The owner is in checked shirt on the left – her Ladyship is seated in the white landcruiser on the right.
Trying to decide whether to stop for coffee in Aruba Lodge and notice a couple of buses parked up at the side of the road. Again, might be interesting and again it is …
Forget the coffee’ says Agy, or words to that effect, let’s stay here and watch cheetah. What a privilege. We stay around until the cheetah move of and continue on our way.
We’ve arrived at Epiya Chapeyu ( AKA… BG’S ) tented camp on the Galana river, just down from Lugard’s Falls.We’re chilling out this afternoon and there is certainly no better place in the world to do so.
The staff are first class, attending to your every whim, or in other words, keeping the cold beers coming. The food too, is fantastic – had the besttortellini ever, with pumpkin.
You may be aware that many lodges and camps have their own resident animals such as civet cats at Satao Camp, leopard at Ngulia Safari Lodge (Tsavo West) and Gerald(ine) the giraffe in Meru? Well, I think this one tops the lot – come and meet Mario.
He’s very friendly and very, very big.
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19 September
Time to leave Tsavo East – destination coast and home to Turtle Bay.We take our time to drive to Sala gate and again what an amazing safari. There are plenty of animals on this side of the park at the moment, all in search of water.
Oh, another casualty and so sad.A dead elephant over there and it appears to have occurred very recently. It’s extremely touching to see other elephant coming over to protect the body and mourn their loss.
A little further along, eagle-eyed Agy picks out a couple of lion sleeping beside the road. His eyesight is even sharper since he decided to invest in a pair of spectacles.This all came about when yours truly (me) beat him in shooting practice earlier in the year. Not to be outdone by a mere female he convinced himself that his eyes needed testing – male pride or what.Talking of pride, here are the lions.
Another couple of elephant over here and what’s just shot out of the drainage pipe? A hyena – think we woke it up and gave it a bit of a fright.Awfully sorry.
Here we are back at Turtle Bay Beach Club (www.turtlebay.co.ke). Our Janet from Silverstone school is here to greet us and what a warm welcome we’re receiving. Think one of the many reasons that so many people return here time after time, apart from the wonderful food and perfect location, is the staff. Each time you come back they treat you like family and it’s a very special relationship, I’d almost go as far as to say unique.
We’re escorted to our room and a new surprise awaits – a beautiful new pool, just for grown ups. They think of everything here…
Don’t worry, the family pool is still here.
20 September
Having drunk the entire stock of Pina Colada last night (ladies’ drink), Agy’s surprisingly sober at 7.30 this morning. He kept insisting that the cocktails were very weak but the way he as behaving, i.e. actually dancing, I had my doubts.
We’re going for a little walk to the end of the bay and back – our resolution is to take stroll every day following two weeks on the road.
Now we’ve worked up an appetite for lunch, we’re driving over to Kilifi, to Mnarani resort, where we have a scrummy curry lunch in an idyllic location, overlooking the bay.
21 September
Pole Pole today so let’s take it steady. Nice walk to Wishing Rock …
… quick check of emails, relaxing afternoon, followed by slap-up dinner in Blue Turtle restaurant: Pemba Island Chowder followed by lobster thermidor and a lashing of rosé wine.
22 September
We met a lovely couple in the restaurant last night – Charlotte and Joe from my neck of the woods in England, Kingswinford, Midlands. It was fun to catch up on local gossip and to hear that they’re bowled over by Africa.So much so that they’re coming with us on our trip today. Come with us to visit our old friends.
Mida Creek: the banda is almost finished so they can start to offer food and refreshments from there. All funds for the local community.
See the mangrove seedlings over there? The Community will be planting those shortly.
We meet with our girl Nuru’s husband Eyern, they now have a new addition to the family, a little boy called Eliud.Have a bit more news about Nuru but will keep that for tomorrow.
SonnettiSchool: lovely to see Mangi again and to find out how Japhet’s getting along. He’s doing extremely well, so well in fact that after his final year in secondary school his grades should be more than good enough for him to attend university. We’re very proud of him.
Pop into Watamu for delicious Italian home-made ice cream and macchiato.
Finally drop by SilverstoneAcademy but only very briefly as the students are sitting their exams. The school is doing amazingly well. They are the top school in the area, coming first out of 25 schools – so successful that they now have 306 pupils. Awesome. They opened in May 2006 with 9 students, it’s amazing.
You know all the good things I told you about Turtle Bay Beach Club? Well, for me the best is how they encourage you to become involved in the local community if you want to.It can be life-changing and each time we return we hear of more and more guests who are supporting various projects, from the local environment to health to education.
23 September
We need to breathe a bit today. We take our morning walk to wishing rock, then sit and contemplate the sea for a while, marvellous.
