New Life

Never in our wildest dreams did we think we would see this, a newborn baby elephant’s first steps. When we got there, we’d missed the birth, Mum was already on her feet but we could still see her placenta hanging out. We looked down and there he was, bubs lying on the ground. He wasn’t small by our measure of babies but he looked absolutely tiny next to his mother. Mum was using her trunk and her legs to nudge the little guy, trying to get him up on his feet. Here he was, this little newborn no more than an hour old having to get up and walk. We stayed and watched them for close to an hour and soon he was up, his little jelly legs barely able to hold up his body. Once he was up there was no stopping him. Being there when he took his first steps was just incredible. He kept falling over but each time he would pick himself up and keep trying. Mum was always there to help him. Priorities are different her in the wild. We kept expecting mum to nurse him but her main focus was getting him to walk so that they could move with the herd, away from the site of the birth where the smell of blood would attract predators. And when she removed her placenta, she used her legs to dig up dirt and bury it. During the birth, the rest of the herd had moved away to graze nearby but once baby was up on his feet, one by one they came over to greet him, a little pat with their trunks, a muzzle with their heads. It was fascinating watching them, they’re not so dissimilar to a human family. 

We stayed there until they moved away, and even then the kids didn’t want to leave. But after lunch we found them again, on the other side of the park. This little guy must have walked over 20 kilometres on his first day, and there were still many more hours to come before nightfall. As we continued watching them, Ben kept telling us how lucky we are to witness this. He’s been guiding here for five years and this is the first time he’s seen the birth of a baby elephant. Over the radio, other guides were all talking, some of them have been guiding for over 30, 40 years and they’ve never seen this before. Well, I’m sure today will definitely be a day that none of us will forget. We couldn’t quite agree on what to name the little guy, baby Ryan or baby Shad! 

Wobbly legs. Getting up for the first time. 

Several tries later... finally bubs is up on all fours in tent position 🙂. No rest for poor mum. Her placenta was still hanging out, later we saw her stepping on it with one foot and pulling it out. 

Still very unsteady, needing mum’s helping trunk.

Finally on his own four feet!

Mum and her tiny mini-me 💛

Survival in the wild. It was much more important for the little guy to get up and start walking. We didn’t see mum nursing him until several hours later. 

Using mum’s leg to prop himself up.

Toppling over yet again...



Crash! 

And up again.

This one is one tough cookie.

Big sis coming over to say hi.

Surrounded by his protective family.

The family is together again. Time to move on.

Baby yoga! Mum stretching his little legs.


Mama umbrella, the perfect shade from the scorching African sun.

After many attempts, bubs finally finds mum’s boobies for a well deserved feed.

Amboseli

We were back at Amboseli this morning, which translates to “salty dust” in Maasai. Amboseli is home to around 1,600 elephants, the most number of African elephants in a National Park anywhere in Africa. It is also home to lions, leopards, cheetahs, zebras, hyenas, giraffes, buffalos, impalas, gazelles and many more animals, plus its 600 different species of birds. Leaving our camp, we were all full of anticipation but we kept telling the kids that this isn’t a zoo, it’s the wilderness and we are going into the animals’ home. So we just have to keep our fingers crossed and our eyes peeled.

Just outside the boundaries of the park, a Maasai warrior taking his herd out to graze, leaving his village after sunrise and returning just before dusk.

Our first elephant of the day. The elephants here look very different from the Sri Lankan elephants that we are used to. These ones are much bigger, with squarer bodies and larger ears (their ears are the shape of Africa, as Mia keeps saying!). And almost all have beautiful tusks.

Pumba! This is how warthogs feed, two front legs kneeling as they graze to help balance them and prevent them from falling over as they have giant heads. And when they run, their little tails go upright acting as antennas. It was so fascinating to watch them. 

A grazing wildebeest. These guys are best friends with the zebras. Any time you see wildebeests there will always be zebras nearby.

Our first encounter with hippos. From far away they looked like giant boulders. It was only until we drove closer that we could see they were hippos.

They look harmless but hippos kill the most humans out of all the animals in the wild. 

