My, those are big orphans! Adventures of Joyce, Rod, Mark & Patty in Kenya

[Patty]

Itinerary:

 

Aug 31 - Nairobi

Sep 1/2 - Sandai

Sep 3 - Nairobi

Sep 4/5/6 - Ithumba

Sep 7/8 - Galdessa

Sep 9/10 - Finch Hattons

Sep 11 - Nairobi

 

Photos:

 

Sandai share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AZNnDlk5Ytmb5I

 

Nairobi share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AZNnDlk5Ytmb7A

 

Ithumba share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AZNnDlk5Ytmb9Y

 

Galdessa share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AZNnDlk5Ytmb_Q

 

Finch Hattons share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AZNnDlk5YtmbCCg

 

Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport

 

We were really excited to be able to return to some of our favorite places in Kenya with Joyce and Rod this year. Our first stop was Petra Allmendinger's ranch, Sandai, north of Mweiga near the Aberdares. Starting our drive from Runda (a suburb north of Nairobi city center) meant little traffic to contend with and we arrived in just over 3 hours. Petra's brother and his family as well as some friends (who had lived in Kenya 15 years ago) were all visiting from Germany so she had a full complement of guests making for some lively evenings. We decided to take it easy and relax the first afternoon and Mark took the time to replace Petra's broken guitar tuners with a set we'd brought with us. Tessa just started at a new school in Nakuru so unfortunately we didn't get to see her. Tak, Nusu, Oscar and a new dog named Lucas as well as Hedgie, the food stealer, and her feline family were all still around. It's always nice to see that none were taken by a leopard! Speaking of leopards, there was a leopardess with 2 cubs on the property at the time. We never saw them but Rod did hear her at 2:00am one morning.

 

With the guitar repaired and the one Rod brought along, we had an evening of music the first night. At one point Rod chose to play a song he was sure everyone would know and could sing along to but was met with blank stares and the sound of crickets instead! It wasn't long though before he got his entire audience singing the chorus to Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport. Later we got a pretty good The Lion Sleeps Tonight going too.

 

The next day we went on a 10 hour excursion to the Aberdares and hey, I managed to remember to bring my camera along this time! The morning started out very misty so we all ended up borrowing jackets from Petra and her family. We thought we were extremely lucky when we saw 3 giant forest hogs very close to the road early in the day not realizing that by the end of the day we would have seen 10 of them! We'd seen one previously in 2005 but it was a fleeting glimpse and Joyce and Rod had seen one in 2006 that was so far away that they just had to trust their guide that the black dot on the hill was indeed a hog. Another one of my favorite sightings was a troop of Sykes monkeys in a bamboo thicket. When we stopped, they all started coming to the edge of the bamboo. Who was checking who out? The animals were being really cooperative today! We also saw a troop of colobus monkeys flying through the trees. Unfortunately none of us were fast enough with our cameras.

 

We stopped near Karuru Falls for a picnic. Normally you'd hardly see another vehicle in this park. However today there was already a KWS vehicle with 3 passengers parked there and as we were sitting down to eat, a bus with over 20 passengers from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa pulled up. How hilarious was that and how that bus made it there, I don't know! Everyone else decided to visit the falls first so we patted ourselves on the back for prioritizing lunch. After our picnic, we walked down to the falls platforms which were enshrouded in mist. I started to tell Joyce and Rod that there really were waterfalls there and how beautiful they'd be if we could actually see them when the mist started to lift. Watching the falls appear was incredible and after we'd all enjoyed the views, the mist moved back in again. Perfect timing!

 

Back up in the parking area, one of the students approached Mark to ask what his binoculars were for. As Mark was explaining and having her look through the binos, a line of 10 had formed all wanting to look through them too! One student asked if the binos enabled you to see through the mist.

 

Other game we saw that day were buffalo, waterbuck, 2 eles (sadly one of which had a leg injury due to a snare, he's been seen that way for about a year now), bushbuck, jackal, duiker, reedbuck, baboon and warthogs. We also made a stop to see Chania Falls. It was a long but really good day!

 

That night we helped celebrate Petra's friend's 16th birthday (well, it was some multiple of 16 ). Petra's living room turned into a bush disco with lots of dancing to ABBA and Gloria Gaynor. Us girls even managed to get a couple of the guys on their feet. However we're under strict orders not to post the incriminating evidence. We had an Oscari escort us back to our cottage that night but as payment for his services he demanded to sleep in the cottage with us. Maybe he heard the leopard too?

