A Kenyan Trio!

[Zubbie15]

We almost went to Meru last year before deciding to go to Laikipia, but our tour operator really spoke highly of the park. I can see why, you really had some great sightings. 

 

I had to laugh about your option to have a nice breakfast, on the same trip or very last day we were told we could sleep in and have hot breakfast before leaving for our late morning flight. I asked if we could go on a game drive instead, and we much preferred the packed breakfast with a herd of zebra in front of us!

[Alexander33]

Great report so far.  
 

Count me as another fan of Meru. We stayed at Elsa’s in January 2020 (about a week after torrential rains, so the rivers were swollen and everything was green and lush — interesting to see the park in a different season).  And I agree, they do a good job of balancing out more serious safari goers and guests who prefer a more leisurely stay. We actually had a shared vehicle on a few drives, but they paired us with other guests, who, like us, wanted an early departure and breakfast in the bush. A good reminder to have your travel agent inform management ahead of time as to what your preferences are.
 

Your genet in camp reminded me of the night in our room when a pair of genet kittens somehow got in through the rush roof (we surmised) during the middle of the night and were feeding on geckos in our bathroom — we had left a light on. Scared the hell out of us until we finally realized what they were!  Took a while to maneuver them out the front door. Won’t forget that anytime soon!

 

Well done on the Grevy’s zebra. We saw a few, but very, very far away. 

 

Looking forward to more. 
 

 

[pault]

Glad you had a great time in Meru and got everything you wanted from guide and vehicle. Rhino experience must have been fabulous, especially after all the effort to find them. 

[offshorebirder]

What cooperative Rhinos and Gerenuk!   Fantastic Rhino experience.

[Zim Girl]

On 10/27/2023 at 5:57 PM, TonyQ said:

Wonderful rhino sighting, great to see them interacting.

Beautiful Gerenuk as well

Thanks Tony.  It was the fact it lasted so long with no disturbance that was amazing.  We were really pleased to find the Gerenuk again, especially males.

 

 

On 10/27/2023 at 7:01 PM, Zubbie15 said:

We almost went to Meru last year before deciding to go to Laikipia, but our tour operator really spoke highly of the park. I can see why, you really had some great sightings. 

 

I had to laugh about your option to have a nice breakfast, on the same trip or very last day we were told we could sleep in and have hot breakfast before leaving for our late morning flight. I asked if we could go on a game drive instead, and we much preferred the packed breakfast with a herd of zebra in front of us!

It was definitely worth having the morning game drive as Meru hadn't finished with us yet.

 

On 10/28/2023 at 12:53 AM, Alexander33 said:

Great report so far.  
 

Count me as another fan of Meru. We stayed at Elsa’s in January 2020 (about a week after torrential rains, so the rivers were swollen and everything was green and lush — interesting to see the park in a different season).  And I agree, they do a good job of balancing out more serious safari goers and guests who prefer a more leisurely stay. We actually had a shared vehicle on a few drives, but they paired us with other guests, who, like us, wanted an early departure and breakfast in the bush. A good reminder to have your travel agent inform management ahead of time as to what your preferences are.
 

Your genet in camp reminded me of the night in our room when a pair of genet kittens somehow got in through the rush roof (we surmised) during the middle of the night and were feeding on geckos in our bathroom — we had left a light on. Scared the hell out of us until we finally realized what they were!  Took a while to maneuver them out the front door. Won’t forget that anytime soon!

 

Well done on the Grevy’s zebra. We saw a few, but very, very far away. 

 

Looking forward to more. 
 

 

Great story.  I bet there was much debate about who was going to go and check!

 

On 10/28/2023 at 8:58 AM, pault said:

Glad you had a great time in Meru and got everything you wanted from guide and vehicle. Rhino experience must have been fabulous, especially after all the effort to find them. 

Thank you @pault.  You couldn't have asked for more with those rhinos.  It was very special.

 

On 10/28/2023 at 10:47 PM, offshorebirder said:

What cooperative Rhinos and Gerenuk!   Fantastic Rhino experience.

