Sleep deprived and delusional '“ Cheryl Gibbs

As I said, we travelled for hours before we arrived at our destination and I think I became a bit delusional.
Cheryl thinks zebras are just amazingCheryl thinks zebras are just amazing
Cheryl thinks zebras are just amazing

We were all hyped by the drive to the hotel, seeing all those beautiful animals. As we were chatting away and listening to interesting facts about the animals from our guide,  I looked up and said a rather idiotic  comment.

I said, '˜Â Zebras really don't look like any other animal in the world, do they? '˜They have such incredible colours and patterns'.

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 At that point  the whole Jeep went quiet and one of the cameramen said, '˜W ell they're almost the spitting image of a horse, Cheryl!'

O h yes, so they are. I blame the jet lag of course.  

Kenya believe how cool the Masai Mara reserve is? 

A couple of weeks ago I wrote my columns about India and Abu Dhabi '“ today I write from Kenya, and what a place it is! You may very well hear that a lot from me over the coming months as I continue filming our new travel hotel series but, wow, Kenya is amazing. 

Now for those of you who might make the mistake of assuming that my job is glamorous, I assure you it isn't '“ parts are incredible, yes, but glamorous, no.

Let me tell you a story. It took approximately 22 hours to get here from the time I left my house to the time we arrived. And it was just absolutely exhausting. 

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It involved a very uncomfortable nine-hour flight to Nairobi airport, followed by a one-hour car transfer to Wilson Airport.

From there we had around three hours to wait before a one-hour internal flight to the landing strip of our hotel, and then another 45-minute drive in a Jeep to climb the thousands of feet above sea level to the Angama Mara hotel.

Don't get me wrong, it was all totally worth it, but it took a heck of a lot of time to finally arrive.

When we landed on the Masai Mara airstrip we quite literally had a safari drive to our hotel, stopping constantly to take in the wildlife. 

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Along the way we saw elephants, a giraffe, thousands '“ and I mean tens of thousands '“ of wildebeest in migration season, zebras and impalas to name just a few.

The hotel is a beautiful 30-tented suite lodge on the top of a mountain with breathtaking and unspoilt views of the Masai Mara National Reserve.

It's just incredible.

We were all exhausted but that didn't stop us booking a sunrise hot air balloon ride for the following morning. We had to get up at the dreaded hour of 4am but it was such an experience '“ one I'll never forget.

We drifted along the Mara for about an hour, taking in so many different animals before landing and having a champagne breakfast in the middle of the Mara surrounded by mother nature at its best.

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This job may not be glamorous and it may be tiring, but at times like this I feel one lucky gal.

Whoops! Our hot air balloon ride was a whole load of fun'‹'‹'‹'‹'‹'‹'‹

I mentioned that we did a hot air balloon ride over the Masai Mara.

It was genuinely one of the best experiences I've ever had, but in true Cheryl style it didn't go entirely to plan.

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Cameraman Andy Davis and I were snuggled tight in the basket of the giant hot air balloon filming the region. It was my job to point out the animals Andy should shoot (not that kind of shooting, I mean digitally).

We were briefed that during landing there may be a few bumps. Well, the basket ended up toppling over onto its side. 

 We landed upended with the other passengers falling on top of us.

I assume it has nothing to do with our weight!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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