Africa 2008: Part II

Our second week in Kenya, Don and I spent visiting two areas of the country. The first was in the region north and a little west of Mt Kenya, between Samburu and Nanyuki. Mt Kenya at 5199 m, is the second highest mountain in Africa, after Mt Kilimanjaro which is in Tanzania. Our camp was in a private game reserve, which had been created from former ranch lands on the northern slopes - 45,000 acres of beautiful rolling savannah at the base of the mountains. Landing in Lewa was an adventure - our 10-seater Cessna with one pilot only had to make two passes at the dirt track that served as runway, not clear why, but evenutally we did land successfully and were on our way to the camp. Originally created as a rhino conservancy, now Lewa Downs is home to a wide variety of wildlife, including both black and white rhino, cheetah, all the Big Five, and about 20% of the world's population of the endangered Grevy's zebra.

Our home for 3 nights was the Lewa Safari Camp, a tented camp with quite lux accomodations (including a full bath in the tent), fabulous food (the current proprietor, Richard Buthe, is a CIA-trained chef), and very friendly people. A very comfortable form of camping, as you can see from the picture of our very own tent!!

Here's an excerpt from my travel journal of one of our days there:

"We rise just as light is coming, the morning is chill. A pot of fresh coffee delivered to our tent is impetus to climb out of our cozy bed and pour a steaming cup to knock the sleep from our brains. Clothes laid out the night before are hastily donned and we leave just as the light is coming, the birds are really beginning to sing. We are in the truck by 6:30.

Just as we are out of the gate we spot two white rhino in the grasslands near the camp, a mother and young one. The morning is fresh and beautiful. Today we go hunting for kudu, Johnson says. This will take us out of the grasslands and into more hilly and wooded bursh terrain. The kudu - largest of antelopes - is very shy and can be difficult to see in this area, although they are common in SA. Our drive is long through the plains and many animals graze in the cool morning - zebras, impala, Grant gazelles, and occasionally oryx with long, straight stilletto-like horns. Johnson stops the truck to scan the distance with binoculars.

"What's up?"

"I see something", he says.

"Where?"

"A long way, over there by that tree. There is something."

I scan the landscape, carefully moving my eyes from tree to tree and see nothing.

"Where?"

"Look to the top of the hill, now just down a bit, three trees in a row. He is to the left of the third tree."

I see an angular shape where he has directed, hardly remarkable in this landscape full of trees and bushes and rocks that with a bit of imagination can turn to animals in one's mind.

"What is it?", I ask.

"Cheetah", he says, turning in his seat to flash that big grin of his. "The three cheetah brothers, and right on the road."

What an eye! He has learned this trade in college, but most of what he knows he learned 'because he is a Maasai', according to him.

We bump along, across the river and up the hill and sure enough, there are the three cheetah brothers, sitting in the road in the shade of an acacia tree, scanning a herd of zebra in the far distance. Their bellies are full, almost dragging, which means we are unlikely to see the cheetah hunt unless we are extraordinarily lucky and a big ostrich wanders right across their path. They will take an opportunity, but it will be 2 or 3 days before they hunt again from hunger."

Enough from the journal. The star of any safari trip is the animals, and one can go on and on about them. Highlights at Lewa were: many opportunities to see rhino, getting to bottle-feed the baby black rhino, seeing cheetah for the first time, seeing a large cobra in full attack mode (thankfully, we were in the truck at the time!), learning to tell a Grevy from a Burchell zebra. Having seen the 'Big Five' in South Africa last year, we could be a lot more relaxed about just looking at what was there, and appreciating the smaller things - the many birds, plant life, and the landscapes. Lewa will definitely go on my list of 'best places' that I have been!