Sunrise Safari – 9 June 2010

An even earlier start got us on the road for a sunrise safari. The sun came up so fast, we missed the actual moment it came over the far hills. But in the soft early morning light, we saw a large group of elephants, right beside the road. If they had been any closer we would have had to share seats!

Then there were a couple of hyenas, another herd of 28 elephants, another 4 lionesses, a solitary lion, our first (live) buffalo, another hyena and then the treat of the day, 3 cheetahs, again so close they were almost strokeable.

Here and there various different vultures perched in the trees and we came across a smaller river with another hippo family doing exactly the same as their cousins of yesterday – absolutely nothing apart from popping their noses up to breath every so often.

After breakfast, we visited a local Masai village. The young men performed a welcome dance for us and lead us into the village, where the women also welcomed us. The women build the houses, and this takes three months. After looking inside a house – mud and dung construction, we were taken to inspect the handcrafts the women were selling.



The evening safari was based around searching for the elusive black rhino. Unfortunately they were too well hidden, but we saw a jackal, ostriches, Sausage trees with their peculiar sausage-like fruit and impalas as well as the various species of gazelles that are so plentiful. Despite the lack of new wildlife, the savannah with it's long grass and wide open crystal-clear vistas is truly beautiful. The variety of beautiful birds is fascinating too.

Second day on Safari – 8 June 2010

An early morning safari followed our 7 a.m. breakfast enabling us to see the animals out feeding, including a pride of five lionesses feeding on a buffalo carcase. Later we saw eight elephants reasonably close to the track before coming across the first signs of the coming wildebeest migration. Apparently zebras lead the way and we came across a herd of zebra all strung out in a nose-to-tail line sauntering steadfastly across the savanna. All we had to do was pick a spot and park and wait as the line of zebras and a few wildebeests filed silently across the road right behind us – a litteral “zebra crossing”. What an amazing sight.

Could it get better? The route eventually took us to the border with Tanzania and then back into Kenya where we visited a river full of hippos. An armed soldier took us for a walk along the river to see groups of hippos whiling away the day spending their time underwater to keep from getting sunburned. Also on the banks (fortunately the opposite banks) were two crocodiles.

Returning to camp we passed a family of baboons, our first Masai giraffes and even a lone tortoise ambling along the road. And everywhere there were Thompson's gazelles, Grant's gazelles and Topi.

After a brief rest, we went for a lateafternoon safari with warthogs, wildebeests, bat-eared foxes, ostriches and more, even closer, elephants. There were also many birds whose names we have already forgotten but the stork and the Secretary bird were special treats.



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Off on Safari – 7 June 2010

We left the comfort of Murray and Miriam's five bedroom house, and set off on Safari. Using the research done by Alan, we travelled with the Gametrackers company. We would recommend their safaris to anyone. The driver was excellent, with great knowledge, the cook made delicious hygienic meals with a very basic camp kitchen. All meals cooked over an open fire.

The drive from Nairobi enters the Rift Valley, after stopping at a view-point. The drive changes from city slums, villages then to farms and scattered villages and it's not long before some exotic animals come into view. The biggest market village was full of people in colourful African dress, and along the way we saw fascinating slices of life – people and donkeys carrying loads, mothers with babies on their backs, men and boys minding herds of cows, sheep or goats.

The trip took about six hours to reach the Masai Mara Park gates. Then we were able to do a late afternoon safari on the way to our campsite and it was not long before we saw elephants in the middle distance then came across 3 lions lazing in the late afternoon sun. These magnificent cats were so close we could almost stroke them.

Kenya – 6 June 2010

A relatively painless overnight flight took us, along with Janine, to Nairobi, to stay with Murray and Miriam, and meet up with Bradley and Susan who had arrived the day before.

Murray met us at the airport, and suggested an afternoon at the Safaricom Sevens. It's many years since we've been to a rugby game, and for Susan, it was her first experience.

Teams from all over Africa as well as Britain, France, Argentina and even NZ were playing and as today was the final, the more than capacity crowd were extremely enthusiastic, and when Kenya A beat Kenya B, the noise was overpowering!

Many of the spectators were armed with vuvuzelas, the subject of much contention at the Football World Cup games in South Africa. Frankly, these plastic horns make the whole experience quite unpleasant.

