SWEETWATERS TENTED CAMP- OL PEJETA CONSERVANCY, KENYA SEP 25-26, 2012

SWEETWATERS,OL PEJETA SEP 25-26, 2012

SIGNING SARUNI SAMBURU VISITOR'S LOG

After leaving Saruni Samburu at 745am we drove through the Reserve past the KALAMA airstrip to meet the Gamewatchers vehicle at the KALAMA Conservancy entrance gate by the highway.  Well we arrived and .....noone!!  So Joseph, our driver. and Boniface, our guide continued onto the highway and drove down the highway several miles, the back through several Samburu bomas to the next Samburu National Park entrance and we met up with Steve from Gamewatchers.  Steve had never been to  Saruni before and had gone to the wrong entrance!  Somehow  Joseph and Boniface had figured out that this is where Gamewatchers must be.

Needless to say every mile is interesting - before we met Steve every Samburu adult and child is smiling and waving "Sopa"  - Hello!  Most wearing their traditional Samburu dress - so colourful and masses of coloured beads.   We piled our luggage and us into Steve's new 2012 Toyota Landcruiser, only 10,000 km on the speedo, and waved a last Goodbye to Joseph and Boniface and we were off.  Neil said "It's amazing how connected we've become to these lovely Samburu people in just two days" and it's true, we left promising to come back!

By 930m we were in Isiolo and checking out with the Kenya Police checkpoint.  This is the main road to Somalia and every vehicle is checked very carefully. The highway now is a beautiful black topped 2 lane highway and a comfortable drive whereas 6 years ago this was all corrugated dirt and a really difficult drive.  We were soon gaining altitude as we got closer to Mt kenya and the scenery changes quickly - there is more water here and the vegetation is green with very healthy fields of green produce stretching for miles - very pretty.  We had let the Samburu pastoralists behind with their goats and cows, and now here were the mostly MERU tribe who are agriculturalists and very busy working in the fields.

Nanyuki, our next stop, is the home of the Air Force branch of the military  strategically located because of the closeness to Somalia and it is not unusual to see jets  flying overhead on their practise runs.  At 1030am we passed a huge John Deer combine harvester going oh so slowly up the hills and then and soon passed lots of massive greenhouses growing mostly vegetables for the export market in Europe - cow peas, green peas and baby corn.  Soon we see Mt Kenya although the top is covered in clouds.

Batian, Nelion, Lenana the summit - are the 3 peaks on Mt Kenya which is not as high as Mt Kilimanjaro but is a technical climb for those who would like to climb it.

WEAVER BIRDS AND NESTS UNDER SOLAR LIGHTING PANELS

 It was a really enjoyable drive with Steve our driver giving us lots of information as we drove along.  We had Steve stop at Laikipia airstrip so that we could look in the store there (they have great stock), the boys could have a cold Tusker, there's a good small restaurant there as well?  It was about a 40 minute drive to SWEETWATERS Camp in the Ol Pejeta Conservancy passing some significant road construction and stopping at the Rongai Gate to pay our daily fee of $80 USD each and arrived Serena SWEETWATERS Camp at noon. 

We were surprised to see the original central buildings, constructed in the 1970's,all fenced off - they are going to be totally renovated.  So the reception, store, dining room ad lounge are now all in huge khaki coloured tents - and they are really done very well and quite elegant.  we were shown to tents 12 and 14 in the old section of tents over looking the watering hole not 50 feet in front of us, just a beautiful location. All the meals are buffet style but the selection for lunch was extensive and everyone could find more than enough to satisfy them.  Soup is served by the table waiter but we all passed on that.

OUR TENT

After lunch we checked out the store, and had Charity from the main office show us the 10 new tents including 1 family style holding up to 5 beds all in the same area and 1 with a ramp and handicapped accessible. This brings the total tents to 50 at SWEETWATERS tented camp.  They were very luxurious with large wooden framed windows overlooking the waterhole and the savannah and the surcharge is $50 USD per person over the rate for the old style tents.  Imagine my surprise when 2 tents down from us we saw a man with a heavy duty sewing machine sewing canvas - he is a canvas specialist and sitting at the tent making repairs with his machine - what an office with views of the wildlife and birds while you work!  Yesterday we were so lucky to get Terry's bag sewn back together and here we are today with Anita sewer and machine in our midst! He offered to fix the bag when I told Hume the story but I explained we already had the problem resolved.

