Safari Memories

Watching Paul O’Grady’s Animal orphans on ITV last night bought back some fantastic memories of one of the best holidays I’ve ever had. Ten years ago I took a trip to Kenya on a two week Safari holiday. We were up at the crack of dawn to head off on game drives with our driver Baba Wood in search of the big five. One morning we took a hot air balloon ride over the Masai Mara, setting off at 3am we arrived into the nature reserve to be greeted by two huge hot air balloons lighting up the sky with canons pumping hot air into them. As we took off at dawn we skimmed the top of a small coppice of trees sheltering a large herd of elephants, the elephants a little startled let off a mighty roar and started to run underneath the balloon to find alternative shelter, a bit scarry but I’ll never forget it!

Another morning I persuaded my friend to join me in the early hours to head to a hippo lake to watch the hippo’s wake up. After an hour of pure silence sitting in a 3 man fishing boat all of a sudden heads started to appear above the water’s surface, within minutes we were surrounded.

We followed a pack of tiger cubs with their mother, watched them bring down a buffalo and devour it for lunch, the next day there were only the bones left to pick at. Flamingo beach was just a pure sea of pink, and sleeping in rooftops in the room next to where the Queen stayed the night before her father died, resulting in her the following morning finding herself on the Royal thrown was the icing on the cake.

The experiences were truly unforgettable and it is a holiday I would definitely love to do again one day. Here’s a few of the best bits…………..