Day 4 transfer to Serena Sweetwaters camp in Ol Pejeta
After Samburu, we drove about 2.5 hours to the Ol Pejeta conservancy for our next safari camp. The drive was great. The highway was in incredible shape- nothing like the descriptions of rural Kenyan roads I was prepared for. We drove through rural areas, villages with huts, a couple larger towns. So many new sights for the kids and Adam.
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| Mailing postcards! |
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| The equator |
And the landscape is different- reminded me of Yellowstone with broad grasslands with mountains in the background. I didn’t take many pictures of the sweeping landscapes and large herds - pictures don’t do these scenes justice.
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Great view, but I'd
rather be outside:) |
The camp itself is great with a huge watering hole with all the animals so close - we could hear them grunt and squawk and eat as we went to sleep. The preserve is spectacular- the vistas, the animals. There is no way to compare very close (4-6 feet away) elephant and monkey encounters in their free range habitat (amazing!!) with the incredible diversity of animals at the huge field and watering hole at Serena Sweetwaters. Both are amazing. Listening to the grunts of lord knows what (water buffalo? Rhino? Elephants?) right outside your tent all night is something I won’t soon forget. I will say, however, that I like the feel of the actual Elephant Bedroom camp more- the raised tent with plunge pool, walking entirely on sand with very natural plants and no humans made cement walkways. Eat in the sand, hang on the deck or the sand. Entirely outside, no AC, plenty of considerable mingling and friendliness with staff. Serena Sweetwaters is great too but feels a lot more British- the landscaping, the building, the stone walkways, eating inside with oh so many utensils- it adds a bit of formality I simply don’t need. I’d still recommend it though
Safari Day 5
Serena Sweetwaters Camp, Ol Pejeta Conservancy
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| The watering hole |
We all needed some sleep so skipped the morning game drive in favor of a more humane 8 am start time and went to the Chimpanzee Sanctuary that is part of Jane Goodall’s work. The chimps were evacuated during the Rwandan genocide and are kept in a 250 acre enclosure and live wildly though in a vegetarian manner (few animals for them to catch and eat in the enclosure). It’s amazing to see these animals with whom we share 98.6% of our DNA. We had the chance to see them
eating, snuggling, wrestling, playing. Really remarkable
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| Incredible how close we are! |
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| Magnificent water buffalo herds |
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Our tent looking out at
watering hole
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We then had a lovely day at camp coloring, playing pretend, sending postcards, swimming. Plenty of downtime on this trip which is needed to process the new sights, sounds, smells and feels. Downtime on trips is so important with kids. I’m not saying the adults got much downtime- mostly it’s feeding kids, playing with kids, sleeping kids, cleaning kids etc etc, but we did get 10 mins here or there.
Part of our afternoon game drive was visiting the rhino conservation center and memorial . We learned all about the black rhino, white rhino, and the northern rhino that is about to be extinct as there are only two females left. I found it interesting to learn there are 35 frozen northern rhino embryos but TBD if/when they will be implanted into another rhino species.
Our afternoon game drive was marked with so much beauty, so many wonderful scenes of diverse animal herds, but then LIONS! After our lion stalking warthog adventure the other day I didn’t think the lion watching could be topped. But then we were treated to a pride of 4, and then 5 as one of the males rejoined the group. We got to watch them reconnect with snuggles and nudges at close range. Amazing!
Coming back to camp at Serena was always a treat because we’d get to see who was at the watering hole and then listen to them grunt all night from our tent. Truly epic
Safari Day 6
Serena Sweetwaters Camp, Ol Pejeta Conservancy.
At this point in the trip we were really comfortable and rolling with the rhythm of safari camp life. Not wanting to miss the chance for a sunrise game drive at this reserve, we loaded up at 6 am with some grumbly tired children. Frankly this was turning out to be a lower morale game drive when near the end BAM lions. And then a female gets up to walk away. RIGHT BY OUR VEHICLES. Then the male follows RIGHT BY OUR
VEHICLES. We were mere feet away from lions in the wild who could not care less about our presence. Unreal.
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| Is this for real? Just incredible |
The rest of the day was spent relaxing, reading, pooling, observing the constantly rotating g cast of characters at the watering hole, PM game drive and Z and I hanging on the porch and looking at the large antelope that decided to jump the fence and park right near us
I said earlier that we have started to get into the rhythm of safari camp life. That is not to say it’s without challenges. We all agree this trip has totally been worth it, but I would include trips like this as an exception to our usual MO of travel, only be done occasionally.
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| Baby hyenas |
The biggest challenge for us is the very late dinners. Dinner is after the PM game drive so starts between 7-7:30. The kids are done, the adults are done. And then bedtime has to happen. The PM game drives themselves are during the hours of pre dinner crank so that’s not so easy either. Mostly cranky kids have just fallen asleep and when there is animal action we ride that high for hours. The kids appreciate the scenery less than the adults so if we aren’t having a big animal sighting the bigs are pretty bored. Interestingly Fynn finds all animal sightings to be great so seems to really enjoy himself right up until he can’t take it anymore then he passes out haha.
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