Day 4 - Ol Pejeta Conservancy

This morning we started with ... no water 🙈 The tap didn't want to. From the shower there was still 30 seconds of warm water for Benny. But even the toilet could only flush 1.5 times. The entire facility seems to be affected. Jan meets us on the way to breakfast - they also have no water... But after breakfast it seems to be working again 😅
By the way, Ollie wore a traditional Maasai garment (similar to a dress) with sandals yesterday. But today it seems too cold for him - he's wearing pants again 😄 Albright feels slightly sick...

On our way (start 8:30) to the national park, we pass by the edge of the Solio Ranch - a huge area. Mount Kenya (5199m) lies in front of us to the right, but today it's surrounded by clouds. Later on the outskirts of the next town we see another side of Kenya - there is a lot of garbage lying around, cars are being repaired right on the road, half-built houses, free-roaming dogs, sheep, goats, and cows 🐕🐐🐑🐂😅, people are regularly waiting on the side for the bus 🙋‍♂️🙋‍♀️, we see several children in school uniforms. Everything is plastered with election campaign ads (there is an election in Kenya next week). Albright tells us that they will then re-elect EVERYTHING - from the president, to senators, to the governor. Today all schools are closed - because of the election - that's why the school children are all walking around on the street 😅

In Laikipia we buy a jacket, sweater and a hat. No luck with the trade today, but still under 30 euros 😎 And we get toothpaste😅 Ollie buys the necessary tickets for the national parks for us while Albright tries to exchange money for us - what a service 😊

In the Ol Pejeta Conservatory, we start right away with a search for animals 😅
Zebras🦓, we encounter the slightly rarer black rhinos🦏 for the first time, white rhinos, impalas🦌, buffaloes🐃, elephants, Thomson's gazelles, elands, guinea fowl, warthogs, cows🐄, egrets, 3 ostriches.

We take a coffee/tea break at a rhino graveyard and afterwards see brant gazelles and a secretary bird (cool colleague 😄 we wonder where the boss bird is?!)

At the 'Hippo Hide', unfortunately we don't initially see any hippos 🦛... It has been too dry in recent weeks. However, a ranger offers to take us into the area without a car shortly afterwards 😇 We just have to wait for his lunch break.

Overall, today seems to be 'Family Day' 😄 We see several families of warthogs, elephants with their young, and mini-buffaloes 😊 Ollie safely drives us through the area. The rules in the park are stricter today, so we are not allowed to leave the designated roads.

At half past 12, we are informed that our suitcases will be at the lodge around 2 p.m. Yay 😄😄😄 They apparently didn't need to be opened after all...🤦‍♂️

We take a lunch break at the Moranis Rest Stop. A ranger accompanies us to a black rhinoceros that lives here alone because it is blind. We are even allowed to feed it and touch it with sugar cane. A mega awesome experience 🦏
A little further away, a large herd of buffaloes passes by, consisting of almost 100 animals. 🐃🐃🐃 (Benny did his best to count them😅)

On the way back to the Hippo Hide, we encounter a group of female elephants - they pose for us.😎🐘
Afterwards, the ranger shows us the hippo area - we walk on foot, he is armed. Here, there are 10 adult and 4 young hippos living.🦛 He looks for them for us and we at least see a mother with her calf. Most of the time they are in/under water. We see them come up for air every few seconds.🙂
The ranger tells us a lot about the plants and smart elephants that manage to overcome the fences with tricks.😅🐘

We encounter a group of large reticulated giraffes 🦒 again, a rhino family, and see an elephant and buffalo, followed by a large number of baboons🦧.

We stop at the chimpanzees🐵. Since they are not native to East Africa, they are the only ones with an electric fence around their enclosure. A ranger tells us some things about the chimpanzees and shows us Mary and Socrates. Max (very cheeky) hides 😅 Just as we are about to leave, Ali Kaka makes an appearance. He has a brief 'romantic moment' with Mary 🤣🤣🤣

On the way to the gate, a buffalo family spontaneously crosses the road 🐃🐃🐃. The little one is very fluffy 😅 But Albright forbids us to get out of the car 🤣🤣🤣 I wonder why?! We leave the park - by the way, it is 360 square kilometers in size 😳 Unfortunately, no lions today. It was too cold. Maybe tomorrow?

On the way back, we pick up the receipt from the clothing market and then visit a special place: the equator 😄 There's a bit of a show - a local shows us the clockwise and counterclockwise Coriolis forces (Northern/Southern Hemisphere) with water 😅 Mr & Mrs Wabner receive an 'Equator Certificate' 😁📜💪 Afterwards, we get some souvenirs. Thanks to Albright, we are not being ripped off 😎

It's already 6 o'clock and we have been on the road for almost 10 hours. Time to go home. We hope for a warm shower. Our luggage has finally arrived ☺☺☺💪 Interestingly, 4 suitcases are presented to us 🤷‍♂️ We take ours. Hopefully, other passengers don't have to wait as long as we did 🙈 Unfortunately, 3 things are missing from the suitcase... It seems they were opened despite the lock.😕 We will follow up on this... Melly is writing her blog by hand again - today it will be 9 pages 😁

Todays photo yield: 181 photos and 11 videos 😁 The photo upload usually works better during breakfast here in the blog 😉 For the past few days, if there is room, we will add a picture later 🙂 Promise🤞