Our Kenyan Adventure, Part One. Image heavy....
Discussion
This is the first part of three sections showing me photos from Kenya. I’ve split it into 3 parts so I don’t overload Simpo’s servers, as I know he lives in the sticks and his wind-up computer can’t handle it...
This section is about the first place we stayed, Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Laikipia. It is a large plateau at about 2200m to the west of Mt Kenya and north of the Aberdares. Ol Pejeta is a private conservancy of 90,000 acres with 3 small exclusive camps, a slightly larger one and 2 houses that are available for rent. We stayed at Kicheche Laikipia Camp, which has just 6 tents and overlooks a waterhole.
Here’s our tent:
And the interior:
They offer two game drives a day, one in the morning and one in the late afternoon. Morning you got up at 5:45am and were delivered coffee, tea, hot chocolate or whatever you wanted, with cookies. You then got up and were out of camp by 6:15am and were back by 12:30pm in time to brush up and have lunch.
Breakfast was eaten on the hoof, as it were; we’d find a nice (safe!) spot to lay the nosh out and have coffee and fruity juice and all sorts of goodies.
Lunch was taken back at camp on tables overlooking the waterhole.
Almost every day we saw elis, mother & baby rhino, impala, zebra etc etc down by the water hole. It was lovely to sit by the tent watching the world go by.
The sun rises behind (but slightly to the north of) Mt Kenya, and by 8:00am it is covered in clouds and does not clear until about 5:00pm.
We stayed at Ol Pejeta for a number of reasons, but the main one is it is a very famous rhino sanctuary, and is the only place in the world you can see all three species of rhino. They have wild black and southern white rhino and ½ of the world’s surviving population of northern white rhino – 4 of them! The other 4 are split equally between a zoon in Prague (where the 4 at Ol Pejeta came from), and a zoon on the west coast of the USA. For all intents and porpoises they are defunct as a species, but there are plans to slectively breed them with southern white rhinos and see what happens. The black & S whites are free to roam the conservancy but the N whites are in a 120 acre enclosure that is guarded by armed rangers 24 hours a day, and has Colditz-like watch towers dotted along the perimeter.
The topography consists of a mixture of open grassy plains, light acacia scrub, thick forest and swamps. There are a number of rivers running through the conservancy, but it is too cool to have crocs.
Typical scenery by a river:
Typical semi-closed scrub forest
A bit of arty bark on a tree:
There is the usual mix of game at Ol Pejeta, including Reticulated Giraffe, hephalumps etc. So here’s a small overview of what we saw...
Hephalump with Mt Kenya in the background:
Same hephalump feeding:
Bushbuck, waterbuck, Uncle Buck.... some kind of deer thing:
A cute likkle baby zebra:
Ol Pejeta is also home to the Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary. Though chimps are not found in Kenya in the wild, the sanctuary was set up to re-house chimps that have been rescued from unscrupulous types on the beaches of the Costa del Sol, from crappy zoos etc. They’ll never be let out into the wild again, and it was pretty sad to read or hear about the way some of them had been treated. But at least they now will end their days in a happy environment, well looked after and cared for.
A black rhino in the bush:
S whites playing at dusk. You can imagine the baby saying “Bloody adults, always fighting....”
At the rhino sanctuary for the N whites there is a blind black rhino called Baraka who you can feed and pet. Poor chap is only 15, and lost one eye in a fight with another rhino and the other to cataracts. He, like the chimps, will live out the rest of his days being looked after by the rangers.
A vervet monkey. Note his bright blue bum!
We saw quite a few troops of baboons, with little babies riding their mummy’s backs or clinging underneath.
The bird life was fantastic, especially round the swamp areas.
Crested crane:
Lilac-breasted roller
The funny thing about a pelican, is his beak can hold more than his belly can. Peli perched on a tree at the water hole by camp
A beautiful kingfisher down by the swamp
On one day we had a private vehicle and did a morning game drive and then went up to the Mt Kenya Safari Club for lunch and went to their “orphange”. I say orphanage in inverted commas cos it wasn’t really; it was more like a petting zoo. But it was fun and we got to see some beasties we would not have ordinarily seen.
A window licking monkey, but without window...
Black & white colobus monkey
An inscrutable Chinese-moustachioed monkey
The swamp was probably our favourite place. It was so lush and green, and there were always a few elis munching the sweet grass.
Hmmmm...bitty
What you looking at? A miserable looking buffalo. But then that’s all they ever look like...
