Naivasha, Masai Mara and Surrounds Travel Review

My wife Suzy and I tend to have local self drive camping trips every alternative year, both having lived most our lives in Kenya, we like to make a point of visiting parts of the country neither of us have been to and mix it with "old favourites".

This year we were heading for 3 days in Loisaba, Laikipia, having been invited by friends, 2 days in the Aberdares National Park, 2 days in Green Park, Naivasha and 5 days in Masai Mara. Loisaba and the Aberdares being the unexplored territory, as far as we were concerned.

We have our old diesel Land Cruiser with safari body including twin hatches, our tent is an old canvas one mainly because it tends to be a lot cooler than the new nylon ones. We do like our home comforts so go with table, chairs, nylon gazebo with mosquito netting sides, safari toilet and solar shower, two fully equipped safari boxes and 3 cold boxes (camping check list).

We prefer mattresses regardless of bulk, duvet, sheets and pillows. We like our creature comforts, but with the flexibility of camping, thereby free to come and go as we please.

With the car packed we headed off to Nanyuki, we were staying with friends and it also broke the journey after the 3 hour drive from Nairobi. It was nice to wake up early to a cold, crisp, morning, Mount Kenya crystal clear above us, having our morning coffee on the verandah and thinking of the two weeks ahead of us.

After a full breakfast, we headed west out of Nanyuki on the Dol Dol road, the road is currently being upgraded and after the recent rains is extremely rough, the going was slow, but we were not in a hurry, all this was new to us, we had a chance to take in our surroundings, driving through the large cattle ranches, wide open spaces peppered with herds of zebra, hartebeest, Thompson's and Grant's gazelles, giraffe and various birds of prey. We also caught a glimpse of the elusive gerenuk, with its long neck browsing on the stunted acacia.

Loisaba

We were travelling to Loisaba in Laikipia, a private working cattle ranch which has now expanded into conservation utilising the abundant wildlife by building a lodge and supplementing its income through tourism and supporting the local community. The ranch is nearly 3 hours from Nanyuki.

Suzy and I are extremely lucky, we have numerous friends spread throughout Kenya and benefit from the fact we get invited to stay in some very special places.

Loisaba was one such place, we had been asked by Tim Bates, who runs the workshop, to come up for a visit. The Ranch Manager, Tom Silvester, kindly allowed us to camp and drive throughout the conservancy.

The first night we stayed in the guest room, Tim showed us round the lodge. The lodge itself is perched on an escarpment with breath taking views looking north, you literally see for miles and miles, directly below the lodge a waterhole where the animals drink.

The lodge is beautifully appointed and each of the rooms has the same uninterrupted view, the facilities available include pool, tennis courts and a spa. They have horse and camel riding, quad bikes, mountain bikes and fully equipped safari vehicles to name but a few.

Our first evening was spent having a sundowner of margaritas, relaxing, enjoying the view, the sunset set and later the African star studded sky. Then home to a dinner of spicy chicken with red beans, rice and kachumbari (chopped tomatoes, red onions, coriander and green chillies) and coffee, before retiring to bed.

We were up early for breakfast and out on a game drive with Tim, his brother Simon and the dog, soon after leaving the lodge, we managed to spot kudu, giraffe, impalas, waterbuck and lots of warthog.

All eyes peeled, stopping every so often to search with binoculars, eventually picking out a large herd of elephant in the distance and dik dik too numerous to be bothered even counting them . The bush was thick making it difficult to spot anything, a lot like Tsavo. The landscape full of kopjes, dried river beds and thorny scrub.

We made our way to the river, our aim to visit the "Star Beds" unique to Loisaba.

The "Star Beds" are rooms on platforms, with full facilities including kitchen/bar area, hot and cold water, full shower and flush toilet. The room is open, the bed is on wheels to enable it to be pushed out onto the verandah, clients can then lie under a mosquito net and look up to the stars.

An experience we would have loved to have shared but that will have to wait for another time, another trip. The star beds are situated by a river and accessed by a specially built suspension bridge, that an experience in itself.

We had packed flasks of coffee, bottles of water and biscuits for our break and travelled along the river searching for a shady spot next to the river. Fresh elephant dung everywhere, but not we were unable to find them. We eventually stopped, unpacked our refreshments, picnic blanket and lounged by the river under an fever tree, a herd of impala ambled past totally oblivious to our presence.

