Here I am in motion again, in the plane back from Nairobi to Barcelona. I am just heading back home after a really instructive trip to Kenya.

I am so grateful for life to have been given this chance. No word would be sufficient enough to express my gratitude.

It was a very good preparation for what is coming in my future endeavours or at least I believe it was. I could experience what a safari trip is like, try my camera, see my favorite animals in the wild for the first time, see what I like as a tourist in my safari guiding experience, try to start learning already, get closer to my objective and adjust my package.

The trip was from the 1^st of May to the 9^th of May, very well organized. I admit I didn’t help with the preparation at all and was open to the discovery without having any expectations. We arrived in Nairobi after serious rain episodes that flooded the city and also the North part of Kenya. The plan didn’t go as expected as some camps we were supposed to visit have been literally vanished away by the floods. The initial itinerary was not possible by car anymore. So, we reorganized the full itinerary based on what was possible and the advises we could get from his different counterparts (lodges, flight fleet, …).

Here is an overview of how bad the floods have been in the area we were suppose to visit.

Even Nairobi was impacted as the hotel we stayed in was flooded in the basement, the water was being pumped away by firemen. As a consequence its booking system was offline and an employee has to open the room door with the master key for each move we made. The hotel is clearly considering reorganizing their information systems infrastructure and add backup plans (that clearly rings a bell with my former job).

Here is the overall initial itinerary.

1^st of May

Rest and work day in Nairobi. No exploration as such of the city.

2^nd of May – Mara North and Elephant Pepper Camp

The connection was done with a local plane fleet, FlyAls, in the smallest commercial plane I have ever taken.

The landing is done on an earth ground airstrip, the one you can see in all those movies involving drug traffic and small planes. The pilot has to perform his landing twice as there were wild animals on the airstrip.

You arrive in a very remote place, some washrooms facilities and a few safari vehicles waiting for their guests. The rest is just wilderness. No chance you can arrive on your own without having preorganized a pickup with the lodges.

Already being welcomed as a guest is part of the overall experience. You meet your guide, Ri., he has prepared some small snacks in the shade. He has been guiding for more than 15 years, has the silver level and is considering passing the gold level but yet has to choose his specialty. The journey heading towards the lodge is already a game drive. I have seen my first animals in the wild during the small drive : Hippos, Heron, Topi, Wilderbeasts, Thomsons, Warthog (or also referred as the lion sausages).

As it slipped in the conversation I was going to perform a field guide training, Ri. explained that I will learn all the English and scientific names of the animals and plants, know all their characteristics by heart (reproduction, behaviour, usual size, weight, eating habits, as many facts as possible…).

I really start from scratch.

Spotting animals is part of the job, you need a good eyesight. The more you know the area the better. Speaking the local language is clearly a plus as the good sightseeings are shared on the radio by other guides.

I guess it is easier for Ri. , as he has grown here, it is his homeland, he knows it by heart. A true Masaï.

But not only.

You need to handle the expectactions of your guests, be responsible for their saftey and comfort, maintain good mood, know how to drive a 4 wheel car in different conditions (mud, sand, bouncy roads…), be able to return to the lodge without GPS at night, know everything about high and low range gears, be able to change a tyre and perform driving and spotting at the same time. Quite an ambitious program. I start to realize it now. I am glad I was not aware of all of this before I committed to it, I am not so sure I would have been able to make the first move, knowing how huge the step is.

This short drive and chats fed a great feeling in me. I was very enthusiastic and it was not yet my preferred animals.

I was amazed by the beauty of the landscapes.

Tall grasses, wild spaces, you could see wildlife from very far. All the cells of my body vibrated with great intensity. I was convinced I was at the right moment at the right place.

We stayed in Elephant Pepper Camp. A very luxury camp, unfenced. A few tents with luxury setting: private bathroom with toilets and hot shower, mosquito net, terrace with a nice scenery, comfortable bed.

The crew is here to welcome you upon your arrival. We are introduced to everyone. They hand us out hot towels and drinks, take care of our pieces of luggage. An explanatory speech is performed by the camp manager. He explained everything about the timings (food, game drives), the food requirements, the facilities and how to be escorted at night.

First official game drive in the afternoon.

The photos speak for themselves.

At last I am seeing my first zebras and elephants in the wild. With an incredible cloudporn sky, full of contrasts.

As the game drive is taking place in a conservancy, rules are slightly different than in a natural reserve. We went in a game drive at 17h, had a break for a short snack and headed back to the lodge at night. I was amazed how the guide could find its way back in the dark almost off road.

3^rd of May – 5^th of May – Soroi Private wing

Coffee and sunrise by the fire at 6h, game drive in the morning at 6:30, breakfast packed with us.

A moment to see some lions mating, my favorite animals again and some baboons. I will never get bored seeing that wildlife and I can literally spend hours, watching those animals and taking hundreds photos of them.

