Tsavo East - Theatre of the Wild (Day II)

Beautiful sunrise

This is how you do a 6:30 am breakfast on a Sunday morning, anti-malarial tablet and all

One of the caretakers at the lodge told us that he had spotted a Hyena down at the watering hole

After drinking its fill, the Hyena had a stare-off with the zebras. It decided that they were probably too many of them because it proceeded to walk away without giving them any trouble

After breakfast, we returned to our room to grab our bags before heading out. We had all packed our things before breakfast so there was a few seconds of confusion when we walked into the room to find this:

All my belongings had been emptied from my bag (above) onto the floor. The same went for Michiyo’s bag (below) and Ashley’s bag (not shown). We noted that nothing was actually stolen, as my camera was left charging in plain sight and was still there (above picture, upper left hand side)

We then noticed that the window, which we had made sure to close, was now ajar, and realized that we were surveying the scene of a monkey raid!

The only casualty of the monkey raid - Ashley's mango juice

There was a reason why this sign was necessary

That was when we noticed this herd of buffalos making their way to the watering hole

During our game drive that morning we ran into another large herd of buffalos. The driver told us that Buffalos are one of the most vicious animals. He informed us that the Masai people, who don’t fear cheetahs, or lions, are terrified of buffalos. I believe him, just look at those mean scheming faces

Buffalo crossing

The baby was still adorable though

So Serious

Giraffe Gazelles. They are distinguished by their long necks

A close up of the calf

Baby monkey - so precious!

We also managed to see lions that morning. They were, yet again, resting

Dik-diks 

I asked the driver if they were babies as they were so small. He replied that that was just how big dik-diks grew

A male zebra antelope. The driver said that we were very lucky to see one up close, as they are incredibly shy creatures and usually stay away from the roads

Giraffe Antelope doing what they do best

A Somali giraffe (left) alongside a Masai giraffe (right)

Zebras!

 I asked the driver whether Warthogs were called Pumbas in Kiswahili as we saw one yesterday and he called it a Pumba, but he said, no in Kiswahili warthogs are called Guruwe

Wildebeest

More elephants

Baby elephant looking blissful whilst drinking water

This is a termite nest. In the picture, it is hard to gage how big they truly are, but we saw a couple that were at least 2m tall

Male somali Ostrich

Female Masai Ostrich

When we stopped the van, the giraffe stopped in its tracks and stared back at us

Beauty Shot

Outside the park, we decided to have a restroom break as we had been driving around for more than 4 hours. This was when I spotted this squirrel

Om.

Nom.

Nom.

That's right squirrel. You do you.

Thanks for reading!