Singing Malaika in the Serengeti

I have been very fortunate to travel to Africa three times. In October 2014 (my second trip), we visited South Africa as part of a garden tour hosted by Donna Dawson. Apart from visiting Table Mountain and Kirstenbosch National Botanic Garden and wonderful gardens like Harold Porter National Botanical Gardens, Babylonstoren and Makaranga, we took part in a safari at the Southern Camp of Kapama Private Game Reserve. I wrote about that lovely adventure in three blogs starting here.

Kapama was adjacent to Kruger National Park and even though our time there was short (2 days), we saw an abundance of wild animals, including a black-maned lion who roused himself from sleep while we sat in our vehicle and watched.

In 2016 (my third trip), we attended a wedding at Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in Laikipia, north Kenya, followed by a few days on safari at a tented camp called Kicheche in Ol Pejeta Conservancy, below.

Our Kicheche guide Albert was very skilled, and I wrote a 3-part blog on our wonderful safaris at Kicheche starting here.

The most thrilling experience there – in fact one of my most exciting experiences anywhere – was watching two cheetah brothers mark territory, play and wash each other. Have a look at my YouTube video, below.

Kicheche was rustic (if a bush tent with a bathroom can be called rustic). Lewa Conservancy was different, in that it was also a festive social occasion, shared with friends from Canada and Kenya.  Here I am with Lewa’s wonderful Maasai lodge manager, Karmushu.

But it was also much more luxurious.  Thus, our beautiful Lewa Wilderness accommodation was set on the edge of a hillside leading down into a valley, with a little terrace and chairs outside. That proximity to the wild made our first night there very memorable.

Though we had spent a few days acclimatizing in the Nairobi suburb of Karen (including touring ‘Out of Africa’ writer Karen Blixen’s house) prior to flying into Lewa Downs on their own air strip….

…..we were very ready to sleep, especially given the welcoming four-poster beds in our little house, below. So I was in a dead sleep in the middle of the night when I awoke to a strange sound, like shells sliding slowly along a hard surface, very nearby. It was as if…. as if….. a large animal was dragging its paws as it settled itself onto the still warm polished concrete patio outside our shutters! “Doug!” I whispered. “There’s something outside!”  I had to call a little louder to wake him up. “Doug, listen! I think it could be… I think it’s… a lion!”  Then came the sounds again.  Lions have retractable claws on their paws! How sturdy were those windows? Had we shut the door tight?  “I’m getting into your bed,” I whispered, lifting the mosquito netting, putting my bare feet on the floor and scooting under his netting. We lay there, listening. Then there came a huge heaving sigh, just feet away “Uuuuahhhhahh.”  It had to be a lion!  We stayed awake for a long time listening, but eventually fell asleep again. By morning when we peeked out our shutters, there was no sign of our guest. We were excited to share the news with our friends under the pergola at breakfast, but before we could say anything, someone blurted out, “Hey! Did you guys see the lion this morning?”

Between wedding events, we were able to enjoy a few short game drives at Lewa.

At 62,000 acres (250 km2), it was established as a conservancy in 1995 on the site of a cattle ranch that had been owned by the Craig/Douglas family from 1922. Before becoming a conservancy, the family had established the Ngare Sergoi Rhino Sanctuary to protect endangered black rhinos from poaching for their horns. It is estimated that Kenya’s black rhino population had declined from 20,000 in the mid-1970s to just a few hundred by 1986, when the sanctuary was formed by the Craigs and Mrs. Anna Merz.  We watched a mother black rhino and her calf being walked by rangers….

….. who waited while the rhinos grazed.

We saw some of Lewa’s estimated 400 migratory elephants as they came close to our vehicle…..

….. and dispersed to eat acacia foliage nearby.

We watched a critically-endangered Grévy’s zebra (Equus grevyi) – the largest living wild equid – feeding on grasses.

There were beautiful reticulated giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis reticulata) browsing on thorn trees. The population of reticulated giraffes in east Africa has declined by half in the past 30 years from 36,000 to around 15,000, leading in 2018 to their ‘endangered’ designation by the IUCN. With wildlife conservancies like Lewa offering protection, their numbers are now starting to rebound.

