Once again Real Africa’s most intrepid explorer, Lily, has been on another epic trip. This time she went to Kenya to visit some of our favourite properties and catching up with all our wonderful safari guides and local personnel. She has as usual written it all down and given us some superbly detailed reports. Her fascinating journal acts as an excellent guide as what to expect on a Real Africa safari in Kenya. Over to you Lily!
Nairobi to Ol Pejeta
After a very comfortable overnight flight on Kenya Airways from Heathrow to Nairobi my journey started straight away with a fascinating 3 and a half hour drive from Nairobi, passing through the Central Highlands which are the political and economic heartlands of Kenya. En route I passed the signpost to Thika which immediately brought back memories of Elspeth Huxley’s famous book “The Flame Trees of Thika” which tells all about her childhood in the early settler days of the 20th Century in rural Kenya. It’s a great read and I highly recommend reading it before a trip to Kenya. This area was heavily colonised by the British and it was Mount Kenya, Africa’s second highest peak, that gave the colonial nation its English name. The majority of British and European settlers carved their farms from the countryside around it and it is easy to understand why this was favoured White Settler country.
The range of scenery I passed by was amazing in its diversity. In this area the cultivation of land on farms and plantations reveals rich red earth giving forth plenty of crops, many of which end up on tables in the UK such as coffee and green beans. Mount Kenya looms over the area although when I visited it was covered in cloud marking the beginning of the autumn rainy season. The scenery is so interesting all along the route with brightly coloured jungle and shambas, pale windswept moors, dense conifer plantations as well as busy towns and villages en route. Another noteworthy sight included five people crammed onto a motorbike (a new law permits only two but in Kenya rules don’t always apply!).
Serena Sweetwaters Tented Camp
By lunchtime we reached the gates of our first destination, the Ol Pejeta Conservancy. This is a non-profit wildlife conservancy supporting endangered species, tourism and also vital community work and outreach support. We carried on to our accommodation for the night, Serena Sweetwaters Tented Camp where we were warmly welcomed by the management team. Having sent many clients to this camp, it was a pleasure to be here in person at last. We stayed in one of the new luxurious Morani tents with a thatched roof. It was very spacious indeed with decking and great views out to the plain. The camp is fenced but that doesn’t stop plains game from hopping over to spend time in camp with the guests. Mind you for them it is a much safer option than the other side of the fence amongst the Sweetwaters’ various prides of lion! We had company throughout the night in the form of five waterbuck and impala who grazed contentedly outside our tent. But, first of all, after showering away the travel dust, we made our way to the dining tent and were served a truly delicious buffet with such helpful staff. Although the camp was full the attention of staff was very superb and personal and it really felt like a small, intimate camp. Finally at the end of my first day in Kenya it was off to bed with hot water bottles and with our camp antelope to stand guard, we had a very good night’s sleep!
The following day a very welcome hot coffee was brought to our tent before we headed off to breakfast. Then it was back to work as I went off on a site inspection of the camp to investigate all the different ranges of tents and accommodation available. The whole camp is expertly run and very comfortable and the opportunities to observe the wildlife and get involved with the conservation effort are fantastic. Only two minutes from the camp gates, we came across a lion pride – about 4 lionesses and cubs. Amazing! – they were just lazing about by the track and then they ambled in front of the vehicle, gave us a good look then wandered off into the bush. It wasn’t even a proper game drive – we were on a transfer off to the Sweetwaters Chimp Sanctuary! That was definitely worth a visit and we were all very impressed with the work the team do in protecting and looking after the chimps. We walked into the forested area with a very knowledgeable guide which gave us all a good insight into the habitat of the chimps. There is also a very interesting museum and information centre on the site.
At the Morani Information Centre, we were taken to meet Baracka, the blind black rhino, who we fed with hay from a raised wooden viewing platform. Getting so close to a rare rhino was an incredible experience indeed. We also visited the information centre where we learned from our hosts all about rhinos; from how to differentiate one set of horns from another, to ways of telling apart different kinds of droppings, the guides take it upon themselves to demonstrate the fact that there is no such thing as “too much” information. After a fascinating morning I sadly left Ol Pejeta Conservancy, a place with so much to offer the visitor, and headed off to the next stage of my Kenyan adventure.
More about the wildlife on the Ol Pejeta Conservancy
A real experience at Ol Pejeta is the Endangered Species Boma where it is possible to drive in the Boma and get really close to some of the world’s most endangered species (booking essential). Ol Pejeta has the largest concentration of Black Rhino, about 88 of them, in one place in all of in Africa. It is also home to seven Southern White rhino and four of the seven last remaining Northern White rhino which had been living in a Czech Republic zoo and who were brought to Ol Pejeta in 2009.
The Morani Information Centre named after a favourite black rhino now educates visitors on black rhinos and their work to conserve these highly endangered animals. It also offers visitors a chance to learn about the various species of wildlife present on the Conservancy and to provide comprehensive information about how a modern wildlife Conservancy works.
The Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary is the only place in Kenya where this highly endangered, intelligent species can be seen. It was opened in 1993 in a negotiated agreement between the Ol Pejeta Conservancy, the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and the Jane Goodall Institute. The facility was initially established to receive and provide lifelong refuge to orphaned and abused chimpanzees from West and Central Africa. An initial group of three chimpanzee orphans were brought to the sanctuary from a facility in Bujumbura, Burundi in 1993. Over the last decade Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary has been compelled to keep accepting chimpanzees rescued from traumatic situations bringing the total number of chimpanzees in the sanctuary nowadays to 42. At Sweetwaters Sanctuary chimpanzees are being carefully nursed back to health so they can enjoy the rest of their days in the safety of a vast natural enclosure. The chimpanzees live in two large groups separated by the Ewaso Nyiro River. Sweetwaters is a chartered member of the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA), an alliance of 18 sanctuaries in 12 African countries, currently caring for over 800 orphaned and/or confiscated chimpanzees. PASA’s role is to help conserve chimpanzees and other primates and their habitats through public education and lobbying for political goodwill.
Lion Tracking
Ol Pejeta has some of the highest densities of predators in Kenya and is home to some magnificent lion prides. Some of these lions are collared for monitoring purposes to help the management make crucial decisions on their conservation. The African lion population has declined by 30-50% in just over two decades, a reduction largely due to habitat loss and conflict with humans. Statistics reveal that the national population of lions in Kenya is reduced by an average of 100 lions each year! To come up with solutions aimed at mitigating the human-lion conflict, conservationists monitor lion movements through collars. Visitors have the opportunity to be involved in this crucial research by booking a unique lion tracking safari only available at Sweetwaters Camp.
Posted by Lily Appleby Newby