As mentioned above, Ol Pejeta is home to Reticulated giraffe, which have perhaps the best markings of all the giraffe species. We saw them in singles, couples of herds of up to 15. We were lucky to see two performing acts of despicableness; please note the size of his todger...
Giraffes are such beautiful and graceful creatures, and it’s amazing to see them march out of the forest; it really is like something from Jurassic Park!
VERY rare Grevy’s zebras. They are different from common or garden zebras as they have much closer knit stripes and they do not go all the way under their tumblies. They are rare because in the past they were hunted for their skins as they made nice handbags
Something like 90% of the remaining Grevy’s zebras are found in Kenya, most of them in the Laikipia/Lewa Downs area
A common or garden giraffe (disguised as a zebra
) with fleas
A mother wartypig with baby. Wartypigs are HUGE characters, and when spooked (ie when you drive past 3 miles away!) they charge off into the undergrowth with their tails sticking up in the air like car aerials. They made us chuckle all the time we were there. And their babies are rather cute and all too.
They have all three of the big cats at Laikipia, though we did not see a leopard when we were there.
Here’s a cheetah licking its chops after a tasty Impala en croute.
On the afternoon drive, that started at about 4:30pm we would take our choice of sundowner with us, and enjoy a drink while watching game and the sun set over the western horizon. It was a nice time to see night time animals wake up and day animals settle down to sleep.
After a busy day wallowing in his waterhole Herbert the Hippo wakes up with a yawn and a fart.
On our very first evening at Laikipia we were settling down for our G&Ts with our guide when lo and behold three cheetahs walked past, and one jumped up on a tree for a look-see. It really was a surreal moment to think that 24 hours previously we had been in England, and here we were, drinking G&Ts and eating snacks while watching cheetahs enjoy the sunset as much as we did!
On the third evening we found a pride of lions sitting on a grassy knoll waiting for dark. A couple of cubs were playing with their mother and annoying her It too was a wonderful moment.
The late afternoon sun reflecting off Mt Kenya
Sunset on the plains at Laikipia
The next exciting instalment will be uploaded at some point in the near future...
This section is about the first place we stayed, Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Laikipia. It is a large plateau at about 2200m to the west of Mt Kenya and north of the Aberdares. Ol Pejeta is a private conservancy of 90,000 acres with 3 small exclusive camps, a slightly larger one and 2 houses that are available for rent. We stayed at Kicheche Laikipia Camp, which has just 6 tents and overlooks a waterhole.
Here’s our tent:
And the interior:
They offer two game drives a day, one in the morning and one in the late afternoon. Morning you got up at 5:45am and were delivered coffee, tea, hot chocolate or whatever you wanted, with cookies. You then got up and were out of camp by 6:15am and were back by 12:30pm in time to brush up and have lunch.
Breakfast was eaten on the hoof, as it were; we’d find a nice (safe!) spot to lay the nosh out and have coffee and fruity juice and all sorts of goodies.
Lunch was taken back at camp on tables overlooking the waterhole.
Almost every day we saw elis, mother & baby rhino, impala, zebra etc etc down by the water hole. It was lovely to sit by the tent watching the world go by.
The sun rises behind (but slightly to the north of) Mt Kenya, and by 8:00am it is covered in clouds and does not clear until about 5:00pm.
We stayed at Ol Pejeta for a number of reasons, but the main one is it is a very famous rhino sanctuary, and is the only place in the world you can see all three species of rhino. They have wild black and southern white rhino and ½ of the world’s surviving population of northern white rhino – 4 of them! The other 4 are split equally between a zoon in Prague (where the 4 at Ol Pejeta came from), and a zoon on the west coast of the USA. For all intents and porpoises they are defunct as a species, but there are plans to slectively breed them with southern white rhinos and see what happens. The black & S whites are free to roam the conservancy but the N whites are in a 120 acre enclosure that is guarded by armed rangers 24 hours a day, and has Colditz-like watch towers dotted along the perimeter.
The topography consists of a mixture of open grassy plains, light acacia scrub, thick forest and swamps. There are a number of rivers running through the conservancy, but it is too cool to have crocs.
Typical scenery by a river:
Typical semi-closed scrub forest
A bit of arty bark on a tree:
There is the usual mix of game at Ol Pejeta, including Reticulated Giraffe, hephalumps etc. So here’s a small overview of what we saw...
