Laikipia - day 2

We were woken up at 5.30am by a gentle good morning call outside our tent and a cup of hot tea. By 6am we were in the vehicle, looking at the beautiful dawn sky as we set off on our game drive. It was very cold, but we were given hot water bottles and fleece lined ponchos to wear which was a real treat. Soon we came across a solitary lion who was just lazing in the early morning light so we stopped to observe him. Suddenly he spotted some impala and we got quite excited as we thought we would witness a kill. As he was on his own he decided against it as they were too far away, but then he spotted a buffalo. A solitary male would never go after a large buffalo but he must have been very hungry, so we watched as he considered it and then started stalking the buffalo. However, he soon came to his senses and realised he could never bring down such a large animal as that on his own. Poor chap, it did not seem as if he was going to get breakfast this morning! He had to be my blip today as he looked so magnificent sitting there in the early morning light, with his mane all golden and handsome.

We then saw some white rhino - these are the southern white rhinos which have been so successfully brought back from the brink of extinction, unlike the northern white rhinos of which there are only 3 left in the world. We came across some more lions and enjoyed watching them for a while - until another two vehicles pulled up with some American tourists who had the biggest lenses you have ever seen, and they started taking photos on high speed continuous frame rate of the lions sleeping in the sun, so they undoubtedly would have ended up with about 600 images of the same sleeping lion! Not necessary to use fast rate continuous frames on a stationary subject, but judging by their huge lenses and equipment they must have known what they were doing…(not!)

We stopped for breakfast next to the river, where our guide set up a table and chairs under the beautiful fever trees where we enjoyed our meal. They have been so kind in providing gluten free and lactose free meals for me  - in fact the chef makes the best gluten free bread I have ever tasted! While we were having breakfast Gavin switched his data roaming on so that Thomas could get his GCSE results. He was so nervous, as was I…but the boy did exceptionally well, looks like he got the top marks in his school meaning he got the most number of A*’s. We are very proud of him and he is very relieved.

After lunch we went to see the Ol Pejeta rhino enclosure where the 3 remaining northern white rhinos live, plus other endangered species like Grevy’s zebra. It was quite an emotional experience - we met Sudan, the last remaining male northern white rhino who is now old and blind in one eye. We all had the chance to feed Sudan and to stroke his tough hide. His keeper has a very close bond with him and was very good with him. We also met the remaining two females. As Sudan is too old to mount a female, mainly due to weakened back legs, and the one female is infertile and the other also has weakened back legs (due to their time spent living on concrete floors in a zoo before they were brought to Kenya), they have to use IVF to try and save the species. They have already taken semen from Sudan and three other males (before they died) and they have also harvested eggs from the one fertile female rhino. They plan to plant the embryo in a healthy southern white rhino who will act as a surrogate. Hopefully this will work, but they are still trying to raise funds for this as it will cost about US$900 000. All of this relies on donations. We were all moved by this, the boys felt it was the most incredible experience, meeting a species that is possibly going to be extinct. We then saw the Grevy’s zebra which are quite beautiful, more like a horse and taller than the common Zebra. They too were almost extinct but they have been very successful with their breeding program. Finally we met a black rhino called Baracka that is blind and has been brought into the enclosure to prevent other animals attacking him - the boys fed him and very much enjoyed the experience. I have added extras of Sudan, the Grevy’s zebra and Thomas feeding Baracka.