Back to the lodge for lunch, after which we packed the vehicle and made our way to the camp site on the other side of the conservancy. The camp was in a copse of Acacia, a cool spot looking out over a small dam.

We had heard that a lioness and 3 cubs were nearby, however, she was keeping out of sight as a precaution against other predators and extremely difficult to find. After setting up camp we made our way to a large dam for sundowners and bitings.

The sun set was stunning, I took a photo with our digital camera. The camera was new to me, I took the shot without having first adjusted the size of the mega bites. The photo came out beautifully, only problem was the whole of the memory chip taken up and sadly the photo had to be deleted to allow more than one photo to be taken.

(Which digital camera for wildlife photography?)

That evening we had hyena whooping and a large male lion roaring in the distance.

Up at 5.30 and out of camp by 6.00am, we came across huge pug marks near our camp, but no sign of the lion. On our way to the lodge we spotted oryx, lots of zebra and warthogs. Today was going to be a day out fishing and picnic lunch. We headed out to river which marks the boundary of Loisaba.

Found a nice shady spot, as there are no hippo or crocodiles we could swim, paddle and fish without having to worry, mind you, a wary eye was kept on any game approaching. Lunch was cold meats, mixture of cheese and fresh bread, after a chat and afternoon siesta, the business of catching a fish became the order of the day. Tim uses a hand line and soon pulls a small bream out of the river.

I was determined to catch one myself, and set off further down river, sitting in the warm afternoon sun idly watching the line and float, when suddenly the line starts screaming out, the fight was surprising, luckily I had a rod and not a hand line, my hands would have been raw, I landed a 1kg Bream and ambled back with a smug grin on my face, Tim suitably impressed and I'm sure that he will be soon be buying a rod and his hand line will be redundant. Unfortunately no other fish were hooked.

We headed back to camp for an early night, ready for an early start. The next morning we packed up the car and made our farewells, Tim giving us directions how to get back to the main road, which seemed straight forward. Off we set, directions were keep going straight till you get to the gate with stone walls then hang a left! First junction we came to, was a 'Y' junction, which way was straight. These people who live in the bush, have no idea, Loisaba is covered in tracks, us townies are at a complete loss. Having made a few excursions into the wilds we finally managed to get on the right road.

Our next 'quick' stop was for coffee at Sosian, another very new lodge, run by Hanis and Lorien Nell, yes friends again. Sosian is a bit greener, being lower in the valley. The Lodge is beautiful, with wide verandahs. The rooms are also very nice, the finishing touches are currently been done, but I understand the lodge is open to paying guests.

We had a coffee and a quick chat with Hanis, Lorien was out visiting neighbours, which makes us laugh, visiting neighbours means a small trip, probably 15 - 20kms, so 40 km round trip, like nipping to the local shops to our 'up country' set!

What a life, traffic jams probably entails having to wait for the elephant to cross in his own time. However they want for nothing, they have the added bonus of being able to drive off into the wilds whenever things become too much, work permitting of course.

Sosian in is about a 2 hour drive from the tarmac. Our next objective was to be in the Aberdares National Park by 4.00pm, we stop on the way for a picnic lunch under the shady umbrella of an acacia tree. So nice to have finished one leg of the journey and have another new adventure waiting.

The road was rough but dry, we passed through Rimuruti and reached Nyaharuru for refuelling. It was then tarmac all the way to the park gate, we finally arrived about 4.30pm.

Aberdares National Park

The Kenya Wildlfe Service warden was very informative and extremely helpful, after paying we set off into The Salient, there is only one public camp site, numerous private sites, fishing lodges and 2 world renowned hotels, Treetops and The Ark.

Having never visited The Aberdares we are surrounded by trees. Kenya is extremely lucky to have such a diverse wealth of natural resources. We get our map out and wind our weary way towards camp. The roads are well kept and every junction has sign posts so you will never get lost.

We drive past lots of bushbuck, buffalo and warthogs. It's extremely hilly and slow going, we eventually arrive at the camp. The public camp site is set in amongst the forest and bamboo, with a river running through it and toilets that were clean.

We put up the tent, had a cup of tea and went to visit the rangers nearby, to introduce ourselves. No firewood is provided, however, being in the middle of a forest there are lots of fallen trees. The water from the river comes straight of the hills and moors, is sparkling, drinkable and very cold.

