The Chyulu Hills are located in Southern Kenya, and are known as Ernest Hemingway's “Green Hills of Africa”. Ol Donyo Lodge is a miraculous, lone lodge adjacent to the Chyulu Hills national park. It’s the only lodge for miles, so you likely won’t encounter any other lodge’s vehicles during your stay. We had a private vehicle, personal driver, and personal waitress for our 4 night stay.
There are plenty of animals around this park/lodge, though not as many large cats as you’ll find in other Kenyan parks. We saw both lions and cheetah, on multiple occasions, but it wasn’t on every drive. So if this is your first safari and you long to see an abundance of lions, cheetah and leopard, start elsewhere. That said, this was one safari experience we’d love to repeat – it was that good.
The lodge is Relais and Chateux branded. The accommodations are quite luxurious, with each room having its own plunge pool, outdoor shower, and rooftop deck. You can even have the bed on the rooftop deck made for sleeping should you wish to sleep under the stars.
The food was spectacular. Each dish was both flavorful and beautiful. Photos are below.
The service was also incredible. Jeremiah, our guide, and Carol, our waitress, both went out of their way to ensure we had the experience we desired. And along the way there were some surprises. We’ve had breakfast in the bush before…but not set up with full crystal, champagne, and a private chef to prepare our hot dish.
Besides the standard safari adventures of game drives and bush walks, this lodge offers hiking, mountain biking, and for experienced riders, horseback riding. It’s an all-inclusive place, including these extraordinary activities. While we have ridden horses many times, we weren’t deemed experienced enough to ride on the plains; this is the one disappointment we had with our stay…we’d hoped to add horseback riding alongside wild animals to our adventure list.
The terrain is mixed, with the lodge located in the green hills. The plains are a 10-minute ride away.
There’s one feature of this lodge that set it apart from all others we’ve stayed in. The lodge has a “hide” adjacent to a waterhole. Animals are so close you can hear and feel them breathe. You feel the elephants as they walk around. It should have been rainy season when we visited, but the rains are quite late. Everything was dry. Which made the waterhole very popular. Other than sleeping, eating, and being out on game drives, we were in the hide.
We do like to think we're getting value for money, and this lodge offered two items that we thought added value. First, if you stayed 2 or more nights, they organized and paid for your flights to/from Nairobi. Second, they had a stay 3, get 1 free promotion; stayed 4 nights on that deal, bringing the per night prize down.
"HIDE" AT THE WATERHOLE
Here are some photo’s from in the “hide”. It’s actually an empty shipping container partially buried in the ground. You see out through cut-outs just above ground level. The animals could sense us there, with the elephants blatantly smelling towards us with their trunks. And the giraffe were extra cautious. Giraffe have to do a bit of yoga to get down far enough to drink – a very vulnerable position for them. We’d watch them carefully kick out their front legs, then bow towards the ground, dipping their long necks toward the water. And often, just before they’d drink, something would spook them and they’d run off. Only to come back and try again.
Here's our waitress bringing us down to the hide. We saw hundreds of animals at the hide over the 4 nights we stayed at this lodge.
More zebra:
When the elephants come, the other animals scurry away
The elephants know their hierarchy. The elder elephant always made the younger elephant(s) stop drinking until the elder was finished.
And then there were two. You can see here the one drinking has much longer tusks -- so is much older.
Now there are four.
They do love to give themselves showers.
The bottom of an elephant's foot…I would have never expected it to look like this.
The tusks up close are incredible as well. Just look how the left one is more worn....clearly this elephant favors its left tusk, as we favor a hand.
While an elephant was drinking, up pops a leopard tortoise from the watering hole. For those people who love to check things off lists, the leopard tortoise is one of the "small 5" animals to find on Safari.
We really were that close to the animals. Our phone cameras are good, and these photos are all from the phone's camera.
A few more from the hide (it was just fascinating):
Warthog family:
Elan, the largest antelope:
Oryx:
Usually the water hole was segregated. Here you can see the elan having replaced the zebra:
One final photo from the "hide" -- an oxpecker cleaning the bugs from around a giraffe's eye while the giraffe drinks. Camera phone. That close.
GAME DRIVES EVERY MORNING AND EVENING
We have a great time on the game drives. All those animals at the water hole, we saw them again walking up and down the hills to get to the water hole. And we saw other animals as well.
Cheetah:
Lion:
Newborn wildebeest. We saw plenty of adult wildebeest as well.
First time I've seen one of these, and it's not a great photo. The animal is commonly referred to as a giraffe gazelle as it has an extra-long neck and can reach tree branches.
Mother hyena carrying her baby
Night game drives are allowed, and are fantastic. The drivers always amaze me with what they spot at night. Here he found a chameleon.
And a final animal...another of the small 5. An antlion. That's right -- ANT LION. Our guide coaxed it from its home -- a hole in the ground.
We took an extended drive one morning out to a rock formation, which we then climbed. Of course we spotted animals all along the way.
We had a simple breakfast in the bush that morning.
Not to be confused with the elaborate breakfast in the bush they surprised us with on another morning. Carol, our waitress greeted us:
Sparkling wine was involved:
The food was great and the view even better. It definitely wasn't crowded.
THE ROOMS WERE AWESOME
As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, the rooms were really nice. Here are a few photos, starting with the sleeping part of the room.
The Tub, sinks and indoor shower. Of course there was also an outdoor shower.
Looking the other way, the tub overlooked the pool, which overlooked animals in the bush.
THE FOOD WAS FANTASTIC BOTH IN TASTE AND APPEARANCE
Here are a few food photos. Lunch was a set menu each day. You received EVERYTHING on the menu except for dessert, where you have a choice of a couple of items. And at lunch you made your dinner main course selection for that evening.
Here's one Lunch menu and photos of the actual dishes:
Dinner dishes both tasty and beautiful
The last night we had dinner with our driver, and dinner was held in the wine cellar. We opted for an African meal -- something the Masai would eat in their home. And we did it the local way, using our hands. The table was set with cutlery just in case;-)
Each night dinner was in a different location. This night we dined at the edge of the deck.
THE LOCATION IS STUNNING. THE SUNSETS SUPERB. ALWAYS MOUNT KILAMANJARO IS NEAR.
The location is just incredible. Mount Kilimanjaro is always near, sometimes shrouded in clouds, and sometimes dominating the skyline. If you look closely you can see Mount Kilimanjaro just left of center.
Each evening we'd stop for cocktails at sunset. They'd always ask ahead of time what you'd like to drink. We tried various kinds of Gins and Beer.
THERE AND AWAY
We flew Safarilink. We were impressed at their efficiency, the upkeep of their equipment, and their professionalism. We'd fly them again in a heartbeat.
Here was departure (6:15AM check-in):
Boarding:
Here's the plane:
This flight wasn't full, though others on our journey were.
And before we knew it, four nights had passed. It was time to catch a flight back to Nairobi and connect to a flight headed to our next lodge.