Edited August 28, 2012 by Patty

[twaffle]

Patty, I have been looking forward so much to your report and it has started wonderfully. I just love the photos of the monkeys in the bamboo, totally unexpected vegetation.

 

And you saw a leopard in Tsavo! Amazing.

 

I must say that the standout photos for me were the two you took in your tent using the netting. Very safari chic.

 

Ithumba looks wonderful and now I'm planning not a family trip but one which will include some friends of ours as well. Just have to sell it to them.

[Guest nyama]

Ithumba looks wonderful...

The viewing deck is great. And the day bed...

[Patty]

Thanks, twaffle!

 

Ithumba was the last place I thought I'd see a leopard.

 

It's a great place to go with a group of family and/or friends. We're hoping to return next year and that Joyce & Rod will be able to join us again. It's too bad Rod's sister's family wasn't able to go as I think her son would've really gotten a kick out of it. Remember there's room for an extra tent if you go over 6 and I could've happily slept in that upper deck day bed.

[Nyamera]

I had to have a look at Youtube.

 

I’m starting to believe in giant forest hogs.

[Patty]

Do Baby Elephants Have Teeth?

 

Back in Nairobi we did a little shopping at the Junction and had lunch at Mediterraneo. Joyce’s BIL had already done most of the food shopping but there were a few extra things we wanted to pick up. We also found out that due to last minute scheduling issues, they wouldn’t be joining us at Ithumba after all. We headed to the Sheldrick Nairobi nursery at 4:30pm so I could pay for Ithumba camp and stay afterwards to see the eles and rhinos return to the stockades. They’ve had so many new arrivals recently that they haven’t even been able to keep up with the email updates. One of the keepers let us put our fingers in a little ele’s mouth so it could “suckle”. For some reason, when it was Rod’s turn, the little ele bit his fingers. Rod said it felt like a vise clamping down but it didn’t look that bad to me With the traffic at that hour, it took us over an hour and a half to get back to Runda.

 

BTW the only mosquitoes we saw the entire trip were in Nairobi.

[Patty]

Step Away From the Pineapple or I’m Going to Make You Eat That Pork Brawn

 

We loaded up the van until it looked like we were going away for 3 months and headed out shortly before 8:00am this morning. It took about an hour to get through Nairobi. The construction on the Mombasa Highway starts just past the airport but there’s a good parallel road and asphalt detours which was a huge improvement over last year. There’s only a brief stretch running approx between Salama and Sultan Hamud with rougher detours. After that, it’s smooth blacktop. It was a very pleasant surprise as we weren’t sure exactly what to expect having heard various accounts. Perhaps I’m being optimistic but I think by year end, it should be a nice, uneventful drive. Speaking of roads, I was told the road to Samburu has been redone up to Archer’s Post gate and the road to Narok (toward the Mara) is almost done. When they’re finished with that part, they’ll start on Narok to Sekenani which will probably take some time. However, if you’re going to the western part of the Mara, you can take a different road from Narok.

 

After 4 hours, we turned off the highway at Kibwezi (note: if you stay at Panari you could probably cut an hour off this drive). We refueled at Kibwezi and from there it was about 70 km of dirt road to the Kasala gate (approx 2 hours) and another 15 km to Ithumba Headquarters where you’re actually checked into the park (no smartcard reader at this gate). On the way to the gate we crossed the Athi and Tiva rivers. Between Athi and Tiva there was a small bridge which wasn’t on the map from Sheldrick but Tiva is a large paved bridge (just in case you get confused like we did). There were some sandy stretches of road and it’s probably not the greatest road to travel on after heavy rains. It’s well signed 40 km from HQ where you need to turn right (which happens to be the same place as the Barack Obama tree). Good thing because all of the towns we passed looked like the town pictured on the map where we needed to turn. There are more signs at 34 and 23 km before HQ. It was actually much easier to find than we anticipated. The last cell signal (both Safaricom and Zain) is at the town of Kasala 7 km before the gate.

 

We asked at HQ what would happen if someone mistakenly arrived without a preloaded smartcard and they said they’d take cash and not force you to detour to Voi (but don’t blame me if this doesn’t work ). From there we headed to Ithumba camp a few kilometers away. The northern section of Tsavo East is hillier and looks quite different than the southern end of the park and the camp is beautifully situated with the sun rising over the kopjes behind camp and setting over the Yatta Plateau. Joyce commented that she thought Elsa’s Kopje was the most superbly sited camp she’d ever seen until she came here.