Our main worry was a huge buffalo within the camp, however we were assured by the rangers that he was wild but used to people camping and wasn't a problem!! Very disconcerting when sitting round the camp fire and you can hear this 1 ton of solid muscle munching away on the grass, not 6 ft from you, but I have to say he was extremely placid and didn't bother us in any way, but you still have to keep in mind that he is a wild animal and you are in the middle of a game park.

Being almost 8,000 ft up we had come equipped with warm clothing. Mosquitoes were not a problem, too high and too cold for them. Surprisingly, I was still in shorts by the time we retired, possibly because we were in a sheltered valley, it was an extremely mild evening. Suzy and I get on extremely well, we enjoy these excursions and have no worries of doing it alone, mind you, that’s probably because she hardly gets a word in edgewise, talking is my hobby! I tend to get carried away with all the excitement, thankfully Suzy takes it all in her stride.

Up at 5.30, the flask of coffee, packets of biscuits, cameras and binoculars and we are out of camp by 6.00. We visit all the private camps for future trips, one named Bongo in our opinion has best views and location, however, these camps have no facilities, private camps have a minimum 5 day charge of approx 25 pounds one off payment regardless of whether you spend 1 night or 5, you do have to pay a daily camping charge and park entrance fee over and above.

As we were only staying 2 nights we decided that the public camp was more cost effective. There are also fishing lodges, which average around 30 - 50 pounds per night self catering, The Salient has numerous rivers all with trout, which were introduced in Colonial times.

We headed off to the view point, approx 9,500 ft overlooking the whole of The Salient, the vast forests; Mount Kenya and views were breath taking. I have to say that spotting game is extremely difficult, the forest encroaches right up to the edge of the road, but it is more rewarding when you do spot something, there are some open spaces but these do tend to have buffalo, warthogs, waterbuck, bushbuck and olive baboons.

As luck would have it, after a long and careful scanning of the forests we spotted elephant, they are slightly smaller than their open plains relatives. They emerged out of the forest, a herd of about 10-15, they crossed the rod in front of us and disappeared again. Extra care has to be taken with these elephant, they can be aggressive mainly as they are not used to a lot of human contact. We then spotted the giant bush pig, a lot larger than the warthog. We also managed to catch sight of the elusive bongo, very timid and jittery.

The Salient has abundant birdlife, eagles including bataleur, tawney, crested and fish, turacos, spur fowl, guinea fowl, woodland kingfishers and green parrots, to name but a few. Most of the cats including lion, leopard, serval, civet etc, including species exclusive to Aberdares, most are melanistic, i.e. all black, we did not, unfortunately, manage to spot any. But we will be back and hopefully we will have a bit more luck. Back to camp and our resident buffalo.

Having had practise of taking down our camp we were up and packed by 7.00am, heading to Naivasha, over the top of the Aberdares, through the Kinangop.

The road meanders up the sides of the Aberdares, forever climbing, through woodland and thick bamboo forests. Trees hanging with moss, looking ghostly. We came upon a large bull elephant browsing on the bamboo shoots, more interested in his stomach than us.

It was my turn to sit atop the vehicle, the higher we climbed the colder and mistier it became, no feeling in my finger tips and my ears as though they would fall off, despite, jacket, fleece, track suit and tammy. The copious cups of hot coffee my only respite.

Most of the road was in shade, which didn't help, the warm sunny patches far too few, up and up we climbed, the altimeter in the car only goes up to 10,000ft, the needle was off the scale and still moving, at the top there is a view point. We stopped, we felt that we on top of the world, forest spread like a carpet beneath us, every shade of green, Mount Kenya with clouds at its base, appearing to be floating in the sky, the air crisp and the sun shine slowing creeping across the landscape.

Its as if someone had drawn a line, thick forest quickly changes to moor land, Giant Lobelia and Heather, we encountered reed buck and lots of signs of elephant. What appear to be clumps of trees turn out to be Heather up to 15ft high.

We visit Chania Falls, a lovely spot, you could be on a Scottish Moor land, small rivers with trout.

We then made our way to Karura Falls, where the river drops over 1000ft falls in 3 stages, over an escarpment, an ideal spot for our picnic breakfast of bacon, eggs, sausages the works, not another living soul in sight.

Again all roads well kept, in fact from the Main gate down the escarpment through the Kinangop was a brand new tarmac road.

We eventually at Green Park on the north side of Lake Naivasha at around 2.30pm.

Green Park, Naivasha

Green Park is a project where a golf course and hotel were built on the side of Eburru Escarpment, with panoramic views of Lake Naivasha.