The giraffe neck is one of nature’s miracles.  Giraffes are the tallest land mammals extant. The long neck was originally thought to have evolved in order for giraffes to compete successfully in browsing on high trees, i.e. the “competing browsers” hypothesis. But since giraffes feed during the dry season on low trees with their necks bent, as in the above photo, that theory has been challenged in favour of the “necks-for-sex” hypothesis.  Evidently, the longest, strongest necks on males — used in their ‘necking’ form of fights — help  eliminate romantic competition and therefore attract female mates.

Both hypotheses are given credence today. And whatever the case, the reticulated giraffe is a beautiful animal….

….. with a very sweet face.

I was fascinated by this video of Lewa staff working to remove a metal ring from a giraffe’s leg.

I’ve always been interested in nature’s evolutionary version of a “harem”, as with impalas, Kenya’s most common antelope species. Below we see a herd of female impalas and their dominant male.

There were vervet monkeys at Lewa, too.

The photo below shows a monkey walking the railing at Lewa Wilderness Lodge’s outdoor dining pergola, with the expanse of the beautiful conservancy behind it.

Our game drive wound around a promontory rising out of the savannah.

We saw lots of interesting birds at Lewa as well, including the beautiful superb starling, below.

The blue-naped mousebird had the familiar tuft of our male blue jays and cardinals.

Near Lewa’s abundant farm beds, there were garden areas with flowering aloes where the Hunter’s sunbird was nectaring, below.

This beautiful tapestry defines “garden” at Lewa….

And this.

I had a special tour of the Lewa farm by Will Craig. There were bananas, mangoes, papayas, citrus, pomegranates and all types of vegetables growing in rows.

Fragrant blackthorn trees (Senegalia mellifera) were in flower and alive with honey bees.

******

But where’s the music here? Given that this is the 20th blog in #mysongscapes of winter 2020, we can’t just be gallivanting around African savannahs looking at elephants!

Well, that’s where my first trip to Africa comes in, way back in 2007. As a 30th anniversary gift to ourselves, we signed up for a safari to several prominent game parks in Kenya and Tanzania, including Amboseli, Ngorongoro Crater, Maasai Mara, Tarangire and the Serengeti.  It was an opportunity to be close to wild animals, like the elderly lion below taking a few moments of shade beside a safari vehicle in Ngorongoro Crater. It is also my very favourite travel experience.

Now I’m going to set the scene. We’re in the majestic Serengeti. Savannah grasses as far as the eye can see. The name “Serengeti” derives from a word used by the Maasai to describe the area, siringet.  It means “the place where the land runs on forever”

It’s ‘sundowners’ time, i.e. cocktail hour…. and our safari group has been served drinks by our wonderful guides, who hail from tribes in both Kenya and Tanzania, which is where the Serengeti is located. (I was given this small photo of Doug and me on the occasion.)

I needed my glass of wine that day, for I had resolved to sing a little song on the Serengeti. I do love to sing. Not on stage, but at family sing-alongs at the cottage on summer nights; helping to lead the carols and songs at our annual Christmas skating party; at the occasional industry karaoke party; and… loudly… in the shower. The song I had in mind was one I’d heard as a young teen in Vancouver, when my mom took me to see Harry Belafonte and his special guest singer from South Africa, Miriam Makeba. I think it was 1960, Miriam would have been 27 years old. I was transfixed by this young woman who could emanate clicks from somewhere deep in her throat, in the manner of the Xsoha language of her home country. One of the songs she sang was The Click Song.  Over the decades, Miriam Makeba would become known as ‘Mama Africa’. Most of all, I loved a song that Belafonte and Makeba sang together in Swahili – the language of Kenya and Tanzania – called ‘Malaika’, or ‘My Angel’ in English. Written by Adam Salim in 1945, it told of a young man who was sad because he didn’t have enough money for the dowry to marry his sweetheart.  It appeared a few years later on an album I bought, below.

