19th March - Sarah

We dragged ourselves out of bed before sunrise and piled into the Land Cruiser for our early morning game drive through the game sanctuary. It was definitely worth it as we were rewarded with a beautiful sunrise and an Aardwolf! Aardwolf are nocturnal and really rare to see so we were very lucky—particularly since we had a great view of it! We also saw even more elephant, zebra, and giraffes, including a whole bunch of elephant babies with their mothers which felt very in theme for Mother’s Day. There were two babies that were only a couple months old so they were tiny! 

On our drive to the next lodge, we stopped to pick up more water, which turned into a candy store run (yum!). We (of course) made sure to stock up on our favs for the drive. After stopping for lunch and a swim at Taita Hills Lodge (the entrance to the next park), we went in 

search of the lions that had been sighted in the area. We found three! Two were lying up on a hill, but one was sprawled out on its back next to the side of the road—it looked hilarious! As we were driving off, we were surprised by a fourth lion—a big male with a gorgeous mane that stepped out right next to the car before disappearing into the trees. 

The Salt Lick Lodge, in addition to having a great location, is super cool looking. It is raised on stilts right in front of a large water hole, and is built to sort of look like a sand castle. Of the places we stayed, it was definitely the most resort like.

We spent a lot of our evening drive following this herd of elephant trekking across the park. Watching the sun set behind the herd whilst was so serene and beautiful! On our way back, we saw a klipspringer (a small deer like creature with both a fun name and a very impressive jump)—Chris had never seen one in this park before so that was very exciting! We also found the lions again. When we got back for dinner we were greeted by a small herd of elephants right up next to (like literally only 3 meters from) the lodge which was fantastic! They were so close and it was a great way to conclude day 3 of the safari!