Under the african sky

by anshuman sen

Luxury camps and lodges make your safari experience comfortable and more memorable. Spot rare and elusive creatures of the wild and celebrate with a full course gourmet dinner.

“Arent theybeautiful!” exclaimed Muriuki as our four-seater Cessna swerved to the right, skipping and sliding over an air pocket. We were flying to Loisaba from Shaba and had spotted a herd of elephants sashaying across the vast dry expanse underneath. “Quite an unusual angle for spotting elephants,” remarkedhamish, ourttendulkarloving pilot fromnew Zealand, who effortlessly manoeuvred the plane to land on the very scenic airstrip.

It had only been 24 hours since I landed innairobi but I felt strangely at home in the company of my gregarious Kenyan friends. A keen wildlife expert and lover of Africa, Muriuki had us enthralled the previous night at Joys Camp, my first stop in Kenya, with wonderful tales from safaris he had been on.

Located on the eastern fringes of the Samburu ecosystem in the Shabanationalreserve, Joys Camp overlooks a vast natural spring that attracts elephants, lions, buffaloes, giraffes and zebras throughout the day. All of the ten luxury tents have spectacular views of the spring, apart from being tastefully furnished in the local Borana style. Joys Camp is built on the campsite of Joy Adamson, naturalist, artist and author of the best selling bookBorn Free. Our gracious hosts Francine and Wilhelm, conservationists themselves, were full of interesting anecdotes about Joy Adamsons life and the wildlife in Shaba. Over a sumptuous dinner of Greek salad and pork chops, we chatted about her: “this is where Joy re-introduced Penny the leopard to the wild and wrote her last bookQueen of Shaba.” Soon after this Joy was murdered, just a few hundred yards form her camp, and later became the icon of wildlife conservation in Africa.

the ever-smiling Johnebukutt had driven us around Shaba for a game drive earlier in the evening, bringing to our notice the difference in patterns of the reticulated giraffe of north Kenya and therothschild giraffe. “this is tthheerrare Grevys zebra, which is larger than the plains zzeebbrraaffound elsewhere in Africa,” he kept the information going while Muriuki and I leaned against the Land Cruisers bonnet sippingttusker beer and watching the sun go down on scenic Shaba.

Lawrencengugi was waiting for us at the Loisaba airstrip when we disembarked from the Cessna. “this is the best maintainedrangerover Ive ever seen Lawrence,” remarked Muriuki as we hopped on to the 2266--year-old workhorse. We first drove to the lavishly appointed Loisaba Cottage, a good option for large families, with its private kitchen and pool area.

Loisaba is a privately owned 61,000-acre game conservancy in northern Laikipia, with some of the best concentrations of flora and fauna in northern Kenya.the ewasonyiro river forms Loisabas southern boundary and ttootthheennoorth are the plains teeming with wildlife. Built on tthhee edge of a dramatic 6,000 ft-high escarpment facing a water hole, the stone and thatch Loisaba Lodge has amazing views of the Karissia hills. Kirsty Sutherland and the incredibly cute Foopy greeted us at the magnificent deck adjoining the drawing room. “Many of our guests spend hours at the deck, spotting wildlife,” she said as we proceeded to our respective cottages with their own private wooden decks on stilts.

After a quick lunch, Muriuki and I left for a range drive with Lawrence who carried a lion-tracking device with him.“Many of the lions in Loisaba are radio-collared so that we can monitor their movements,” he said straightening out the antennae of his lion tracker. After driving around for close to an hour looking for a signal, we finally got lucky near a rocky outcrop close to a small waterhole. Lawrence drove cautiously scanning the grasslands till he exclaimed in a hushed voice, “there, next to the acacia!”

The sight of two lionesses with three cubs sauntering along a forest track is something I will not forget in a long time. One of the lionesses spotted us and in a matter of seconds they camouflaged themselves behind a clump of dense bushes. On our journey back I got the opportunity to photograph a herd of elephants walking in a line along the horizon. It was clearly not an overwhelming sight just for me, as all three of us were awed.

dinners at Loisaba Lodge are elaborate sit-down affairs with gourmet preparations such as asparagus soup and steaks; the bar has an excellent collection of single malts. Mike McCartney, a safari guide based out of nairobi and a big fan of my childhood hero Jim Corbett, joined us for dinner. We chatted about Corbetts jungle adventures late into the night and I learnt from Mike that Corbett was buried in nyeri in Kenya. early next morning we left the lodge for another game drive and were lucky to spot a leopard ambling down a shallow ravine! Leopards are famously elusive animals and sighting a leopard is pretty rare anywhere in the world.