Thursday 25 Aug Last day, flight home at 23:10, so we had a good part of the day to relax. Our transfer to Mombasa airport was going to be at 3pm for the internal flight back to Nairobi. While we were still eating lunch we were told our driver had arrived and was saying that » » »

Wednesday 24 Aug And so finally a day of zero mammal watching and all relaxation… except we did just do one more forest walk in the morning by ourselves, in the hope of some elephant shrews. No joy. Oh, and one more bit of night spot-lighting on the main track. Argh! We are clearly addicts. » » »

Tuesday 23 Aug Yesterday we made some attempts to ask about exploring the forest trail and maybe spot-lighting in the evening, only to be met with a wall of “no I don’t think that’s possible” and “the management can’t accept liability” and gentle yet definite refusal. So this morning we took the “Guided Nature Trail” » » »

Monday 22 Aug In theory we have now finished mammal watching. We are off to a posh resort down the coast at Diani Beach for 3 days of rest and relaxation. So of course we asked Shem if we can have one more visit to Arabuko-Sokoke this morning, just for a short walk in the » » »

Sunday 21 Aug Crazy things mammal-watchers do: drive almost four hours north along the coast, to spend two hours looking for rare primates, then drive back again. It was well worth it though! The Tana River Red Colobus and the Tana River Mangabey are both critically endangered, as they exist only in a strip of » » »

Saturday 20 Aug Arabuko-Sokoke has not been very generous to us. We went for another night drive this evening, and it was even less good that the previous one. Just a couple more of the galagos and absolutely nothing else. The dinner we came back to this time was a massive plate of all the » » »

Friday 19 Aug Today we left Tsavo NP and headed for the coast at Watamu. We drove right across the park but didn’t really come across anything interesting. It was more interesting to see how the villages in the flat, hot country near the coast change from those back in the highlands. Near Meru and » » »

Thursday 18 Aug Voi Lodge. So the rooms are a bit tired, especially the bathroom. This isn’t unique to Voi; I think it must be very expensive to replace bathroom fittings in Kenya as it’s always the nastiest part of any place we stayed in. The buffet meals are okay, though nothing to write home » » »

Wednesday 17 Aug Shem reminded us today that we needed to take a park ranger on our night drive, and culture in Kenya would make it appropriate to tip him. What would be an appropriate tip? “Whatever you think is right, it’s up to you” was Shem’s answer. I totally understand why it’s difficult to » » »

Tuesday 16 Aug Today was a monstrous 11 hour transfer from Meru NP to Tsavo East NP, and judging by how relentless and fast Shem drove, they’d miscalculated the timings a bit when creating our itinerary! It didn’t help that the rough dirt-and-rock village road from Rhino River Camp probably took an extra 30 minutes » » »

Monday 15 Aug Today I feel more well-disposed to Meru NP, as we went out for pretty much the entire day (with a picnic lunch) and actually saw some new mammals and a lot more generally. In fact we saw 21 different mammal species today, which is the best daily tally yet. We even saw » » »

Sunday 14 Aug Meru NP seems very… quiet. We’ve been for a morning game drive, and an afternoon game drive, and really haven’t seen a lot of game. If we hadn’t seen a striped ground squirrel we might have gone a whole day with no new mammals. We’ve been exploring the third of Meru NP » » »

Saturday 13 Aug Our lunch stop today was probably my favourite place in Kenya so far. The Trout Tree Restaurant is just a few hundred yards off the main Nanyuki road with buildings and human life along every mile, but you feel like you’re back in wilderness. The trout farming ponds are all in the » » »

Friday 12 Aug Our only activity today was a morning drive. It was even mistier than yesterday and we saw even less stuff, although we did spot our first elephant of the trip. But otherwise, meh. Later we rocked up at The Ark, the big wooden hotel in the Aberdares that has been here since » » »

Thursday 11 Aug I haven’t had a hot water bottle since I was little! But slipping a couple of bottles into your bed while you’re having dinner is one of the things they do to try and help you stay warm at the Aberdare Country Club. There’s a fireplace in the room, but its hard » » »

Wednesday 10 Aug Feels like a very long first day (I think a 5am breakfast can lead to that impression!). We were picked up at 6am by our guide Shem, for a morning game drive in Nairobi NP. This is quite an astonishing park, as the entry gates really are in the city, and the » » »

Tuesday 9 Aug We touched down in Nairobi around 9pm so my first impressions of Kenya are very brief. Security. I’ve never stayed in a hotel with a gated entrance and a sniffer dog who explores you and your car (bizarrely, an actual courtesy car from the hotel) before letting you in. Nice doggie, too. » » »