For our second day in the Maasai Mara, Enoch was keen to show us something a little different. When you picture Kenya, dense woodland is probably not the first thing that springs to mind, and yet Kenya’s forest ecosystems are as vital to the sustenance […]
Category: Kenya Trip Blog
Day 15: Where the Wild Things Are
Our first full day in the Maasai Mara began at 5:30am, because apparently that’s when the animals are most active. Weirdos. We yawned our way into the jeep, shivering in the chilly morning air and waiting for some of that famous African sun to show […]
Day 14: To the Mara!
In the early hours of Monday morning, on the fourteenth day of our trip, we left the relative comfort and familiarity of Kiboko Camp behind to set off on a week of travels to the Maasai Mara and beyond. Packing our bags and saying goodbye […]
Days 11-13: Farewell to Kiboko Camp (for now)
We spent the last few days of our second week conducting more interviews, monitoring the camera traps, and preparing for the next leg of our trip into Kenya’s Rift Valley region. Mandela had left earlier in the week to return to his job at a […]
Day 10: Lion Lights and Late Night Frights
We began our tenth day with a feast. Chris had been busy all morning whipping up a huge batch of mandazi, triangular pockets of fried pastry which taste of sugary warmth and are best eaten by the bucketload. The supply seemed to be limitless, and […]
Lights, camera… try again
We had something of a rocky start with our camera traps. On the morning of the wedding day, we made a foray out of the camp into the surrounding bushland, ready to get the cameras up and running so that we could start collecting data. […]
A week of community interviews
Having spent a few days getting to know the area and its wonderful cast of characters, the time had come to start conducting our interviews and learning about human-wildlife conflict. This issue, which forms a major part of Enoch’s research, is a significant challenge for […]
Day 5: Maasai Marriage
I had been feeling a little apprehensive about the community interviews that we were soon due to conduct. There was no doubt in my mind that everyone we spoke to would make us feel welcome, but I wanted to give them reason to like us, […]
Day 4: The Big Beasts of Nairobi
Today I kissed a giraffe, and I’m not ashamed to say that I enjoyed it. Remarkably, this wasn’t even the most exciting thing that happened on our fourth day in Kenya – the giraffe-smooching barely made the top five. We had a packed schedule, so […]
Day 3: Getting kitted up in Kitengela
I awoke on Thursday morning to find Impi grazing outside my window. Our eyes met in a moment of polite acknowledgement: she was having her breakfast, I was about to have mine. As we tucked into our omelettes and Impi munched on her grass, Enoch […]
Magadi Camera Trap Images
These camera trap images are from 3 separate camera traps, deployed at different locations over the Ol Kirimatian/Shompole conservancy over a period of 5 days. All had both wildlife and livestock captured on them.
The Rift Valley Lakes: Nakuru, Baringo, Bogoria & the Kerio Valley
Leaving Magadi we once again faced a full day of driving across the length of Kenya to reach the shores of the lakes Nakuru, Baringo and Bogoria that would hold our attention for the next few days. As always such a day involved amazing views, […]
In Search of Lions and Love (Magadi-Shompole)
We left Enoch’s house at 7.30am, headed for Magadi, where the Lale’enok Resource Centre was located. It was to be our home for the next 6 days, and is a community based resource centre owned by the Maasai women of Olkiramatian and Shompole group ranches. […]
Athi-Kapiti
The journey back to Nairobi was predictably long, but not without its fair share of excitement and intrigue. The third female member of the group, like to play daisy slots and other casino games is now taking part in a new journey, Zheng, was sold […]
Samburu
As we drove to Samburu, the scenery was so different from what we had experienced in Kenya so far. It was so dry and everything looked so wild. When passing by a village, I was surprised by people’s clothes – so colourful and striking (I […]
Laikipia
As we drove through Mpala the team (minus Tom) were having a heated debate about whether the Grevy’s or Common Zebra could be seen as more attractive; at this point I realised my motives for signing up for this trip were different to these other […]
Maasai Mara Days 2-4
As the CUWCS team awoke on day two of our trip, after a short but good night’s sleep in our lovely guide Enoch’s house, we prepared ourselves for the 6 hour drive from Kitengela to the Maasai Mara. 13 long, long hours later (Mr Shah […]
Day One
Landing in Kenya was a shock to many of us. Leaving behind England in a heat wave, arriving to the chilly Nairobi morning made us question our packing of only t-shirts, shorts and copious amounts of sun cream. Having been met by our guide and host […]
Kenya pre-trip
We will be blogging right here about our trip to Kenya, where individuals will be visiting and working alongside conservation initiatives and local communities including the Maasai and Samburu, two pastoralist tribes that have historically co-existed with wildlife for hundreds of years. We will be […]