{"id":391,"date":"2022-04-28T01:28:26","date_gmt":"2022-04-28T01:28:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.irissrin.com\/blog\/?p=391"},"modified":"2022-04-28T12:25:43","modified_gmt":"2022-04-28T12:25:43","slug":"safari-to-kenya-ol-kinyei-conservancy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.irissrin.com\/blog\/safari-to-kenya-ol-kinyei-conservancy\/","title":{"rendered":"Safari to Kenya – Ol Kinyei Conservancy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is a continuation from Safari to Kenya \u2013 Lake Naivasha<\/a> that ended at Sunbird Lodge<\/a> on Thursday, March 10 after a day spent at the Lake Naivasha<\/a> and the Crescent Island<\/a> Game Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Recap: <\/strong>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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


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 \u2013 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!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On the Road to Porini Cheetah Camp (Friday, March 11)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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 \u201cHi!\u201d to David, I settled-up the bill with Caroline \u2013 mainly for water and drinks that were not included in the prepaid arrangement \u2013 and we then said our goodbyes.  Caroline was a brick \u2013 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As David drove that morning, I was afflicted with mixed feelings.\u00a0 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!\u00a0 This was tinged with melancholia (not in the health sense) \u2013 my close friends and family know this all too well of me!\u00a0 We were about two-thirds of the way through our Safari and had 4 days (sigh!) remaining.\u00a0 We would never again visit these parks for the first time!\u00a0 I could see why Steve, Cindy, Joao, and Licinia visited East Africa as often as they could.\u00a0 Surely, part of it was to recapture that \u201cmoment\u201d in this beautiful country in its beautiful natural parks, one of the last places on our planet where animals roamed free?! \u00a0Would I be one of them?!\u00a0 It would be difficult, but I wanted to make that happen.\u00a0 I thought back to other places and times, like the two years we spent in Gangtok<\/a>, Sikkim (1983-85), or earlier in Dehradun<\/a> (1980-83).\u00a0 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.\u00a0 It is likely impossible to go back to a place and time you loved.\u00a0 One thing was for sure: visiting Kenya felt like coming home, truly remarkable when you think of it.\u00a0 With that somewhat comforting thought I turned my attention back to the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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David had told us that this would be about a 5-hour drive with a rest stop about halfway.\u00a0 On the highway, we passed a few 22-wheelers trundling from Mombasa\/Nairobi towards the Ugandan border.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The traffic diminished immediately and, after another left turn due south we drove perhaps 25 minutes.\u00a0 The scene was drab, the terrain flat, the road well paved but with the occasional speed bump as we approached habitation.\u00a0 This seemed to be a semi-urban setting with low population density.\u00a0 After a while David turned right, and the road began to wind a bit.\u00a0 Soon, we were climbing up a hill and saw a sign informing us that we were entering Narok County<\/a> \u2013 we had been in Nakuru County<\/a>.\u00a0 David told us that we were entering the Mau catchment basin<\/a> 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.\u00a0 The road wound its way back-and-forth between Narok and Nakuru counties (the border there undulates quite a bit).\u00a0 We passed through a few villages with kids waving.\u00a0 David slowed down to under 25 miles an hour, the best we could do, and we settled down to enjoy the scenery on display.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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.\u00a0 Soon we were in the thick of Narok traffic.\u00a0 David made a left off the highway and a minute or two later pulled up into the parking lot of the Seasons Hotel, Narok<\/a>.\u00a0 We went into the hotel\u2019s restaurant where we ordered coffee and tea to go and then hit the restrooms.\u00a0 When I got back, the waiter at the restaurant endearingly said they didn\u2019t have any cups with lids (!) and he made do with clingwrap!\u00a0 After paying, I picked up the beverages and headed back to the parking lot with cups in hand for Iris and David.\u00a0 After handing them their drinks, we stood around while I walked to the gate of the establishment.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 After a little chit-chat, he asked us to check out his friend\u2019s craft shop beside the gate. \u00a0There were two shops there, but I suspect they were related.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Promising to check with Iris if she was interested, I went back to the 4×4.\u00a0 Iris, of course, was interested in shopping!\u00a0 David said that the second shop owner was a friend and he\u2019d give us a discount if we mentioned him.\u00a0 Also, he told us to bargain.\u00a0 Iris purposefully headed over to the gate and the Visions Gift Shop<\/a> with me in tow!\u00a0 We then went in and met Joel, David\u2019s friend.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 We browsed around a few minutes and selected a few things.\u00a0 Then came the bargaining. \u00a0We 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!\u00a0 Now the proud owners of some craftwork, we exited the shop, back to David and our vehicle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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.\u00a0 Soon, we were out of Narok and back in farmland.\u00a0 After about an hour of driving we saw signs for the Masai Mara National Reserve<\/a> and shortly thereafter, David turned off to the right and made his way down an unpaved dirt track toward a stream.\u00a0 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>, a private property!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After David filled out the entry form, he got back onto the driver\u2019s 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, \u201cJambo!\u201d.  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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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 \u2013 mainly Zebra and Wildebeest with some herd of Impala and the occasional Gazelle.  Iris filmed some footage, below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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