Safari to Kenya – Ol Kinyei Conservancy

This is a continuation from Safari to Kenya – Lake Naivasha that ended at Sunbird Lodge on Thursday, March 10 after a day spent at the Lake Naivasha and the Crescent Island Game Park.

Recap: On Thursday, we had visited Lake Naivasha and spent the morning on a boat, followed by a short visit to the Crescent Island Game Park.  We saw numerous birds on the lake, and animals at close quarters on Crescent Island.  Our visit to Lake Naivasha reinforced in my mind that Kenya is indeed a birder’s paradise.  The sheer diversity of species is amazing, and you get to see them easily and up close.  Since we walked on Crescent Island, we had a great experience viewing Zebra, Impala, Waterbuck, Giraffe, and Wildebeest from ground level, a unique experience given that we had almost always been on a 4×4 for the rest of the trip.

We got back early to Sunbird Lodge, and I spent close to a couple of hours with David tagging birds on all my photos across the entire Safari – David was amazing and so interested in getting it all right.  It was a humbling experience for me to meet someone as good at his work as David.  With his attention to detail, he would have been a great software engineer!

On the Road to Porini Cheetah Camp (Friday, March 11)

We woke with the sun on Friday morning at Marabou, our cottage at Sunbird Lodge.  After a cup of coffee (tea for Iris) and some last-minute packing, we headed off to the dining area.  Caroline was already there and had our indoor table all set-up for breakfast.  We had a leisurely meal and were working on coffee when David arrived.  After a “Hi!” to David, I settled-up the bill with Caroline – mainly for water and drinks that were not included in the prepaid arrangement – and we then said our goodbyes.  Caroline was a brick – she took great care of us while we were at Sunbird Lodge!  Granted, people in the travel industry need to be customer service oriented but, I think, just about everyone we met in Kenya went above-and-beyond, a very hospitable people!  After depositing some Kenyan Shillings in the tip box at the front desk, and a last look around (who knew when/if we would be back!) we headed outside for our vehicle.  Our suitcases and duffel bags were already loaded, having been moved from the cottage by other Sunbird Lodge staff.  With that we set off down the track to the main gate of the property and then onto the Nairobi-Nakuru highway, headed west towards Nakuru.

As David drove that morning, I was afflicted with mixed feelings.  There was the excitement of finally visiting the famed Masai Mara area, a place that I had only seen on numerous YouTube videos, and National Geographic and BBC documentaries with David Attenborough narrating!  This was tinged with melancholia (not in the health sense) – my close friends and family know this all too well of me!  We were about two-thirds of the way through our Safari and had 4 days (sigh!) remaining.  We would never again visit these parks for the first time!  I could see why Steve, Cindy, Joao, and Licinia visited East Africa as often as they could.  Surely, part of it was to recapture that “moment” in this beautiful country in its beautiful natural parks, one of the last places on our planet where animals roamed free?!  Would I be one of them?!  It would be difficult, but I wanted to make that happen.  I thought back to other places and times, like the two years we spent in Gangtok, Sikkim (1983-85), or earlier in Dehradun (1980-83).  Both were unforgettable and only my sister and I could relate to what it felt like back then growing up in our early-mid teens.  It is likely impossible to go back to a place and time you loved.  One thing was for sure: visiting Kenya felt like coming home, truly remarkable when you think of it.  With that somewhat comforting thought I turned my attention back to the road.

David had told us that this would be about a 5-hour drive with a rest stop about halfway.  On the highway, we passed a few 22-wheelers trundling from Mombasa/Nairobi towards the Ugandan border.  As we approached Nakuru, the traffic increased and just past a gas station (gas/petrol prices if anybody is interested were about 125 KSH per liter) David turned left off the highway heading south-west on an arrow straight, bypass road.  The traffic diminished immediately and, after another left turn due south we drove perhaps 25 minutes.  The scene was drab, the terrain flat, the road well paved but with the occasional speed bump as we approached habitation.  This seemed to be a semi-urban setting with low population density.  After a while David turned right, and the road began to wind a bit.  Soon, we were climbing up a hill and saw a sign informing us that we were entering Narok County – we had been in Nakuru County.  David told us that we were entering the Mau catchment basin and we could see that everything around us had turned a lush green with rolling hills on the right, to the west, and farming communities on the left/east.  The road wound its way back-and-forth between Narok and Nakuru counties (the border there undulates quite a bit).  We passed through a few villages with kids waving.  David slowed down to under 25 miles an hour, the best we could do, and we settled down to enjoy the scenery on display.  Sadly, I took very few photos of this journey but the mix of farmland with terraced fields on the left, and the grassland and forest of the Mau catchment basin was breathtaking in its beauty.

