Birding at Breakfast, celebrating a global big day at Sandai, Mweiga

Published Saturday magazine an insert in Nation newspaper 25 May 2024

Above: Petra Allmendinger birding at breakfast on Global Big Day at Sandai House in Mweiga. Courtesy Petra Allmendinger

Worldwide, the birding community is abuzz on Saturday 11 May to log in as many species of birds as they can to participate in Global Big Day, marking its 10th anniversary. A tech-savvy Kenyan birder has tagged all the spots in the country that birders will be at. Nobody’s birding in Mweiga and so we head that way to check in at Sandai, one of the most scenic houses in the world twixt the two big massifs of Mount Kenya and the Aberdares. It’s a dream farm house with cottages dotted around the expensive grass plains with surreal views of the great massifs on the equator.

Sandai House after the rains green with grass.

Driving in late afternoon, the sky is hung heavy with clouds threatening to burst with the ongoing heavy rains. It’s going to make bird watching a challenge but when a big raptor soars above to land on the tall acacia in the neighbouring Solio Ranch, more famous for its rhinos where you can see up to a mind-boggling 40 in a day, things begin to look up.

Continue reading “Birding at Breakfast, celebrating a global big day at Sandai, Mweiga”

Lukenya’s Panorama of a 360 world

Above: On Lukenya ridge. Copyright Rupi Mangat

Published: Saturday Nation magazine 30 November 2019

On the ancient granite rock-filled ridge of Lukenya, it’s a 360-degree view of Africa. A mountain climber from the Mountain Club of Kenya is scaling a vertical wall of an immense rock face, his tiny figure carefully inching his way up as we drive from the plains to the top of the hill that is a feature on the Nairobi-Mombasa highway.

Close up of the cliff face of Lukenya belonging to the Mountain Club of Kenya. Copyright Rupi Mangat one time use only (800x600)
Close up of the cliff face of Lukenya belonging to the Mountain Club of Kenya. Copyright Rupi Mangat

It’s on this rocky crop that our ancestors lived in the era of Stone Age, a perfect spot where the caves became homes and the plains below a rich hunting ground for food. For us modern sapiens it’s simply amazing to be stepping on the same rocks as our good old ancestors and be fortunate to marvel at the beauty of space around us.

Continue reading “Lukenya’s Panorama of a 360 world”

Underground River, Coffee and Birding in Juja

Above: Osprey in Juja. Copyright James Kashangaki 

Published: 5 January2019

When Elspeth Huxley penned the Flame Trees of Thika, the road out of Nairobi in 1913 was very different from the Thika super-highway we are driving on to reach Juja, 40 kilometres away. Her description from the novel is of her as a six-year old with her mother on an ox wagon travelling out of Nairobi to meet her father who has just acquired virgin land that’s deemed to be great for coffee farming.

Pygmy Kingfisher. Copyright James Kashangaki (800x601)
Pygmy Kingfisher. Copyright James Kashangaki

Continue reading “Underground River, Coffee and Birding in Juja”