Shimba Hills Lodge

Up early, showered, and then I had a wander around the lodge and it's wooden cat-walk through the trees. As we had arrived last night in the dark, it wan't until now that I realised I had spent the night in what appeared to be a treehouse. After a stunning breakfast we all met up with Alfonse again, and set off for Tsavo West.

We drove back through Mombasa and headed out towards Nairobi on the main highway. The Mombasa to Nairobi Highway was a road in better condition than most with about 50km of the 210km that we travelled actually having tarmac. Some of it devoid of potholes, but not much. Mombasa is actually an island and access is via one of 3 bridges or the ferry, which is on the south side of the island, and we crossed here again to get back to the north side. Mombasa itself is a very intimidating place on first glance. Lots of noise from the sounding of car horns, the traffic is no less manic in the City Centre than the roads we travelled to get here and not the place for the timid driver. The City has the look of a busy financial centre and a paupers market all in one, which I suppose is exactly what it is.

We made a pit stop after around 3 and a half hours driving, and here both myself and Lisa were again beaten at the haggling game by a trader at the shop. We discovered several days later that we paid probably double it's value for a small wooden carving we bought.

The Marabou Stork

Another 40 minutes drive and we arrived at Tatia Hills Lodge in Tsavo West Game Reserve. This one built more like a normal hotel. We are booked in for a the afternoon and we are given a room to freshen up in. After grabbing some lunch (food, again is delicious) Lisa and I go for a walk around the grounds of the hotel and end up by the watering hole. While taking in the stunning view of the mountains we were plunged into darkness as a shadow moved over us. Looking to see what was blocking the light, I heard Lisa exclaim "Oh my god, a pterodactyl!". What I saw was a prehistoric looking animal glide quite gracefully above us and I manage to get a snap as it passed by us. The bird then stopped by the watering hole and quite happily posed for more pictures while taking a drink. Not a timid bird, and I don't think it needs to be, the Marabou Stork is huge and I think I was the one getting ready to run off screaming like a school girl if we stumbled too close to one another.

Alfonse arrived at 3:00pm to take us around Tsavo West. No sooner had we left the lodge grounds than we crossed paths with a troop of Baboons. They didn't hang around too long and we were soon to move on. Lots more Impala (we were soon to tire of seeing these chaps) and then the stakes were upped a bit when we found Zebra. These weren't too shy and at this stage I was surprised at how close to the animals we were getting. Alfonse then took us up to where a huge herd of at least 50 Buffalo were grazing. They seemed to study us with as much interest as we were looking at them.

He's looking hungry

While looking at the Buffalo (and trying out our best Buffalo impressions), Alfonse excitedly barked a response into his radio in swahili (by the way, the radio made all the people replying to Alfonse sound like the robots in the Smash advert). He then fired up the engine and started racing along the dirt tracks not suitable for a fast walk, Colin McCrea would have been proud. After 10 minutes or so we slowed to a halt along side another couple of other Safari Buses. After staring at the bush for a minute or so it dawned on me that I was looking at a pride of Lions. What I didn't realise about Lions is that they are quite well camouflaged, they didn't seem that hard to spot at the West Midlands Safari Park! Once one had been spotted, it was easy to spot others and in all there were about 10 Lions in view at one time, all about 50 yards away from the bus. I think all of us in the bus had the same thought. "If one of those lions makes a run for us, how on earth do you close this sun roof thing?" No lions ran for the bus and in fact, they were all quite well fed because as the photos show, they were just finishing off a kill from the previous day. One lioness did walk up to the buses and have a snoop around, but she couldn't have shown any less interest in the people hanging over the side looking down in awe. Being in the same open space (in the relative safety of the bus!) as these powerful creatures was quite an experience and one I shall think about for some time to come.

Giraffe

We left the pride and headed off towards our next lodge, but not before bumping into another resident of Tsavo West, a lone Giraffe in a woodland clearing. He seemed puzzled as to why we all wanted to take his picture but soon went back to the important business of consuming leaves from the trees.

We checked in at Salt Lick Lodge, and again were very pleased with our suroundings. This lodge was built on stilts and overlooked quite a large watering hole. We saw more Impala, Waterbuck, Marabou Stork and Baboons over the course of our stay here. Salt Lick has a hide situated on the waters edge with access to it via an underground tunnel, so it is possible to get quite close to the wildlife without creating too much of a disturbance. It's lucky there was a tunnel as it was the only way to get there dry because this evening, it rained down in buckets.

After another great meal, Myself, Lisa, Tom and Karen spent too long in the bar and drank far too much Tusker before we retired, not good as we had an early start the next day.