A couple of miles later, we spotted a child (probably 6-8 years old) and probably his teenage brother on the road shepherding their goats.  We stopped and Iris handed them some Chocolate (Sunbird Lodge left us chocolates beside our bed every night that we never ate) and a couple of bananas!  They accepted with a smile, and we continued down the road to Narok.

About 10am (we had left Sunbird Lodge a little after 7:30am) we left the Mau catchment area and could see a biggish town in the distance ahead of us.  Soon we were in the thick of Narok traffic.  David made a left off the highway and a minute or two later pulled up into the parking lot of the Seasons Hotel, Narok.  We went into the hotel’s restaurant where we ordered coffee and tea to go and then hit the restrooms.  When I got back, the waiter at the restaurant endearingly said they didn’t have any cups with lids (!) and he made do with clingwrap!  After paying, I picked up the beverages and headed back to the parking lot with cups in hand for Iris and David.  After handing them their drinks, we stood around while I walked to the gate of the establishment.  There, a somewhat worse for the wear gentleman (he must have imbibed quite a bit the previous night) inquired as to where we were from.  After a little chit-chat, he asked us to check out his friend’s craft shop beside the gate.  There were two shops there, but I suspect they were related.

Promising to check with Iris if she was interested, I went back to the 4×4.  Iris, of course, was interested in shopping!  David said that the second shop owner was a friend and he’d give us a discount if we mentioned him.  Also, he told us to bargain.  Iris purposefully headed over to the gate and the Visions Gift Shop with me in tow!  We then went in and met Joel, David’s friend.  The shop had some lovely handicrafts, everything from ashtrays to paintings and wall hangings, to tribal and animal figurines made of wood, stone, and the like.  We browsed around a few minutes and selected a few things.  Then came the bargaining.  We were able to (in my mind) do a decent job of beating Joel down from his first offer of over 5000 KSH down to about 3500 KSH!  Now the proud owners of some craftwork, we exited the shop, back to David and our vehicle.

On the road again, David headed back to the center of town and then made a left turn down a different highway headed roughly south.  Soon, we were out of Narok and back in farmland.  After about an hour of driving we saw signs for the Masai Mara National Reserve and shortly thereafter, David turned off to the right and made his way down an unpaved dirt track toward a stream.  There we approached a gate with a large wooden arm tied down by a chain, and a sign proclaiming that we were entering Ol Kinyei Conservancy, a private property!

After David filled out the entry form, he got back onto the driver’s seat.  The one-armed guard (his other arm was permanently damaged) opened the gate, and in a moment, we were fording the stream separating the Conservancy from the public land towards the highway.  As we went across the bubbling stream, we saw a Toyota pick-up truck that had been converted to a game watching vehicle waiting for us with two Masai men in the front.  David stopped and we said, “Jambo!”.  After a few words, David said to the pair that he wanted to come to the camp as opposed to the pick-up truck taking us there.  We headed off again with the truck behind us.

We were now on the Conservancy proper, and the road as it was transformed to a winding dirt track going through bushes and scrub with grassland and hills in the distance.  The elevation changed frequently, as we went up and down a hundred feet or so.  Soon we were seeing animals – mainly Zebra and Wildebeest with some herd of Impala and the occasional Gazelle.  Iris filmed some footage, below.

After a drive of about 25 minutes, we went up another hill and, on the way down, we saw a line of trees bordering what appeared to be us to be a winding stream.  We drove towards the trees and then made a left to stay along the stream before crossing over it and into an open clearing where we saw a few tents.  David pulled up to a large wooden platform and stopped.  All the while, we had been closely followed by the Toyota pick-up with our future guides – we hadn’t been introduced to them yet.  As we stopped, a tall Masai man and a slightly shorter one came up to the platform and we exchanged Jambos!  We dismounted and walked into Porini Cheetah Camp just before 1pm on Friday, March 11.

