http://toastmeetsjam.com/product/notepad-rifle-paper-co/ Tuesday
http://preferredmode.com/2017/01/24/brian-3/ We were able to sleep in – sort of. George was planning to pick us up at 10am, but Abdul had to drive us to the main gate of Lewa Conservancy, which was about 1 hour away. So we had our wake up coffee and call at 6:30 am, breakfast at 7:30 am, and met Abdul at 8:45/9:00 am.
We got to the main gate a bit early, around 8:45 am – but George was waiting! We moved our gear to George’s car and off we went to Samburu and the Elephants Bedroom for the next two nights. We drove through villages and, even a town, before turning left into a road which led us to Samburu.
We arrived at The Elephant’s Bedroom in time for a delicious lunch. It is called such since many elephants choose to spend the night on the grounds of the resort – especially an elephant called Obama.
The Bathroom
The Bedroom with two Queen Beds
Deck with Chaises and Plunge Pool
Our room is a private tent, with bedroom, bathroom with separate shower off a sheltered deck, sitting area, deck overlooking the river complete with a plunge pool to cool off! Good thing – because it is warmer here than in Amboseli and in Lewa. One issue is that baboons like to drink the water out of the plunge pool. The cover to the pool is attached with velcro and they are quite adept at loosening them. Ask Kimberly Baker about how threatening male baboons can be!
Elephants heading to the river
Impala
Elephant flapping his ears to keep cool
We were scheduled for an afternoon game drive beginning at 4 pm. George told us rumors of cheetah sightings earlier in the day – a mother and two cubs almost at maturity. So we embarked on a cheetah quest! We saw elephants and giraffes and two new-to-us species.
Gerenuk and baby
We saw the Gerenuk, a sort of gazelle giraffe, because of its long neck which distinguishes it from the gazelle. It makes the most of this feature when it feeds by standing goat-like on its hind legs with its neck at full stretch to nibble at leaves others can’t reach. It usually lives in small family herds near dry acacia thorn bush. Here is one with a baby! But it doesn’t have its neck stretched out and isn’t on its hind legs nibbling leaves!
Kirk’s Dik-Dik
Then we caught sight of the smallest pretty antelope – a Kirk’s Dik-Dik. They have a grey-brown coat, white eye circles, and twitchy elongated nose. It was a small family and George told us that they mate for life.
The search for the cheetah was unsuccessful. We returned to our camp and were greeted by antelope that almost seemed domesticated since they were looking for treats and petting strokes. We got back at 7 pm and dinner was at 7:30 pm. After dinner, it was off to bed for another 5:30 am wake up!
