#hellodenisestuff

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Our Maasai guide, Sem with the beautiful decorations made by his wife, lunch time in Naboisho Conservancy and huge herd of cattle grazing.

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Hey Denise! Is this you? Trying to navigate a new for me app. MBR

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Last joy of the day was this leopard female in a tree. Her kill of a scrub hare is further up the tree which she proceeded to eat, then she went back down to her burrow nearby where her 1 month old baby is. We did not get to see the baby.

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Something more relaxing is this video of elephants enjoying a drink. They are wet and muddy from rolling around in a mud hole and of spraying water on themselves. Elephants know how to have a good time.

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Sept 10-17, 2023

I had planned to write this blog on Substack but it got too complicated for me so I will continue these African Adventure posts on Tumblr.com.

This will be the journey to Kenya to participate in the volunteer program of African Impact in the Pardamat conservancy of the Kenya National Wildlife Reserve, Masai Mara.

What a long journey from Hawaii to Kenya. Fortunately I have a very good friend, Maggie, in Pacific who I get to visit when I am passing through San Francisco. I stayed two nights in her delightful company and rested up before the long flight to Kenya.

I arrived several days several days after I was exposed to Covid at work. I wore a mask on the flight but where 5 days had passed we thought we were safe, which proved to be true, but I was not fully comfortable till the 14th day had passed. I never got it. Hooray! Those around me could breathe a sigh of relief as well. I am vaccinated up to the gills so maybe that saved me?

Anyway, I digress. i flew KLM. airways which is marvelous. Great service. Seems they were always offering food or drink or hot towels. I watched 4 movies on the first leg which ended in Amsterdam for a three hour layover.

Because I get wheelchair service, I did not find my friend Joanne who was also traveling on the same flight to our destination in Kenya till we were ready to board the next flight for the final leg of our journey.

We got in somewhere around 10:30 PM after an aborted landing because there was debris on the landing strip! Finally after circling and losing our place in the landing line we did so.

Went thru the usual immigration and customs, again not seeing Joanne. I went outside and waited and waited, and was getting worried. A nice young soldier asked what I needed and he called the man who was to-pick us up, who was with Bonfire Adventures and tours. He found us and we waited some more. Finally Joanne appeared and we walked to the car and were driven to Masai Lodge near the town of Rongai. It is on the Southern border of the National Park. The drive took over an hour. The last 3 miles over an horrendous dirt road. We arrived around 1 AM pooped but happy to be back in Kenya.

We love that lodge. It. is mainly for the local people. Despite its name, it is run primarily by Samburu people. the Samburu are cousins to the Maasai. The lodge looks out over the Nairobi Game Park. Animals come into the large green area below the lodge which sits on a hill. There we see warthogs, antelope and baboons. There are tree hyrax and rock hyrax busy in the surrounding areas. The tree hyrax are quite used to people. Cute little creatures resembling a bunny without the long ears.

The 4 nights at the lodge allowed us to get over jet lag and start to get used to the altitude. It is like Denver, a mile high.

I was able to visit my dear friend, Dr. Paul Sayer, my colleague from teaching at the veterinary School in Nairobi back in 1967-1969. It was delightful to be with him and catch up on our lives and reminisce about the old days. (See-my book African Sojourns on Amazon.com to see what we did back then…)

The next day Joanne and I went to visit her friend, Rachel Kabue, who founded and runs The Cat Sanctuary in Nairobi. There are about 170 cats there now as she found homes for close to 130 of the most fit ones recently. Some there are very thin, and I fear may have some sort of blood parasite or Feline leukemia. However most are quite fit; they are all sweet and get along. She also has rescued a few dogs who live together with the cats. It is scrupulously clean with no odor.

Rachel, Some of the cats and dogs, Denise and friend, and Joanne and another rescue.