 

We unloaded and met Njagi and Kimwele who help out at the camp and showed us where everything was. There are 3 tents under makuti roof with an open air rock walled bathroom behind. The solar heated water warms quickly and can essentially be used like a bucket shower (turning it on and off between rinsing) to conserve water. Solar electricity is used to power the kitchen lights and charge batteries and kerosene, candles and portable solar lamps are used to light the common areas, pathways and tents. The camp is self catering so food, water for drinking/coffee making/cooking and toiletries need to be brought by guests. Water for dish washing, showering, etc is provided but it’s requested that guests use this sparingly as it’s an extremely dry area (even when there isn’t a drought) and the borehole water can’t be used for the camp due to the salinity (but apparently the eles are able to drink it). Gray water from the kitchen is used for the small waterhole at camp.

 

We were going to have sandwiches after getting settled in and that’s when we discovered that instead of ham, we’d been supplied with pork brawn (I have admit other than that, Henry did a pretty good shopping job). I had to google pork brawn when I returned home and apparently it’s called head cheese in our part of the world. Not that that helped me understand what it was, but I was able to find some pictures and realized I’d eaten it before. However this stuff was a highly processed fushia pink product that resembled nothing like what I’d had before (not that I relish the idea of pork brawn even in it’s natural state). Joyce and I opted for regular cheese sandwiches.

 

We enjoyed our cheese sandwiches on the bean bags on the breezy upper deck watching the dik dik, warthogs, baboons, vervets and numerous hornbills, parrots, starlings, weavers and other birds around camp and at the waterhole. We loved the place already and hadn’t even seen the eles yet. The weather at this time of year was also very comfortable, only hot at mid day, and cooled off significantly at night unlike in February on our previous trips to Tsavo. Makes me wonder why we ever went in February

 

We headed to the stockades which are about 4 km away past HQ at 5:00pm for our first encounter with the orphans. We arrived to find 7 eles at the stockade waterhole and scratched our heads wondering how such big elephants could be bottle fed. A few seconds later the real orphans started to arrive just in time for the light bulbs to simultaneously go off in our heads We met Benjamin the head keeper and learned that there were currently 12 keeper dependent orphans aged 4-6 with the 4 year olds still being bottle fed 3 times a day. Normally they would’ve weaned them by now but they’re waiting for the next rains. Then there are the independent ones in 2 groups led by Yatta and Wendy varying in age between 7-11 that are seen on a regular basis either at the stockade or mudbath. We also learned that when they established the Ithumba release site in 2004, no wild elephants were seen in this area and it wasn’t until 2007 that they had encounters with wild eles. Hyrax and vervets were scampering over mobile phone kopje (I know I said the last signal was in Kasala but there’s a serious risk of death trying to get to the top of this one) and a jackal came to drink. Of course I had to ask about dog sightings to which Benjamin replied “we don’t see them frequently, only once or twice a week”. Njagi also said he sees them at camp often but I was never at the right place at the right time.

 

Aside from the late afternoon visit, one can also bottle feed and visit at 6:00am at the stockade and at 11:00am at the mudbath. One morning we headed out with the eles and spent about an hour walking with them early in the morning. They prefer that you don’t stray too far from the stockade so the amount of time you spend walking depends on how fast the eles are traveling. During dry season they travel slowly.

 

You could also go on game drives but we were content to view whatever came to camp from the day beds in between ele visits (is there a market for a guidebook called “Game Viewing for the Lazy” cause I think I’d be exceptionally well qualified to write it? ). Mutomo the banana eating orphan duiker also paid us visits at the camp. On our short drives to and from camp, we did see a few kudu and on our last evening a leopard crossing the road or as Rod shouted out “a baboon” (we all took turns having equally Doh! moments later). Seeing the leopard was so totally unexpected.

 

The second day at the mudbath we were able to see all 30 orphans. Yatta’s group was already at the waterhole when we arrived. The keeper dependent group arrived shortly after and they greeted each other. Then Wendy’s group arrived. It was so overwhelming that I didn’t know where to look. As Joyce was feeding Loijuk a member of Wendy’s herd came over causing Loijuk to trumpet and protest loudly. Little eles make a lot of noise and you should’ve seen Joyce jump back!