Over the years, I played the album and sang the song over and over, until I knew the words by heart.   So on that occasion in 2007, when I’d had a few glasses of wine to give me courage, I left our group and walked over to where our guides were standing, waiting for us to finish.  “I have a song to sing to you,” I said. They laughed. “Okay!” Then I proceeded to sing all three verses of Malaika. When I finished, they burst into applause. “Mama Africa!” they cried. I was so happy (and relieved) and I sang it again the next night for our friends as we travelled in our safari van under the moonlight from a barbecue dinner on the savannah.   I don’t have a recording of that cocktail recital (thank goodness), but I do have a video I made featuring my own photos of our 2007 safari with Harry Belafonte and Miriam Makeba singing ‘Malaika’ as soundtrack.

*******

MALAIKA (Adam Salim 1945, sung by Harry Belafonte and Miriam Makeba)

Malaika
Nakupenda malaika
Malaika
Nakupenda malaika

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Ningekuoa mali we
Ningekuoa dada
Nashindwa na mali sina we
Ningekuoa malaika
Nashindwa na mali sina we
Ningekuoa malaika
Pesa
Zasumbua roho yangu
Pesa
Zasumbua roho yangu
Nami nifanyeje, kijana mwenzio
Nashindwa na mali sina we
Ningekuoa malaika
Nashindwa na mali sina we
Ningekuoa malaika
Kidege
Hukuwaza kidege
Kidege
Hukuwaza kidege
Nami nifanyeje, kijana mwenzio
Nashindwa na mali sina, we
Ningekuoa malaika
Nashindwa na mali sina, we
Ningekuoa malaika 
**********

This is the 20th blog in #mysongscapes series of winter 2020 that combine music I love with my photography. If you enjoyed reading it, have a look at the others.  And please leave a comment if you enjoyed any of them.

  1. Joni Mitchell’s ‘Night in the City’;
  2. Paul Simon’s ‘Kodachrome’ and my life in photography;
  3. Vietnam and Songs of Protest;
  4. Galway Bay and memories of my grandfather and Ireland;
  5. Simon and Garfunkel’s Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme;
  6. The John Denver lullaby I sang to my first grandchild, Today While the Blossoms Still Cling to the Vine.
  7. Gordon Lightfoot for a Snow Day
  8. Madame George by Van Morrison – my favourite song in the world
  9. Brown Eyed Girl(s) – Van Morrison’s classic and my black-eyed susans
  10. Raindrops – on flowers and in my gardens
  11. Miss Rumphius and the Lupines
  12. Bring me Little Water – on water in the garden
  13. Amsterdam… Spring Sunshine – a Dutch travelogue and a brilliant Broadway play
  14. Both Sides Now – a reflection on clouds and Joni Mitchell
  15. Crimson & Clover and Other Legumes – a love letter to the pea family, Fabaceae
  16. Mexico – James Taylor serenades in my travelogue of a decade of trips to Mexico
  17. Crystal Blue Persuasion – blue flowers in the garden
  18. My Bonny – remembering the late Laura Smith (and my dad)
  19. Up on the Roof – a Carole King love-in and a lot of green roofs

Safari: Kicheche Laikipa – Part 3

If you’ve read my first and second blogs on our safari at Kicheche Laikipia, in Kenya, you’ll know that it is now late March 2016, on the cusp of the rainy season. We’re the last guests in this intimate 6-tent camp near Nanyuki, which will close for the season in just two days.   This morning we’ve slept well and are ready for the 5:30 am knock at the tent door and the tray of coffee, hot chocolate and biscuits. Within 40 minutes of waking, we’re with our guide Albert Chesoli out on the savannah, awaiting the sunrise. As yesterday, Mount Kenya is clearly visible on the horizon; later in the day, it is almost always shrouded by cloud.

Mount-Kenya-before-sunrise

Slowly, the sky turns pink….

Pink-sky-Ol-Pejeta

…. and finally, the sun rises. Though we don’t have the lovely giraffe silhouettes we saw yesterday, there’s always something interesting on the horizon at Ol Pejeta Conservancy, like these zebras grazing amongst acacia trees in the distance.

Sunrise-Ol Pejeta

It isn’t long after sunrise when we’re rewarded with what is our best sighting in all of our safari excursions. We spot two cheetah brothers (Acinonyx jubatus), the remaining pair of three brothers born six years earlier.  They are amazingly synchronized in their behaviour, heads turning at the same time….

Cheetas-Ol Pejeta1

….lying down at the same time, then meandering off through the grasses together to sit, one marking a tree to establish territory.