Thank you @offshorebirder.  it certainly turned out to be a good day!

[Zim Girl]

So as mentioned previously, this last morning was business as usual, packed breakfast and out at 6am.  We had our bags packed and ready in the vehicle so we could go straight to the airstrip to meet our charter flight that was due at 11am.

 

Solomon wanted to drive further out than normal this morning just to see what we could find.  There was plenty of interest along the way.  As usual the morning light was really lovely.

 

Sightings of lesser kudu were getting better.

 

 

 

This little striped ground squirrel risked his neck by jumping right out in front of us.

 

LBR posing nicely for a photo.

 

 

 

Later we found a small group of lesser kudu.  So we were very happy with our sightings of this antelope in the end.

 

 

 

Then the highlight of the morning.  

We had just left the kudu. Solomon had been scanning around, and in the distance saw a tree that looked like it had something dead hanging from it.  

We got closer and could see the carcass of a dead antelope.  We followed it up into the tree and there was a leopard staring back at us.  Fantastic!

 

Look closely in the middle of the picture.

 

She jumped down a couple of branches and obligingly stopped and looked at us before making the leap to the ground.

 

This is actually the first time I have ever been able to make any attempt to capture a leopard jumping.  They aren't the best and I was just a fraction too late on the second one but I was still really pleased.

 

 

 

She laid down on the ground under the tree.  We didn't stay too long as we didn't want to disturb her and she was quite hidden in the long grass anyway.

 

Solomon was very pleased he had decided to go and check the tree out.  

Cue a well deserved breakfast and a debate about why this is exactly the reason you should never miss a game drive!

 

We took our time, chatting with Solomon and taking in the gorgeous Meru views.

 

We started a leisurely drive towards the airstrip passing some buffalo cooling off in the marsh.

 

We arrived at 10.45am and a few minutes later we watched as our plane landed.

 

There were hugs all round as we thanked Solomon for a fantastic safari. 

What a great start to the trip!

 

I took a couple of photos of the camp on it's hill as we took off on our flight to the Mathews Range.

 

 

We had a thoroughly enjoyable time in Meru.  Saw everything we hoped for and more, and could definitely have done with a couple more days to explore even further into the Park.

 

Next up, Kitich Forest Camp.

 

 

[TonyQ]

An excellent start to your trip and a great last morning at Meru

[Zim Girl]

I forgot to mention that while in Meru we hardly came across any other vehicles. We only bumped into another camp vehicle at the ele/lion encounter and one self driver way off from the main area and apart from that it was just Sheldrick/Born Free/KWS vet vehicles.  We didn’t see anyone at all during both mornings in the Rhino sanctuary.

 

The charter flight up to the Mathews Range took about an hour. It was a really enjoyable flight with plenty to look at, so the time whizzed by.  Adrian sat next to the Tropic Air pilot who told him it is a tricky landing into Ngelai because of the proximity of the mountains and also the fact you can only approach from one direction. 

A charter was the most efficient way of getting to Kitich on the way in but we took the road transfer option on the way out as we were able to connect to the Safarilink flights from Samburu to Amboseli easily enough.

 

Photo from the plane as we get ready to land.

 

The airstrip.

 

The Mathews Range sits within the Namunyak Wildlife Community Conservancy, which is part of a network of communities across northern Kenya supported by the Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT). Namunyak is owned and managed by the Samburu community and was one of the first community conservancies in Kenya.

Kitich camp was originally set up in the 1970’s by Miles Burton, a hunter and guide who later died in a plane crash.  It was also used as a rhino monitoring station and then bought by Giulio Bertolli of olive oil fame.  He owned it for 12 years before selling it to Stefano Cheli in 2009, who ran it successfully as a bush camp for many years until very recently selling to the current owners. It remained moth-balled over the covid years and re-opened last year. The idea is to continue to develop the camp as an important part of the community, improving on the standards and activities offered while still keeping a low key bush camp feel.  The camp has six tents and some of the staff have been working here for well over 20 years.

