On leaving Porini Rhino Camp one of our first sightings was of Alex Hunt, the owner of our next destination, Ol Pejeta Bush Camp, out training for the upcoming Lewa Marathon (more of this later), unsurprisingly trailed by a vehicle with an armed ranger, since his training route, like the marathon itself, took place through open bush country.

After passing some eland (), ostrich and zebra, we stopped at the Sweetwater Chimp Sanctuary for a while, to see the 42 rescued chimpanzees that they take care of there, in a large compound safeguarded by an electric fence. Star of the show was Charlie, seen here (), whose speciality was escaping from the compound, which he was able to do with consummate ease, to the bewilderment of the camp staff.

It wasn't that he wanted to get away, since, once outside, he would simply sit there waiting to be taken back inside. In fact on one occasion his captors took him back inside, and, on leaving the compound found him already sitting outside, waiting for them!

On our way to camp we achieved sightings of the very recognisable spoonbill () below, Defassa waterbuck (), below, and a strange looking Yellow Bark Acacia tree (), opposite.

     

Ol Pejeta Bush Camp (), (), below, was similar in many ways to Porini Rhino Camp, with the addition of a couple of lovely little pussies, Puffy (on the left) and Puddy (), opposite. Sweet they might have been, but at night they forsook the safety of the camp to roam around on their own in the bush all night.

     

On arrival we simply checked in and then went out to see what game was available. And what a day it turned out to be! First though it might be worth noting that Mount Kenya () is visible from Ol Pejeta, although not the easiest to get a good photograph of.

After spotting a hyena den, complete with two sweet little cubs, together with a further black-backed jackal, we came across a number of gorgeous cheetah (), which you don't normally see in the wild in our usual destination of Zambia. We watched the cheetah for some time, before moving on. We then added yet a further new species to our list, in the shape of a bat-eared fox (), below, and then spotted the strange sight of a giraffe simply sitting down in the grass (), below. In a somewhat different vein, whilst briefly out of the vehicle, we had a dung beetle pointed out to us, perched on a fresh ball of dung (). An impala sighting then followed - as usual seen from the rear ().

     

After a break for coffee we visited Ol Pejeta House (originally built for billionaire Adnan Kashoggi, but now owned by the Serena Hotel group), which was luxury personified () and (), below.

     

Moving on, we observed a number of buffalo (), together with Egyptian Geese, drinking from an artificially constructed drinking area (you can just see a couple of oxpeckers on the back of the buffalo).

For the bird watchers amongst you, we also saw (but didn't photograph all that well) a Tawny Eagle (), below, a Steppe Eagle (), below, and a number of white-backed vultures (), opposite. We also saw a number of vultures on the ground, with their wings spread wide (), opposite, which is apparently how they dry them.

     

Then came the real treat of the day, in the form of a two cheetah sightings, in each case on a kill. Immediately underneath the tree containing the white-backed vultures (above, opposite) we observed a couple of warthog () (below left) with a cheetah close by. However the cheetah wasn't at all interested in the warthog, since it had a recently killed Jackson's Hartebeest nearby (), below right.

     

While we were watching it didn't seem to want to return to its kill, but still kept a close watching brief over it () opposite.

We continued with our game drive, variously encountering a yellow-billed stork () and an elephant (), before coming across another cheetah kill, but this time with two cubs in attendance () and (), below.

     

A bit of an anticlimax after all this to come across a Serena Hotels vehicle bogged down trying to cross a stream bed (), below. Our day then concluded with a very different type of sunset to that which we were accustomed to out here, reflecting the stormy nature of the day (), below.

     

Back to previous page (Day 4)

Forward to next page (Day 6)