I'm very fortunate to have retired from a career as a professional wildlife conservationist. Now I have the opportunity to take some smart and committed supporters of our programs into the field every year or two, and Kenya is sort of my specialty.
We just returned from two weeks in Kenya, where we stayed at Sirikoi Lodge in the Lewa Conservancy; Governors Il Moran Camp in the Maasai Mara; Mara Plains Camp in the Olare Motorogi Conservancy on the edge of the Mara; and Ol Donyo in the Chyulu Hills.
Sirikoi is my favorite lodge in Africa, and I've been staying there since it was just a few tents known as Willie's Camp. But you can't go wrong with Ol Donyo, especially with its waterhole.
The Mara, sadly, was a mess. Even with outrageously-high post-pandemic pricing it is terribly overcrowded and I've never seen as much litter lying around. At one leopard sighting I counted 48 vehicles crowded around it, mostly day-trippers. But leopards there were: we saw them at each of our four camps.
Zebra and wildebeest were beginning to mass, but we saw just one river crossing. That's ok...while it's the natural world at work, I kind of cringe at those few people who delight in carnage.
Just such superior images and the envy of not being there!
The World is getting too large but that is what they say is "progress".
I wish we would just leave these creatures to themselves. WE have invaded their lands! Not ours. But if it were not for the tourist trade, many of these Countries would not survive. I have mixed feelings concerning this.
EXCELLENT photography!
Dan
Wonderful photos bring me back to Kenya! Your comment about the Reserve is exactly why I always go to the Conservancies, aside from the crowds I don't want to see the chaos being caused by the tourists and guides that's so destructive to nature.