Kitich was named by the local people and means ‘place of happiness’. It is located on the bank of the seasonal Ngeng river. There are no game drives here, all the activities are on foot. Which is exactly the reason we chose to come here.

 

We were met at the airstrip by head guide, Mario.  The drive back to camp took around 45 minutes.

 

Scenery on the drive to camp.

 

There we were welcomed by Nicki, the manager, and a good number of the staff.  She led us onto the main deck for a drink and told us we were the only guests in camp for our stay.  As soon as we saw the views of the forest and the surrounding hills, we knew three nights was not enough.  It was glorious, and we had it to ourselves.

 

Views from main dining area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The tents are spread out along the river bank hidden amongst the trees and bushes.  We were at the end in tent 6, which Nicki found amusing, as we had requested the furthest away tent when booking. We always do this but obviously we didn’t know the camp was going to be empty.

 

 

 

Here was a dressing area with basin and hot water in the jugs, and wardrobe and shelves for clothes behind. There was also a charging point.  The bucket shower and flush toilet is in the open to the right of the picture.

 

Path that runs along the back of the tents with each one having a separate path leading up to it.

 

Mario had mentioned on the way in about the possibility of seeing a De Brazza’s monkey. A female had been seen near camp occasionally and this is really quite unusual.

Until the mid 2000’s, De Brazza’s monkeys were not thought to exist east of the Rift Valley in Kenya, only in isolated populations in Western Kenya.  Intensive surveys were carried out during 2007 and to summarise, a total population estimated at 200-300 monkeys was discovered throughout the Mathews Range.  This also resulted in the first record of De Brazza’s monkeys occurring above 2100m above sea level.

In the original surveys just one group of 10 individuals were found to be in the area nearest to Kitich camp.  For much more information see here. A New Population of De Brazza's Monkey in Kenya (bioone.org)

 

After lunch, we were in our tent getting ready for the afternoon walk.  I was in the shower, when Adrian called out that he could see ‘the monkey’.  I was half way through washing my hair so shouted back that the camera was on the bed, so take some photos. A few seconds later, he shouted he didn’t know what to press as it was very dark.  He meant through the viewfinder and to be fair, he very rarely uses the camera so I had no choice but to come out.  I was soaking wet and covered in soap but I couldn't miss the chance of seeing it. Luckily, despite the commotion going on underneath it, the monkey was still in the tree and I was able to get a few pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

We told Nicki before our walk and she was very impressed we had found it by our tent. She thinks it may have somehow got separated from it’s group that they think lives in the hills across from camp, but no one really knows.

 

After some very good cake we left around 4.30pm.  You are always accompanied by two armed community rangers and two Samburu trackers/guides.  While we were there it was always Mario leading and Ltausen just behind myself and Adrian.  One of the armed rangers walks way out in front checking for elephants and the other brings up the rear.

 

Mario on the left and Ltausen on the right.  Both very experienced and informative and friendly.

 

This was a relatively short walk, about hour and a half, just showing us the areas near camp and talking about the vegetation and trees etc.  We walked up a small hill and circled back round onto the vehicle track back into camp.

 

 

 

 

We were back in camp by 6pm and dinner was usually around 7.30pm. Nicki would always have a chat with you before lunch and dinner to go through what you wanted to do during the day.

Ltausen took Adrian across the dry river bed in front of camp to find somewhere to put our trail cam.  

 

 

I took some more pictures of camp and its surroundings.

The outside bar.

 

A sundowner spot with fire.  Although we never used this as it was always much too hot to light a fire.

 

Another view into the forest from camp.

 

That night we had gone to bed quite early and were just getting to sleep when there was a loud crashing noise just in front of the tent. We never roll the canvas covers down in tents so we could see an elephant through the mesh stood by the side of the tent.  It stayed around for a while eating before walking towards the main camp.  Marvellous.  In the morning Nicki said several elephants had actually come through camp that night.

