Naboisho

Friday 

Today we said goodbye to our Lewa friends and departed for the Naboisho Conservancy.  The plane ride there was like riding a city bus.  We made three stops before reaching our destination.  Naboisho lodge is a tent lodge, meaning our room is a tent; however, this is not your average tent.  There is a sitting space in the front section with two chairs and a day bed, a large sleeping section with a king size bed and writing desk, a bathroom space with the usual fixtures, and an outdoor shower— not your average tent.  

The lodge has no perimeter fence; so animals can come wandering right up tp your tent.  Once darkness falls and before the sun comes up an escort accompanies you to your tent. When we arrived, we had a wildebeest about 50 yards from our tent.  A short time later, a giraffe joined the wildebeest.

The landscape here is very different from Lewa. The land is flat and the plains open with few trees and only occasional thickets of shrubs. While it is still quite dry, the grass is greener than in the north. Naboisho has a very high concentration of lions, thanks to the huge herds of zebra, impala, thomson’s gazelles, giraffe, buffalo, topi, and of course wildebeest — and the consequences can be seen in the skulls dotting the ground as you drive past. 

We are again lucky in our guide, who is experienced and knowledgeable, and a birder. His name name is Lucas.  We also have a student who is studying to be a guide. They have classroom work and need to spend time in the field learning from experienced guides. Between the drive from the airstrip and a long afternoon game drive we saw a male lion, five lionesses, four cheetah (a mother and three young about 14 months old), two jackals, a hyena, and banded mongoose and lots of birds.

At the end of the afternoon drive, we stopped to have a sundowner — sipping wine on the savanna and watching the sun set.  We ended our sundowner a bit early when we heard the “walking, not angry” growl of a male lion. We pursued him by ear in the gathering dark, and discovered that he was on his way back to his den.  We continued the night drive and encountered another male lion and two lionesses starting their nighttime hunt.  We also came across another jackal, a scrub hare and three nocturnal species: white-tailed mongoose, genet (which looks like a cat but is related to mongoose) and springhare (who bounce around like miniature kangaroos).  

The photos today are a secretary bird and our neighbors as viewed from the tent.