 

That was also the day that KWS brought in a bus load of staff family members so they could see the eles and visit the parks. After Ithumba, they’d head to Voi that night, then a game drive through Tsavo West before going home. All the kids wanted to shake our hands and I think we were as much of an attraction as anything else.

 

After 3 nights we were all very sad to leave “our” camp and could’ve happily stayed here the rest of the week.

 

BTW Joyce is queen of the kitchen. Don’t get in her way unless you want to hear things like “step away from the pineapple”. She means it too Seriously we had some great meals and were all very appreciative of her volunteering to cook for us.

[Atravelynn]

Alright, the big orphans are over here! Along with the pork brawn.

[madaboutcheetah]

Patty,

 

Thanks a lot for the report and Pics. Would love to go to Tsavo one day. From your pics, appears really dry and need of rain. Trust you had a wonderful safari and a great time ........

[twaffle]

Wild dogs once or twice a week is pretty good, I'd have said! Shame they didn't visit when you were there.

[Patty]

Patty,

 

Thanks a lot for the report and Pics. Would love to go to Tsavo one day. From your pics, appears really dry and need of rain. Trust you had a wonderful safari and a great time ........

 

Thanks, Hari. Yes, we had a great time. Tsavo is normally very dry but this was extreme!

[Patty]

Wild dogs once or twice a week is pretty good, I'd have said!

 

That's what I thought was so interesting about the way he phrased that!

 

Shame they didn't visit when you were there.

 

I'll see them when I've managed to stop thinking about them.

[Nyamera]

Patty, did you have semifreddo all’amaretto at Mediterraneo?

 

Ithumba sounds like a place where you have to stay for at least a week.

[Patty]

Patty, did you have semifreddo all?amaretto at Mediterraneo?

 

I'll have to remember to save room or just eat dessert next time.

[Atravelynn]

I also thought once or twice a week for wild dogs was a lot, practically a hot spot. Did I understand that Ithumba allowed for 3 tents? Does that account for all of the accommodations? How many people usually joined you in your feedings and outings?

 

I think I am just comprehending the significance of 2007. Before that only the orphans were in the area. Since then the wild ones interact. I think I got that wrong in the other spot.

 

Did you see any orphan-wild ele interaction?

[Patty]

Lynn,

There are 3 tents at Ithumba with the ability to set up a 4th tent though it wouldn't have a makuti roof or attached bathroom. There's an additional stand alone bathroom nearby that pretty much looks just like the other open air bathrooms attached to each guest tent. It's possible they could set up even more. They said they've had as many as 14 guests when the Sheldrick family was visiting but I don't know if they'd normally allow you to bring that many and didn't ask if there was a maximum. The camp is booked on an exclusive basis by one party so no one else is staying there or visiting with the orphans while you're there (except for the day the KWS staff family members were there). It's totally private. The cost this year is $450 per night for up to 6 guests and $75pppn for any additional guests beyond 6. Julius stayed in a guest tent but there's a guide room (no charge) in the building near the kitchen where Njagi and Kimwele stay that he said looked fine.

 

Yes, no wild eles in this area due to heavy poaching and insecurity in the past but they started returning to the area in 2007. There are really no other tourist accommodations north of the Galana River (approx 100 km south) an area that accounts for about 2/3 of the park unless you count Kilalinda Camp outside of the park. Ithumba Camp opened to guests in 2006. BTW does anyone know what if anything is in the former Cottars Camp location? I forgot to ask. There are plans to build tourist accommodation north of the Galana as well as more in Meru in hopes of relieving pressure from the more heavily visited parks. But I think it'll be many years before we see any so go now!

 

There were usually wild eles at the stockade waterhole in the mornings and afternoons (the ones we initially mistook for the orphans ). We didn't see a great deal of interaction other than the sharing of the waterhole though there's one 14 year old wild male that has joined Yatta's herd of independent orphans. They said they've never had any issues with the wild eles and 1 or 2 of the ex-orphans sometimes even travel with wild eles.

[Leely]

I see I will have to befriend someone who loves cooking. That will be my project this weekend. I already know how to think a leapard is a baboon, a kopje is an elephant and brambly trees are giraffes.

 

Had never heard of Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport until now so thanks for introducing me to it.

 

Kenya needs some rain.

