Lewa Wilderness

Flying in and out of small airstrips in cozy bush planes, means facing luggage weight limits of 33# per person and being allowed only soft-sided luggage. Before leaving Rwanda, we packed two duffles and stuffed them with our other luggage into our hard-sided bags. The hard-sided bags would remain in Nairobi while we visited the wildlife parks. 

We arrived at the hotel in Nairobi Kenya around 9pm and went to the bar for a snack. We adjusted our luggage according to the restrictions and got a good night's sleep. We met up with Dave & Shelly the next morning for breakfast at 8am. This became pretty much the pattern for the rest of the trip. 8am brekkie, 9am meet with the guide. Except on safari when we were met the guide at 6:30am or so. These days breakfast waited til after the game drive.

It takes a lot of gear for a 6 week trip to game camps (where you are out in the chill of pre dawn and post dusk) and to the desert heat of Egypt and Jordan. Not to mention bags of photography equipment and binoculars. All of which needed to be shrunk to 1 duffle and carry-on (soft sided only). It was scary to see the luggage for the 4 of us but we managed to comply with the restrictions.

We were off to Lewa Wilderness Lodge in the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy. Safari Camp airstrips are serviced out of the small regional Wilson Airport in Nairobi. It is small and very informal. We had a large regional flight. The plane accommodated 12 passengers. This was big and spacious. Our next flight, 3 days later,  accommodated only 4 passengers.

We flew into the Lewa Airstrip where we were picked up by our guide who took us to the lodge. We shared a suIte with 2 ensuite bedrooms and a large common area. The drive to the lodge was our first taste of safari drives for the trip.

 At Lewa Conservancy rhinos, elephants and lions were common sightings. Dining area had a view of hillside with frequent animal sightings. Between the ride to the lodge and the evening drive we collected (viewed) numerous varieties of birds and animals.

Birds from day 1. Clockwise from top left: Pallas Fish Eagle, Yellow-Necked Spurfowl, Mocking Cliff Chat, Ring-Necked Dove, Black-Shouldered Kite, Lilac-Breasted Roller, Kori Bustard, Superb Starling, and Northern Red-Billed Hornbill (center).

Animals from day 1. Down the left side: Mom and baby (African elephant, Southern white rhino, Grévy's zebra) down the right side elephants, Southern white rhinos, lion .

Day 2 we added significantly to our collection of birds and animals. Even a colorful lizard made an appearance. When we returned to the lodge from the morning game drive, we found the property had become the playground for a troop of vervet monkeys. Strangely they were not around on Day 1 or Day 3.

Birds and a lizard from day 2. Clockwise from top left: Rock Agama, Southern white-crowned shrike, Somali Ostrich, Black-winged Kite, Eurasian Collared Dove, Egyptian Goose, White browed coucal, and a Grey Heron.

Animals from day 2. Clockwise from top left: Grévys zebra, Impala and young, Vervet Monkey, Spotted Hyena, and Cape Buffalo.

More animals from day 2. Clockwise Adult Male Lion, White Rhinos (mistakenly called White from the Afrikaans word describing its mouth: “wyd”, meaning “wide”), Reticulated giraffe, Grants Gazelle, and Red Hartebeest.

Birds from Day 3 .Includes one new bird (golden eagle). Clockwise from top left: Speckled pigeon, Golden Eagle, African Spoonbill, Hadada Ibis, and a White-bellied go-away-bird.

Another day of game drives and we saw: clockwise from top left: baby white rhino, Eland, Impala, waterbuck, Grant's Zebra, Elephant and young, cape buffalo, a dik-dik, and a warthog.

We ate family style with other guests. 1/2 of the guests live or have lived in NJ (including Dave & Shelly).  The grounds and buildings are beautiful. The facility is nearly self-sufficient. Most food grown on site.  All the carpentry is done onsite. Blankets and rugs are  woven on site.  We visited the gardens, the weaving area and the woodworking shop. They use the downed acacia for their primary building material.

While elephants are a big attraction to the sanctuary, they do major damage to the trees, eating all the succulent young branches. In order to allow trees to get established, areas are electrically fenced off. Safari vehicles cross between areas via "Elephant gates"...wires sporting 1000 volts safely over the vehicles and generally keep the elephants away. 

Returning from our day 3 morning game drive, we were waylaid to a breakfast in the "bush" followed by a camel ride. It's quick tricky getting on the camel with (in. my experience) 3 back & forth motion when you really want to be hanging on. Our reactions to riding the camels varied. Shelly very much did not like it. Dave liked it the most. For the two of us, it was fine and might be especially appreciated if we were tired and had a long way to go.

We visited the Conservancy HQ Headquarters where they demonstrated their system for tracking animals and dealing with poachers. Some of the animals equipped with gps tracking devices (huge awkward but affordable ones). The HQ is equioed with computers hooked dup to multiple screens that can locate tracked animals over time. They also have specially trained dogs for tracking down poachers.

Our flight to Sarara Treehouses Lodge & Namunak Conservancy in northern Kenya was via a 4 passenger aircraft. Claustrophobic Pat was not at all pleased to be assigned the tiniest space in the back seat of the plane.

Outtakes of animals