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Kenya: Part 4 (Sweetwaters)
Part 1: Amboseli
Part 2: Lake Nakuru
Part 3: The Ark
Sweetwaters Game Reserve originally occupied a portion of Ol Pejeta ranch vast territory, but has since expanded to become Ol Pejeta Conservancy, a privately owned wild life sanctuary. There is still some cattle ranching being done but primarily it's an animal preserve. It features, aside from all the great game roaming the 90,000 acre territory, a waterhole within direct view of the dining hall and some of the better situated tents of Sweetwaters Tented Camp, where we stayed; chimpanzee sanctuary; mansion built by one of the previous owners and a notorious arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, which we still haven't seen after two visits to the place; four out of the practically extinct population of the northern white rhinos; and great views of Mount Kenya.
The camp provided us with the most luxurious tent accommodations of this trip and our stay happened on the day when some renovations were being completed, so we got to first have dinner in a huge temporary dining tent and then breakfast the next morning in the reopened brand spanking new and very nicely appointed dining hall.
From our first visit I remembered the waterhole teeming with lots of different birds but just as at Lake Nakuru this time most of the birds where missing. They might have been temporarily scared away by the construction.
As a consolation, there were lots of rhinos about and some of them were rather busy...
... being naughty.
There were also ubiquitous impalas, zebras and surely no Kenyan park would be complete without some warthogs.
And some more frisky rhinos.
It's amazing what one can capture using burst mode, not to mention taking actual videos, especially since white rhinos' copulation can last for half an hour. We are now proud owners of rhino porn.
Our afternoon game drive started with a visit to the chimp sanctuary. Chimps are not indigenous to Kenya and most of the ones housed at Sweetwaters were rescued from somewhere else, like Sudan and Uganda. There are two families that live at the sanctuary now, separated by river to prevent fighting.
After a short drive in the downpour which we handled with a lot less equanimity than local denizens, we got to the enclosure housing Baraka, a blind rhino originally born in the wild but now being cared for by the rangers due to his handicap.
I was adamantly refusing the idea of feeding or touching Baraka, firstly, we've met before, and secondly, I find touching wild life unsanitary, but eventually peer pressure prevailed. I faked actually touching him by just hovering my hand over the horn and therefor could honestly write on my US entry form that I didn't handle any livestock.
Unlike lions, cheetahs tend to be solitary creatures and it's rare to come across more than one of them together, so, outside of a mating season, a group of cheetahs usually implies male siblings. These three were resting after a kill and an accompanying feast, the horn sticking out probably belonged to an impala. Given the size of their stomachs it's hard to believe one is looking at the fastest sprinters on Earth, these three appear barely capable of waddling away for a few steps.
We were planning to go on a night safari at Sweetwaters so the afternoon rain left us slightly concerned that we'd have to scratch the idea, last time we got stuck in the mud and barely got out without outside help, but by the evening the weather cleared up. Night drive is a great experience which doesn't photograph well. We did luck out in spotting the rare and elusive Grevy's zebra, which differs from its more common cousins the plains zebra by its larger size and the narrower stripes that don't go all around its torso leaving the belly white. They also apparently don't tend to gather in herds so this one representative was all we saw.
The other fun find of the night was a litter of young lion cubs, about a month old, being moved to a new lair by their mother. One of the four cubs was either hurt or just weaker than others and kept falling behind. He would mewl pitifully until the siblings would pause and the mother would circle back to give him an encouraging lick and a push and then continue on. Presence of large cars shadowing their steps and shining spotlights on the family might have been spurting her on to set a harder pace, so we felt a bit responsible. I kept hoping that the lioness would pick up the struggling cub by the scruff and just carry him but she never did.
In the morning N. dragged me out of the tent to see the sun rise over Mount Kenya.
Note the gloves, hood and I can tell you there were layers of sweaters underneath the jacket. Welcome to Africa.
We were flying to our next destination, Masai Mara, so we said goodbye both to Ruben who's been driving us around and taking care of us since we landed in Nairobi and to his trusty Land Cruiser, and got on a Twin Otter prop by Air Kenya. This is it, getting refueled (very high tech):
To be continued ...