Cheeta-Ol-Pejeta6

Albert positions our van as close to them as possible, then turns the engine off. For the next half-hour or so, we are utterly absorbed watching them in this quiet corner of Ol Pejeta.  Like the cats they are, one sharpens his claws on a dead tree trunk….

Cheetas-Ol Pejeta2

…while his brother watches for prey, preferably an antelope or gazelle straying from the pack.

Cheetas-Ol Pejeta3

What beautiful markings on their faces!

Cheetas-Ol Pejeta5

Soon they begin to relax – a snooze, perhaps, in their future.

Cheetas-Ol Pejeta4

The cheetah brothers are so transfixing, I’ve been switching between still photos and video.  Because of weight restrictions on the small planes, I only brought my ‘small’ camera, the Canon PowerShot SX50HS with its powerful 50x zoom lens (now replaced by the Canon SX60HS with 65x optical zoom), but it’s perfect for recording these two stunning animals interacting playfully and lovingly with each other like the bonded 6-year olds they are.

When it appears that lolling around wrestling and grooming each other, rather than hunting, is on their agenda, we turn on the engine and head back out on the savannah…..

Ol Pejeta Conservancy

…. but the other animal sightings this morning are somewhat anti-climatic after our cheetah experience. We decide to stop for our picnic breakfast, and Albert finds us a clearing near a spring-fed stream and prepares to sets the table.

Albert Chesoli-Kicheche Laikipia-picnic

This morning’s menu features Scotch eggs, a delicious combination of spicy sausage and boiled eggs, with crepes and mango chutney.

Safari breakfast-Kicheche-Laikipia

As I sip my coffee, I notice a little glimmer of bright-red in the grasses. It’s the tiny flower of an indigenous hibiscus, H. aponeurus. In my later reading, I discover this little flower was used by the Maasai in witchcraft!

Hibiscus aponeurus-Ol Pejeta

Besides the acacias, the other predominant shrub on the savannah is Euclea divinorum, which is widespread on the African continent.

Euclea divinorum-Ol Pejeta

The morning has warmed up considerably and many of the animals seem to be hiding from the heat. So we drive back to camp – pronounced Kee-cheh-chay – to put our feet up for a while before lunch.

Kicheche Laikipia Sign

After lunch, I read on our tent porch and watch a cape buffalo at the water hole. But when I approach with my camera, he galumphs off through the mud…..

Tent-overlook-Kicheche

….. so I photograph the cattle egrets on a dead tree instead.

Egrets-Ol Pejeta

In mid-afternoon, I’ve arranged to meet William Wanyika, who not only works in the Kicheche camp administration but is the resident beekeeper, something he’s been doing for most of his life. (Photographing honey bees is one of my great passions.)

William Wanyika-beekeeper-Kicheche Laikipia

William shows me the flowers of the abundant euclea, which are providing most of the nectar flow for the bees at the moment….

Euclea divinorum flowers

…and I ask him to talk a bit about his beekeeping while I videotape him. What a treat to have this opportunity to learn about something I’ve chronicled at home.  Here’s my video – sorry about the buffeting wind.

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Black-Chested Snake Eagles-Kicheche Laikipia

As we get closer to the Sweetwaters Chimp Sanctuary where the majority of lodges and hotels are, we find lots of crowded safari vehicles on the road; one driver pulls close to tell Albert about a lion sighting nearby  On our way to find it, we come upon a bull elephant (Loxodonta africana) drinking at a pond. It’s clear by his partially-unsheathed penis that he has also recently been (or is about to be) urinating. From his vantage point, Albert doesn’t think he’s in musth, but with my telephoto lens I can capture him at a safe distance and later see that there are secretions from the temporal glands at the side of his head which seem to indicate that he is.   If so, his urine contains much higher levels of testosterone than usual, and dribbling it around signals his musth status to other males.

Elephant-Ol-Pejeta

Unlike the female elephants that congregate in matriarchal communities with grandmothers, daughters, aunts, female cousins and the youngest male and female calves living together, young male elephants are kicked out when they reach their adolescent years (about 14) and will live in “bachelor clubs” with other males and a dominant bull male, from whom they learn behaviour. When females are in oestrus, musth males can detect it from far away.