 

We didn't do that well with the trail cam on this trip.  We had a blurry hyena at Elsa's and nothing at Tortilis.  Here all we caught were a couple of porcupine.

 

[Zim Girl]

Due to how long it takes the sun to get above the mountains there is no point getting up too early in the mornings, so we had breakfast in camp at 6.45am to be ready to start walking at 7.30am.

 

We crossed over the river bed to access the forest.  Looking back you can see the main dining area in amongst the trees.

 

Mario had taken me up a slope to look at a bird.  I took this picture to show the ranger. 

 

This morning the walk was to be through the forest to reach a large rock pool.  There is the option to swim at the pool and also to have lunch out in the forest and then be picked up by vehicle when you get closer to the track access.  It was very, very hot which is why Nicki kept reminding us it was no problem to send a vehicle.  We don't mind the heat and were quite happy to just keep walking and have lunch back at camp.  We were out about 5 hours and back in camp at 12.30pm.  

Once in the forest it was quite dense and birding was tricky.  I have pictures but they are only good enough for BY so they will eventually appear there.

 

Every so often you walked through a clearing or across a dry river bed.

 

 

 

Ltausen helping to look for birds.

 

We reached the pool and stayed there for a short break.  The tracker carries all the water you need for the walk.

They had also brought towels and Adrian went in for a quick swim.

 

 

 

This is an ancient Cycad which is endemic to the Mathews Range, Encephalartos tegulaneus.  Although it looks a bit like one, it isn't a palm and they are found dotted all over the forest and slopes of the hills.  Their height apparently determined by how much light they can access.  The darker the location, the taller the tree.

 

We had another very delicious lunch.  We were always taken very good care of by Sumuland, who is the head waiter and barman and has been working at Kitich since 1990.

 

We had hoped to do a lot of birding during the early afternoons but Mario told us when we arrived that it was far too hot for the birds then so they are only seen early morning and late afternoon.  I wandered around the camp looking anyway but this proved to be the case.  Never mind, because something much better turned up.

We were both at the tent when Mario came hurrying down the path.  "Come quick, snake" he said.  Well I didn't need asking twice.  Anyone who reads my TR's will know I am big snake fan.  Whenever we stay anywhere, I always ask the manager/staff etc to let me know if they see a snake.  

Nicki had found a Black Mamba in the bushes behind the kitchen area.  Fantastic!  Pictures were tricky because it just would not stop moving and I had Nicki telling me not to get too close because she didn't have any anti venom.  Oh, but what a sighting, great stuff.

 

 

 

 

This afternoon, we were out at 4.15pm and back at 6pm.  We went for a lovely walk following another dry river bed.

 

Well mostly dry.

 

 

More Cycads

 

[madaboutcheetah]

Looks like an incredible walking destination!!  Enjoying your report ...... 

[Treepol]

Enjoyed your Meru adventure and am following your time in the Mathews range. It does sound delightfully uncrowded! Great shot of the De Brazza monkey and the mamba.

[Zarek Cockar]

Great Mamba sighting! And lucky you with the Leopard in Meru. They're not easy there.

[Zim Girl]

7 hours ago, madaboutcheetah said:

Looks like an incredible walking destination!!  Enjoying your report ...... 

Thank you.

We really enjoyed Kitich.  With more time, hikes can be made much higher up into the surrounding hills.  They also run mobile fly camps.  I think to get the most out of the area it helps to be reasonably fit and mobile.  However, I am sure the camp would make a plan for all abilities.  Ltausen certainly helped me with getting over some of the stepping stones across various rivers.

 

7 hours ago, Treepol said:

Enjoyed your Meru adventure and am following your time in the Mathews range. It does sound delightfully uncrowded! Great shot of the De Brazza monkey and the mamba.

Thanks.  Both places were wonderfully quiet.  I was really pleased with the monkey and the mamba as we had no expectations for much wildlife here, however more to come.

 

56 minutes ago, Zarek Cockar said:

Great Mamba sighting! And lucky you with the Leopard in Meru. They're not easy there.

