Blogs from Laikipia Plateau, Central Province , Kenya, Africa

Up at 5:45 this morning to depart at 7:00 – we have to get up with the animals! Ducking out of my tent at 6:30 was a delightful surprise, because the sun was shining across the plain where animals were walking towards the small waterhole in front of the tents. Out on the game ride, we learned about Black Rhinos , relatively uncommon here, Southern White Rhinos , commonly seen, and Northern White Rhinos . There are only two Northern White Rhinos remaining in the world, all at this Conservancy; they were collected from the zoos where they had been kept. They live in an enclosed, highly secured area of 700 acres. It is highly visible because it glows with an unusually lushly green, ... read more

Our morning started at 7:30, early enough to avoid the closed roads and traffic for a big charitable marathon. The beginning of our drive followed the route from yesterday, which I sort of recognized. Our destination was the up-scale “Karen” district and the Karen Blixen Museum . The writer’s long-time house has been preserved and restored more-or-less as she left it. A young guide told us the history while we gazed at the long, low house set in a park-like garden. Karen Blixen still evokes a lot of respect here; before leaving, she ensured that “her Kikuyu” were settled on reasonable land. Inside the house (no photos allowed), the rooms displayed a surprising number of her artifacts, considering she sold up when she left, an almost bankrupt farmer and coffee-grower. Natural and person... read more

We spent the day today visiting a chimpanzee sanctuary and learning more about the conservation efforts in the Ol Pejeta Conservancy. We had fun with chimps, and saw lots of animals today, including two very sleepy lions! We woke up quite early, in time for the sunrise, and had quite a good view of Mount Kenya. It was a beautiful clear, sunny morning. We both had slept well, falling asleep wondering what animals were making all the various noises we could hear. Before I fell asleep though, as I was putting my e-reader down I brushed against something that moved, on the side of the bed. I used the light from my reader to illuminate it, and it was a good sized, light coloured spider. Anyone who knows me knows I am a complete arachnophobe, so ... read more

We had an early breakfast at 6am before setting off for a morning game drive whilst the sun was still below the horizon. It was rather chilly standing in the minivan with the roof up but watching the sunrise over My Kenya was spectacular. As was coming across a family of lions with cubs playing on the road! Lions – a pride of 9 (incl. 4 adorable cubs) plus a group of 3 (2 males & a female post coitus!) Reticulated giraffe Silver-backed jackal Impala Grant’s gazelles Thompson’s gazelles Warthogs Superb starlings Buffalo Eland Burchell’s zebra Brown Snake Eagle (I think) Hawk sp. We left Ol Pejeta & headed to a nearby town to meet Cyrus, our guide for Mt Kenya at 10am. He joined us in the van for the drive to the Naro Moru ... read more

January 4, 2012 Day 1 in Kenya. After I had finished writing my first post, I ventured into the bathroom and decided to take a shower in the dirty little shower space with a large yellow bucket off to the side. No, I didn’t have to wash with the bucket. I still have no clue what that is for. I donned my shower shoes, choosing to use my own rather than the used pairs that were provided for me, and begun to fiddle with the different facets to try to obtain the perfect bathing temperature; a difficult task to say the least. With both a hot and cold-water knobs, I found that the water was either scalding or freezing. Not only that, but I found that mosquitoes also liked to join me in my bathing ritual. ... read more