The last two northern white rhinos

Oh did I mention our lost suitcase arrived??? It was only gone for 8 or 9 days. I actually gave up on it because Emirates story about it kept changing and I was tired of being on hold for hours trying to track it.

July 3rd-5th we spent at Ol Pejeta Conservancy. Had we known this place was only about 30 min away from our Solio lodge (the last place we went) we would’ve planned differently. This is what happeneds when you plan things on your own, don’t use a travel agent and just try to figure it out. It wasn’t a horrible thing just time wasted and a lesson learned. We were picked up at our hotel at 7am and were on our way. Unlike our last safari vehicle we did not have Wi-Fi, which was a bummer. This tour was booked with a third party that had great reviews on Trip Advisor, but one little hickup they had, is that they wanted to collect the outstanding balance. Excuse me???? Oh no, you got your coins already and here is the receipt! The response was “oh I will check and get back to you”. One thing about this trip to Kenya was that everything was paid before we departed the states. While driving, the driver received a call and I was told their accounted missed the payment and everything is fine. Oh I know it was lol.

We stopped for a bathroom break and guess where it was???? The SAME Kikuyu shop we were at a few days ago! They were happy to see us, of course lol. I told them we were just using the washroom and weren’t spending any money. When we were done, we saw our driver sitting down for tea. What the heck??? So I guess we needed to look around again since we had time. Of course we spent money and I’m now learning that using a credit card is much better than paying cash (Kenyan currency) or using MPesa (their electronic system where you can pay by phone to people or companies). We left and kept driving and our next stop was on the equator. Yep, the actual equator. We were given a demonstration of how water turned clockwise when you were on one side of the equator and counter clockwise on the other side of the equator. It was nice and educational for us all. The girls received a certificate, for a fee of course and then the person doing our demonstration invited us to his shop to spend more money. We went to his and a few other shops and piked back into the vehicle for the last stretch of driving until we reached our destination.

Random question- have you ever been somewhere and your tour guide randomly gets in your photo? I mean, I’m not sure that has happened to us and we have traveled a lot, but I guess there is a first time for everything lol. Yep, Charles got in and was ready for the pic and Ajali and I weren’t even ready for the pic. It’s all good though.

We arrived at Ol Pejeta and honestly, this was one of the things I was looking forward to the most on this vacation. I have been following the last two northern white rhinos on social media and how there are now 16 embryos waiting to be transferred into southern white rhinos as surrogates is really interesting to me. I was excited to meet Najin and Fatou, the last of this species- both females. Sudan, the last male died in 2018 due to natural causes and they were able to get semen from him to help create these embryos. More about them in a min.

We checked into the hotel in the game park (there are many to choose from). While given information Jasmine was very hungry and could not wait to have watermelon. One of the nice employees was kind enough to take her into the dining area and she came back with an entire plate of watermelon. Have I said how good the fruit and fresh squeezed fruit juices have been???? I will miss them for sure! When got to our tent, which was about a 4 min walk from the main building, and dropped our stuff off. There were three beds, twins for the girls and a king for Ajali and I, and one bathroom (oh dear). The toilet was on one aside, sinks in the middle and shower on the other side. the entire sleeping area was one open room, which I had seen pictures of, but being in it was different. It was really like being at camp where everyone was literally in the same room. It was ok, but not as posh as previous accommodations. Outside we had our own patio and chairs and right in front of our room were lots of waterbuck, pumbass, zebra and rhino just hanging out. The view was gorgeous. In the distance, Mount Kenya was there, but covered by clouds. We hoped to get a glimpse before we left. This was our new home for the next 3 days/2 nights.

