How to Pass Monkey Inspection

Our lady pilot - she was cool. The cockpit was so close I could practically reach inside from my seat.

Can you see the runway in the distance? Amazing! I took this shot from my seat.

Samburu

We flew from Nairobi on Friday April 22nd sometime around 10am. Nairobi was nice and quiet as it was a National holiday so we had the roads to ourselves.  We were setting of for our first family Safari, 3 days in Samburu about 6 hours drive north east of Nairobi.  In about one hour we'd flown there and arrived fresh and ready for animal spotting.

Samburu is particularly known for the Blue Legged Ostrich, Oryx, Reticulated Giraffe, Grevy's Zebra and probably some other animals that I am leaving off this list. So as soon as we jumped off the plane we were ready. 

 



Hilarious duty free shop on the runway at Samburu airstrip



Dad, mom and me in the safari van early one morning

weaver birds have made this tree a home - they make a new nest every year so lots of them are empty

We were lucky it rained mostly in the evening so the rivers were full in the morning but clear by the afternoon.  The colours in Samburu were beautiful deep, dark reds and browns.

Warthog in flight. My dad's favourite safari animal.  The Swahili word for Warthog is Pumba. Go Lion King.

We set off early one morning and were lucky to spot 3 cheetahs. They had collars around their necks, which wasn't the case in the Mara, but they tag them in Samburu because there are so few Cheetahs that the park rangers like to see their migration patterns and see where they go

Samburu was full of amazing little birds - thanks to Steve's camera I was able to capture some pretty good shots :)

The shadow of our safari van, early one morning

The Oryx

Yellow Starling I think this one is called. I don't know how they manage to not get stuck on one of those needles.  Looks dangerous territory to me!  Stinging Acacia trees are evil!



This is the vulturine ginneafowl. There were loads of them and they didn't look so vulture like to me.  They also liked hanging out in the trees



The other wonderful think about Samburu compared to the Mara is the landscape, my parents and I are big on landscapes so we were really pleased that between animal spottings we got to enjoy this amazing countryside!

So monkey inspection starts with baboons. First they like to sit on the bride. The do this only early in the morning before anything really gets moving. They make it know who is boss by staying in the road for as long as they can.  There's a border between the Buffalo Springs national park and the Samburu National Reserve just before this bridge, and they've painted some animals onto the wall to make it look pretty - turns out the baboons were scared for weeks because they'd painted a really big lion on the wall. How cute!  Baboon, however, are not so cute. They have blue bottoms and are generally pretty ugly.  They do flee inspection early in the morning too, just like the monkeys that you'll see in a bit.



Right - so here we go this is MONKEY INSPECTION  - baboon style. It's a rigours and thorough checking and picking process that involves finding flees, picking them out of the fur and getting rid of them one by one. No one seems to be embarrassed about this, so well done them in the name of personal hygiene! Baboons can take up any number of positions during flee inspection, on their stomachs, backs, on all fours, up a tree, the options are endless....



The Grevy's Zebra - they have a white belly, large ears and its stripes are narrower than other Zebras. These guys are only found in Ethiopia and Kenya so we were lucky to spot a few.  Unlike in the Mara these guys seem to travel alone, i think it's mostly because we only spotted males.  Not sure where the females and babies were hiding out. These guys are considered endangered because their population since the 70's has gone down from 15k to 3k, but the numbers have stabilised since 2008 so I am guessing that's a good thing.

This guy needs no introductions.

The Reticulated Giraffe! These guys seem to have larger, deeper coloured spots with thicker white lines between them compared to the Rothchild Giraffes we saw in the Mara. These guys are native to Northern Kenya, Somalia and southern Ethiopia.  They're great and we saw several of them, including one group of 5!

We went for a nature walk with some of the park rangers. Nature walk consisted of really random things, but most frequently pointed out and most noteworthy was how often these guys talked about dung. They loved examining dung, asking us what we thought the disposer of said poo had eaten, etc.  We saw some wild animals whilst we were off on our walk but nothing predatory, which I think was quite lucky, given earlier that same day we'd seen cheetahs, but not to worry, we're safe!

Weaver bird love birds

This little guy was hanging out outside our tent.  The monekys at Larsen's Camp were really cheeky and would try and get food from inside the tent in so many ways. We had to zip up our tent and also put our mat to cover the zippers as these little guys have learned how to open tents.  So cleaver!  Our waiter, who was assigned to us for our entire visit, would bring tea, coffee and cookies each morning.  Without fail, the monkeys would do anything they could to get in and grab some! 

Reticulated Giraffe

wonderful views of white capped Mt. Kenya one morning - not a cloud in the sky!