At Porini Cheetah Camp (Friday, March 11)

David followed us into camp proper and we walked over to the Lounge Tent, a lovely place to relax with comfortable couches, conveniently laid out tables, and a bookshelf with some books and magazines.  It also had a bench outside, under the tent canopy that overlooked the path we had followed from the entrance of the camp, and a firepit that we were to get to know well over the next few days.  In the lounge tent we filled out David’s guest book that he had been patiently carrying around – needless to say, we left him a glowing review.  He was a fabulous guide and had become a real and trusted friend in the few days we had known him.  We tipped him and he set off, soon to head back to Nairobi with our suitcases and then for a short break with his family before his next assignment with Gamewatchers.

Edward and Kevin were attending to our luggage and gave us a brief introduction to camp procedures.  Just as they were doing that, Jui Banerjee walked in – she and her husband Nirmalya were co-camp owners with Porini.  She gave us a big welcome and said that she and Nirmalya had just driven back from Nairobi.  We chatted a little and heard the rest of Edward’s camp procedures.  Here’s a video from Gamewatchers and Porini Camps highlighting Porini Cheetah Camp and Jui and Nirmalya.

Edward then walked us past the dining tent and over to the unimaginatively named (numbered) Tent #1, our home for the next 4 nights.  We unzipped our tent and went in.  This too was a well laid out comfortable place with a large queen-sized bed, a smaller twin bed and a couple of tables, a shelf for clothes including hangers and a door that led to a nice bathroom with a washbasin, and separate camp shower and toilet areas.

We dropped off our backpacks and washed up before heading back to the dining tent since it was just about lunch time.  There, Kevin let us in by unzipping the tent and we met Edward and Jui again.  We sat down at a long table facing another long table where Jui sat.  Jui explained that this was an arrangement they came to during the pandemic to accomplish social distancing even in the open and airy tent but were considering discarding as things got better.  We had started on our salad when Nirmalya walked in (he had some work calls to make/take).  He had been our primary contact for the entire Safari and had helped us plan and execute on the trip.  I was very happy to meet him at last in person – we had met once on a Zoom video call in February and exchanged countless emails!  While we chatted, we continued plowing into our appetizing lunch.  After a wonderful meal, we were offered coffee and tea.  I demurred but Iris is always game for tea!  So, while she had a cuppa, we shared a bit more about ourselves while the Banerjees did the same about their lives, and what brought them to Porini Cheetah Camp.  After Iris was done with tea, we rose and agreed to be back at the lounge tent for a cup of tea or coffee at 3:45pm followed by our evening game drive through the Conservancy – we found we would be guided by Joel and Phillip.

We walked back to our tent, and I settled down outside the tent to set-up my camera for the game drive, while Iris relaxed inside.  From our tent, that faced outwards from the camp, I could see a small hill topped with large boulders – I later learned it was appropriately named White Rock hill!  I could hear some monkeys chittering not too far away, the distant sounds of mooing Wildebeest, some birds tweeting, and some unidentified noises from up on the hill; I later found that this was probably the Rock Hyrax that lived atop the hill.  The afternoon was still and, while the sun beat down outside, it was pleasant in the shade of the tent with the trees in front.  I sat there for a half hour, just enjoying the ambience, glad to be out of a vehicle for a while!

Soon it was past 3:30pm and after dressing in Safari clothes, Iris and I headed to the Lounge tent.  We found Kevin waiting for us and he offered us a cup of tea or coffee and some biscuits at a long table inside.  I opted for coffee, while Iris selected tea as usual.  We spent a few minutes chatting with Kevin and drinking our cuppas.  At about 4pm, we headed outside and waked past the fire pit over to the main entrance to the camp, where we found Joel and Phillip with the converted Toyota pick-up truck waiting for us.

Evening Game Drive – Ol Kinyei Conservancy (Friday, March 11)

At the pick-up truck, we were introduced (I think Edward may have done that) to Joel and Phillip, our guides for the next few days.  Joel drove while Phillip spotted though, as we found out later, Joel too did plenty of spotting!  As we had heard at Amboseli, in contrast to other Safari companies, Porini and Gamewatchers made a point of always having two guides in each vehicle to ensure the best possible experience for guests.  One guide could drive and negotiate rough terrain, while the other continued to spot, and chat with the guests or answer their questions.