We walked back to the dining area for lunch, which was a buffet. We had an assigned table by the window, which looked directly at the watering hole. It was amazing to se rhino, zebra, deer and waterbuck drinking and also staring at us just yards away while we ate. We all ordered Coke, of course. In addition to the buffet there was a stir fry station which had one meat, veggies, noodles and a red or white sauce. Throughout our stay the sauces stayed the same, a soy sauce was added at one point, the meat chooses alternated from chicken or beef and once even no meat. There was always bread whether it was nan, chipati, roti, or something else like hot rolls on the table. Many Indian food choices, as Kenya has a lot of Indians and they frequent this hotel (Indians built the railroad in Kenya many years ago and many stayed, hence the large number of Indians living in Kenya). There was always a fish choice, not always chicken, which surprised me, but there was always rice, so Jasmine was content. Her meals often consisted of rice and watermelon. There was always deserts to choice from and at breakfast, cereal, fresh squeezed juices and pastries. One night Jasmine did have an upset stomach, but it only lasted a that night, thank goodness. None of us have had travelers diarrhea yet, which I knew we would’ve had by now and lost 10 lbs each, but nope- its totally carb loading and I’m sure we are packing on the pounds lol. One interesting thing about this place was that the soda was not included. We were unaware until the waitress brought us a bill.

Around 4p we went on our first game drive. Our driver began to tell us about the history of Ol Pejeta. It started like this “Ol Pejeta was founded by these white guys and is a private conservancy”. Hmm, ok, did he really just say that?? Yep he did. I thought, this is going to be an interesting few days with him lol. He had already got in our family pic and now this is the history behind this park? Noted! We drove around and finally saw an elephant. So amazing! We are now 4/5 on the list of the big 5. All we need to see is the leopard. Our driver said he would try to make that happen. Our game drive lasted about 3 hours and then we headed back for dinner.

Prior to heading back we stopped to see the nice blind black rhino named Baraka. We were able to feed him and touch/massage him and he loves people and is friendly. He was blinded in one eye during a confrontation in the wild and has a cataract in the other eye, so he is not safe to be in the wild. The person giving us a tour at this enclosure was very informative and gave a great experience. He walked us through the Ol Pejeta museum area and taught us about what the conservancy really did, how they count the animals that come in and out the park daily (so cool, I knew none of this and it was amazing how they monitor day and night by foot prints how many go in, how many come back and if for instance a lion goes out and not come back they will notified the neighborhood and make sure they are aware not to kill the animal, but call the conservancy instead and they will come get them). One of the most interesting things to learn was that all of the animal are able to come and go as they please except the rhinos. My next question was- well how to do you stop them??? Interestingly to know- rhinos don’t like rocks/gravel under their feet, so in front of the fence line they placed gravel, so if a rhino tries to leave it will turn around and not walk on the gravel. Cool right??? They also have an anti poaching team which includes rangers and dogs. In Kenya, if you are caught poaching you can be shot on the spot. The rangers also follow certain animals during their shifts to make sure all is well. This conservancy also has heards of cattle which they use for many things- to retaliate the grass as well as sell the beef to farmers. This is partially how they keep this place running. They have multiple herds of them and are very strategic about where on the land they move them. Being in this “outdoor classroom” was a great learning experience and I hope our girls took something in.

At dinner we told the kids no soda cause it wasn’t included and that they could have water, as they needed to drink it anyway. Jasmine was feeling sick and while I left dinner, Ajali was given another bill, this time fir the water. Lol. It’s funny now, but at the time he was pissed. He asked the lady, well at you going to keep bringing me a bill or tell me what is included in our meals?? The woman told him only Kenyan tea was included. Perfect, since him and Sanaa love that! We also had water in our rooms, so I assume we could bring that with us, right? I went to the front desk just to confirm about the drinks and any other items we may have to pay for. She told me no drinks were included. I was like, well the waitress just said tea was included, is that not the case. Oh yes, tea is. I then asked if we could bring our water from the phone and she said that was fine and it was replaced daily. Perfect! Our driver had also picked up water and had it in the fridge in the vehicle, so now the Chege’s had a plan! Bring our own water for meals. When on vacation Ajali and I let the kids drink as much soda as they like but at $1.50 each X2 for each kid as well as Ajali and I, that starts to add up. We agreed they could still have soda, but only at one meal.