Mum and her cubs resting in the shade after a kill. They must have only just killed their prey, they were still panting very heavily when we saw them.

The lions’ half eaten meal not far from them. 

Our Safari Mobile. Comfortable and spacious on the inside but modified on the outside to withstand the tough terrains. 


A panoramic view from the top of Observation Hill

One of the very few spots we could get out of the vehicle. Awesome views while having lunch at the top of the mountain. It’s hard to see from the photo but the little dots all over are actually zebras, wildebeests, hippos, warthogs.

A spotted hyaena, nature’s famed scavenger.

At one of the few lakes in the park, all kinds of different species of birds were congregated there. This pair of African fish eagles stood there for a long time, scouting the area looking for their next feed.

A family of white faced whistling ducks 

Beautiful creatures. I can’t remember what these are called. 

The ugliest of all birds, the Marabou stork. This scavenger feeds on anything. 

Kenya

This is our first night out in the African wilderness. We’re in Amboseli, in Maasai land. Shad and the kids are asleep, and I’m lying here in bed replaying all that we’ve seen today in my mind. It just seems so surreal, but we really are in Africa. We went on our first game drive this evening and it was incredible. No more than several minutes after we drove through the gates of the Amboseli National Park, we came across a group of gazelles grazing among the grass. A few meters further we saw some impalas, then a few seconds later Benjamin, our guide, pointed out a lone bull elephant hidden amongst the trees. As we drove on through the park, we spotted zebras, wildebeests, warthogs, jackals, a hyena, but what took our breath away was the pride of lions, all 10 of them just lying down snoozing, well camouflaged among the grass and dusty sand. Many of the animals we saw today had babies with them as it is breeding season at the moment. It was so amazing watching these little ones trail alongside their mothers. Our human babies were just as amazed as we were. Their eyes were darting all over the place, mesmerised by what they were seeing. Mia’s camera was clicking away nonstop and Ryan kept pointing out the different animals he spotted. With those new glasses of his, he’s now got super sharp eyes 😄. This is only our first day but if this is what it is going to be like, I can’t wait for tomorrow!

Out and about in London

Before we got here, I made a mental list of the “must-do” things but in the end I don’t think we even did a quarter of them. And this was fine. Both times by the time we got to London we were all so tired from the travel we’d done that we were just happy to have some quiet time at home. Still, we did manage to tick off a number of the sights on my list.

Sunday evening stroll across the Westminster Bridge.

Chinatown for yum cha.

Riding the London Rail on our girls’ day out to Borough market.

The “real” Platform 9 and 3/4 at King’s Cross Station

Off to the school of magic!

While we girls were wizarding, the boys went and did their thing, a haircut was top of their list.

Styled and cut by a Malaysian hairdresser that they stumbled across in Lewisham.

Museums, museums, museums. London has so many wonderful museums, but we only had time to visit three of them. Top of the list was the British museum. 

The Rosetta Stone, a replica of it which is why fingers, arms, face etc are allowed on it!

Holding an old roman coin.

Next up was the Natural History Museum. The last time we were here, I was on my own with the kids and Ryan was five while Mia was still in her pram. Ryan was fascinated with dinosaurs then and loved seeing all his favourite dinos here. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, both kids have no recollection of their visit so for them it was like seeing everything for the first time.

First time on the ice. Skating at the ice rink outside the museum. She picked it up so quickly.

Face-off 💪🏼

The last museum we visited was the Maritime Museum in Greenwich, in fact Ryan and Shad went twice. Once on their own while Mia and I stayed home as she nursed a bad cough. They enjoyed it very much and Ryan was very keen for us to go so the day before we left London we all went again for a quick visit.

Tracing our steps, from the start of our journey in July to this point in time... 3 months on. 

Seems like no matter how much time we give ourselves here in London, the days all pass much too quickly. So it was time to say bye, and this time we will not be returning. It’s been good to spend an extended period of time with Tania and Graeme. We were all very sad to leave.

Pudding treats in Greenwich at Bill’s. Our last sisters’ outing, I’m going to miss her very much when we leave 😢.

Very sad to say bye.