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| My first ever wild giraffe sighting |
I woke at 3.30am and could only doze after that. I was sharing a room with Nina and Hayley that was very open - the bathroom had no door, just a tasteful divider. Us girls had showers, tactically avoiding using the bathroom until each person was done, and went to breakfast at 7.30am.
Fog rolled in, at first hovering over the lake then eventually blocking the closest trees from sight. Hayley and I saw two Rock Hyraxes outside our window - at first we had no idea what they were until Henry the naturalist told us.
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| I feel like we're being watched... |
Told we were going on a walk, we decanted water into our drink bottles and got into the vans as the sun came out and the fog lifted. It was a long drive down to the lake that looked so close and along Sleeping Warrior road.
One of the Australians in our group took a photo of a Maasai warrior sitting on the side of the road, who prompted knocked on the van door and argued with the driver in Swahili. The driver told Hope she needed to delete the photo - you can't take pictures of the Maasai without specific permission. There was a long wait at the gate to Sleeping Warrior crater, and a longer (and bumpier) drive in! Zebra, gazelles, dik-diks (the most adorable tiny gazelle-like creatures) and warthogs went past the van.
At Sleeping Warrior lodge, there was an amazing view overlooking 48,000 hectares of land. It belonged to a a British born man who gifted the land back to the Maasai. We were on African time so we waited a bit more. Henry, a man who described himself as a Naturalist, which I assumed means some kind of local flora and fauna expert joined us, dressed in safari gear. He entertained us with endless stories - 'the five likenesses of the Rock Hyrax to the Elephant', 'why the buffalo is the most deadliest animal in Africa' etc. He also told us about growing up in a Maasai tribe and showed us his lion GPS tracker - they had introduced 5 lions to the park.
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| The crater |
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| The Sleeping Warrior lodge |
We parked beneath the crater at the centre of the park. Our group collectively chose the short and steep walking option. We then endured 1.5km of borderline rock-climbing up the side of the crater. It was at altitude and the grass was so hot, we were all sweating heavily. Henry kept stopped above us, pointing out excellent things to those close enough to hear, like it was too steep for snakes or don't touch this incredibly poisonous plant, I had sore ankles from balancing.
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| Choosing our path |
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| The view looking down |
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| Balancing during one of our stops |
Reach the top was such a relief. We stood around, drinking water and taking group photos, when we spotted three tan animals in the crater below. The rangers seemed agitated, Henry translated that it wasn't the tan animals that were the issue - they could see a buffalo. We sat up the top waiting while the rangers disappeared and attempted to move it. I noticed that they didn't have guns, just sticks.
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| Our group |
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| Rangers going to the buffalo |
Eventually they came back and said the buffalo wasn't moving so it shouldn't be a problem. We walked through the crater and out the other side as quickly and quietly as we could.
We had a packed lunch in the van, it was very bumpy. We tried to track lions but the vegetation off road was too thick. We lifted the van roof safari style and saw giraffes on the side of the road so it was no loss.
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| The NZ van |
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