Once the elephant saunters off, we go in search of the lions, finding them resting in the trees near the road, likely waiting for darkness before going hunting. So we drive on.

Lion-Ol Pejeta

Next we find a pair of grey-crowned cranes (Balearica regulorum) doing their courtship dance….

Grey-crowned Cranes-Ol Pejeta

….and a southern white rhinoceros drinking at one of Ol Pejeta’s water troughs….

Southern White Rhinoceros-Ol Pejeta

….and some newborn zebras, below. The common (Burchell’s) zebras (Equus burchellii) usually give birth during the rainy season in East Africa. The mare will separate from the herd before delivering in order to protect the vulnerable foal.

Zebra & foal-Ol Pejeta

Albert points out that zebras have evolved long enough legs for a newborn that when standing behind their mothers (and combined with the visually confusing stripes), lions cannot easily detect them.

Zebra mother & foal leg height-Ol Pejeta

As we drive on, we see a group of safari vans parked along the road, all the cameras trained on a lioness She yawns…..

Lion-yawning-Ol Pejeta

….then saunters off, and we decide we’re a little tired, too. Time to head back for a drink – the traditional safari ‘sundowner’ – before dinner.

Tomorrow, we fly home and this is our final sighting at Kicheche Laikipia and Ol Pejeta Conservancy.  But I’ve collected video of a lot of the animals we’ve seen over the past few days, and put it together so I can enjoy the feel of the savannah here any time I want.  I hope you enjoy watching it, too..

On our last morning, we sleep in a little (no safari drive today) and have breakfast in the main tent before packing for home.

Camp breakfast-Kicheche-Laikipia

We say our goodbyes to Andy & Sonja Webb, and Albert drives us into the little airport at Nanyuki and watches until we’re safely up in the air. These flights are often milk runs, and the sleepy passengers settle in as we head to Wilson Airport outside Nairobi via a stop at Lewa Downs, where we began our Kenyan adventure one week before.

Air Kenya plane

As we fly over Laikipia, I gaze down at the landscape below us.  The patchwork farm crops…..

Laikipia-Aerial2

….the wheat fields…..

Laikipia-Aerial3

…and the great forests and acacia-dotted plains of the conservancies and parks where Kenya’s magnificent animals roam free.

Laikipia-4

It is a land like no other, and one we’re so fortunate to have experienced.

*******************************************************************************************************

Postscript:  Given the vagaries of airline schedules, a total of 41 hours will elapse between awakening at Kicheche Laikipia and going to bed In Toronto.  To pass some of the hours before our Nairobi-London leg, we’ve booked a day room at Macushla House on Nairobi’s outskirts, where we stayed for 2 nights more than a week ago on our arrival in Kenya from London.

Macushla House1

We can sit and read in an easy chair….

Macushla House3…while enjoying the unique furnishings, like this cool owl support post….

Macushla House4

Or sip a gin-and-tonic at an outdoor table with lunch…

Macushla House2

…after a swim in the pool.

Macushla House5

Eventually, it’s time to brave Nairobi’s traffic to Jomo Kenyatta airport to begin the flights home to Canada. As always, East Africa has bewitched us, its people have enchanted us, and its majestic animals have served as powerful reminders that there are still beautiful places in the world where ‘wild’ is more than just a word, it’s a covenant with nature.

Safari: Kicheche Laikipia – Part 2

After our initial game drive yesterday on our arrival at Kicheche Laikipia from Lewa, we’re almost eager to rise-and-shine as we hear “Good morning, Jambo!” from the darkness outside our tent. We unzip the flap and greet our pre-dawn messenger, who places a tray with coffee and biscuits on a low table.

Wake-up tray-Kicheche-Laikipia

There’s no time to shower now, just a fast wash before dressing in layers of clothes to keep us warm (it’s barely 50F-10C outside), gulping the coffee, and heading down the path behind the guard’s flashlight beam. (Since many animals can and do wander through the various camps, when it’s dark outside there is always someone to escort you to the parking area, to dinner or back to your tent for the night.) Albert bids us good morning and we climb into the vehicle. Having been on safari before in vans crammed with 8-10 people all vying for the best camera angle, it is nothing short of luxury to be on our own with just our driver. Soon we are out in the open and the sky is beginning to lighten on the eastern horizon where the rugged profile of Mount Kenya juts into the sky. At 17,058 feet (5199 m), it is second in height only to Mount Kilimanjaro (19,340 feet or 5895 m), Africa’s highest mountain.

