Day 3 - Solio Ranch

It rained again last night...🌧 Thankfully, the weather in the morning is not as bad as the forecast 😅 We're having pancakes and omelette for breakfast. Albright is trying to find out more about our luggage. We're also being kept informed about Loise from Nairobi via WhatsApp. At least everyone is trying to get our luggage for us 😇 However, they will probably only arrive later in the day.

We're heading to Rhino Farm (Solio Ranch) at 8:30.

Ollie used to work here and he reads the tracks on the ground for us 😅 Albright tells us that Kenya has seen growing numbers of rhinos and elephants for the first time since 1970.

The ranch is privately owned, but all the animals belong to the government. We notice electric fences - but only to keep out poachers - everyone has to check in and later check out individually with their passport. There is even a private airstrip 😅🛫 Next time, we'll come by plane 😁😁😁

We see a lot of different animals from our truck with the roof open:

Several four-legged animals: Thomson's gazelles, sheep, goats, a pack of lions (some are 2 years old)🦁, impalas🦌, many white rhinos🦏 (a total of 80 over the course of the day, including a baby and some young ones, they can live up to 55 years), waterbucks, African buffalo 🐃 (alive and as skeletons), oryx antelopes, we have a coffee break right next to 10 reticulated giraffes 🦒, zebras🦓, a jackal, warthogs, a water vole🦦, elephants🐘, eland antelope (very large, including baby)

Monkeys: baboons 🦧, vervet monkeys🐒, guenons

Various birds: crowned lapwing, yellow-necked francolin, pied starling, black-necked heron, Egyptian geese, crowned crane, marabou stork, korhaan, hamerkop, guinea fowl, a buzzard🦅, bee-eater (green and yellow bird), grey heron

Ollie even claims to have sighted a black leopard🐆.

We make a lunch stop around 2 pm (chicken for Benny, Melly develops a taste for Kenyan tomatoes 😅) on an old tree trunk next to waterbucks and impalas, the sun comes out. We've been really lucky with the weather overall. Towards the end, it starts drizzling lightly. We're happy though: Melly decided last minute to bring a vest in her carry-on, Benny brought his sweater. The rest is in the luggage 😅

We're hoping to see another pack of lions and black rhinos. Instead, we come across 4 African elephants 😇 super cool. As big as they are, they're very quick at hiding 😅 Nevertheless, we manage to get our photo. In total, today we've seen 4 of the Big 5 (elephant, rhino, lion, buffalo, leopard) 😊👌 (Ollie even saw all 5).
On the way back (around 4:30 pm), it's raining. The landscape is happy 🌵🪴🌱 Albright informs us at the parking lot that our luggage has arrived in Nairobi. However, customs hasn't cleared them yet and wants to open them... We wonder what 'mysterious' things we could have packed... The analogue alarm clock, maybe?! Because batteries are not allowed in checked luggage?! So we'll have to keep waiting 🙈🙈🙈 Unfortunately, the shop in the lodge is already closed... Another pair of pants or thick socks would have been nice.
We spend the rest of the day relaxing and looking forward to tomorrow. (Ollie says 'tomorrow will be even cooler' 😎 ). Since it's raining outside, we snuggle under our blankets in the four-poster bed and sleep for almost 1.5 hours 😆 Afterwards, we enjoy freshly grilled fish (tilapia). At the next table, a French lady is celebrating her 60th birthday, and the lodge staff sings a traditional Kenyan birthday song and brings cake (@Jenny: you would've been so happy 😅😅😅 #arizonasteakhouse).
Albright is not sure if our luggage will be with us tomorrow... So we plan to stop by the flea market in Nyeri on the way to the next national park tomorrow to buy a jacket and thick socks. We're also running out of toothpaste🙈😆 To warm up a bit more, we go to the bar room by the fireplace before going to sleep 😅 Here, we meet Juliana and Jan from Wolfsburg (they were on the same flight from Frankfurt with us). They did the tour today, which is waiting for us tomorrow.

We're excited for tomorrow. Stay tuned 🦏  

Internet still unstable for photos...