Watching the sun come up with the jagged peak of Mt. Kenya lined
against the African sky. Been awake since 3am, averaging 4-5 hours of sleep per
night. This sucks! But the view is great.
Back from our first safari! Words can’t really describe it. Seeing
these magnificent creatures in their natural habitat, free to run, charge, or
observe as the mood strikes them was beyond compare.
At one point we sat in a field that had about 12 different animals
in it, not just one or two of each but entire herds.
There were 23 giraffes, two families of warthogs, several herds of
Impalas, Zebras, waterbuck, some Elands, two jackals, half a dozen rhinos, cape
buffalo, even a lone monkey perched high above observing the proceedings.
The drive was on the Solio Game Reserve, a privately owned,
17,500 acre wildlife conservancy located in Kenya's Rift Valley Province. It is
one of the largest rhino sanctuaries in the country and home to whole herds of
black and white rhinos. (We did not know how rare the rhino is when we here,
but we only saw 4 others the entire trip. Here we saw literally dozens gathered
together in the same spot.)
Upon entering the park, we saw a cat with tufted ears like a lynx.
Justus told us this is a caracal, and it is extremely rare to see one during
the day because they are nocturnal. He said he had a guest come for 2 weeks just
to study this cat and they never even saw one. For us, it paraded up and down
the road, totally unconcerned with our vehicle. It wasn’t much bigger than a
house cat, but Justus said it could leap 4 meters (12 feet!) into the air and
snag a flying bird!
Next, we saw some black-faced monkeys scampering about and a pack
of baboons climbing over the fence. They were taking their time till they saw
us coming, then they all leaped over as fast as possible.
Kathryn was amazing at spotting animals. She saw a crowd of rhinos
from about a mile away, no joke. The binoculars were invaluable. The new camera
with its 32x optical zoom rocks as well. I think she took about 300 photos.
Seriously. It was hard not too with all the amazing creatures.
We saw black and white rhinos together and a couple of baby rhinos
as well. The color has nothing to do with its name, but supposedly comes from
the Dutch word for “wide” – referencing its jaw – that got misinterpreted by
English speakers as “white.” The white rhino is a grazer, feeding on grass and
thus needs a wide jaw as he presses his face into the ground. The black rhino
eats leaves and such, and has rather pointed lips for snagging leaves off of
trees.
The jackals looked a lot like foxes, perhaps a little taller and
leaner, and not quite as cute.
One rhino rolled over on its side and it was so fat his back legs
couldn’t touch the ground and just kind of hung there in the air. Comical. We
found vast piles of rhino poop – apparently, they all get together and crap in
the same spot to mark their territory!
We ate lunch out here,
with Justus setting up a table and chairs as we watched giraffes graze in the
distance and sipped cool Tusker beer.
We saw so many things, all new and exciting to us, that it’s just
overwhelming. I’ll have to come back to this day once my brain sorts everything
out.
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