Thanks Zarek.  Yes, we were incredibly pleased with the leopard.  So much better than sitting down to a cooked breakfast .

I was over the moon with the Mamba.  You can never have enough snakes in my opinion.

[Towlersonsafari]

Kitich camp looks wonderful @Zim Girland what a splendid snake sighting! can you comment on cost?

Edited November 2, 2023 by Towlersonsafari

[TonyQ]

It does look like a wonderful camp and seems to really suit your interest in walking.

Great views of the Monkey and the Snake!

[Zim Girl]

1 hour ago, Towlersonsafari said:

Kitich camp looks wonderful @Zim Girland what a splendid snake sighting! can you comment on cost?

Tricky re cost.  Back when we booked this in Nov 22, Kitich displayed the rates on their website.  I notice they no longer do that.  Expert Africa doesn't break down costs on their invoices.  From memory I think it may have been around the $500 pppn range but I could be a bit out on that, sorry.

 

1 hour ago, TonyQ said:

It does look like a wonderful camp and seems to really suit your interest in walking.

Great views of the Monkey and the Snake!

We loved the camp.  We only came here to walk and bird, so any wildlife was a bonus.  Could have done with at least one more night though.

[Zim Girl]

Another 7.30am start this morning and Mario wanted to take us out of camp in the opposite direction to experience more of the open landscape.  Fine with us.  He also said they will try to find elephant for us.  Also fine with us.

They did stress a bit about how hot it was but we assured them we wouldn't suddenly expire en route .

 

 

 

 

 

We were steadily climbing up for better visibility and we did actually find a small group of elephants hiding in the trees below. Centre of picture.

 

Then we had a sad camel story.

We came across a camel on its own in the bush.  It seemed to attract a bit of discussion from everyone so we asked why it was here alone.  The replies were all a bit non-committal so we pushed a bit more as it sounded like they didn't want to say for some reason.  Well, that reason was because the owner had deliberately left it out here after taking the rest of the herd back home.  It was sick and he expected it to die soon so didn't want to carry on looking after it.  Oh, kinda wished we hadn't asked now.  To make it worse it started following us.  They picked up the pace a bit so it couldn't keep up with us .

 

 

 

We reached another small hill and Ltausen spotted another elephant not too far away near the green bushes in the middle of the picture.  You can't see it.

 

They suggested we go down and see if could find it.

On the way we passed a number of trees giving away the presence of elephants.  Used as a rubbing post and worn smooth.

 

Well we found the elephant, but he was playing hide and seek and didn't want to come out to see us.  We sat on a boulder up a hill opposite but he was busy having a late breakfast, so in the end we had to give up.

 

We carried on walking.  We didn't see much else but we are happy just to walk so were fine with that.

 

At nearly 11.30, Mario said he was going to radio for a pick-up as to walk back would take a couple of hours and he was worried about the heat.  We didn't bother to argue.  It was nice that he was concerned, although we would have been quite happy to walk.  I actually quite like walking in the open baking heat.  Makes up for all we times we walk in the freezing cold, rain and wind back home.

 

Anyway, as it turned out, when we got back to camp, Nicki was there to welcome us and ushered us up to the deck as elephants were just starting to come out of the forest and down to the riverbed in front of camp.

 

 

 

There was already over a dozen and more were coming.

 

They hung around for a short while and then trooped off in the opposite direction.  We counted 18 in total.

 

It was going to be Adrian's birthday later in this trip.  Before we left camp this morning, Nicki asked me, even though it wasn't actually his birthday today, could she arrange a Samburu birthday celebration at lunchtime for him.  She was very keen, so I said that would be great.

 

So after lunch we were waiting for dessert and I saw Nicki go over and sit at the bar.  Then a group of staff came and lined up with Mario at the front.  So I just thought they were going to come over and sing Happy Birthday and put down a cake.  Ohh no, instead there was jumping and shuffling and low pitched wailing and then high pitched wailing.  Then there was cake, but then there was a whole dance performance.  It was really quite the spectacle.  I had been ready to take some photos but if I had known what a production it was going to be I would have filmed it.  Luckily, one of the rangers did a little bit of filming on his phone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Zim Girl]

Here are a couple of very short film clips from the ranger who filmed the celebration.