Mount Kenya at dawn-Ol Pejeta-Kicheche

Suddenly the van shakes a little and we hear a noise close by. Looking down, we see a young spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) trying to eat the tires. Scoot!

Hyena chewing tire-Ol Pejeta-Kicheche

With the sun about to rise, Albert sees three reticulated giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis reticulata) nibbling on salt-rich soil (necessary for their diets) and quickly positions us to the west. They take turns standing guard while each bends its long neck to reach the ground.

Girafffes at dawn-Ol Pejeta-Laikipia

I wait patiently and as the sun begins to rise, all three stand erect. Click!

Giraffes at sunrise-Ol Pejeta-Kicheche

As we drive on, the sky grows progressively brighter but there’s still a chill in the air, especially with the roof open and the windows down for photography. Fortunately, Kicheche Laikipia has thought about that and furnished the van with two hot water bottles. I borrow Doug’s to keep my legs warm!

Water bottles-Kicheche-Laikipia

We surprise a little flock of helmeted guinea fowl (Numida meleagris) on the road. They’re common birds, but quite beautiful – and so nervous,it’s hard to get a photo.

Helmeted Guineafowl-Ol Pejeta-Kicheche Something about the way the gazelles are acting piques Albert’s curiosity.

Albert Chesoli-Kicheche-Laikipia His professional instinct is rewarded when he spots a lone cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) ambling away from us. Cheetah1-Ol Pejeta-Kicheche We follow it, then lose it.

But somehow, with some tracker’s sixth sense, Albert finds it resting in the grasses amidst eucleas and whistling thorns. He radios the other Kicheche van with the two guys from San Francisco, and like some human GPS map, carefully explains our location to the driver. Soon they join us and we quietly sit and observe this beautiful big cat.  But since he doesn’t seem anxious to move, we decide to press on, backing out through the grasses and heading down the road.

Cheetah2-Ol Pejeta-Kicheche

Then Albert points to the top of an acacia, where a sweet little lilac-breasted roller (Coracias caudatus) sits in the morning sun.  I’m so excited! This is one of the “must-see” birds for safari-going ornithologists.

Lilac-breasted rolle-Ol Pejeta-Kicheche

A little further, two female waterbucks (Kobus ellipsiprymnus) stop their grazing and stare at us.

Waterbucks-Ol Pejeta-Kicheche

Down the road, we spot a secretary bird (Sagittarius serpentarius), no doubt hunting for snakes, their principal food (and reflected in their species name). What great feathers!

Secretary bird-Ol Pejeta-Kicheche

And a little black-backed jackal (Canis mesomelas).

Jackal-Ol Pejeta-Kicheche

We drive past trees, like the one at the top of the photo below, festooned with myriad species of birds. This one has grey-crowned cranes (Balearica regulorum) at right and spoonbills (Platalea alba), sacred ibis and hadada ibis at left. Below are closeup shots of sacred ibis (Threskiornis ethiopicus), left and hadada ibis, right (Bostrychia hagedash).

Birds-Ol Pejeta-Kicheche

Next, we come upon a large troop of olive baboons (Papio anubis) just descending from the big trees where they’ve spent the night.

Baboon troop-Ol Pejeta-Kicheche Infant baboons learn to hang onto their mother’s fur at about 1 week.

Baboons-Pejeta-Kicheche

We pass a pond where the African spoonbill (Platalea alba) is fishing.

African spoonbill-Ol Pejeta-Kicheche

A little further on, a migratory European white stork (Circonia circonia) watches us carefully.  It will fly back to its breeding grounds in Europe soon.

European-Stork

A male impala (Aepyceros melampus) gathers his harem together protectively as we drive by……

Impalas-Ol Pejeta-Kicheche

…while the common eland (Taurotragus oryx) pays us no heed whatsoever.

