Newsletter Articles
Author: Charlotte Opperman
 Kenya is one of Aardvark’s most popular family destinations. Charlotte Opperman flies out with her husband Peter and children for a Christmas in the sun.
Kenya has been one of our most popular family destinations for a couple of years now; wonderful game, small owner run lodges and great beach properties make it hard to beat for all round variety. Though we have previously spent Christmas in South Africa, this year we decided to escape the winter chill in Kenya. Though I could write pages on the truly fantastic two weeks we had as a family, here are just the highlights.
Our first stop was Rekero Tented Camp in a quiet corner of the Masai Mara, where many of our clients stay and the feedback is excellent.
Since Rekero is unfenced and the camp is open to any animal that feels like wandering past, I had assumed the children (10 and 12) would each share a tent with either Peter or me. Masai host and head guide Jackson Looseyia had other ideas and insisted that they were warriors and must have a tent of their own. Despite my initial worries he was, of course, absolutely right. They loved the cocoon-like atmosphere of the tent complete with bucket shower, loo and solar lanterns and slept right through all the nocturnal activity outside. It also made them completely responsible: they obeyed the instructions not to open the zip until they were fetched in the morning so completely they didn’t even stretch out an arm to collect their morning hot chocolate and biscuits left on their veranda.
Our eagle-eyed guide James was a wonderfully entertaining companion on game drives and managed to find plenty to keep us all interested. One of his more unusual finds was a zebra that had somehow got itself wedged in rocks in a river bank. He decided it was worth seeing if we could release it, and the boys got stuck in trying to help. Unfortunately after 20 minutes or so it was apparent that the zebra was exhausted and we were going to have to leave it to its fate.
We spent one morning looking for rhino but had drawn a blank until we decided to stop for breakfast. By this time the boys had been armed with Masai bow and arrows and were shooting off the top of the hill where we were parked. When we were searching for a misfired arrow we stumbled across the elusive rhino – perhaps not a conventional way to track game, but very effective.
After three great days, we flew to Ol Malo in Laikipia. Our plane buzzed the flamingoes on Lake Nakuru, accompanied by yells of ‘cool’ from my children through the plane headphones. Tight circles around a small herd of elephant elicited more ‘ooing and ahing’.
Colin and Rocky Francombe run Ol Malo delightfully and we felt very much part of their family during our stay. With an infinity pool to die for and wonderfully comfortable rooms it was a great place to relax for a bit after all the activity at Rekero. There is game in the area, and though it is more widely dispersed than in the Mara we did sight leopard – a thrill for all.
 We also rode camels here, and ours might have been about the slowest form of conveyance there is, but great fun none the less. The horses were faster, but there were mounts for both beginners and experts so this was a fun way to explore the bush. The Ol Malo highlight was the day we, and the other family staying at the lodge, spent by the Ewaso Ng’iro river. The camels carried a wonderful picnic down to the riverbank and by the time we arrived all was beautifully set up. There were even inner tyre tubes to use as floats down the little rapids (no crocodiles or bilharzia here). After swimming and mud slinging we had a great lunch, followed by a very competitive boys v girls fishing competition. It was touch and go for a while but the boys eventually won 15 to 12.
Our Samburu guide, Hussain, understood the boys well and added to the weapon collection with a knobkerrie (Samburu fighting stick) for each child. These beautifully made but lethal weapons were just a start for our two boys, who added a complement of miscellaneous sticks for good measure.
An overnight stop in Nairobi was spent at Giraffe Manor, where the next morning a giraffe came so close we could feed her cattle nuts from our first-floor bedroom window. Highly entertaining, and it was great to see these fabulously elegant creatures up close.
Our final four nights were on the beach at Manda Bay near Lamu, where I promptly lost my husband to the temptations of salt water fishing and the boys to an assortment of water sports.
I hardly missed them. Twelve luxurious thatched cottages spread along a glorious expanse of sandy white beach proved the perfect setting to wind down after all the excitement of the previous ten days. We were served some of the best seafood I have ever eaten and divided our time between dhow trips (a must), fishing and watching the boys windsurf and wakeboard. Our four nights sped past.
Back home, we now have an assortment of strange weapons cluttering up the house which, together with hundreds of photographs, will remind us of what was a truly superb – perhaps our best ever - family vacation.
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