[Patty]

I wanted to add that you can also visit the Voi stockade at the southern end of Tsavo East. We were going to do that last year but there were no keeper dependent orphans present at the time. I think there are 9 there now and possibly more headed there with the Nairobi nursery at such full capacity. There are many lodges and camps near Voi so there could be other foster parents present during your visit. Sheldrick doesn't maintain a guest camp there but you do need to contact their office in Nairobi for permission to visit.

[Patty]

Had never heard of Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport until now so thanks for introducing me to it.

 

I hadn't either!

[Patty]

Is That an Elephant or an Abandoned Air France Van?

 

From Ithumba it’s about 100 km to the Galana River which used to be the northern boundary for any tourist activities due to heavy poaching and security problems in the northern part of the park. We saw some lion tracks and a kudu but not much else on the drive south. The Tiva River where game might normally congregate was almost dry. There’s no bridge so we drove right across the river bottom. During the wet season, we might not have been able to cross at all. Halfway to the Galana, Joyce spots something and says “is that an elephant?” When we got closer we realized it was the abandoned Air France van from over 40 years ago. I’d seen a picture of it in Jan Goss’s trip report from 2006 and in fact we were just discussing it a few minutes ago wondering where exactly it was when there it appeared! We never found out much about it because hardly anyone seemed to even know of its existence.

 

We drove over the Yatta Plateau and started seeing our first carcasses. Game was concentrated along the Galana, the only green area around, such a difference from last year. We saw hippos, elephants, baboon, common waterbuck, impala, Grant’s gazelle, gerenuk, dik dik, lesser kudu and giraffe on our way to camp. For some reason we saw a lot more kudu this year. I don’t know if it’s because the lack of vegetation allowed us to see them more easily or because they can better adapt to the dry conditions than some of the other antelope or some other reason.

 

Arriving at camp 3 hours later we were surprised to see all of the elephants in camp. Last year it had rained in January just before our stay which BTW was the last rain they received. At the time the park was green and we’d seen eles in the river and across the bank but not right in camp. None of the eles in camp was Tusker the resident elephant though who had not been seen in a while.

 

We stayed on the main camp side this time in tents 7 & 8 (tent 7 has a viewing platform adjacent) and the camp had about 14-16 guests total during our stay. Rod, Mark and I decided to take the afternoon off and enjoy the viewing from our tents while Joyce went to Lugard Falls and Crocodile Point. We watched waterbuck grazing on a dry island that had formed in the middle of the river and hippos across the river. There were sacred and hadada ibis, kingfishers and a pair of Egyptian geese with 5 goslings. The goslings could walk right across the river. That’s how low it was! A baby ele (I would guess no older than 2) and what looked to be an older sibling came right up and browsed next to our tent. Again the afternoon was very breezy and temps at night much cooler than in Feb. I slept comfortably inside the tent under the comforter. Lots of night sounds here as animals moved through camp.

 

The next morning we took an early morning game drive. We saw many of the same species as the day before plus 4 Somali ostrich, several bateleur eagles, great egret, spur winged plover, blue napped moosebird, African spoonbill and a Ruppell’s Griffon vulture. Mark and I decided again to spend the rest of the day at camp (more research for my book ) while Rod went with Joyce this time on an afternoon drive. We watched as gerenuk, impala and kudu came to drink at the river, the waterbuck were grazing on the island again, a pair of tawny eagle raided a plover nest and this time a bull ele browsed by the tent and had a good scratch on the platform. Too bad none of us were in it at the time However Rod did have some giraffe come by during the night when he slept out on the platform. We had another really enjoyable stay at Galdessa with the eles definitely being the highlight. At the same time, we knew this would not have been the case if not for the drought.

[Patty]

One thing I forgot to include was that I changed about 80 USD into shillings for camp staff at Galdessa. These were 1996 and 1999 series bills. Please remember if you're going to use USD that it's very difficult to exchange pre-2000 bills in Kenya or better yet tip in shillings and your recipient will have no exchange issues.