Above the hotel complex plots have been sold and a small community has grown up. The ideal spot with easy access for golf, fishing and Lake Nakuru National Park. My sister Trina and her husband Tich have built their house. We now had the chance to replenish our stocks, get clothes washed and get ice for our Masai Mara trip.

Unbeknown to either Trina or Tich we decided to take them for lunch at Malu, about 20 minutes out of Naivasha, a small lodge in the middle of an old Cedar forest, which has cottages and self catering cottages, you can go trout fishing, horse riding, mountain biking or just relax, they do take lunch bookings the food is delicious fixed at less than £10.

We had smoked trout with fennel salad then pasta with basil and parsley, then a hot chicken, cashew nuts and asparagus with baskets of freshly baked bread, fresh strawberry sorbet to follow, finishing with cheese board and coffee all for less than 10 pounds per head. Thoroughly recommended.

Early rise, a full breakfast, we headed in Naivasha to refuel and make our way to Masai Mara.

Masai Mara

The road from Naivasha runs along the bottom of the Rift Valley, Mount Longonot stands proud, wonderful views, however, the tarmac road is terrible in bits, mainly due to the heavy traffic, this road is used by all the transit lories going to Uganda and consequently takes a lot of battering and ends up in a very bad state.

We turn off at Mai Mahihu, the main road to Narok and the Mara. This too is not in a very good condition, however, they are in the process of repairing it.

Its actually a very nice trip, despite being a long journey, the Great Rift and Mt Suswa to your left, Mt Longonot and Mau Hills to your right, the road in a flat basin between, lots of plains game mingling with the Masai herds, Thompson's and Grant's gazelles, zebras and the occasional giraffe.

We eventually arrive in Narok 4 hours after leaving Naivasha. Our final refuelling station, the main road a dream till we get to the Masai Mara turn off. It's actually amazing, in the middle of no where you have this highway, winding its way through the vast wheat fields, but I'm not complaining.

We follow the signs for Mara Safari Club, 85 km down the road to turn off and come to a barrier, this road is all weather and is maintained by the farmers and they charge about 2 pounds per trip for all using it, money well spent as far as I am concerned.

Once you get into the Game Ranch and follow the Trans Mara Highway, you realise the benefit of the pay as you go, as the road from there on is appalling, mind you it is all black cotton soil which becomes a quagmire when it rains and extremely difficult to maintain.

The upper plains in the game ranch were teaming with game. Lots of wildebeest, a good sign that the migration into Mara is good. We amble our way towards the western side, we prefer to camp in the Musiara area, near the marshes, you enter through the Musiara main gate.

The first problem is the fact that there are no sign posts, you can see the gate, but to find the right track leading to the gate is nigh impossible, regardless of how many times you visit the area. There has been a lot of rain so the roads are slippery, but not impassable.

You have two options when camping in this area, Crocodile Camp near Il Moran (part of Governors Lodges Group) or the one near the main gate. We chose the latter, for security and the camping area itself sits up on a small knoll, over looking the marsh and plains to the north of it. We are followed by huge black storm clouds and are extremely lucky that we managed to get the tent up before the storm.

Typical Masai Mara weather, the storms are short but heavy, before long we have unpacked and ready to go out on a small game drive, we also need firewood.

We head off into the marsh, the roads are a little slippery, but, the Land Cruiser makes light work of it. We have never seen so many wildebeest, there are reputed to be over 3 million this year and we can well believe it.

The plains are covered, a photo would not capture the vast herds, and only a 360° snap would do it justice. Parked in their midst, the noise is over powering, they are like ants everywhere you look its black with wildebeest.

The marsh is surprisingly dry, we wind our way across to the woods, fill the car with firewood and return to camp for dinner. After the storm the sky is clear and star studded, we sit and eat our dinner round the camp fire, a chorus of hyena calls in the distance. It's an early night in readiness for an early morning game drive. We slowly succumb to the weariness of a long day and bumpy ride, lion roars towards the top plains are the last thing we hear before we sleep.

Alarm goes off at 5.30am, the morning pitch black and crisp, we get the water boiled, flasks of coffee made, our insulated coffee mugs filled and we set off. We make our way towards Governor's airstrip, on the horizon the sky, the first sign of dawn, to turn to hues of pink, orange and yellow, animals silhouetted against it.