This place allows you to walk alone at night because of the carrier between the animals. The path is lighted. When we arrived to our room after dinner, our beds were turned down and a hot water bottle was placed in the bed for warmth- Oh yes we love these things!!! There are no phones in the room but there is an emergency button and a guest service button. Once back at our room we all wanted to shower and needed to take turns sharing the one shower. What a pain and totally first world problems, right?? We managed though, as we have a couple slower peeps in the group. I was being the warden and making sure the girls got in and out in a reasonable amount of time. As we all were showering we noticed there were only 3 wash cloths. I guess the last to shower would be using their hand lol. (Ajali was going last) Totally joking! I was irritated about it because this room was booked for 4 people and now that we are all getting ready for bed we need to figure out how to get another wash cloth. At the time I was irriated after paying for drinks, a kid with a sick stomach and now we need another washcloth. Totally small things on a wider spectrum, but…

I decided to press the guest service button, although I contemplated the emergency button lol. It had no lights or anything to signal that it worked so I figured I would wait a while and then go walk to the main building to get what I needed if nothing happened. A guy showed up and we talked thought the curtain and glass door. It took a second for me to get across to him what was needed but he got understood it eventually and brought one back lol. We all went to sleep and slept well and it was nice to have Wi-Fi in the tent.

The next morning we got up at 545am, was at breakfast at 630am and doing a game drive at 7am. Let me tell you- we drove for 2 hours looking for simba. I about told the driver to turn around, but Ajali said no. He’s a good husband because my patience runs thin at times and I was irritated. He was calling people on the radio and nobody was answering him, stopping rangers in the park asking if they had seen simba and at this point I was starting to wonder if his radio was even working Lol. He was even making calls on his cell phone to people, so I had to believe he was trying. This was not like other drives we had been on and he was not communicating with us to let us know what he was doing so at times it was frustrating. I was picking up on little Swahili phrases and words and that’s how I came to this conclusion. We didn’t find simba, but did see other animals. We then headed to the chimpanzee enclosure.

Ol Pejeta has 34 chimpanzees that have been rescued from other parts of the world, but mostly West Africa. None are native to Kenya. All the chimps, except the ones born at the sanctuary were being mistreated. Their stories are really sad- from being stored in a cage and having people pay to see them, to just being held to have a baby, keeping the baby as a pet and then killing the chimp to eat or sell its body parts. There is a chimp by the name of Oscar, who is not very nice and has bad behavior Lol. He has, on a couple of occasions, used a stick to made a whole in the electric fence so he scan get out…and has been successful! In the pics you will see Oscar with a stick. Oscar was born here and his mother was diagnosed with polio when she was young, prior to coming here. I will post a video so you can see her walk - its like a human with polio- so surreal.

Next was the time I was mostly waiting for- a visit with Najin and Fatou, the last two northern white rhinos on the planet. They are in an enclosure with a female southern white rhino so they could know how to like in the wild. This female and two other will be the first three surrogates to carry the northern white rhino embryos. Najin is Fatou‘s mom. At one point Fatou and the southern white rhino in their enclosure began attacking Najin so the staff had to cut part of their horns off so they could no longer harm her. While we visited they were trying to nap bit would lift their heads up. We were not supposed to touch them, but our guide said if we were fast and gave him a tip, he would snap a pic. It was priceless to us and put money in his pocket lol. Ajali declined a pic with Fatou. He said he had no need to touch it. “Eye roll” lol. When then headed back to see Baraka, the blind rhino one last time and give him carrots since his enclosure was close by. We then went to lunch and to relax in the room. The girls also went to the pool.

We gave the driver the rest of the day off and opened not to do an evening drive because we had scheduled a night drive with the conservancy. he had the nerve to ask if we wanted his phone number to call him in the morning to let him no if he could sleep in and just go back to Nairobi without a morning drive. No sir, you will be taking us on a morning drive tomorrow! Safaris can make you tired as well, seeing as how you are up early daily. Ajali and I agreed that 2 days and 2 nights are better than 1 night stays at places because you don’t get to take in much and you are there for less than 24 hours. I personally like to just nap or watch the animals, sunrise, sunset from my room. There is no tv in our rooms, but we all have iPads with movies and shows downloaded.

