WE SAW A LEOPARD!!!!!! I was feeling a bit better this morning so I got up for the morning game drive. It was very misty and still quite wet due to the heavy monsoon rain last night, but josh and Seumus sat on the roof, and theo, me and krissie stood up, or had our legs dangling inside the car whilst sat in the roof. We didn't see much, but about an hour into the safari we suddenly stopped as we saw a leopard sat down 100 metres ahead of us on the road!! We tried to get closer, but it moved into the bushes. Our excitement increased again when we saw the leopard again behind us, marking its (think its a "she") territory. It just carried on walking down the middle of the road, occasionally going to the side to spray on the bushes. We followed it slowly for about 5 or so minutes, taking a lot of photos as we went. It then disappeared again, followed by a squeal, probably the leopard killing something. We ten headed back to the house for a breakfast of mango, pineapple, wheatabix, sausage, bacon, baked beans, fried egg, and TEA!! Josh has now got the bug I had, so only ate a piece of mango.
After breakfast (which finished about 10) we had to pack up the house (including the entire kitchen containing 5 days worth of food for 9 people). It didn't take as long as we thought though, and set off just after 12 noon.
To get out of the park, we obviously had to go through some of the park. We unfortunately only saw some buffalo and a forest hog and some warthogs, but we saw another leopard!!!!!!! It was stalking some warthogs but we think we might have scared it off with the cars as it disappeared after 2 sightings... But josh took an amazing picture of it hiding in the bushes :)
Then it was another 5 minutes to the park gate.
We drove for an hour or so, and got to some family of Krissie's (her mums cousin) and had lunch and a cup of tea, meeting their 3 dogs - Sam (a manic, loopy, mental spaniel who kept chasing his tail and doing rolly pollys!!), Bandit (a calm golden lab), and Pippa (not sure what type of dog she was, but she kept licking my hand and was the cutest dog in the world!!).
We ten drive about a half hour to look at the plot of land Krissie's dad had just bought. They're going to build a house there, and Ken already has all of the designs and what he wants it to look like etc. It looks amazing!! I really want to design my own house now!! But I have no plot of land to put it on haha!!
Another hour or so and we arrived at El Karama - another safari retreat, again with no other human beings for miles!! Going through the park/ranch/land we saw loads of different animals, like impala, johnsons, tommies, a million types of bird, and lots of giraffe and zebra!!!! I have never seen so many giraffe on one place before!!
We finally got to the Bandas (what they call the lodges we're staying in), and they are INCREDIBLE!!!!! There's 4 Bandas with a double bed and a single bed each, 1 Bandas with 2 singles, and a "cottage" - 2 singles in one room, a hugeeee double in the middle, and 2 singles up some handmade wooden stairs on each side of the main room. And of course a beautiful bathroom to go with it!! Me and Kristina have fallen in love with the cottage, and have decided that we need one haha!! All the kids are in the cottage - me and krissie in the double bed, josh and Seumus in the twin room, and theo up in one of the singles. The shower is not really a shower... Either freezing cold, or a warmish drip. Not very useful!!
We had supper (a beefy type thing with rice) then went to bed - we get a lie-in tomorrow!!!!!