited number of rooms open and a much reduced staff, but hope is on the horizon. Hard to believe in our day we were seeing up to 80 guests a night for most of January to March and you needed to book two years in advance to get in! Let’s hope tourism reopens soon.

Ndutu lodge really is great value for money and means you can stretch your buck either with a longer stay or end your safari with some luxury!

Due to the previous years rain season being prolonged the vegetation had got very dense, so this year the park officials have control burnt a lot of the area, and this gave us an advantage in finding animals. We had great sightings of Lion, Cheetah, Elephants and a Black backed jackal family with nine healthy pups, to name a few. Our days went by in a blur with early starts, and breakfasts in the bush with a sumptuous buffet laid across the bonnet (hood) of the game vehicle. Back to the lodge to escape the midday sun, and refreshing lunches including ice cream! Afternoon game drives were more local around the lakes and back to the lodge for sundowners and dinner.

Here we said goodbye to Jombi and Paul, our super guides, and took a short 45 min flight to Kogatende in the most northern part of Serengeti on the border of Tanzania and Kenya along the Mara River. Here we were all excited to see the wildebeest herds cross the river. Well, we did! Plenty of them! However for me the highlight was a leopard and her two 3 month old cubs who had made a home in a rock outcrop (kopjie) close to our camp, and we watched them for a couple of hours each day on our way out of camp and on the way back. She successfully hunted two days on the trot, so the larder was well stocked. This attracted the hyena and we witnessed some good interaction.

Viewing crossings can be tricky and unless you are extremely lucky and drive up just as it takes place you need some patience. Watching the herds begin to build up at the river then watch them too and fro along the bank can take hours (they don’t show you this part on Nat Geo!) you’ve exhausted all the angles of understanding the wildebeest logic, leadership qualities (or lack of), and just as you are about to loose the will to live, it takes one brave soul who charges down the bank and dives in, followed by a thousand others. A continuous stream of chaos, swimming for their lives while huge crocodiles patrol the edges waiting for a victim. Then suddenly… its all over, calmness resumes as the last few make it up the bank and the herd spreads out across the plain, and they realize….. the grass is not greener this side? Tonight it will rain in the Maasai Mara and tomorrow they will cross back again and so it goes on.

We stayed at Olakira camp which is a small seasonal camp that follows the migration. Very comfy tents with beds that roll out onto a net covered deck so you can gaze at the stars as you nod off to a chorus of grunting gnu.

The food here was outstanding and to cap it all they have their own micro brewery at their flagship permanent lodge “Sayari “ you get a choice of four craft beers on tap.

Camping? This is not camping, but I can get used to it.

After three lovely days up north, it was time to head home, we caught a scheduled flight to Arusha which took about an hour and a half, landing once at Seronera to pick up a couple more passengers. Arriving at Arusha we were met by our lodge transport, we settled into our very luxurious day rooms at the Arusha Coffee lodge. I arranged a trip to a Curio and Arts gallery to pick up a few last minute gifts and then back to the lodge for a shower a bite to eat and off to the International Airport.

Note: The pre departure covid samples were taken at the purpose built sample centre at Kogatende Airstrip in Serengeti the day before and results were ready for us when we arrived in Arusha , all incredibly easy, well organized and fuss free.As vaccination certificates become widely accepted across the world we hope that these tests will no longer be required.

All in all it was a fabulous trip and I cant wait to do it all agAll in all it was a fabulous trip and I cant wait to do it all again!All in all it was a fabulous trip and I cant wait to do it all again!