We had a short 5 mn flight to Ol Kiombo as reaching the next lodge with a car, which was the initial plan, was clearly impossible due to the heavy rains.

The short drive between the airstrip and the lodge, 10 mn maximum, already allows you to see my first girafes in the wild, 5 meters from the road.

Next lodge is called Soroi, private wing. We were supposed to stay one night there before heading back to Nairobi. The camp offers private tents by the river from which you could see the hippos pool. Each tent has a statue representing its name. Mine was the crocodile tent. The welcome was really similar to the other lodge and really pleasant as well. This time the security guards were Maasaï with spears.

On the way to our room, we smelled a strong cadaver odour, the guide explained a lion killed a girafe some days ago in the middle of the camp. Nothing was left but the smell remained strong. This gives you an idea of how dangerous the place could be and the type of animals that can pass by the camp unexpected.

Afternoon game drive started at 16h and as we were in the Maasaï Mara National Reserve. We had to be back at camp at 18:30 with a 30 mn tolerance. Rules in the National park are very different from the conservancy. You can’t go off road, you need to comply with additional rules. Cattle are forbidden in this area.

The afternoon game drive was a very different experience. K. was our guide and he had a preference for “cats”. He showed us some lions mating, girafes and he really managed to stay close to the lions while they were moving. You have this moment when he really showed us his driving skills, as he drove faster and managed to stay close despite the bushes.

I like that part of the game drive. Chasing Lions. This gives you a lot of excitement. The rest of the herbivores are quite easy to spot on. We were chasing a Leopard that we haven’t found obviously as they are very shy. Finding felines is harder and that’s also what tourists would like to see (including myself, despite my huge admiration for herbivores). Indeed, I guess being able to see, observe all the wild life is something interesting for everyone. A bucket list of some kind.

We were supposed to come back on the 4^th of May. We waited for hours in the morning at the airstrip until there was no one left. One of the person of the company didn’t arrange for our transfer despite the initial agreement. The whole trip had to be shuffled around another time. We were lucky to be able to stay one more night at the camp.

In the meantime, while waiting for the plane, I have been discussing with K., our guide. He told me the most important things I have to do as a guide is assessing the situations and the contexts. He took the example of the elephants herd. He is always making sure the herd is composed of females only for exasmples, avoiding when there is a male in musth looking for females. We also discussed about the cultures, which ones were the most difficult ones. Some are very difficult apparently, they need to make your life hard in order to get the most of their trip. Others may be also very exigent, they want to see a particular subtype of feline and are not happy until they see the exact one, they have been looking for. And the rest depends on the people, some persons want to be surrounded with other cars and guides, otherwise they have an uncomfortable feeling : why are we alone ? Is there something wrong? … So a lot to live and experience in the end and adapting to different situations.

He also explained to me the differences between the guiding training in Kenya and in South Africa.

I asked what his best moment was and there were two he could remember really vividly.

One has to do with a hugh python swallowing entirely a grown male impala.

The other one was dealing with many species and hunting happening at the same time : a dik-dik being chased by a cheetah and the cheetah itself being chased by a lion in only one scenery.

I also remember one of the guide saying that he would prefer his children to train for something else than safari guide while we were waiting to fly to Ol Kiombo, guiding their children towards medicine studies instead of safari guiding.

K. accepted to stay with us for the afternoon game drive. We managed to see a group of lions eating a cow after rescuing some tourists unfortunately stuck in the mud with their guide.

The lions scenery was impressive. The smell was strong. It didn’t look fresh to me whereas it just happened when we got there. The lion was having a nice lamb. The lionnesses shared the rest. At some point, I got scared as one of the lionnesses could spot us in the car when our guests were shifting positions and it roared loudly. That was impressive. Keiwua was quiet and asked us to stay still as they will not be able to distinguish us from the rest of the car. He also explained to me that lions were more stressed out when they eat cows as they can make the difference between a wild animal (buffle) and a cow. As they have been persecuted by humans in the past.

In the surroundings, chacals and hyenas were waiting for their turn in the distance, scared of getting closer due to the lion presence.

5^th of May – trip to Tsavo via Nairobi

The flight was really scheduled this time and given the flight was fully booked, I could seat next to the pilot and enjoy the taking off and landing experiences on the muddy airstrips.
We headed back to the train station. I was amazed by the amount of security in Nairobi (dog first, 2 bag scans, 1 identity control). Apparently, this is a consequence of the terrorist attack that happened some years ago in the commercial center.

We travelled in economy class and have been offered a private compartment for an additional onboard fee. During the jurney, I have been able to concentrate on my set for the flors festival and learnt another photos editing approach whilst watching the nice landscapes under the rain.
We arrived in Voi at night where we got picked up by our safari guide and driver.

