So this is a report on the Wanyama Safari that we took.
The safari was to start at 4:00 pm. We were told to check in a few minutes early (3:40 pm) at Jiko. They seated us at one of the large dining table, and offered us finger food and a nice cup of Rooibos tea.
It was a pleasant start because we got to meet with other members of the tour and got to know a bit about everyone. From the beginning, I knew it would be a great group of people because the conversation among all of us was just flowing smoothly. This is a picture of our group.
At around 4:00 pm, we were escorted to the front of the lobby of Jambo House where we found our ride vehicle.
We were given opportunity to snap a photo next to the ride vehicle by a photopass photographer. The photopass photos were complimentary and part of the safari.
Soon we were off on our safari. We had a wonderful guide, who works closely with the animals at the AKL's savannah. So she was full of a lot of information about the animals, about taking care of the animals, even info about the Kilimanjaro Safari at DAK. In the photos below, we had just left the parking lot of AKL and making our way to the savannah backstage area.
We reached our first gate. The savannah are all double-fenced. Since these animals are not native to the area, they have to make sure they do not escape, and so, throughout the safari, we continue to drive through several double-fenced area and gates as we made our way from one savannah to another.
Here we got to see a few animals backstage that are being taken care of and not released out into the savannah for one reason or another.
Even though we were now backstage, we were still not on the savannah area yet. We drove inside the outer fence, but still outside the inner fence that has the savannah and the resort itself.
As you can see, if we looked to our right, we can start seeing the villas at Kidani Village inside the fence.
This was where things started to get exciting, because we finally reached the gates into the savannah itself. Our poor driver or the tour guide had to do this all afternoon long where they had to get out of the vehicle and unlocked the gates in front of us and locked the gates behind us.
We were almost in, but we had to pass through one more gate that was being guarded by this feathery guard.
We are finally on the savannah. This is the one that surrounded Kidani Village and also covers a part of Jambo House. Once in, immediately to our left, we saw several giraffes having their own afternoon snacks.
The next few pictures are scenes from the Kidani Village savannah.
Soon it was time to leave the Kidani Village savannah and move on to the Jambo House savannah. We had to go through another set of gates. As we approached this one, I noticed a head sticking above the gates, obviously check us out. It was utterly cute!
And there he was! He was certainly very curious about us.
After we got in, one of us got to ring the bell on the truck, and that somehow called out to a couple of warthogs to run towards us. Again, this was another very cute moment, and definitely a Kodak moment.
The next few photos are scenes from the Jambo House savannah. Several times during the safari, our vehicles stopped while we got closer looks at various things and animals, and certainly we spent a lot of time receiving info from our tour guides. As you can see in a few of these photos, we got very, very close to these animals.
We stayed at Jambo House with savannah view. This is the wing of the building where our room was located, on the 5th floor.
So this part of the savannah was what we could see from our room.
Much too soon, the safari was over, even though we were on it for about 90 minutes. We exit the final set of gates.
We were brought back to Jambo House where we were escorted to Jiko. They sat us in the middle of the still-mostly empty restaurant at a large communal table. I love Jiko and the decor, especially this decor representing migrating birds.
Donald was very excited about the upcoming dinner.
We took a look at the family style menu and also the wine pairings for each course.
The chef appeared at the beginning, explaining to everyone the menu and checking to see if anyone had any dietary restrictions. She came over at the start of each course to describe the food and the wine pairings.
We started off with assorted flat breads and dips.
We then moved on to the appetizers, which consisted of various rolls and filled pastries. All delicious and Donald approved it.
We then got to the main course. It consisted of grilled filet mignon, roasted chicken, and fish.
I got a good plate full, and Donald nibbled a bit.
When dinner was over, each one of us was given a gift bag.
Here was the content of the bag.
We had a terrific time. It was a wonderful safari, excellent meal, and terrific company.
And as a bonus, here is a panoramic view of part of the savannah from our room.
And here is a video I edited of the safari:
I certainly would consider doing this again next time I stay at AKL. It was well worth the money.
Zz.
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