header picture

Tsavo East National Park, Kenya

Pictures by Jo & David Spinney

March 5th 2018

We had to get up really early for Day 2 of our game drive at 5am. We got news that our luggage was at the airport but they were not going to send it to us as we were too far away. So, John was frantically trying to find someone to do a 12-hour drive (from the airport to us and then return to Nairobi) to pick it up for us. The company arranged for one of their drivers to do the journey at a cost to us of €420 which was not what we were expecting but just grateful we had the money to do pay for it. We went out for our game drive with a brighter start knowing our luggage was coming.

It’s amazing when you see these beautiful animals on T.V. but when you see them in real life it just brings a whole new meaning to life. These animals need us to help protect them and not live in fear of becoming trophies for someone. I was never a bird person really, ok love birds, cockatiels, parrots, but seeing all these birds; eagles, Kori birds, secretary birds, even Egyptian geese are so beautiful. It was great seeing the gazelles, the giraffes, Baboons, Elephants and so much more. We stopped with our packed lunch in an area that is surrounded by monkeys trying to be cheeky and steal your food. All the vans that are parked there had to be all shut up because monkeys have gotten in and stolen handbags, cameras and whatever they could find. As we continued on our game drive after lunch we got a phone call from Dave the driver who was collecting our bags that the airport staff were not going to release our luggage to him because he didn’t have any proof he was collecting it for us. So, we stopped in the middle of the road with giraffes and gazelles looking at us like we were nuts and I had to write a note that gave Dave permission to pick up our luggage, take a photo, send it to John so he could send it to Dave to show the airport staff. We were in a really bad signal area so we keep walking to find a signal, then jump in the van and drive some more before we finally had signal. This journey to get our luggage has caused much stress but after about an hour the airport finally released our luggage and the driver started his journey back to our resort. With that information we were finally able to relax and start to enjoy our game drives with such beautiful animals.

We found out today that Acacia trees that you see giraffes eat is medicine for their bellies. I wonder how that came about for a giraffe to figure out, hey let’s eat these and we’ll feel better when we are under the weather. We also learnt that you will often see Topi and Zebras hanging about together as Topi have brilliant eye sight and Zebras have brilliant hearing. So, these guys work as a team to watch out for dangers. Cleaver animals!

When we arrived back to the resort we were able to have dinner and Dave arrived about 8pm with our luggage. I’ve never been so happy to see our stuff ����

So, after dinner we just chilled out watching the animals by the waterhole with a few drinks and wondering what tomorrow would bring. We went to bed quite early as the next day was going to be a very early start, but when we got in bed we heard a roar and snort. We listened for a minute and realized a lion had wandered towards the watering hole looking for his family so we ran out to the viewing platform to see if we could see him. We were just a little too late and he was still in the area but because it was dark we couldn’t see him. We went back to bed and it was pretty exciting laying there listening to the lion calling out. It didn’t last very long so he found his family in the end.

Put your cursor over the first image, then click on the "Expand Gallery" button on the top right of the gallery to see the images in full size.
When finished click the "Close Gallery" button on the top right.