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A pair of southern white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum simum) keep an eye on us. Note the square lips that give it its other common name, the “southern square-lipped rhinoceros). Southern White Rhinos-Ol Pejeta-Kicheche

Ol Pejeta Conservancy is also home to the only remaining northern white rhinos (Ceraotherium simum cottoni) in the world: three individuals for whom breeding attempts have so far failed, given the age and health of the two females. A December 2015 meeting in Austria explored options of frozen tissue and spermatozoa and other technologies that might help conserve this subspecies in the face of its imminent extinction.

We watch a Jackson’s hartebeest (Alcephalus bucelaphus lelwel) who’s watching us back!

Jackson's Hartebeest-Ol Pejeta-Kicheche

We’ve been out a few hours and our tummies are telling us it’s time to eat. Albert finds a clearing and removes the back floorboard from the van, which transforms itself, presto, into a picnic table!  He sets up three camp stools and brings out a basket filled with a sumptuous assortment of food, with juice and coffee.

Kicheche Laikipia picnic breakfast

I set my camera on the back seat and hit the timer button. Click!

Picnic Breakfast-Kicheche-Laikipia

After breakfast, we spot a black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) and her calf. Note the red-billed oxpecker on the mother. From the starling family, its preferred diet is blood and blood-engorged ticks from the skin of these big mammals.

Black Rhino & calf-Ol Pejeta-Kicheche

It’s late morning and we’re ready to head back to the camp for a rest before lunch. As we drive, Albert points out the lion’s preferred food – a baby gazelle playing a little too far from its mother.

Baby Thomson's gazelle-Ol Pejeta

Back at camp, we put our feet up for a while. Then it’s lunch time. Sonja Webb loves buying cookbooks and having her cooks try out all kinds of gourmet recipes.  So we’re treated to a delicious homemade pizza and salad……

Kicheche Laikipia-Lunch1

…. and grilled pineapple with homemade peanut ice cream for dessert!  Mmmmm…

Kicheche Laikipia-Lunch2

At 4 o’clock, we’re back out on the savannah, where we come across a herd of Cape or African buffalo ( Syncerus caffer).  Such grizzled old faces on these beasts.

Cape Buffalo-Ol Pejeta-Kicheche

Then we spot a small group of elephants munching on vegetation. Albert tells us they need to eat 250-300 kilograms a day.

Elephants-Ol-Pejeta

There are lots of common zebras….

Common Zebras-Ol Pejeta-Kicheche

…and Albert points out a hybrid zebra, below right, that displays the characteristics of both the common and larger, more rare Grevey’s zebras. I later learn that there are four of these on Ol Pejeta Conservancy.

Hybrid giraffe-Ol Pejeta

A giraffe walks gracefully in front of us.

Reticulated giraffe-Ol Pejeta-Kicheche

And we spend a lot of time watching families of spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) playing around their den opening.

Hyenas & den-Ol Pejeta

As the sun is setting, there’s barely enough light to capture this spotted eagle owl (Bubo africanus) roosting on a tree.

Spotted-eagle-owl-Ol-Pejeta

Then the sun goes down…..

Sunset-Ol Pejeta

….. and we head back to camp where there’s a lovely surprise awaiting us. Instead of dining alone at the big table in the main tent, they have set a romantic table for two in our tent, complete with candles, wine, and wildflowers strewn across the tablecloth.

Tent dinner-Kicheche-Laikipia

Time for bed. That 5:30 knock at the tent door comes early!

Tune in for Safari-Part 3 in a few days, when we’ll watch a pair of cheetah brothers play with each other on film and visit with Kicheche Laikipia’s resident beekeeper!

Safari: Kicheche Laikipia – Part 1

On March 28th, 2016, after 4 days spent at the 62,000 acre Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, in Isiolo, Kenya, we are driven to the Lewa gates by Francis and pose for a farewell photo with him….

Francis-Lewa

…. before getting into the van that was dispatched from Kicheche Camp-Laikipia to make the 2-1/2 hour drive southwest to their tented camp on Ol Pejeta Conservancy. When we planned our trip, we looked for a small camp within driving distance of Lewa and in view of Mount Kenya, the highest peak in the country.

Here’s the map of Laikipia showing the route from Lewa to Ol Pejeta.

Laikipia-map

Soon we’re driving through rolling hills of the countryside, listening to our driver Albert Chesoli, who will also be our safari guide for the next three days. Note the greenhouses, upper right. Laikipia has a thriving cut flower industry, particularly roses.