We set off immediately and found that this Toyota truck, while not a Landcruiser was just perfect for Safaris!  It was able to negotiate any terrain and was able to hold a lot of gear.  Within the space of 30 minutes, we drove through a herd of Zebras mixed in with some Pumbas (Warthogs), an Elephant munching contentedly on a bush, some Marabou stork, a baby Wildebeest with its mother, a Yellow-billed stork, a mongoose family, another bird that Joel told us was called a Hamerkope, and a herd of Eland. 

In the succeeding 15 minutes we saw some Topi (an antelope we hadn’t seen previously), a herd of Impala, a Juvenile Bataleur Eagle and then a Mature Bateleur Eagle!

As we moved further, I got a not-so-good photo of part of the Conservancy, but it hopefully gives you a sense of its size and scale, and how it looked to us bumping along in the Toyota pick-up.  This was taken at about 5:09pm that evening.

As we moved along, we spotted a Hyena taking a rest under a bush, then a family of banded mongoose, a Dark Chanting Goshawk atop a tree, followed by a pair of Jackals.

We were kept busy by Joel and Phillip, turning our heads every few minutes or even seconds to see the next sight!  Just after we saw the jackals, we saw Masai Giraffe, then some Impala, Zebras, Wildebeest, more Giraffes, more Jackals and then some shy Dik-Dik.  (Photos below are only of the Giraffe and the Dik-Dik.)

We saw the Dik-Dik at 6:02pm and the sun was showing signs of setting!  In quick succession, we spotted an African White-backed Vulture perched atop a tree, then a black-faced monkey, more Giraffe, a herd of Wildebeest and Zebra mixed in (not pictured), a Pumba (Warthog) out looking for an evening snack, and then a surprise!

Right beside the vehicle on our left, Phillip spotted a Green Mamba, one of Africa’s more venomous snakes.  It was probably about 5 feet long, and disturbed by us, was undulating its way across the vast plain.  We stayed right beside it for a few minutes, and I took many pictures.  Every now and then, it stopped and then set off again.  By the way, these deadly snakes inject enough neurotoxic venom to kill a human in a little over 30 minutes, and they can move at 7 mph.  Unlike their deadlier cousins the Black Mamba, they are shy and not aggressive.  Nonetheless, Iris was petrified, and I was thankful to be wearing boots, even though we were on a vehicle!

It was now past 6:30pm and Joel and Phillip were chatting about where to take us for a Sundowner when, their radio crackled.  Joel picked it up and had a quick conversation with someone on the other end in Masai.  He put the handset down, turned to us with a lazy grin and said, “Two questions: Do you want a shower when you are back at camp?  And do you want a sundowner here or would you like to go back to camp where they have spotted some Cheetahs?!”.  We answered, “Shower- Yes please.  Cheetahs!  Of course!!”. So, Joel set off at breakneck speed and we bumped over the terrain.  While on the way, I spotted a Giraffe in the fading light and clicked the snap below.

About 10-15 minutes later we approached camp and found the cheetahs there as promised, sitting comfortably in the grass and completely unconcerned by our arrival – Joel pulled up perhaps 10 feet away.  Right around then, Nirmalya and Jui also arrived in a different vehicle, and we all sat there looking at Entito, the Cheetah mom and her 3 cubs.  Read more about Entito’s story here. Nirmalya with a beatific smile on his face, had his camera out, while an excited Jui looked like she was shooting video.  Meanwhile, Phillip and Joel pulled out the makings of a Gin and Tonic for me, and white wine for Iris.  I was busy taking pictures but thanked Phillip silently and took sips in-between clicks.  Iris was shooting videos on her phone.  After perhaps 10 minutes, one cub decided to climb up a nearby tree while the others and Entito headed for the brush surrounding camp.  Keep in mind that this entire scene was right behind Tent #6 of Porini Cheetah Camp (see the fourth picture below)!  This, by far, was our best sundowner experience through the entire Safari.

After the drink, we set off again around camp to get to the front entrance.  That sounds simple but takes about 10 minutes of driving!  We saw a few Waterbucks on the way and Joel and Phillip told us that, just yesterday, Entito had killed a baby waterbuck around camp and she and the cubs had eaten it right there.  That’s Africa for you – simultaneously beautiful and brutal!

We dismounted at the entrance and this time had to be escorted as it was after dark.  A merry fire was burning in the pit and a few Maasai were around it.  We joined them for a few minutes and then headed back to our tent for our showers, having promised to be back before 8pm for dinner.  At our tent, the lights were on.  Soon, one of the Maasai staff shouted from outside that the shower had been primed.  Iris went for her shower first while I pottered around.  A few minutes later she was done.  I had less than a 5-minute wait before the staff member came by with another 20 gallons or so of water and shouted out again.  I went for my shower and changed into comfortable, street clothes.  By now, it was almost 8pm; so we shone our flashlight to catch someone’s attention.  One of the staff members (I think his name was Ben) came by and escorted us back to the Dining tent.

We had another sumptuous meal that evening starting with soup and some pillowy soft rolls.  This was followed by a main course and then dessert.  I enjoyed it and didn’t take any pictures!  During dinner, Nirmalya and Jui joined us, and we caught them up on our day.  The conversation turned to the animals we liked; Jui liked Elephant and Giraffe, Nirmalya was a cat afficionado, Iris liked all of these, and I even found Hyenas beautiful!  But when I spoke up, I couldn’t quite articulate why I found cats fascinating.  Is it their devil-may-care attitude, their majesty, their natural affection for their brethren, their casual brutality (poor choice of words; they hunt only when hungry), or something else?!  I am still not sure.

After some stimulating conversation – Nirmalya and Jui told us more about their journey and how they started the camp (see the video embedded earlier in this blog) – and a cup of tea for Iris, we bade the Banerjee’s a good night.  I stopped at the fire pit for a few minutes, and we then headed back to our tent for sleep – we were meeting Joel and Phillip for our morning game drive before sun-up at 0600, and Edward would be sending over coffee and tea to our tent at 0530.

I did some downloading of photos and video from camera to phone and charged some camera batteries and our phones.  Since we were the only guests in camp that evening, Nirmalya kindly decided to keep the power flowing from their batteries to the tents; otherwise, we’d have had to charge everything at the Manager’s tent.  We then lifted all the opaque tent covers that the staff had brought down for the night, leaving only mesh walls up so that we could see outside – who knew what – overnight?!  With that we went to bed early, but sleep took a while to come.  It had been quite the day!

Random Tidbits and Musings

• Ol Kinyei Conservancy is 18,700 acres or nearly 30 square miles.  That’s huge!  The Conservancy is home to only two camps, Porini Cheetah Camp where we were staying and Porini Mara Camp.  Adjacent to Ol Kinyei is Naboisho Conservancy which is even larger at 50,000 acres (78 square miles).  Visitors to Ol Kinyei have rights to visit Naboisho on game drives but strangely, for some reason, the reverse is not true.
• Nirmalya and Jui told us about how they saw Entito as a cub when they were setting up Porini Cheetah Camp about 6 years ago.  Entito lost her mom and was not expected to survive since there was nobody to teach her to hunt.  However, against all odds, she learned by herself, and has had many litters since she matured.
• According to our guides, Wildebeest on the Conservancy did not participate in the great migration seen across the Serengeti in Tanzania, just south of us and into the Masai Mara reserve.  Water and grass was plentiful on the Conservancy.
• We heard that there were at least a couple of lion prides in the Conservancy, but at least one had moved to Naboisho Conservancy in recent times.  We hoped to see them on the next day or two.
• We heard that it had (very unusually) rained in the middle of February, which explained how lush the Conservancy looked.  The people at camp said that they hoped that the rains would be on schedule in early April.
• Scheduling Note: During lunch, we chatted with Nirmalya and agreed that we’d go to the Masai Mara Reserve on Sunday, 13-May rather than Saturday, 12-May.
• Looking at my camera folder for 11-March, I took 155 photos and videos in the evening game drive that lasted about 3 hours (just under an image per minute) – such was the photographer’s paradise we found ourselves in!

(Photos can be found on this Google Photos Album while videos are at this YouTube Channel.)

To be continued…