Well we were on our way to the Ark hotel. It took about 3 hours to drive there and we saw a lot of the landscape and small towns on the way. Our driver, Major, also stopped on the highway to show us tea leaf bushes and he picked a leaf to show us. Kenya’s three main exports are tea, flowers and coffee.
Tea Leaves 
Roadside store 
village 
fruit stands ! 
Another little town 
One of our bathroom stops!
This spot was pretty and you can see the Poinsettia plants along the fence.
The Ark Hotel is something else. We were dropped off at the top of a mountain and then we walked down some stairs and along a boardwalk (very high up boardwalk) to the hotel. The hotel is unique as there is a watering hole on the property where all kinds of different animals show up to have a drink and socialize, kinda like a Friday night at your favourite bar, only it’s 24/7. There are four viewing areas to observe the animal activity at the waterhole and saltlick. One of the viewing areas is a ground level room which puts you at eye level with the animals. We were told all the rooms had a view of the outside. Also, when we went to bed that night, you could choose to have an alarm set in your room. The alarm was for different animals showing up in the night and then you could go and watch them at the watering hole. I don’t remember exactly, but I think it was, one buzz for elephants; two for Rhinos; 3 for leopards and 4 buzzes for anybody else. Early in the morning I heard two buzzes so I got dressed quickly and was able to see a Black Rhino, no photos, too early, too dark and too far away. But I saw him !
6800 feet ! 
Boardwalk to the hotel 
One of the overlooks 
Clint and I spent a lot of time in these chairs, it was the smoking area, but hardly anyone else came out here. 
Watering Hole 
Kicking the dirt up ! 
Our very tiny room but we did have a view of the watering hole from our window 
One of the lounges
Next post, more animals at the Ark !
See you soon.
Trums Travels 
This looks like a fun place! Thanks for sharing, Susan. 😊
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It was great! I would love to do this entire trip again !
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Go for it. 👍🏻😎
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Incredible! You really are a talented travel/photographer/storyteller blogger.
The first image with the tongue, made me laugh.
Reminded me of my daughter the first two years – when sleeping or concentrating her little tongue was out. 😊
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Ah thank you Michele ! You are so supportive of my work, I really appreciate it 🙂
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I like the critter in the first picture sticking its tongue out at you. I would love the view of the watering hole from the overlook, but imagine seeing everything from your room – very cool. The bathrooms were a little primitive and give you cause to pause (if you can hold it). 🙂
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It was pretty neat to watch them without interfering as we humans seem to like to do lol
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Yes – I agree. Much nicer than seeing them caged up in a zoo – very much not the same thing! I like the critter sticking his tongue out at you – priceless!!!
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Great picture with the tongue! I have never seen a tea leaf, looks like plants in my yard. Haha Did you get to stop at the small roadside stores, I would love to see what is in them. All that fresh fruit, I would go broke just buying them. It is nice to see sanitizer at this bathroom stop! I’m sure you didn’t get any sleep with all the buzzing but how exciting that they did that so you could see everything. What an amazing trip this has turned out to be along with your pictures Susan!
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We stopped at some of the large roadside gift stores that they wanted us to buy stuff at. I wanted to stop at the local stores where the locals went, but we weren’t able to do that. The pineapple that we ate in Africa when we were there was delicious.!
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