Kenya–Walking Safari

The following day we packed up and headed off early, not before Jack and Mark went exploring to see all the animals. He got to pet the goats, feed the horses and also the chickens, ducks and geese as the gorgeous piccies show, he has no fear!  ((The one of him sitting on the step is of him waiting for Gary to come back, sooo cute))

We arrived at the Walking Safari place at probably not the best time of the day as it was soooooo hot! All the kids were put into their slings and off we went to look for Giraffes for Me and 'Ippos for Jack.

 

About 30 minutes into the walk we had to stop to feed the Babies, Mima doesn't cry very often but when she is hungry you know all about it!

While we were feeding Mark and Gary found someone to take us across the lake to go and find hippos, the boat was only little but we were up for it.  We managed to see a bloat (yep that is the posh name for a group) of about 7 hippos and then a little Nobby no friends one all on his own. Jack was happy with his hippos so we headed back to the shore, must say glad to be back on dry land...

Next we set off to find the Giraffes but unfortunately it was soooooooo hot and M&M were both very heavy and hot after about 45 minutes we decided to turn around and go back to the car.  I was a bit disappointed but I figured there would always be next time :-(.

We walked back next to the airfield (aka dirt track) as it was flatter than the way we had already come and lo & behold we found loads of Giraffes, YAY for Me!! They were absolutely exquisite and we managed to get quite close to them to get our photo's, it was amazing that we were so close and on foot to them in the wild.  While Mark and I were taking photo's in one spot, one of the biggest Giraffes came very close and just stood and stared at us, was definitely a highlight for me :-). ((Be prepared to be bored by Giraffes!!!))

 

 

By now it was past lunchtime and we were all hot, sweaty and hungry, we headed back to the car and then on to a lovely campsite restaurant for a yummy lunch, Jack had what they refered to as a small pizza (looked like a large to me!) and managed to polish off half of it, must have been the sun that made him so hungry. After lunch it was back home for rest, baths and sleep. Fab weekend had by all xx

Kenya–Malu

We were booked into a place called Malu for the weekend, which was just lovely! The road to get there however not so good! It was about 30/40 minutes of REALLY bumpy roads and as it had recently been raining some nice big mud puddles. Candy and I had M&M with us and Mark and Gary had Jack. M&M were fantastic on the bumpy road, never heard a peep from them at all, in fact they slept better the bumpier the road.

Our cottage was beautiful, 2 bedrooms and a shared lounge area, a little area big enough for us to do the baby bottle sterilising which was good. No kitchen as we were eating at the main clubhouse area.

Unfortunately we had a power cut just after we got there and it lasted quite a while, we even had to go for dinner in the clubhouse in the dark. Mark however found this fab as he could use his head torch, silver lining for him! Dinner was lovely and although romantic with the powercut and just 2 candles on the table not ideal for a 2 year old trying to eat chocolate pudding!! Needless to say it didn't end well, not sure if it was Candy or Jack who had the most over them...

Whilst reading the welcome booklet in our cottage it said that the dogs on the property were likely to follow us around but could we please make sure they were returned to the main house in case they get attacked by the leopards! We found this rather amusing as we were not advised what to do ourselves should we see the leopard!!!

It turned out that the scariest thing we saw on the weekend was a huntsman spider, now you could say I am just a little phobic (OK a lot!!) of spiders but this one even made Mark and Gary think twice. It was on the wing mirror of the car and it was UGLY! Mark tried to get it off with a stick but it crawled behind the mirror, after much prodding he managed to get it out and flicked it onto the floor, I am sure it then scurried away and lived happily ever after with it's family but as it was dark it could have been squashed when we drove away! Oh well! ((This picture is not the one of our spider but one the same, picture from internet))

We decided to spend the Saturday just relaxing around the cottage and it turned out great, M&M lay about on the big sofas and Jack got to go on a Donkey ride and go exploring in the bush with Gary. Jack had an early dinner and babysitter for the evening and the rest of us went for a lovely dinner in the clubhouse. The food the whole weekend was fab and I got to try some new things I wouldn't have normally.