Hephalump with Mt Kenya in the background:
Same hephalump feeding:
Bushbuck, waterbuck, Uncle Buck.... some kind of deer thing:
A cute likkle baby zebra:
Ol Pejeta is also home to the Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary. Though chimps are not found in Kenya in the wild, the sanctuary was set up to re-house chimps that have been rescued from unscrupulous types on the beaches of the Costa del Sol, from crappy zoos etc. They’ll never be let out into the wild again, and it was pretty sad to read or hear about the way some of them had been treated. But at least they now will end their days in a happy environment, well looked after and cared for.
A black rhino in the bush:
S whites playing at dusk. You can imagine the baby saying “Bloody adults, always fighting....”
At the rhino sanctuary for the N whites there is a blind black rhino called Baraka who you can feed and pet. Poor chap is only 15, and lost one eye in a fight with another rhino and the other to cataracts. He, like the chimps, will live out the rest of his days being looked after by the rangers.
A vervet monkey. Note his bright blue bum!
We saw quite a few troops of baboons, with little babies riding their mummy’s backs or clinging underneath.
The bird life was fantastic, especially round the swamp areas.
Crested crane:
Lilac-breasted roller
The funny thing about a pelican, is his beak can hold more than his belly can. Peli perched on a tree at the water hole by camp
A beautiful kingfisher down by the swamp
On one day we had a private vehicle and did a morning game drive and then went up to the Mt Kenya Safari Club for lunch and went to their “orphange”. I say orphanage in inverted commas cos it wasn’t really; it was more like a petting zoo. But it was fun and we got to see some beasties we would not have ordinarily seen.
A window licking monkey, but without window...
Black & white colobus monkey
An inscrutable Chinese-moustachioed monkey
The swamp was probably our favourite place. It was so lush and green, and there were always a few elis munching the sweet grass.
Hmmmm...bitty
What you looking at? A miserable looking buffalo. But then that’s all they ever look like...
As mentioned above, Ol Pejeta is home to Reticulated giraffe, which have perhaps the best markings of all the giraffe species. We saw them in singles, couples of herds of up to 15. We were lucky to see two performing acts of despicableness; please note the size of his todger...
Giraffes are such beautiful and graceful creatures, and it’s amazing to see them march out of the forest; it really is like something from Jurassic Park!
VERY rare Grevy’s zebras. They are different from common or garden zebras as they have much closer knit stripes and they do not go all the way under their tumblies. They are rare because in the past they were hunted for their skins as they made nice handbags
Something like 90% of the remaining Grevy’s zebras are found in Kenya, most of them in the Laikipia/Lewa Downs areaA common or garden giraffe (disguised as a zebra
) with fleasA mother wartypig with baby. Wartypigs are HUGE characters, and when spooked (ie when you drive past 3 miles away!) they charge off into the undergrowth with their tails sticking up in the air like car aerials. They made us chuckle all the time we were there. And their babies are rather cute and all too.
They have all three of the big cats at Laikipia, though we did not see a leopard when we were there.
Here’s a cheetah licking its chops after a tasty Impala en croute.
On the afternoon drive, that started at about 4:30pm we would take our choice of sundowner with us, and enjoy a drink while watching game and the sun set over the western horizon. It was a nice time to see night time animals wake up and day animals settle down to sleep.
After a busy day wallowing in his waterhole Herbert the Hippo wakes up with a yawn and a fart.
On our very first evening at Laikipia we were settling down for our G&Ts with our guide when lo and behold three cheetahs walked past, and one jumped up on a tree for a look-see. It really was a surreal moment to think that 24 hours previously we had been in England, and here we were, drinking G&Ts and eating snacks while watching cheetahs enjoy the sunset as much as we did!
On the third evening we found a pride of lions sitting on a grassy knoll waiting for dark. A couple of cubs were playing with their mother and annoying her
It too was a wonderful moment.The late afternoon sun reflecting off Mt Kenya
Sunset on the plains at Laikipia
The next exciting instalment will be uploaded at some point in the near future...
Edited by Fezant Pluckah on Tuesday 28th September 12:49
Edited by Fezant Pluckah on Tuesday 28th September 12:59
Edited by Fezant Pluckah on Wednesday 29th September 09:21
rlw said:
Great pics but I must take issue over the giraffe with fleas - its a zebra.
I don't know what you're talking about! Ahem....minky monkey said:
Love the photos, something I'd love to do.
BTW, is the chimp in the 2nd shot calling you a wa...... lol.
Well, YOU should know BTW, is the chimp in the 2nd shot calling you a wa...... lol.
crmcatee said:
So you didn't see much wildlife on your trip. 
I went for the scenery, but all these damn animals kept getting in the way!Gassing Station | Photography & Video | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff