Camel Safari at Sabuk

Saturday, July 5, 2014  Sabuk Lodge

Camel Safari this morning!  A 2 ½ hour game search on camel back and on foot with breakfast in the middle in the bush!

The camels are as rotten an animal as I remember, making horrible noises, spitting and drooling green slimy saliva, and needing to be struck with sticks around the legs to get down when ordered to do so.  Seven of us mounted five camels—Ben and Gil with their mothers and the other three children each on their own camel.  Joyce, Dan and I walked, but Joyce and a guide took a shortcut as her back has been acting up and neither a camel ride (with the incredible movement of the low back as you lurch along) nor a long walk seemed like a good idea. 

We had an armed Masai guide with us for just in case, but there was so much hilarity and enjoyment that I think we scared off all the animals.  We had minimal viewings:

Here’s the camel train:

About 2/3 of the way on our game search we crossed a road where the lodge had sent our bush breakfast:

The rest of the day at the lodge was spent at the river again with swimming and tubing.  Late in the afternoon we went on another game drive with viewings of multiple animals.  Dinner was in the bush again, after sundowners.  Here’s Joyce with one of the Masai at the dinner site:

Here’s the loo with wash-up sink set up adjacent to our dinner site:

And once again there was after-dinner entertainment put on by the staff, with our participation:

Finally, out came an anniversary celebration cake, marking our 50 years, and commemorating that we had met on a train!  How they are able to do this in such a remote area is beyond me.  It was served to us with celebratory champagne: