Dense bush surrounded our comfortable tents, affording us a great deal of privacy even if there had been other guests.
We spent a couple of days in our safari vehicle with Laban, a member of the Maasai tribe. In addition to his first-rate driving and game spotting skills, Laban also answered a million questions with enthusiasm, and served us breakfast, lunch and cocktails. The Kenyan government certifies all guides after they complete an intensive training program. Call it "keeping white people happy" if you will.
Laban excelled at his job. It differed greatly from traditional Maasai self-employment so I was more than a little curious about his "other" life with a wife and two children. They remained in southern Kenya. He acknowledged the cultural disconnect with the Maasai lifestyle but also insisted that re-integration was his responsibility when he returned to his village on periodic breaks.
The reticulated giraffes looked particularly beautiful in the late afternoon sun.
Several giraffes on the move are known as a "tower." The Scrabble players on our trip took particular delight in learning the terms used to describe animals when they're in groups.
Giraffes usually are searching for acacia trees to eat. Not much bark left on this one.
Maternal instinct kept this giraffe particularly wary of us.
Ostriches in Lewa wear "blue jeans." Elsewhere their legs and throats are pink-colored, especially when the females are in heat.
Grevy's zebras travel in "zeals." They have thinner stripes than the zebras we'd already seen. They're also endangered.
Conservationists in Lewa have created a corridor that allows elephants to move in and out of the park so that their insatiable grazing is less destructive. This old girl lost her tusks but she still was in charge of the rest of her small herd.
Laban spotted a pair of cheetahs on the hunt.
They moved stealthily through the grass.
Laban timed our sundowner perfectly.
The shape of the horn, not the color of their hide, distinguishes black rhinos from white ones. This one is black.
En route to another bush breakfast, we crossed paths with a puff adder.
On Thursday afternoon, we opted for a canopy walk instead of a game drive. Unlike nearly everything else on our safari it cost extra. Our slippery hike to a waterfall also required two rangers from the Ndare Ngare Forest Trust, including one with an AK 47. I preferred the other who offered to take my picture.
After falling into the stream, I decided to get completely wet. "Aren't you concerned about snail-borne brucellosis?" Chris asked. Ignorance COULD have been bliss!
My camera, which got slightly wet when I fell, worried me much more. Much later, when I told a British woman on her third trip to Kenya that my camera wasn't working properly, she said "that's why I always bring two." Next time.
A short drive away through some very dense bush, we ascended a steep ladder to the canopy walk. It meandered through the treetops for about a quarter of mile.
Thom, as usual, had a city boy's take on the experience.
After Laban climbed the ladder at the other end to set up our lunch, he had to change our first flat tire.
Even Laban wasn't equipped to deal with our second flat but he was able to radio ahead for a second vehicle. We made it back to camp in time for cocktails and dinner with a couple of volunteers from the Northern Rangelands Trust who were eager for some American company. Within a year of seeing a wildlife conservation opportunity vaguely described in a Nature Conservancy newsletter, they had left their Republican lives behind in Minnesota to educate the local community about the benefits of conservation and financial diversification. Our brief but lively encounter taught me that even Hillary haters can have redeeming qualities.
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