Our night game drive started off a little Rocky when we were told we were not scheduled. Remember i said we booked with a third party?? Well, the conservancy manger told the guides to take us, which was really nice, and I guess they would figure it out later. We left at 915pm and the first animal we saw out the gate was a rabbit. Jasmine was thrilled as she loves bunnies. Ajali and I despise them. The night game drive has a driver and another person standing or sitting with a big light moving it around to see the animals. In addition to the rabbit we saw hyenas, elephants, southern white rhinos, white tailed mongoose (which is rare to see), skunk, buffalo, gazelle, impala and lions. The lions we saw were two female twin sisters whose mom had been killed years earlier. One had a set of cubs which are assumed to be 7 months old (now these look like actual babies- and what’s with 7 months old??? Those big ones we were told the same at the last park. Perhaps these are younger). One of the females has a collar And is being tracked as part of the lion trek program here. There are a total of 7 prides here and 6 are being tracked. One female from each pride has a collar so the rangers know where the lions are at all times. So you know my next question- so whey did we drive for 2 hours earlier if y’all knew where the lions were??? Why didn’t you just tell our driver?? I was told that if the lions are in the bush they will not tell drivers where they are because then the drivers will drive offroad and all vehicles must stay on the road, but if they are near the road they will share. The fee for driving off road is $5000 KSH ($500 USD to each person in the vehicle). Got it, say less! A night drive is not offered in all parks, so we are glad to have had the opportunity here. We all went to do our shower routine again for the last night, and yes there were 4 washcloths this time! Hot water bottles were so awaiting in our beds.

The next morning the driver insisted we do a game drive first then breakfast and even though Ajali and I didn’t agree, we gave in. Did y’all know teenagers are grumpy in the morning and when they are hungry??? Anyway, we were glad we waited for breakfast, as in the first 30 min of driving we saw a lion pride. A mom with a collar and two cubs. Actually I spotted them and had to tell the driver to stop. It was so cute seeing the cubs play! We stayed and watched for a few mins and then kept driving.

We saw more animals and guess what else??? ANOTHER LION PRIDE! Score! We think it was the pride we saw last night with the two sisters and two cubs. There were 3 other vehicles watching as well, but our driver seemed to be a little aggressive when pulling in front of other trucks. I mean, it was nice to be up close but also a little rude, we thoughT. But then the other trucks started doing the same so we figured it was a wash. At times it seemed as though the lions were looking or hearing something but we didn’t see any action. The cubs were so cute! We were really lucky to see two prides both with cubs very fast on this game drive. We drove more, looked for hippos, but didn’t see any. The water has been low and here has been a drought, so not surprising that they were not there. We then went for breakfast, pack up and depart back to Nairobi. Oh, I forgot to mention that fresh squeezed juices were free and available at breakfast. Lol

The ride home…

This driver is something else! Lol. He had two phones he was on the entire way home and at times arguing with people about who knows what. He drove fast which was fine, as we felt safe. Nairobi traffic is always bad and at one point an ambulance needed to get through. Do you know that our driver filed in right behind the ambo to get through traffic??? I mean some others did it as well, but it just seemed a little wired knowing that he had a truck filled with tourist. Jasmine had to use the bathroom on the way, about an hour in. He stopped at a gas station, warned us it probably wasn’t clean and he was right. Jasmine refused. The next gas station gave me a key to the bathroom and told me to use the mens bathroom. No problem. The chain on the gate with the lock was so thick! I finally get the lock open no some random guy walks up as though he is coming in with. I looked at him and said no and when he didn’t move I said NO NO louder and he walked away. I was thinking what the heck! We walked in and there was two urinals. Nope wasn’t going to happen! Our driver said he would stop at the normal place- the Kikuyu shop we had been to twice. To my surprise we all were sleeping, except Sanaa and when I woke up he told me it was 30-40 min until Nairobi. WTH sir, I told you my kid had to go to the bathroom! I just said ok and figured she she wasn’t complaining I wouldn’t either. On the drive we saw a Masaai picking up one of their cows on the side of the road. The driver said it was probably thirsty and hungry and tired of walking. Can you imagine trying to pick up a cow??

We got back to the hotel, glad to be out of that mans truck lol. He asked us to leave a review and I will at some point. I don’t plan on booking with this company again and although I would like to go back to Ol Pejeta, when I do, I will choose another hotel to stay in while there. We did not get the warm and fuzzies like other places and the communication and customer service was not the best. Same with the third party company we used.

Random pics from Ol Pejeta