Three Private Conservancies in Kenya

[BRACQUENE]

Overnight a couple of lions had made a kill and in the early morning sunshine of the 12th we found them together with their young eating and resting 

 

 

 

Some scavengers waited for their chance ... 

 

  

 

Or simply were passing by like these African wattled Lapwing 

 

 

After breakfast we had another encounter with the Cheetah

 

 

 

And my second Secretary Bird ( first one last year in Gonarezhou NP ) 

 

 

Always great to see a Lilac breasted Roller 

And lions with a warthog they just killed 

 

In camp I was chasing since our arrival a local speciality : the "Von der Decken's Hornbill " named after the German explorer who discovered them and though Willem had seen them 

a few times I always was too late to take a decent picture but on the 12th I was lucky to find male and female 

 

 

In the afternoon we saw eland , magnificent antelopes in my opinion 

 

 

And as usual the late afternoon ended with hyena ( never saw so many as on this safari ) in a peaceful surrounding at the den 

 

 

 

 

To be continued ...

[Toxic]

6 hours ago, BRACQUENE said:

 

 

If I was an emoji this would be me right now 🥹🥹🥹  what a precious little cub!! 

[Kitsafari]

what an exciting sighting! i was so relieved the lion didn't take a chunk of the hyena cub but what a clever cub to escape into the waters and hissing at the lion! awesome. 

 

We had a great time at Kicheche Laikipia back in Dec 2018. the manager then was Andrew who had been a guide before. Our guide was Peter, not sure if he's the same guy as yours although hubby thinks he is. 

 

 

[BRACQUENE]

The 13th of August was departure day and we would be going to Mara North Camp by a road transfer ;  in the early morning I did some birding in camp again and found some nice ones : 

Speckle-fronted Weaver 

White-headed Buffalo Weaver 

Black-cheeked waxbill 

Red-fronted Tinkerbird 

Purple Grenadier

Red-headed weaver 

 

It was a two hours drive to the Mara North Conservancy and our next and final camp and we just left when we saw the missing half of the Ostriches !

 

 

IV. Mara North Conservancy : 

 

MNC is a private wilderness area of more than 28,486 Ha (~70,391 acres). It is a vital part of the Maasai Mara ecosystem as it forms the north-western zone, bordering the Maasai Mara National Reserve in the south of Kenya. MNC is a not-for-profit entity established in January 2009, The conservancy is a partnership between 12 Tourism Partner members (10 permanent camps & 2 riding outfits) & 768 Maasai Landowners. The aim is to create a best-practice, world-class conservancy with long-term commitments to the environment, wildlife, and local communities.

 

Compared to Laikipia and even the Mara Naboisho Conservancy ,I found it much busier and though we were told that the number of cars around a sighting is limited to five in practice 

that rule was not always observed 

The camp was like always hidden in a valley but this time the access road was the most bumpiest and steepest I had seen until now but when we finally arrived it was heaven

and the biggest of them all but also very green and with a lot of walking space !

 

A welcome drink offered by Andrew the manager 

The beautiful central area 

 

 

 

Our tents Punda Milia and Topi close to the main area 

After a great lunch ( food was incredible here and we had a staff member especially assigned to our table ) whilst others were having a nap I was a man with a mission find the 

local birds that I had heard of !!

Going to the bridge I could already hear the sound of different birds and it would be my place to be for the next three days when in camp ; Humphrey the resident hippo was

there as well

 

Speckled Mousebird 

Chinspot Batis 

 

And also those I was looking for ... 

 

African Blue Flycatcher 

Giant Kingfisher 

African Paradise Flycatcher 

 

The weather was warm but overcast in our first afternoon drive with Peter , our new guide but the big game wasn't really present ; a sleeping lion , a few hyena's and topi's ...

 

 

But I was in heaven with the quality of the birds and to see my first Woodland Kingfisher and there would be more in the next days 

 

Yellow Bishop 

Meyer's Parrot 

 

Returning to camp we spend some time around the fire before dinner , had a chat with a couple from Bermuda followed by a lovely dinner .

 

To be continued ..

[AndrewB]

Lovely bird shots (in particular).

[BRACQUENE]

The 14th of August early morning we encountered a herd of Elephants , very relaxed compared to what I experienced in Gonarezhou NP  last year 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And a bit later a lonely cheetah on the hunt for topi ... 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But she had to be satisfied with a scrub hare and the lioness resting in the shade was not in the mood for hunting at all ...

 

 

 

 

 

And then finding some more birds 

Yellow-throated Longclaw

Rüppell's Starling 

Pied Kingfisher in flight

Malachite Kingfisher 

And the one I was so happy to find for the first time : the Pygmy Kingfisher 

 

 

 

 

And then in the afternoon an impressive herd of Cape buffalo with Cattle Egret and Oxpeckers 

 

We left camp in the early hours of the 15th with a view of the hot-air balloons over the Mara National Park : we didn't do that excursion ourselves which would have taken a full day and met lions 

drinking when suddenly a buffalo showed up :

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The buffalo went into the bush and the lions didn't want to follow it and settled down to enjoy the first sunshine 

 

A bit later hyena's disputing some leftovers ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

And again ostriches , this time a couple 

 

We then had a lovely breakfast at the Mara River : no crossing but a wonderful setting with hippo and crocs as the main actors :

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Banded mongoose on the return to camp for lunch and a rest ...

