Africa - Day 1

The flight across from Heathrow to Nairobi was fairly uneventful. My in-flight entertainment system was faulty and so my viewing menu comprised minute by minute updates on the altitude, outside temperature and remaining flight time. As you can imagine, this didn't really suit me. Thankfully, I had a couple of old episodes of Studio 60 which I could revisit on my phone.

We arrived on time at about 6:30am local time. At the airport, we were greeted by numerous visa forms questioning our experience of swine flu and our reasons for visiting the country.

I can't help but think the decision really rested on the answer to the all important question: "Do you have the ffty US dollars to pay us?"

An hour later, we were freed from the queues with luggage in hand and swiftly located the rep who handed us over to our driver for the week. Isaac is a retired tourism scout who picks up the odd contract during busy periods. He seems keen to host and part his knowledge which is fairly basic but educational for us.

At around 11am, we stopped by a curio shop to use the bathroom and browse the produce. The shop had an abundance of those carved wooden souvenirs like you might find in a British high street store (Masai Mara). We felt that these items had no significance to us at this point and side stepped the stalking salesman.

We arrived at Mountain Lodge at about 11:40am and were greeted in the usually uncomfortable way by porters and hotel staff offering cocktails. We took lunch quickly and decided we could wear it off on a walking safari.

Before setting off, we explored the different vantage points that the hotel offers. Climbing to the roof gave us a view over the forest and then tunnelling to the hide got us up close to the wildlife. Buffalo and Water buck were the first animals we spotted at the water's edge. Within 30 minutes they were joined by a couple of elephants which soon expanded to a group of 10.

From our Room

Mountain Lodge is high up beside Mount Kenya and was built overlooking a natural waterhole and salt slick.

Becky and I are sat on the balcony outside our room, about 30 yards from the ground and a stones throw from two African Elephants, two water buck (Defassa) and a handful of Cape Buffalo retreating into the bush.

At each hotel there seems to be a boundary across which you dare not tread without a guide. The protection each guide offers varies from place to place. This was one of few times we were accompanied by an armed ranger. Other guides just grabbed a bamboo cane.

The walking safari took us, for two hours, into the tropical mountain forest where our guide introduced us to some medicinal plants, animal remains and much knowledge about the habitat and the creatures. Two highlights of this time were the a few minutes that we spent observing a number of Colobus Monkeys up in the canopy and prior to this the unexpected tea party. I accepted an Irish tea with brandy which was passed my way. I thought Irish tea was Whisky, maybe I just hoped it was.

Dinner is still an hour or so away and we're quite excited by the chance to be woken by the night game porter as he spots the animals that we list an interest in.

I'm not sure we're gonna get much sleep.