We left at 315 for our afternoon game drive with the clouds looking very black and threatening all around us.  Steve had taken the top off the Land cruiser so that we could stand up to enjoy the drive and take photos.  Our first stop was the Chimp Sanctuary.  Chimpanzees are not native to Kenya but the Sanctuary has been built here at OL PEJETA to give a home to chimpanzees from across Africa,especially Congo and western Africa, where they have been kept as pets and mistreated, as well as losing their homes as the forest is cut down and their natural habitat destroyed.  Here they have lots of land and are fed by the Keepers every day, they are dangerous and behind electric fence but living in a total of ? Acres.  There are 2 families(25 chimps in one family and 17 chimps in the family across the river).  

POCO THE CHIMPANZEE

Each individual story was very sad and we saw Poco who was rescued from being locked into a cage that he was forced to stand in all day (chimps do not normally stand on 2 legs) And the cage was hung in the air at a gas station to encourage customers to come in and buy.  Another was a pet kept by a Belgian in a hotel and the taken to the Sanctuary when he returned to Belgian.  There are photos showing chimp hands and feet for sale to the tourists.  The stories are all very sad. Poco was sitting on the ground behind the fence with his hands over his eyes most of the time hiding from the bright sunshine - apparently he has cataracts and is soon to receive cataract surgery to improve his quality of life.  Did you know that an adult male chimp is 4 times as strong as an adult human male of the same age?

As we wandered along the outside of the compound looking in we had a close up encounter with a small baboon family - they were just 2 or 3 feet away and kept that distance but were quite happy to be feeding on the grasses and foliage with us looking on and taking photos.  Poco suddenly started making a horrendous noise- he had a stick and was running up and down the fence rattling his stick against the fence. There was a lady there from USA with a huge camera who is apparently there for s real months doing research - she said that for some reason Poco has taken a dislike to her the lat few days and runs up and down the fence each day when she is there and she is there all day.  Mmmmmm?

By now the clouds were Ming in fast and we did have a little rain as our game drive came to an end.  We passed the enclosure for the Northern White Rhino and managed to see all 4 of them just inside the fence.  We also saw black rhino at large in the Conservancy, and were really close to several water backs crossing the stream - such beautiful animals, and lovely photos of a black backed jackal who stood still long enough for us to click away.  As the sunset the sky was stormy but we did get some rays shining through as a large bull elephant browsed on the horizon. The end of another great day and now it was time for cocktails and dinner back at SWEETWATERS.

ON THE EQUATOR AT ALTITUDE 5990 FEET

We wandered slowly past the watering hole to our tent and a security guard came up to open the zips - actually it turned out that he was coming to give the bad news to Jackie and Neil - baboon attack in the afternoon!  Neil had zipped everything up when we left for the afternoon game drive but the was a slight gap between the Velcro and tent and the baboon had found it - worse yet, the baboon had found all the cough mixture and Swiss chocolates that they had bought in Zurich and all that was left to show was muddy footprints and a few empty wrappers and there had been 40 or 50 chocolates! To add insult to injury, Neil was getting changed for dinner and found that the trousers that had been returned to him the day before we're 3 sizes too big - he had been given the wrong pants!  It was time to break out the wine and G&T,s and forget the afternoon issues.  

Terry set up our computer as a hot spot and we all caught up with emails on IPads and , Iphones while Jackie posted on Facebook - meanwhile the housekeeping staff came and changed the bed linens and cleaned the muddy footprints off the carpet and the baboon tracks were gone for ever along with the Swiss chocolates!

SILVER BACKED JACKAL

We went for dinner around 830pm and what a great evening we had - clear oxtail soup broth with cheese and crackers for me, and everyone ate really lightly.  We shared a bottle of Australian  Shiraz and laughed until we cried sharing jokes and stories starting with the Baboon Attack. We were the last in the restaurant and the buffet was cleared away and then a local in safari garb came over to talk to us - he looked like a driver guide but turned out to be the General Manager of Sweetwaters Tented Camp.  He said how happy it made him to see clients so happy and enjoying themselves.  He insisted on buying us another bottle of wine - we really did turn him down 3 times first!  We made it back to the tent by 11am and even with the night noises of the animals we slept well until before 5 am next morning. One animal noise was incredibly loud at sunset and we really wondered what it could be? It turned out to be the small cute furry tree hyrax!   I was really cold when we made it back to the tent even though I was wearing a camisole, long sleeved merino wool lightweight top, a cashmere long sleeved top and a polar fleece vest, along with pants and socks, imagine the nicest surprise I had when I got into bed and there was a lovely warm hot water bottle and on top a very thick duvet and two blankets.  Heaven!!