 

 

To be continued ... 

[TonyQ]

Good to see the Kicheche camps through your eyes and camera. Your photos are beautiful, mammals and birds. You had some excellent sightings 

[BRACQUENE]

Thanks a lot Tony , that's why we do it and here we go again for the final part : 

 

 

 

 

Another view of the lovely position of our tents 

 

The afternoon of the 15th started with this herd of Wildebeest and a cheetah very close but who wasn't in the mood for having a try ...

 

 

 

 

And then a bit of a sad story : a new born Masai giraffe had lost his mother and was desperately trying to get a new one :

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few moments later we saw a gruesome scene ... Two hyena's were lying in the grass when suddenly one of them saw prey and grabbed a small baby impala; in a few 

minutes it was gone entirely 

 

 

 

 

 

Leaving only some small bits for the undertaker ... 

 

And a mother in despair ... 

 

We found the giraffes again just before sunset in bad light and were happy as they seemed to have found each other 

 

 

 

 

The next morning , the 16th of August we had a last drive before departure after lunch and the sun was present with some excellent light for pictures ... 

 

 

 

Striated Heron 

Long-crested Eagle 

Bateleur 

 

Wattled Starling 

 

Some  final thoughts coming soon... 

[BRACQUENE]

V. Conclusions : 

 

This was our seventh safari and the first we did with our entire family in celebration of Anne's 60th birthday ; it was strangely also our first to Kenya , a beautiful country and although more visited by first timers and families in high season as we experienced in the Masai Mara , both in Laikipia and the Mara the private and community conservancies fuse tourism with community development and wildlife conservation to impressive effect .

You could sense an overall proudness in all the camps we visited of what the country has achieved in terms of conservation but also especially in Laikipia a genuine concern about the country's deep economic and social tensions not in the least because of the conflict with Al-Shabaab terrorists in Somalia .

 

My highest praise goes to the Kicheche Camps : I was a bit afraid that visiting three camps of the same operator would be overdoing it and that there would not be enough variety in what they had to offer . Not so , each camp had its own personality and the staff was exceptional and very attentive to all our desires ; personally as I said at the start I would have loved more interaction with the other visitors which was limited to some talking at night around the fireplace but this wasn't always the case before as other members have pointed out .

 

And there I am arriving at an important issue : the time of the year to visit which I choose because of the holidays of my two son's ; August is a vey busy month in Kenya 

and I have never seen so many tourists in one small area as on the local Wilson's airport in Nairobi before taking a flight to Nanyuki airstrip in Ol Pejeta Conservancy .

Zambia's Mfuwe Airport in September looked empty in comparison . Moreover though August is said to be in the dry season don't expect cloudless weather like in Zambia or Zimbabwe because the impact of climate change is striking hard and we even had a few thunderstorms. 

 

I wanted to avoid the big crowds and thought the private conservancies would be the solution ; when I heard a lady in Mara North Camp talk about the number of cars and the way some drivers behaved at the Mara Crossing to get a good position , I was happy to have stayed in Mara Naboisho and Mara North for the full 6 days 

Even there sometimes the number of cars around a kill or simply a few lions lying in the shade was more than double the number admitted by the local conservancy authorities , which of course you would not see in my pictures !

 

In terms of pure sightings it is always difficult to compare and luck has to be on your side (no leopards seen) but Mara Naboisho and Ol Pejeta (the rhino !) were slightly ahead of Mara North even if it was in the last conservancy I was able to add the Pygmy Kingfisher to my impressive bird collection (more than 160) .

 

Would I go again ? Not in our summer months for sure but another Kenya this time remote and off the beaten track could lead me to Kakagema Forest , Arabuko Sokoke Forest Reserve  and Lake Baringo & Bogoria for instance in January 

 

 

[Hads]

Wonderful report thanks @BRACQUENE, many fantastic birding photo's especially your first Martial eagle pic

Thanks for sharing.

[Zubbie15]

Thanks for sharing @BRACQUENE, you had some excellent sightings.  It's interesting to hear your final thoughts about how busy it was, especially at some points in the conservancies. We didn't experience that ourselves, but going in November might have had something to do with that! 

[michael-ibk]

Thanks for a great report Peter, really enjoyed it. Many wonderful photos. Fully understand your thoughts about the Mara, as unrivaled as it's animal density is even in the conservancies you (IMO) don't really get the feeling of remoteness, of being far out there. That said, I'm sure I will return sooner or later, I love the Mara (yes, also the reserve), it's just not my top place. Kakamega and Boringo/Bogoria are great (for a birder) btw, well worth a visit. 

[Toxic]

A great report with some fantastic photos and narrative, very pleased the lost baby giraffe was reunited and also enjoyed reading your conclusions. I felt the same way about the Mara, though this was in November and during to Omicron outbreak, even though there was still the issue you highlighted about crowding over various sightings - leopard, cheetah, lion - all would attract more cars than was "permitted" and also various people would off road, despite the guidance that it wasn't allowed.  None the less an incredible place. 

[TravelMore]

Great report @BRACQUENE. I'm glad you had a great trip as a family.  We also have talked our adult son into coming with us twice and it is quite special.

 

We are booked for mid September in mara north, although Serian. I'm a little concerned for our experience but at this point, what will be, will be.