Laikipia-GreenhousesAfter maize, wheat is the #2 grain produced in Kenya, and these rolling, high-altitude (c.5,000 feet) hills are perfect for growing it.

Laikipia-Wheat Fields

Staying in a wildlife conservancy tends to isolate you from the neighbouring villages and farms outside the gate. The poverty rate in Laikipia is 46% (2006 figures) which puts it about middle of the pack in Kenya. This is something that is often difficult to square with a luxurious safari stay, and many visitors pack a suitcase with school supplies or make donations to neighbouring communities a part of their journey.

Laikipia-town

We pass a donkey cart carrying supplies……

Donkey-cart-Laikipia

…. and a produce stand by the side of the highway.

Laikipia-Fruit stand

The shops are small and colourful!

Laikipia-shops

Passing through Nanyuki, the market town that services many of the safari lodges in the Mount Kenya area, I notice a garden centre with plants that look surprisingly like many we can buy at local nurseries.

Nanyuki-Garden Centre

After negotiating the road repairs near Nanyuki, we pull into the gatehouse of Ol Pejeta Conservancy while Albert registers us. Their mission statement:“The Ol Pejeta Conservancy works to conserve wildlife, provide a sanctuary for great apes and to generate income through wildlife tourism and complementary enterprises for re-investment in conservation and communities.”  Throughout the 90,000 acre conservancy, there are more than a dozen lodges, tented camps (of which ours is one), guest houses and campsites. The most famous site within Ol Pejeta is Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary, established in 1993 by Jane Goodall to give refuge to orphaned and abused chimps from West and Central Africa.  (I had visited the sanctuary in 2007, on our previous trip to Kenya, our 30th anniversary tour of several conservancies and national parks.)  Security is high here, with elephant tusk and rhino horn poaching a constant threat.

Ol Pejeta-Rongai gate

A short time later, we pull into the parking area at Kicheche Laikipia and after a refreshing drink, we’re taken to our tent, one of just six on the property……

Kicheche-Laikipia-Batian tent

I walked into my appartment and my girlfriend set up candles all around the sildenafil españa appartment. Traditional Chinese Medicine treatment is involved in inflammation interventions of prostate, and female viagra india keeps the routine care. Everyone would love to enjoy the benefits of physical activities for your arteries last long as you are sure they are registered, then viagra pills online purchased here you can rest confident the prescriptions are safe. Following are the reasons that kept men far http://cute-n-tiny.com/tag/fish/ levitra 20 mg away from splitting. ….with a hammock outdoors under an acacia….

Kicheche-hammock

…. and an excellent view of the water hole…..

Tent view of waterhole-Kicheche-Laikipia…. which is behind an almost invisible electric fence…..

Kicheche-Laikipia-electric fence

…that, nonetheless, does a good job of keeping the elephants on the far side.

Elephant-Fence

After a review of the camp procedures with Andy Webb, co-manager of Kicheche Laikipia with his wife Sonja, we join him and the other few guests for a lovely lunch served by Stephen outdoors under a tree. As it’s the very end of the season, (safari camps in the region close for the rainy season in April and May, when the roads become impassable), we only have one night with other guests – the next two nights we’re on our own here!

Andy Webb-Kicheche-Laikipia

From lunch time to tea time on safari, which precedes the 4 pm game-viewing drive, guests take the opportunity to read, nap or wander around camp. I decide to get a better look at the families of elephants drinking on the far side of the water hole.

Our afternoon drive is rather quiet. There are common zebras, of course – the mainstay of the savannah…..

Zebras-Ol Pejeta

…..and a lovely tawny eagle (Aquila rapax) up in a tree.

Tawny Eagle

We engage in a staring contest with a warthog….

Warthog-Ol Pejeta

….and manage to catch the end of a turf war between two groups of lions, with this one skulking off to her own territory.

Lioness-Ol-Pejeta

It’s the end of a long day, with dinner in the main tent……

Kicheche-Laikipia-main tent

….. and early lights out, for the friendly “Jambo! Good morning” comes at 5:30 am tomorrow, followed by our 6 am game drive.  See you then for Safari-Part 2!