On the coast road back to Calais – 31 May 2010

After admiring Honfleur in the sunlight, we set out over the Pont de Normandie, which until 2004 was the longest cable-stayed bridge in the world.It certainly is a beautiful piece of engineering. From here we headed to Eretat on the coast, to see a bridge which is totally naturally engineered. The headland has been likened to an elephant, and there is a great picnic spot on the cliffs overlooking both the 'elephant' and the very attractive town.

The last stop before Calais, was further up the coast at Fecamp, where a Benedictine Monastery used to make a special liqueur with 27 different herbs and spices. The recipe was rediscovered in the 19th century by Alexander Le Grand, who built a grand palais as his distillery and showcase for his collection of antiquities. The display is beautifully laid out, the antiquities as presented by Alexander, and the making of Benedictine is a fragrant and very visual display of all the herbs and spices and where they originate. After looking at the distillery, the final stop is a tasting of the product.

We then reached Calais in good time and joined the queue for passport control. The queue was not as daunting as Dover, but took twice as long to get to the head of our queue. Consequently we presented our passports a mere five minutes before sailing time. But due to the congestion, the boat sailed 30 minutes late, so we were able to make it in time.

History of the Invasion – 30 May 2010

Having visited St Michael's Mount in Cornwall, we have always wanted to visit it's bigger, older counterpart in France. Le Mont St Michel is a two hour drive from Honfleur, and an absolutely stunning silhouette on the sky-line as you approach.

The Abbey is at the top of the mount, the town at the base, and the whole adds up to Le Mont-St-Michel. We took the trail through the Abbey, and tried to imagine life in the days of the monks.

From here we went to Bayeux, our second World Heritage stop for the day. This is of course where the famous Bayeux Tapestry resides. Probably commissioned by Otto, Bishop of Bayeux, who was William the Conqueror's brother, the tapestry is a 70 metre long embroidered story of William's invasion of England in 1066. A very efficient system of an audio guide telling the stories and pointing out details in the tapestry, keeps tardy tourists moving along.

Mont-St-Michel is featured in the Tapestry, and the audio-visual showed the WWI cemetery in Bayeaux, which has inscribed in Latin “We the descendents of the people conquered by William, liberated his homeland.” After visiting the cathedral where the Tapestry hung for 700 years, the quote provided the continuity link to our last activity for the day, the D-Day Landings. Bayeaux was one of the first towns to be liberated after the American and British troops landed on June 6th 1944, and this major operation helped to end the war.

We were able to visit the Pointe du Hoc high cliffs which the Americans scaled, using ladders loaned by the London Fire Department. Crater holes and remains of gun emplacements are still at the top of the cliffs.

Further east at Longues-sur-Mer, we saw canons still in place within the gun batteries, but most spectacular of all were the huge concrete caissons floated from Britain to form a Mulberry Harbour, named Port Winston. We visited at low tide, and a semi-circle of these are still in place in the bay. The harbour was built in a matter of three days, and half a million vehicles passed over it in the next ten months.

Off to France at the crack of dawn – 29 May 2010

Booking an 8.15 ferry seems a good idea, to maximise the time in France, until the departure morning. We had to leave at 5.30am to be in Dover in time. After a very good 2 hour trip, we discovered we needed all the extra time we had just to get through the many roundabouts in Dover and sit in the endless queues (and get chosen for a full security check – always seem to pick us!).

The drive to Honfleur takes about four hours, and we broke the journey at the lovely walled town of Boulogne-sur-Mer. The old town is full of cafes, and the old ramparts still circle the town, providing a great view over the new town and a glimpse of the sea as we walked around the walls.

Our lunch break was Montreuil, another old town with two squares, and a walled citadel which we were just beginning to explore when the rain started.

As we were so busy talking, catching up with Janine's tales of South America we missed the instruction to leave the motorway to Rouen and branch off to Le Havre. Consequently the sat-nav routed us through a traffic free arrangement of back-roads and tiny villages to get us to our destination, Honfleur. The route followed the Seine, and was a very picturesque.

The intermittent rain persisted as we wandered around this delightful old port with its half-timbered buildings and 15thC Wooden church.