Wednesday 12th August
Once again we were up early however this morning Caitlin was not feeling so good. She was complaining of a pain in her stomach and was looking a bit off colour. We again enjoyed breakfast by the pool before packing up ready to head to Mara River Lodge overnight. Steve and Dave were staying at SBV for another night and would meet up with us the next day to head up for a couple of days at Lovina. Made picked us up at about 9.30am and we arrived at the Safari Park at about 10.30am. We are transferred to the lodge where we checked in to Kifaru room 223 for 1 night. After unloading our bags into our room we headed off into the park with the plan of getting some lunch and exploring the park for the day. We decided on Uma Restaurant for lunch and it became apparent very quickly that Caitlin was going downhill at a rapid rate and plans needed to be changed. After a quick bite to eat we head back to our room so Caitlin can relax for a while with the hope that she will feel better in a few hours. Jaimee and I head down to the pool while Mark stays with Caitlin who is by now asleep in her room. We enjoyed a few hours swimming in the pool watching the zebras and rhino before Mark summons us back to the room as Caitlin is now awake and the vomiting has begun. It is decided to wait half an hour to see if this is a one off or the beginning of worse to come. After waiting out half and hour Caitlin is now in full swing with vomiting and severe stomach cramps so a call is made to reception and a doctor is ordered in. Unfortunately the doctor is seeing to someone elsewhere so there is a delay on her arriving to our room. Caitlin in the meantime starts to become very distressed so to distract her and hopefully make her feel a little better I managed to coax her into having a shower. She sat on the floor of the shower under the water and as was hoped for she begins to calm down a little. It was approximately 1.5 hours before the doctor arrived but once she is there Caitlin is quickly administered the appropriate medication. Within about 10mins and Rp650 000 the doctor has done her job and is off again.
While checking in I had booked for us all to do the night safari at 6.30pm but as Caitlin is really not up to it, Jaimee and I head off to do it while Mark once again stays with Caitlin in the room. Jaimee and I really enjoyed doing the night safari. It cost $USD10 per person and took about 30mins. We are taken in a jeep through the park and had the chance to pat the zebras and feed them carrots. Jaimee had a great time and even nicknames one of the zebra's 'licky lips' because of the way he would stick his head in the window and his lips would move in search of more carrots. After the night safari Jaimee and I head to the restaurant overlooking the lions to have dinner alone. In the foyer from 7-8 pm they have an animal encounter and tonight there is a very playful lion cub to see. Jaimee was thrilled to pat the cub and have a couple of photos taken.
While at dinner we got a chance to have a quick catch up with DavidKerr (from BTF) and his family before heading back to our room to check on the others. Mark ended up ordering room service for himself while Caitlin opted out of anything to eat and sleeps instead. Once again we are exhausted and have an early night with the hope of being about to explore the park in the morning.
Thursday 13th August
We are all awake very early again and are pleased to see that Caitlin is feeling much better today. Unfortunately it is now Mark's turn to feel off colour. Thankfully he is not nearly as bad as Caitlin was and he just needs some time to rest in the room. At 7.00am the girls and I head down for breakfast in the lion restaurant. The lions are not let out until about 8am but as we took our time at breakfast we were still around to see this happen.
After breakfast we decided to head into the park to wander around and watch everyone going about their business getting ready for the day ahead. It was great to be able to explore the park early in the morning while it was still cool however before long the day began to heat up. At 10am the girls and I were the first at the terminal to head off on the first tram ride through the park of the day. We opted for the back seat and were glad we did as many on the tram are very inconsiderate of others attempting to get photos and having the back window gave us a chance to get shots without people blocking our view.
Once the tram ride was over we headed off to have photos taken with Effie the orangutan. The girls had been very excited about doing this ever since seeing the photo I had taken last year when visiting the park. While waiting in line there was a Japanese couple who went up to have their turn. I'm not sure what it was about them but Effie was having none of it and it was funny to see her throw a tantrum just like a child would by screaming and thumping her hands on the log at her keeper. After a quick cuddle with her keeper she was ready to participate again. When it came to our turn we sat on the log with me in the middle and the girls on either side. The keeper put Effie on Caitlin's lap however she decided mine looked more comfortable for some reason and quickly moved herself over to me. We managed to get a couple of photos with Effie on Jaimee's lap so she was one very happy little girl.
We headed up to the lion cub from here and had some photos of us all together with a very sleepy cub before heading into the spot to have photos taken with a very small and playful lion cub near the white tiger. We had a group photo which we got in a frame and both the girls had an individual photo taken which they had printed on a t-shirt as a souvenir of their visit. By the time we had finished here it was time to head back to the lodge for our complimentary 15min foot massage. On the way we found Mark who had come in search of us as by this time we had been gone for 4.5 hours. The girls thoroughly enjoyed their first foot massage and are now keen to have many more. After our massages we headed back to our room to pack up and proceed to check out. We were transported back to the main entrance on a jeep where we found Dave and Steve waiting for us. We then headed to Ubud to have lunch at Café Wayan. The food here was very nice however the service was particularly slow. We had to chase up where our food was after 30mins. It did come very quickly after that though. After lunch we continued on our way to Lovina via Pacung and Candi Kuning. We had a brief stop to feed the monkeys on the side of the road at Bedugal. We finally arrived at Lovina at about 6.30pm where we checked in to the Dolphin Apartments. These are new luxury villas that are owned by David's (Pacung Indah) son, Darcy and daughter in law, Mel and have been loving overseen during construction by David and Moi. The villas are just superbly finished and I highly recommend them for anyone wishing to enjoy some luxury accommodation located on the beachfront of Lovina. They are not yet officially opened for business so we are the first guests to stay here due to me winning the footy tipping competition last year on BCF.
By the time we arrived the girls were getting tired so we decided to head next door to the restaurant on the beachfront at the Adirama Hotel for dinner. Exhausted from a long day we headed back next door for yet another early night.
More to come
Balibabe