tsavo east game drive

tuesday morning sees us waking up early for breakfast before piling into the big safari truck for the drive to tsavo east and our first game drive (: we're all so excited to be off.. and then we realise how damn cold it is with the early morning wind howling through the open vehicle for a good hour and a half. [before leaving muhaka i asked our camp leader what temperature it'd be in tsavo and he told me to leave all my cold weather clothes behind because it's so much hotter.. thus far, as soon as the sun is low/down, it is the total opposite.. so angry..] after shivering for a while i decide to crouch down on the floor of the truck and go to sleep with my head on the seat - such a good decision. then before i know it, we've arrived..

we drive through the park gates and not even a minute later a herd of elephants crosses the road right in front of us. i pull out my camera to take some snaps and it's just so awkward to maneuver in the truck!! there are people's heads cramming in everywhere to try and get a closer look and i'm all of a sudden terrified at what this will mean for the rest of the drive.. there's a second, much smaller vehicle with us carrying jane, miranda, campbell and jasmine which has an open roof and pretty much a 360˚ view of the surroundings and i know i need to jump in it. it's against the law to leave your vehicle whilst inside the reserve but thankfully our guide makes an exception and that's just what i do.

from then on i'm literally in heaven. the five of us are standing up on the seats, 3/4 of our bodies out the top of the roof, wind whipping our hair back and savannah all around. because our open-sided jeep is so much smaller than the truck we can move much faster and more quietly around, stopping whenever one of us asks to take a picture. i just can't stop smiling.. i'm like a kid at christmas with my camera and new lenses, there's just so much to look at. we were so lucky with our safari and saw a group of lions up quite close, dozing and yawning in the shade.. i really do love big cats. even rolling around apathetically they look so majestic.. we even see a lion couple on their 'honeymoon' banging! the male only lasts 4 seconds, it's pretty funny.

there are giraffe with their little goofy heads sticking up out of bushes, antelope grazing around the place, warthogs trotting around with their big mowhawk-like manes.. there are so many elephants and they're all quite red in colour (which i gather is from mud/dirt).. we also get quite close to a group of zebras who all cross the road ahead of us and we spend a good 15 mins watching a family of baboons climbing on a big tree [one of the babies is awful and looks like a retarded old man gollum/dobby hybrid.. i'm sure you'll be able to tell which one in the snaps].

and ahh it's just big, flat plains stretching out to the foot of mountains in the distance..  typical 'african' flat trees.. red, red dirt and thorny bushes.. a lush, green waterhole filled with birds and a few flamingo.. within a few hours we see so many different areas of the park and it's just a joy to spot the animals as we go. there isn't really much point in me recounting any more as the photos will show you better than i could ever describe, but it really was a magical day and i think we were all pleasantly surprised by how much wildlife we saw..