Departure day breakfast with Champagne, good bye Larsen's Camp we were so sad to leave!

Safari Van

Joshua, our wonderful driver who took care of us for all 3 days

The Samburu people who were there to welcome some people who had just arrived in Samburu on the day we were leaving. I love how close they get to the airplane.

When we departed Samburu we didn't have to show any ID or plane ticket to board the plane, they just let us get on.  It was like no other flight I've ever taken before. The flight landed on the runway and we threw our own luggage into the hold and jumped on.  Very cool. On the plane we met the same American family we'd seen on our way to Samburu. They'd gone to another camp.  Kenya can be a small world sometimes!

Final thoughts - Monkey Insepction - I love how this guy has his tail in the air and the ohter guy has his face in the little monkey's butt. too funny. This was taken right outside our tent.


 

Goodbye Larsen's Camp, we'll miss you!

I found paradise

 It is called LAMU

Mom, Dad and I set off to Lamu on Easter Monday the 25th of April. Destination: The Majlis on Manda Island - part of the Lamu Archipelago. The Majlis started out as this Italian guy's house so it's built all exactly the way he wanted it. Then they bought two other plots of land and built houses they intended to sell. They said there was a 'crash' in Lamu and the houses didn't sell so they turned it into a 25 bedroom hotel. We had a suite in the main villa with beachfront access and view to Shela on Lamu Island where we stayed for 4 days.

Swimming Pool by the main villa - the arches you see are casts from an Indian temple

To heaven...and beyond! The view from this little bed which is right by the pool looks directly onto the Indian Ocean. Just picture the views, the ocean breeze and you with a Dawa. Mmm!

This boat is how workers get from Lamu Island to Manda Island every day. My parents and I got a kick out of watching them try to pack it even more full than you see it here. The boat looks like it's sinking already doesn't it!

We went for a walk up the beach one day, lovely white beaches, clear water, not many people and red skies. I'm wearing a scarf/pareo that has the country of Kenya on it. Lamu now gets a star by it :)

This mosque was also just up from our hotel - i love the colours and the boat in the front. Can't remember the last time I saw a mosque and boat photo...

Off to Lamu old town we went with a tour guide - Abdullah aka "Bob"- to show us the way. Abdullah has lived in Lamu since he was 8 and he was over 55 for sure. The tour was pretty average but it did allow us to walk around without having to be concerned about getting lost, plus we had the added bonus of getting to meet the people he knew (almost everyone) and watch him do his food shopping along the way - borrowing money here and there along the way. One time as I was buying water for my parents and I he ordered a bottle and let me pick up the tab. Cheeky. Anyway Bob did a good job of showing us the shops which, let's face it, was really all I was interested in. Lamu is like a poor sister of Fez - similar idea of donkey transport, medina houses with high walls and courtyards but the whole place isn't very well taken care of and there's no where near as much character or life as in Fez. Needless to say after buying a few prezzies at some wonderful shops we set off for Manda Island on our private little boat. Bliss.

Bob on the right with a hat, I like this photo because the Pineapples on the left remind you that i'm in Africa and not in Morocco....

Arabia meets Africa where people carry things on their heads

Nothing goes to waste in this place - 2 boys playing checkers with bottle tops. They were really friendly and had a good chat with us when I asked what they were up to and if I could take their photo.

Nice little boat we were taken around in - we used this to Island hop and for our private tour around Lamu Island which we enjoyed on our last day in the Lamu Archipelago

The beach the boat took us to on our tour of Lamu Island - Mom, Dad and I went for a walk along the beach and mom and I went for a swim. In our hour or so of exploring we only saw 1 other human being. Lots of crabs, but only 1 human. I will never forget this day with my parents, it was amazing. Dad was occupied by photographing little pink crabs about 3-4 inches in length that moved from left to right as opposed to front to back. We also found 2 sand dollars and one of those coil shells. The kinds of shells you buy in Florida. I couldn't believe how lucky I was to see this place.

The Lamu 'Mobile Home' - a couple of these we saw had porter loos outside the back which hanged over the ocean

Little kids that posed for me to take their photo - so cute

 

Beautifully coloured Mosque in a very very poor village we went to visit. The children above live in this village. There are no desks in the schools and very limited amounts of electricity provided by 1 or 2 solar panels which were purchased for 20,000 bob - about 145 GBP

Mom made a special request that the boat take us to see the mangroves - really glad she did! Look at how these things grow straight out of the ocean water! They use mangroves everywhere to build houses, etc. I still can't imagine how they cut them and how they make them straight when you see all these mangroves in their natural element curving everywhere.

Daddy waving goodbye - Kwaheri as they say in Swahili

We can't wait to go back and stay at the Majlis again some day - and soon!