The first one gets cut off just as they start the high pitched wailing which is a shame, but it gives you an idea.

The second one shows a bit of the dancing.

 

 

 

[Zim Girl]

This picture is taken from the main area and looking towards the tents.  You can just see the roof of the first one but they are all quite hidden. We discovered that rooms 2 & 3 in particular have nice open views.

 

The afternoon walk started at 4.15pm but before we even got out of camp we could see that a small group of elephants had come back or perhaps had never left.

 

 

 

This was another very pleasant walk along the river beds.

 

 

 

It looks like that big group of elephants had stayed in the vicinity after all, as when we walked back in at 6pm they were all in front of camp again.

If you look at the far left hand side you can also see a warthog.  These regularly walk through camp and we disturbed one on the path from our tent one afternoon.

 

Lots of youngsters in this herd.

 

 

So it was sundowners with the elephants.  A lovely way to round off our stay.

 

Next up, Amboseli.

 

[michael-ibk]

A great report Angie, I´m glad you and Adrian had such a good time. Wonderful sightings at Meru, it really is such a beautiful park. We only spend two nights there (too long ago), really need to go back. I remember my joy about seeing the first Gerenuk, even more so seeing them standing, so I certainly understand your enjoyment. Good you got your Mamba - a good thing the manager reminded you to keep your distance though! Matthew´s Range looks very scenic, a great place to walk with plenty of Elephants apparently. Adrian looks a bit perplexed about this birthday performances!

[Bush dog]

Excellent report as usual!

 

Apparently, you have not seen any cheetahs.  Are they still present in Meru?  I remember to have seen my first cheetah in Meru but that was a long long time ago, in 1989.

[Zim Girl]

4 hours ago, michael-ibk said:

A great report Angie, I´m glad you and Adrian had such a good time. Wonderful sightings at Meru, it really is such a beautiful park. We only spend two nights there (too long ago), really need to go back. I remember my joy about seeing the first Gerenuk, even more so seeing them standing, so I certainly understand your enjoyment. Good you got your Mamba - a good thing the manager reminded you to keep your distance though! Matthew´s Range looks very scenic, a great place to walk with plenty of Elephants apparently. Adrian looks a bit perplexed about this birthday performances!

Thanks Michael.  Yes, we were really very impressed with Meru, especially with how few vehicles there were.  Yes, I do tend to get a bit excited when I see a snake.  No idea where that comes from, but I have always found them fascinating.   Oh, that birthday thing was amazing, my pics and the film do not do it justice at all.  It went on for ages and and the singing was really haunting.

I hope you both had a great time in Mozambique.

1 hour ago, Bush dog said:

Excellent report as usual!

 

Apparently, you have not seen any cheetahs.  Are they still present in Meru?  I remember to have seen my first cheetah in Meru but that was a long long time ago, in 1989.

Thank you very much @Bush dog.  No we didn't see cheetah at all on this trip, but I am pretty sure I remember our guide saying that cheetahs are in the grasslands areas of Meru. 

[Zim Girl]

We left Kitich at 8.30am for the road transfer to the Samburu Kalama airstrip.  Our Safarilink flight to Wilson, Nairobi was due to leave at 12.10pm.  Camp likes to leave at least 3 hrs for the journey just in case of any problems.  As it was it only took us 2 and a half hours and we arrived in plenty of time at 11am.  There is a big covered seating area at Kalama and we happily whiled away the time watching the various planes coming and going.  Our flight left on time, getting into Wilson at 1.15pm.  We were met directly off the plane by Safarilink staff and escorted to our next flight to Amboseli.  This left at 2pm and after a stop down in Tsavo we arrived in Amboseli at 3.10pm.