 

(I debated whether I really needed to post this addendum on ST )

[Patty]

Dogs and Cats Only

 

Hard to believe our trip is almost over! We exited Tsavo East through Manyani gate this morning and up to Mtito Andei. We could’ve entered at Tsavo gate just a few km up the road but were told the road entering through Tsavo gate was very rutted plus we needed to refuel. We made a stop at Mzima Springs on our way to camp. The springs were still flowing, but they were down to about 9 hippos. Crocs, vervets, baboons, waterbuck, impala, warthog and cormorants were also seen around the springs. We headed to camp and again noticed how terribly dry the landscape was, the only green being around the Tsavo River and springs. The usual herds of impala and oryx in and near camp weren’t present, only a few here and there. Zebra were far fewer too. Other game we saw on the way were kudu (not as plentiful as Tsavo East), gerenuk, buffalo, Maasai giraffe including a baby with an umbilical cord still attached, Coke’s hartebeest, duiker, eland, dwarf mongoose and lots of lots of Maasai ostrich. Ostriches dotted the landscape. It was getting past lunch hour and the Mark and Rod finally declared “no more stopping for ostriches, dogs and cats only!” I asked if hyena count too

 

Arriving at Finch Hattons camp, we found out that they too had lost about half of the hippo population in their springs and are now down to 20. Many had left only to come back when they found there was no grazing elsewhere. Out of desperation, the camp had gotten permission from KWS to start putting out hay and vegetable scraps for the hippo 2 weeks ago. On the other hand, there were more and bigger crocs this time.

 

We had lunch and got settled into our tents, 5 & 6 the first night, then Mark and I moved to 7 for our second night. Tent 7 is just getting way too popular! We opted for a little walk around camp and decided that tent 3 was another excellent location. While you’re farther from where the hippo congregate during the day, you do get lots of other game wandering by in the morning and afternoon. Other species seen at camp this afternoon – vervets, baboon, banded mongoose, warthog, impala, a young giraffe, a male bushbuck, and many kingfishers, herons, crakes and thick knees. In the evening we saw a lone young hippo swim across the springs and exit on the tent 3 side. We were told that the mom’s carcass was removed from that end of the springs and that’s why he heads that direction each evening.

 

An early morning game drive the next day took us to a little swampy area by camp with nice heron and egret viewing. We then headed to the Tsavo River where we were happy to find some hippo still resident. Here we had a mini “traffic jam” on the bridge consisting of 3 vehicles, the most we’d seen at any given time in Tsavo. The clouds were cooperating and we got a view of a giraffe in front of the peaks of Kili. We did see more carcasses including a zebra with what looked like a brown snake eagle feeding on it and woolly necked storks scavenging on a giraffe carcass. We came upon some high pitched barking and watched as a black backed jackal chased off 2 other jackals. He continued barking and kicking up dust and looked very pleased with himself afterwards (just like our dogs at home). Other game that rounded out the morning were waterbuck, warthog, kudu, wildebeest, oryx, false hartebeest (it was a male impala doing his best impression of a hartebeest, I lost all credibility after that one ), real hartebeest (that’s what Julius started calling them), gerenuk, eles, a monitor lizard and 5 vultures in a tree.

 

We had another Game Sit™ this afternoon watching a pair of water thick knees defending their nest against a monitor lizard, the sunbirds drinking nectar and 2 different color variations of the African paradise flycatchers (they’re gorgeous) along with the usual suspects in camp plus a couple of dwarf mongoose. We dined outside this evening under the stars watching the hippos. It was a perfect last day and we didn’t want to leave.

 

The following morning, we said goodbye to Julius until next time at the airstrip. Our Safarilink Caravan arrived on time and we were even able to get the guitar and two coolers on board. The pilot simply asked if the coolers were full and told us to hurry up and get our butts and all of our stuff on board so we could get going. We had nice views of Kili and stopped at Amboseli for pick ups/drop offs before continuing to Wilson. Amboseli looked even worse than Tsavo. There were a few swampy areas but the rest of the park looked like a salt pan. We could only hope that it starts raining soon.

 

We got to spend one last evening together with Pam, Henry and Reggie before Joyce and Rod headed home and Mark and I headed to Amsterdam. We had such a wonderful time traveling with Joyce and Rod this trip and are hoping we can all return to Ithumba again soon.

[Nyamera]

I am still thinking about the Air France van from Jan Goss’s report.

 

If I ever go on safari again I’ll try your “laziness”. I’m so afraid of missing something if I’m not out on game drives 12 hours a day, but I miss everything and everyone in the camp and game drives are impossible to justify environmentally.

 

Thanks for the report!

 

I don’t know what to say about the drought.

[Patty]

I’m so afraid of missing something if I’m not out on game drives 12 hours a day

 

I told Joyce not to tell me what she saw!

[Game Warden]

I am still thinking about the Air France van

I'm wondering whether it was a split screen Volkswagen... sorry back on topic - I don't need another one.