Above: Sheldrick Falls in Shimba Hills National Reserve. Credit Shimba Lodge
It’s two kilometer’s track from Shimba Hills Lodge to Sheldrick Falls tells Azana Omari, the naturalist at Shimba Hills Lodge. Almost 17 kilometres away as the crow flies, Indian Ocean’s magnetic blue lines the horizon and further, the faint outline of Tanzania’s Usambara Mountains. An old male giraffe, dark with age stands in the midst of the savanna sprawl.
Shimba Hills National Reserve. Credit Shimba Lodge
Above: Grey crowned cranes in Lake Nakuru National Park. Copyright Rupi Mangat
Published: The East African Nation media 19 to 25 October 2019
The salt ribbon around the lake has disappeared, swallowed by the rising water. It’s a phenomenon that researchers studying the lake since the first recorded data, attribute to a 50 year cycle that happened in 1901 and 1963. Continue reading “On High Water in Nakuru”→
Above: Cheetah on the plains. Copyright Mary Wykstra founder of Action for Cheetahs
Published: 19 October 2019
It’s exciting at Lisa Ranch on the plains of the Athi-Kapiti with the iconic Lukenya stretched in the far horizon. The 6,000 acre ranch is both for livestock and wildlife and we’re here in search of the cheetah.
Thirty kilometres south-east of the ranch is Nairobi National Park and the busy Kitengela town.
In the bigger picture, Lisa Ranch is part of the Machakos ranches that are nestled between the Konza Technocity to the west and the Mombasa highway in the east with the Nairobi-Mombasa railway cutting through. This vast terrain measuring 300 square kilometres or 85,000 acres is one of the last wildlife areas that until a century ago hosted the Mount Kilimanjaro – Mount Kenya migration of wildebeest, elephants and other big game.
It looks like Spider-Man is inching his way up a gigantic cliff. He’s spread eagle and through my zoom l see his muscles taut as he gets a foot-hold in a tiny cervix in the rock as his hand grips another to move up. It’s tense but the climber is secured to a harness for safety. Finally, he reaches the top while his mates cheer him from below. A few minutes later, he rappels down in seconds.
Tiny figure of the rock climber on the cliff face of Lukenya belonging to the Mountain Club of Kenya. Copyright Rupi Mangat
Above: The Blue marlin, the ‘Grander’ and a shark at Malindi Sea Fishling Club. Copyright Rupi Mangat
Published: The East African Nation – 28 September 2019
I’m very hot and very hungry.
Jaws the Great white shark Malindi Sea Fishling Club. Copyright Rupi Mangat
It’s the middle of the day and l’m exhausted from playing tour guide to a friend, showing her places of interest in a town steeped in history from the time of Zheng He, the Chinese explorer who stopped in Malindi in the 15th century, decades before the more famous Vasco da Gama did. Zheng He was presented with a giraffe by the Sultan of Malindi to gift to the Chinese emperor. The Chinese had never seen such an animal and it caused a stir on the streets as it was paraded down.
By lunch, l’m in want of food and a cold drink and we’re close to Malindi Sea Fishing Club which is open to all at a daily membership. It’s the ideal place to lunch in town on a hot, airless day.
It’s a quaint old club set in a pretty garden shaded by tall trees by the beach. Hoping off the tuk tuk, it’s a grand entry into the sea fishing club with a Great white shark barring its jaws at the entrance. Inside, it’s a simple old-fashioned club from the fifties with nothing ostentatious to it. Its white washed walls – or rather columns –are open without glass windows and the low walls between the columns double as benches. The long bar features cold beers and spirits. I’ve found my place at the bar. A cold G&T for me please.
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