 

Our guide was waiting for us, and here begins the first and only problem of the trip.  We noticed immediately that the vehicle was old style with a full front cab.  We queried this with the guide but he said they only have one of the new style vehicles, and that was allocated.  Ok, we parked that for now.  He had brought us a packed lunch and we sat in the airstrip cabin to eat.  He suggested we have a game drive before going to the camp with a view to getting there around 6.30pm.  

 

That was fine, however the rest of the problem then became apparent.  We were not going to get on with this guide.  After 20 years of safaris, you can tell pretty quickly how good a guide is.  This one kept asking us where we wanted to go.  We had already told him this was our first visit to Amboseli so would leave it to him initially seeing as we had only just got there.  He kept asking! 

From the airstrip it doesn't take long to get to the big 'flamingo' lake.  So we drove slowly around.

 

 

All the 'rocks' on this grassy island are sleeping hyenas.

 

Love the appearance of walking on water.

 

You can see the old closed down Amboseli lodge in the background.

 

There were lots of waders, we asked him to stop so we could take pictures.  I asked him to identify the birds, most of them looked familiar but I wanted to be sure.  Anyway, this is where it really went downhill.  He told us a Ruff was a Snipe. Really?  We pointed it out again in case he was looking at something else.  Without answering he got the bird book out and spent ages flicking through it.  He couldn't tell us.  So we asked him what the other smaller birds were, close by.  Cue more flicking through the bird book. They were Common Sandpiper but he didn't seem to have a clue.  He also seemed a bit irritated we were even asking him.  So we stopped and just let him drive on.  

 

We crossed over this stream which was such a contrast with the dusty, wide open landscape.

 

The guide was really doing my head in now with the constant turning round and asking us what we wanted to do.

 

We were heading into the Kitirua conservancy where we could go off road, and came across a small herd of elephants.  They had obviously been wallowing in mud and were now drying off in the warm setting sun.  We spent a bit of time watching them.

The two small calves in the middle were causing mayhem, running around the legs of the other elephants.

 

 

This calf kept banging it's head into the back of the older youngster.

 

This female was having nothing to do with the unruly youngsters.

 

 

 

Then we drove to camp. He dropped us off and we were met by the assistant manager who went through the usual booking in stuff.  We were quite keen to get in the room by then so only mentioned the vehicle issue, which he said to leave with him.  

 

We got showered and changed for dinner and decided we would have to go and have a word about the guide.  We found the camp manager at reception, and I very politely asked about the guide's experience.  Initially I got a lot of bluster about how guests love him and he gets great feedback etc, etc.  I explained about him not being able to identify the birds.  He calmed down a bit, 'hmm,hmm', he went.  He said he would have a word with the head guide.  Right.  I then asked about the vehicle saying we had been assured by Elewana we could have the new style one.  He then went on about how he didn't know anything about that.   I have to say he was really quite off hand.  I offered to show him the written confirmation of the email he would have had.  'Hmm', again.  He ended by saying that camp was really busy and there wasn't much he could do about any of it.

Well, we didn't want to waste any more time with him so we went and had dinner.  We were a little bit downbeat but decided we would just have to try and make the best of it.

 

I won't keep you hanging on.

So in the morning we went up to the bar at 5.45am which is where you meet your guide ready to go out.  Waiting for us was the manager.  He was all smiles and introduced us to John, our new guide, and told us a vehicle with a drop down windscreen was sitting out front for us.  Well, I have to say we were surprised.  He had certainly changed his tune from last night.  We thanked him and John led us outside.  He had a quick chat with us about what we were going to do, and what a difference.  We knew immediately he was going to be so much better.  

And he was!  Spirits lifted and safari back on!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 3, 2023 by Zim Girl

[BRACQUENE]

Love your trip report @Zim Girlnot in the least that black mamba , making me want to leave on safari without delay but I will have to wait until the 8th of December 

[michael-ibk]

I’m glad you were able to sort out the guide / vehicle issues quickly. Love the Jesus Gnu.😁