We spot something near the pools next to the airstrip, 2 lionesses flat out, we stop, switch off, refill our coffee mugs and absorb the vista, how lucky we are to have all this on our doorstep. Hippos’ heads poking through the lilies and lions lazing after their night exertions, the birds singing their dawn chorus, just beautiful. Slowly the Mara awakens, the tourist vehicles start to leave the lodges, the animals almost sigh with relief having survived the night.

We head off into the plains and make our way towards the Masai Manyatta and the gorges beyond, hoping to find a leopard. We slip and slide our way up the valley, not 50 metres from the road, three young male lions, panting after having just killed a wildebeest, hyena and jackals already milling around, waiting for an opportunity to nip in and grab a scrap.

We continue up to the gorge, leopard spotting as per instructions (by the leopard experts), drive slowly, less than 5 mph, check ground, half way up and tops of trees, we slowly enter the gorge, nothing but rock hyrax, no luck today.

Our days are all mainly the same, up early, back to camp for late brunch, an afternoon rest and out by 3.30pm for evening game drive. Although we were on a mission to see our first big crossing. As neither of us had been lucky enough to have seen this phenomenon.

However, Musiara is on the east side and most of the crossings are towards the west around Talek and Masai Serena. On those days we head off with gas cooker and the makings of a full breakfast.

Masai Mara has a unique cheetah population, estimates are around 40 +, they utilize vehicles as a means to view potential prey, it started with Queenie, who taught her cubs, one of which is now Amber of Big Cat Diary fame.

We spotted Amber one day, another vehicle was parked next to her, we pulled up about 10 metres away, and both Suzy and I sat up on the roof. Amber got up and wandered nearer and appeared to be off on a hunt, imagine our surprise when she hopped onto our bonnet.

If I reached out I could have patted her on the head. Amber was so laid back, she didn't even acknowledge our presence, more than I can say for Suzy, she froze; me, I was busy clicking away with the digital camera!

At one point I decided to get down for the conventional camera, but, Suzy out of the corner of her mouth, warned me in no uncertain terms to stay where I was. I must admit you do get complacent, this is a wild animal, regardless of how at ease she is.

The problem now is the fact that Amber takes to sitting on cars and won’t move for over an hour. We first met Amber last year, she had 3 cubs at the time, all of which have now gone off, but, I have heard they too are using cars to their own advantage.

Big Cat Diary and the BBC were all over the Mara, which can be a bit of a problem, mainly as you are almost guaranteed to see cats if you spot one of their vehicles. However, we personally do not wish to live off their scraps and prefer to find our own. Mind you we had met up with one of their team, whom we knew personally, they were in search of Amber and couldn’t find her, we were joined by Jonathan Scott, whom Suzy knew, after a chat we set off on our own mission.

Up Leopard Gorge again, via a different route, we were confronted by a huge bull elephant with 4ft tusks, he arrogantly ambled up the road towards us. We didn’t argue with him and drove off road to get round him. As we neared the gorge, I spotted lions, a mother and 2 small cubs, she was a little wary and soon disappeared into the tall grass.

If the lion was around then no leopard would be. We then drove back down to the plains, only to meet Jonathan Scott and his crew again, he had had no luck finding Amber, we on the other hand were more than happy to point them in the direction of the “cats” we had spotted. At least we had managed one up on BCD this time.

The plains were covered in wildebeest and strewn with half eaten carcasses. Every morning we came across hyena and vultures, we gave up counting the Hyena, one day it was 30+ and all seemed to be part of the same “clan”, all ages, from small cubs to large females, they are characters.

Scenes which could never be duplicated. The back drop, an African dawn, with small herds of elephants, tiny little babies struggling to keep up, herds of wildebeest parting in waves as the elephants cut their way through, no one arguing with these large beasts.

To the fore a carcass with hyena feeding, surrounded by different types of vulture. We spotted more vultures milling around and went to investigate, another cheetah and a tiny cub, mum having just killed a gazelle, most likely a Thompson's. She wais quickly trying to stuff as much as possible in her mouth, worried about being in the open and other predators being attracted by the vultures.

Mind you having 40 vultures around her also made her paranoid because of her cub. The cub was restless, too hot and not very happy having to wait. It kept wandering off, eventually mum had had her fill and wandered off to the safety of a shady tree.

