Safari: Kicheche Laikipa – Part 3

Posted on May 10, 2016 by Janet

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.

Slowly, the sky turns pink….

…. 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.

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….

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

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….

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

What beautiful markings on their faces!

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

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…..

…. 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.

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

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!

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

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.

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…..

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

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

…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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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.

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.

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

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

….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.

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.

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

….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.

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.

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

….the wheat fields…..

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

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

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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.

We can sit and read in an easy chair….

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

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

…after a swim in the pool.

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

Posted on May 6, 2016 by Janet

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.

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.

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!

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.

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

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!

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.

Something about the way the gazelles are acting piques Albert’s curiosity.

His professional instinct is rewarded when he spots a lone cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) ambling away from us. 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.

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.

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

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!

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

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).

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

Infant baboons learn to hang onto their mother’s fur at about 1 week.

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

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.

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

…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).

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!

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.

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

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.

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.

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……

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

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.

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

There are lots of common zebras….

…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.

A giraffe walks gracefully in front of us.

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

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

Then the sun goes down…..

….. 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.

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!

Janet Davis Explores Colour

In the garden & the world

Tag Archives: Kicheche Laikipia

Safari: Kicheche Laikipa – Part 3

Safari: Kicheche Laikipia – Part 2

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