Busy day

Ol’ Donyo

We took a 45 minute ride in a small plane, landed on a dirt path, met our guide Jackson and rushed off to where some cheetahs had been spotted.

We found the cheetahs quickly, stayed with them a while and then spent the morning birding. There are far too many bird photos to review,  so we’ll just mention the African scoop owl nest.

We got to the lodge, watched some animals wander in front and then went down to the water hole.

In the early evening, we went out on another game drive and ran into many birds, some zebra and a jackal.

Last Day in Nairobi

We head out in the morning on a small plane to Ol Donyo Lodge, located in a private reserve in the Chyulu Hills in Kenya. Today was the last day of acclimation to the time change. We birded the hotel in the morning and then went out to the Sheldrike Elephant Orphange and the Giraffe Center.

The elephant orphanage raises baby elephants (and a few rhinos) that have been injured or orphaned.  We don’t usually go to places were animals don’t roam free, but it was a nice to see the care they give the animals before releasing them.  We adopted one baby elephant, Mokogodo, before we left California and got to see him.

He’s very small for his age but with care we hope he grows up big and strong like his friends.

The giraffe center is for conserving the Rothschild Giraffe.

Although nice, we are looking forward to our safari adventures,  Ol Donyo has a webcam on a water hole. Tomorrow we’ll spend part of the day in a hide watching it.

Birds at Hemingways Hotel in Nairobi

We are staying at Hewingwsys Hotel for two night to get used to the time change before going out on safari . (It’s not working, Mike is up at 2am). 

We have a balcony overlooking some trees so of course are doing some birding.

Here are a few of the birds we’ve seen

Hartlaub's Turaco


African Sacred Ibis

White-headed Barbet

Hadada Ibis


Red-billed Firefinch

White-eyed Slaty-Flycatcher

Bronze Sunbird

TWA (Try walking across)

We decided to break up the 20+ hours flight by flying to JFK and spending a night at the TWA hotel at the airport.  They converted an old terminal into a hotel.  

Next up 14 hours to Nairobi 

Here's the Plan

We fly into Nairobi, get acclimated at the Hewingways Hotel for two days and then head out to Ol Donyo Lodge in Kenya. Next up is Singita Sasakwa Lodge in Tanzania. Then we stay briefly in Carana Beach in Seycelles before flying out to North Island. We end in Madagascar; first briefly at Hotel Ivato Antananarivo before our final destination Anjajavy le Lodge. 29 days in total.