Sunday, November 11
It is probably a good thing that none of us had a morning game drive this morning, as I think we all woke a little worse for wear. I got the most sleep but the rest of the fireplace gang last night stayed up until 3:00 a.m. There’s no way I’d have been able to function, not to mention alcohol-related dehydration!
I had a nice breakfast at camp within morning with their homemade museli and yogurt and scrambled eggs. It was served out on the deck behind the common area. It was my first breakfast not eaten out in the bush since I left Nairobi. Most everyone was sleeping in except for me and the male honeymooner. It was a quiet morning.
David and Kappen took the honeymooners, Mike the intern manager and me to the airstrip at 9. We said goodbye to Chania and Steve and the dog Nyara and off we went. It was a somewhat uneventful game drive to the airstrip, except we did pull over to see one of the Offbeat males with his near-mating Acacia lioness nearby. That was a nice send-off.
Mr. Honeymooner made us all laugh when he said “let’s all agree that if we see two lions fighting two cheetahs we’ll stay and watch and not go home.” I liked his thinking, no matter how unlikely it was.
We hung around waiting for Safarilink in the hot sun. The airstrip had no facilities and no shade so other than sitting in the shade of our vehicle, we were out of luck. I tried to soak it up since this will likely be the last I’m outdoors until spring!
Finally the time came to bid David and Kappen goodbye. I thanked Kappen for the bracelet that his wife made that I bought. Hugs all around and we boarded. As usual, I was a soggy mess when we took off, but it made me smile to see the two of them jumping and waving from the side of the airstrip. It’s a heart wrenching feeling for me to leave, since I absolutely love being there and the excitement of every day being different.
The flight was late arriving in Mara North but it was only 40 minutes so we ended up on time. Sammy from Emakoko met me and took me there just in time for lunch, which as usual was wonderful. The starter was an avocado salad. The main was butternut squash ravioli and salad with homemade mustard vinegarette. Dessert was lemon mousse. After lunch I headed up to my room on the hill (I’ve always been at reception level) which was over 100 steps up! I have no idea how the folks who work there do that all the time! The view up there was nice, so I opened the balcony doors and sat out there to catch up on my blog, some email and social media.
Something caught my attention just off the deck and I looked and it was a Sykes monkey climbing the tree closest to the deck. He looked innocent enough, but I remembered the staffer who took me to the room saying to leave the doors closed when I’m not there in case of monkeys. Now I understood. He let me approach him for photos but when I sat back down again, he was eyeing the open doors behind me. I got up to close them and I could see his eyes going to the open windows. I made it to the last open one just in time for him to be one foot into it. I barked no at him and clapped and off he went. I found out later that the night before he’d made it into another room and trashed it while the guest was at dinner. Perhaps it’s a sign of experience on these trips that I’m not bothered by the hyrax or the monkey and just dealing with them myself.
Around 3:30 a knock on the door and I was asked if I was going to do the game drive in the park. I didn’t know this was part of the day room package, but gladly took them up on it. Sammy was our driver.
We headed out and another guest requested that we find white rhinos. I had no expectations or desires out of this, just trying to maximize the game drives. We didn’t see much more than plain game for the most part but then we came across four rhinos. Coincidentally enough, it was an adult male, two adult females and a small calf. I asked Sammy if he’d talked to Rashid about what we saw with the rhinos last Sunday when the male was going after the baby. He said yes, and that these were the same rhinos. My last sighting was coming full circle and finding out that he survived that at least. One of the females was poking at him, but not in the violent, distressful way that the male was. For now, the calf is alright.
It rained on and off again around us and over us all the while the sun kept popping through. We saw a rainbow at the end of the drive which made me smile.
Back to the Emakoko and up those 100 steps again for a shower and change and repack. I decided then I’m leaving my bags up there and not coming back for them after dinner. No way was I doing the steps again! Dinner was quite good, as usual. The starter was halluti cheese in a light pastry, baked veggie balls (like meatballs) with mashed potato and green beans and carrots. Dessert was passion fruit ice cream. I had my last Dawa made by Lawrence. I told him his are truly the best out there. I’ll have to figure out how to make them myself.
It’s a good thing I got my upgrade to Business Class going home. Anthony, the owner of Emakoko, ate dinner with me and we got to talking and next thing I know, it was 8:30, when I was supposed to be at the airport for my flight! Yikes! It took 50 minutes to get there and then the web of security checks started. First the one outside the airport grounds where I have to get out of the car and walk through metal detectors while the car gets scanned. Then the metal detectors to get into the terminal, which at this point was a couple blocks long. I spied with my little eye a Kenya Airways Sky Priority door that I decide to try and I breezed right through. Then I got shuffled around to a couple of different desks before I got checked in and offered priority passport control access. Then through another security check to get to the departure gates. Finally the last security check at the gate. In all I took my shoes on/off 4 times. A bit of overkill but better safe than sorry, I suppose. Unfortunately I had no time for the lounge since I got through all that at 10:25. If I hadn’t had all the priority access I’m not sure I would have made it.
For all that, the plane boarded late and is currently 1/2 hour late. Argh...
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