Into 2021 with a bang… goodbye 2020

WELL……  HAPPY, HAPPY NEW YEAR… 2021 the year of smiles!! It will be the only way through it!

The mountain range of Lonyore pesho

A classic beginning to the first of January up on the wonderful rocks jutting off the amazing mountain called..   Lonyore Pesho!!.. It means ‘green but no good’  as theres NO water, but obviously surrounding these amazing rocks is lovely green trees because of the runoff even with very little rain!

Our view from our new Year rock!

There was one stipulation from our friends .. “I want to spend 7 days away from it all”.. We achieved this very well!

Miles and Miles of Africa!… looking towards the Lenkiyou range

5.30 am 1 January 2021 the most FANTASTIC clap of thunder woke us up followed by 10 minutes of pouring rain!!!

Wow well that washed the dust of 2020 away properly!! As the pictures speak for themselves below a classic Kaisut desert dust storm unfolded in front of us on the 30th December.. ..

30th December.. a dust storm from the Kaisut desert!

Within minutes Poi disappeared in the dust!..

Then it started coming our way!

You can taste the dust..  love the laughter here..

But as quickly as it came it disappeared!!

light behind the dust storm again

And Poi resurfacing again..

 out again in all her glory.. or his???!!

We were lucky to be on safari with some good friends and what an end to the year it was.. It rained a bit in the area, and our fabulous 5.30 1st of january alarm call was a poignant and dramatic start to 2021!!

These pictures below just show what happens in the area with a tiny bit of rain.. its amazing!

The dry grass on these rocky hills looks dead, but just see what happens after a couple of days of rain!

day 1

a closer look, with a beautiful erythrina tree coming into bloom in front

Day 2

shows it better

Not only were we a happy bunch of walkers on the 1st of January.. look at this lot having a feast of feasts!!.. every bird in the area was on stand by for the meal.. If the flying ant didn’t get caught by the hungry mongooses, there was a bird darting in quickly!

the flying ants had no chance.. to start with not a single one got away..

and these lovely dwarf mongooses!

adorable

and busy..

New years day sunset over the Ndotos..

We had a wonderful diverse safari with our friends.. plenty of laughter, jokes, stories, singing and fun, walking and birdwatching amoungst other things!!

into the Ereerr lugga

Elephant checking us out..

and our camp on the Ereerr

crossing the marti.. a lava plateau.. surrounded by solid acacia trees!..  lovely change of scenery

from the to of the Marti looking down on the Milgis Lugga..

and back onto the lugga..

Camels and Baio

a few birds seen on the trip …

Peregrine falcon

blue cheeked bee-eaters.. never seen them here before!

a pair of African hawk eagles

And a special coloured friend..

a bedragled dragon fly!

just to finish off … What did Pete and I do for christmas!!

christmas morning .. we had it all.. the palm tree, camels and lots of singing!!

christmas day!

Breakfast on the lugga!… What more does one need!!

and to cap it all..

painted snipe.. Our very own christmas bird.. Very special..

WISH YOU COULD ALL HAVE BEEN WITH US… anyway good luck with the year!..

Thank you all for keeping the ‘Milgis’ going .. We are in good shape and working hard!