I spent one day sleeping a lot. Another day we had a guided walk by a Samburu man in full regalia looking very exotic and handsome in his colorful short dress like outfit with knee high socks and beaded ornaments and carrying the spear in case we ran into any aggressive animals. As it happened we only saw Impala and some monkeys and baboons. We met up with two Masai gentlemen in Western clothes who ran a nearby lodge and were friendly and fun. They all wanted photos which Joanne took but I have not got them right now. Will send next time.

The African Impact Driver came for us to transport us to Brackenhurst Conference Center in the Highlands in a town called Limuru. It is at 7000 feet so it has rather brisk evenings. It always tickles me when there, as after dinner, I come back to a bed with a hot water bottle in it. There we rested till the next morning where we would start out at 8:30 AM for the long drive to Pardamat.

I will write more tomorrow about the first week at the volunteer placement.

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I am now at the beautiful Resort on the coast at Watamu. Here are some photos of it.

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November 8, 2023

A lot of water has gone under the bridge and over it as the case was since I last wrote.

I left Pardamat on Monday the 3o Oct with 3 other volunteers who had finished their contracts. Joanne an I went down to Nairobi an stayed at Keren Inn and Suites. A lovely and safe place to stay with a nice little restaurant. The others went on to fly back to USA that night.

Joanne and I were picked up by the driver, Joseph, for Bonfire Adventures and Tours to travel to Samburu the next AM to the Shaba National Game reserve and specifically the Shaba Lodge. It is far to the North and took a good many hours. The road is paved to the turn off into the reserve and then it is a hellish rocky road with several stream crossings to get to the lodge. Entrance fees are 70$ a day for which I had set aside US dollars for the 4 days of our stay.

It was 3:30 Pm by the time we arrived. I was beat, but Joannne and Joseph went for a game drive while I had a swim in the lovely pool. The lodge is lovely. Here are photos of the lodge taken from my lounge chair at the pool

After a lovely buffet dinner in the restaurant high above the river we went to our rooms after stoping to see the fat crocodile on the banks of the river where he is fed by the lodge so folks can see him.

It rained most of the night and by morning the river was ver high and had over flowed its banks. We were evacuated to another room. We were only supposed to be two night there then on to Sopa Lodge in Samburu. However that lodge had a bigger problem with the river, It washed out the bridge there. Much discussion ensued over was there room for us to stay the two days at Shaba and could we try to venture to Sopa over the next few days. It finally got all sorted after a lot of stress and watching the river rise higher and higher an would we be able to leave etc etc. Here are some more photo of it all.

We were able to get out but it was a tough go forging raging streams 6 of them before we finall reached tarmac.

The drive to Masai Loge was. nightmare in that we were stranded by the side of the highway for two hours with engine trouble. It was getting dark. No one seemed to know what to do. the driver and some passers by were working on fixing the engine. Just as dark fell they succeeded. We drove to a gasoline station. dropped off the two helpers and carried on. We had picked up the drivers wife and his 3 young boys before Thompson”s falls so there was very precious cargo on board. After several miles it was found that the battery was not charging and the headlights went out on a busy highway two lanes. Terrifying. Fortunately there was a pull off f across the road to a gas station. But no mechanic. We tried calling several drivers we knew and the head of the To0ur agency, no one answered. We are tired, scared and wondering what next. then Joseph said a matatu was there. that is a commercial van. the driver agreed to take us all. We drove through the night to Masai Lodge arriving around 10 PM. What a relief to be safe once again.

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Images of Our passengers, and Thompsons Falls. Joseph and family and Joanne.

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Scenes of wildlife-zebra and giraffe and a crowned lapwing sitting on her eggs on the ground.

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More harassment of the lions by the jackal. Finally, one lion chased the jackal but it came back for more. Just playing I think.

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A beautiful pond in Pardamat Conservancy.

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Pahrdamat Hill at Sunset

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young male lion grooming his sister. Lions are very affectionate. this is a-video. When the female rolls over you can see the flies in her groin area.

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Lions resting. there is a jackaal barking at them press the video icon in the lower right of the photo.

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The big male walked over to be with the girls