Our search for a big crossing was fruitless, we sat 3 hours on 2 different occasions, the first about 500 wildebeest and a few zebras went from crossing to crossing, edging nearer and nearer to the river bank each time, who knows what happens in their heads, en mass they decide they’ll move to a better spot, others like us sitting in a prime spot only to be disappointed, even the crocodiles dive into the water and co

Eventually, 10 wildebeest wind their way from the other side, without hesitation cross, walk straight through our 500 and take off up to the plains, ours turn tail and follow. The next time, we sat and sat, afternoon turned to dusk and slowly the light faded away, 1000 wildebeest, standing, going, not going, going, not going, in the end we had to leave as time had run out. You are either lucky or you aren't, it just wasn't to be.

Another day, we happened across 3 lions, 2 large males and a female. The largest male and female then started mating, the other male relaxing and lying in the sun, paying no attention. Neither of us had seen this before and were entertained by the antics. The female completely brazen and flaunting herself.

After a while we move our car nearer to the other male, the lioness then decided to seek out the second male, suddenly the larger male rushes towards us and attacks the male next to us, a show of domination, a shame really as he was not even interested and now gets a thick ear because of it.

When the rush began, I was busy trying to get the electronic zoom to retract, but wasn't quick enough, Suzy thinking we were about to be attacked, forgot to capture the fight. The roars were deafening, but all over in a blink of the eye. That left us with hearts beating wildly and both of us wide eyed and completely breathless. And all happening not 4ft from the car.

One afternoon we had returned from our morning drive, we had our brunch, the only thought we had was to relax in the sun, but, not 50 metres from our camp a lioness made her way towards the Musiara marsh, her whole body language was hunting mode.

We watched with our binoculars and then decided we had to follow. We locked up the tent, got all our drinks and snacks together and headed off to find her. By the time we reached the spot we last saw her, she had disappeared. We slowly traversed, back and forward and eventually found her, panting in the long grass, as we drew close, we realised her mouth was tinged with blood. In the time it had taken us to reach her, she had taken a topi, we had missed it all.

It is one of nature's phenomenon, one night we went to bed with the sound of wildebeest all around us, in the morning, we wake to complete silence. It was as if someone had blown a whistle for end of a match, When we opened our tent, there were no wildebeests in sight. We drove up to the plains, nothing, it was eerie, when we made our way towards the crossings, we came across line upon line all trudging towards Talek, all as one with the thought of returning to the Serengetti.

The Mara at this time of year can be very wet, you can almost set your watch by the storms, 4pm every day, black clouds start scurrying across the plains and follow the escarpment, sudden down pours which last around an hour and leaves the air crisp and fresh.

One morning we decided to visit the 2 Patricks, (Patrick Beresford who runs Governors and Patrick Reynolds who runs Il Moran), we went to refuel and have a coffee. After filling up we made our way to the bar, one thing led to another, we had a drink and another, catching up with all their news.

We were then invited to lunch, a few more drinks and lost all track of time. The heavens opened, thunder, lightning, driving rain and howling wind. The bar tent had to be zipped up, it was freezing, we sat it out. Every 5 minutes reports of tents blown down, branches on tents and fly sheets flapping. We had another drink, we eventually left around 7pm, a little tipsy, meandering our way back to camp, the car fish tailing in mud and water.

We were met by a friend, Chris Brennan, who had gone to our camp to make sure we were ok after the storm. He had sat for 2 hours worrying we had got stuck out on the plains. Us being a little worse for wear didn’t really go down well. Our camp was flooded our tent flattened, poles bent and fly sheet flapping. After getting the tent up, the inside was soaking, mattress, duvet, blankets and clothes. All we had that was dry was the clothes we stood in, a large picnic blanket and 2 cushions we use for the top of the car.

By now the wind and rain had stopped, we hung all the wet things on bushes and trees, built a fire, dried out the tent as best we could, had a quick dinner and retired to a bed of 2 cushions and a picnic blanket. Lucky we were tipsy, we slept, albeit cold and uncomfortable, we awoke to a beautiful sunny morning.

We decided to try and dry as much as we could but, the camping bug had waned, but only till our next adventure. We asked Patrick Beresford for a bed for our last night, had a lovely hot shower and a warm soft bed, what better way to end a safari.

Safari Location:	Loisaba, Laikipia / Green Park, Naivasha / Aberdares National Park / Masai Mara
Duration:	17 September 2004 for 2 weeks
Traveller Details:	Dave Mckelvie
Rates & Availability:	Plan your own safari. Make a Naivasha enquiry