Part 2: Lake Nakuru
Part 3: The Ark
Sweetwaters Game Reserve originally occupied a portion of Ol Pejeta ranch vast territory, but has since expanded to become Ol Pejeta Conservancy, a privately owned wild life sanctuary. There is still some cattle ranching being done but primarily it's an animal preserve. It features, aside from all the great game roaming the 90,000 acre territory, a waterhole within direct view of the dining hall and some of the better situated tents of Sweetwaters Tented Camp, where we stayed; chimpanzee sanctuary; mansion built by one of the previous owners and a notorious arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, which we still haven't seen after two visits to the place; four out of the practically extinct population of the northern white rhinos; and great views of Mount Kenya.
The camp provided us with the most luxurious tent accommodations of this trip and our stay happened on the day when some renovations were being completed, so we got to first have dinner in a huge temporary dining tent and then breakfast the next morning in the reopened brand spanking new and very nicely appointed dining hall.
From our first visit I remembered the waterhole teeming with lots of different birds but just as at Lake Nakuru this time most of the birds where missing. They might have been temporarily scared away by the construction.
As a consolation, there were lots of rhinos about and some of them were rather busy...
... being naughty.
There were also ubiquitous impalas, zebras and surely no Kenyan park would be complete without some warthogs.
And some more frisky rhinos.
It's amazing what one can capture using burst mode, not to mention taking actual videos, especially since white rhinos' copulation can last for half an hour. We are now proud owners of rhino porn.
Our afternoon game drive started with a visit to the chimp sanctuary. Chimps are not indigenous to Kenya and most of the ones housed at Sweetwaters were rescued from somewhere else, like Sudan and Uganda. There are two families that live at the sanctuary now, separated by river to prevent fighting.
After a short drive in the downpour which we handled with a lot less equanimity than local denizens, we got to the enclosure housing Baraka, a blind rhino originally born in the wild but now being cared for by the rangers due to his handicap.
I was adamantly refusing the idea of feeding or touching Baraka, firstly, we've met before, and secondly, I find touching wild life unsanitary, but eventually peer pressure prevailed. I faked actually touching him by just hovering my hand over the horn and therefor could honestly write on my US entry form that I didn't handle any livestock.
Unlike lions, cheetahs tend to be solitary creatures and it's rare to come across more than one of them together, so, outside of a mating season, a group of cheetahs usually implies male siblings. These three were resting after a kill and an accompanying feast, the horn sticking out probably belonged to an impala. Given the size of their stomachs it's hard to believe one is looking at the fastest sprinters on Earth, these three appear barely capable of waddling away for a few steps.
We were planning to go on a night safari at Sweetwaters so the afternoon rain left us slightly concerned that we'd have to scratch the idea, last time we got stuck in the mud and barely got out without outside help, but by the evening the weather cleared up. Night drive is a great experience which doesn't photograph well. We did luck out in spotting the rare and elusive Grevy's zebra, which differs from its more common cousins the plains zebra by its larger size and the narrower stripes that don't go all around its torso leaving the belly white. They also apparently don't tend to gather in herds so this one representative was all we saw.
The other fun find of the night was a litter of young lion cubs, about a month old, being moved to a new lair by their mother. One of the four cubs was either hurt or just weaker than others and kept falling behind. He would mewl pitifully until the siblings would pause and the mother would circle back to give him an encouraging lick and a push and then continue on. Presence of large cars shadowing their steps and shining spotlights on the family might have been spurting her on to set a harder pace, so we felt a bit responsible. I kept hoping that the lioness would pick up the struggling cub by the scruff and just carry him but she never did.
In the morning N. dragged me out of the tent to see the sun rise over Mount Kenya.
Note the gloves, hood and I can tell you there were layers of sweaters underneath the jacket. Welcome to Africa.
We were flying to our next destination, Masai Mara, so we said goodbye both to Ruben who's been driving us around and taking care of us since we landed in Nairobi and to his trusty Land Cruiser, and got on a Twin Otter prop by Air Kenya. This is it, getting refueled (very high tech):
To be continued ...