26th January - Chill out at Simliki


We had the luxury of a lie in and no planned activities in the morning, so we could focus on enjoying the beautiful camp.  We wandered around and admired the pool area before just lying back on one comfy day beds in the main lodge.  After lunch, I had a bath in the outdoor bath complete with bubble bath.  As there were lots of fires burning around us, there was a steady shower of fine grass ash raining down on us - am sure it’s good for the skin!!

After afternoon tea, we set off for a bush drive with David.  Some of the bush fires had got out of control, so Tony, one of the camp managers, went out with some of the men to try and control it and do some preventative back fires to stop it reaching the camp.  We had to drive through some thick smoke accompanied by the loud crackling roar of the flames to start our game drive, which wasn’t very pleasant. 

The game drive itself wasn’t very rich in terms of wildlife and birds, but enjoyable nevertheless.  We saw a great sunset and just driving around in the bush is a very pleasant activity on its own.
Coming back, as it was getting dark, we were much more aware of the fires and flames and it felt a bit like driving through Dante’s inferno at one point.

We had a very enjoyable meal with Noline and Tony before retiring to our room to watch the fireflies again with the glow of bush fires raging in the distance.

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