6^th of May until the 9^th of May – Kipalo – Tsavo

We were early by one day given all the floods and the reorganization of the trip, so that night, we stayed in a private tent. We had to schedule and order for the hot shower time as they need to prepare it for us. The next day, we had the chance to stay in a private luxury villa in front of the Kilimandjaro and the conservancy.

We had a great experience with the owner R., N. and the staff. The way they greet guests make you feel welcome, comfortable and at ease.

The cook was amazing and introduced with great pleasure all the menus he conceived for us with excitement and an italian touch. The dining place was amazing and spacious under a huge roof next by the pool and a waterhole for the wildlife that got filled once or twice a day depending on the season. The guests could have the opportunity to witness some wildlife. As the water was plentyfull during that season, we haven’t so many opportunities to watch wildlife in this water hole.

6^th of May – Conservancy, rangers and sundowner in Kipalo

Our first game drive, early in the morning was very different from the previous ones I did in the Mara North area. The vegetation is very dense and it is very hard to spot animals except for the big ones like elephant. Our guide, M., which has been working for the lodge since the age of 6 as his father was the fisherman of the lodge, was now 21 and has been trained to be a safari guide. He was skilled at spotting wildlife and he clearly saw a leopard looking at us in the middle of the road.

We saw elephants as well, much easier to spot. The particularity of those elephants in that area of Kenya is their skin. It looks red. This is due to the colour of the soil as they are practicing mud bath to protect themselves from the sun.

Later we visited the rangers camp. They explained their work, which is mainly protecting the wild life of the conservancy. There are 12 of them in total. They mainly remove wires, they embush the hunters and they go for walks twice a day at dusk and dawn, fully equiped with riffles and amunitions. Getting caught is quite serious here for animal poaching as you may end up 3 years in prison. He showed us the huge amount of wires, at least 100 for a month work of all sizes to catch buffalos and smaller animals like dik-dik. He explained they recently arrested a guy that caught 6 dik-diks.

Local population is hunting to feed themselves and to get the opportunity to eat some meat. So, helping the local population is actually helping the survival of the wildlife.

That’s also a topic we discussed during the sundowner with N. together after we did a bush walk escorted by the ranger. Here, there was a simple rule, the ranger is in charge, he had the riffle and we need to listen to his orders in case of emergency (run, lay on the floor,…). This sets the ground and enables you to appreciate how dangerous wildlife is, you cannot just walk by yourself like we would do in Europe.

The three main priorities she shared with me as regards to the protection of wildlife was in that order : water, safety (rangers, anti-poaching) and salt. The conservancy provides all of this.

I was surprised by the salt. Indeed they provide some salt that will be licked by the animals as they do not have natural source for this in that area.

She explained to me her background as an accountant before being hired by R. , after she appreciated the overall conservancy project and wildlife. She knew she would end up in tourism and prefered to start sutdying accountancy as she could use it everywhere. She is mainly dealing with daily issues and solving. It clearly ring a bell with me and my former job. They are also having a program to help the children and pay for the scolarship for the rewarding ones. The secondary school is indeed not mandatory. She explained that some of the children they helped managed to get great positions such as lawyer for instance.

She explained the history of the conservancy, their program and priorities. And concluding on the approach of helping humans is a good way to help and contribute to wildlife conservancy.

That was a nice chat while enjoying a sundowner moment by the fire and the opportunity to have a glimpse of the southern sky and its range of constellation (most of them new to me), including the southern cross. Priceless.

7^th of May – Tsavo east

The next day, we spend one full day in Tsavo East.

The landscape was less dense and wildlife was easier to spot.

Everything was covered with morning glories, an invasive flowers that covered all the bushes around and really appreciated by elephants.

We saw plenty of animals to my delight : elephants bull playing and bathing in the water, lionness, kudus, zebras, girafes, owl, herons and cheetahs trails 🙂

8^th of May – Tsavo west

The day after we explored the western part of Tsavo national park.

We were lucky to see the Kilimandjaro in the back at sunrise.

The vegetation was more dense.

The landscape was amazing covered with all the morning glories under a gazing sun.

We saw again plenty of animals and landscapes: crocodiles, monkeys, more zebras, an old lava flow landscape (Shetani) and Mzima springs escorted by a ranger who showed and explained to us the surrounding trees and fauna.

It was a lot of driving this day and we headed back at 17h at the lodge.

Then it was the moment to headback to Nairobi by train and fly back to Europe.

I was very lucky to be given this opportunity and enjoyed it very much. I learnt a lot already and I am now looking forward to my african trip and to get to know more the fauna and the countries.

I have had the chance to try my camera in proper conditions. I am satisfied with it even if I know it is not the best camera and doesn’t have the best zooming capabilities. I had the chance to test an olympus with a 400 mm zoom and I was thrilled. But I am not planning to change it short term. Let’s see how everything goes.

In the meantime, I received no news from the embassy and sent them a kind reminder, still crossing fingers that everything turns out great in the end.