Western Sahara 2016

Western Sahara 2016

Thursday 21 June 2012

Lost on Lewa


There are many hills on Lewa that make for great “sundowner” spots. I have been exploring some of these in the past couple of weeks as I am getting to know more people who live and work at the other lodges on Lewa. Lodge work does mean that it can be difficult to get together as everyone is busy with guests. However, it is often possible to grab an hour to have a drink with friends and watch the sunset so this is what we do. The down side of this is that you then need to drive home in the dark. With so little light pollution, the stars are amazing but the darkness also makes navigation challenging. Every dirt road looks the same. Cutting a long story short, we managed to get ridiculously lost one night. I would love to have known where we ended up driving (probably round in circles). Obviously, we made it eventually but it took about an hour longer than it should have done! The plus side of the unplanned night drive was great hyena sightings. On Lewa, you only ever see hyenas at night so they are not an animal you get to see regularly.

I finally got to watch the polo ponies in action last weekend. It was not a proper tournament but “club chukkas” which is kind of like practice weekends at the local polo club. The next tournament which runs over the next two weekends also takes place there so I should get to see the real thing very soon. The polo ponies have stayed up at the polo club as there doesn’t seem much point bringing them backwards and forwards. Also this way, they get to claim the good stables before those coming from further afield arrive, and they can use the polo pitch each day for schooling. Gives me a good excuse to get off Lewa too as I need to go check on them and ride them (although the polo syces have it covered really).

The sad news is that poor little Santa is an orphan. Not in the technical sense as his mother hasn’t died (yet) but she is very sick so he has had to be weaned. It was heart breaking separating them. Not that the mare had the energy to care. All I could hear as I drove off was Santa calling to her desperately from his stable. He is being very brave though and is coping better than I expected. Simba (the mare) currently looks like a rescue case (as in those awful horse rescue charity pictures you see in magazines). She has lost so much condition in the space of just a few days. The blood test shows a very high white blood cell count which means she has some sort of bacterial infection. She is now on intravenous antibiotics but she is so weak and has even fallen over a couple of times. This all makes it sound like she has been seen by a vet. But this is Kenya so she hasn’t. I took the blood myself, then took it to Nanyuki for testing, then spoke to a vet who told me what drugs to buy and administer. Playing at vets again…

The next exciting event on Lewa is the Marathon on 30th June. This is reputedly one of the ten toughest marathons in the world due to the altitude and rough terrain. The majority of entrants just do the half marathon which is allegedly like doing a full marathon anywhere else. People fly in from all over the world to do it. The purpose of the event is to raise money for Lewa Wildlife Conservancy and the Tusk Trust. Somehow I have been roped into being a water station manager for the event so I’ll let you know how that goes!


Monday 11 June 2012

What day of the week is it?


One of the joys of living in Kenya is that I rarely register the day of the week or have much idea of what is going on outside of my “Lewa bubble”. However, one constant each week is that Sunday lunch is always curry. I believe this dates back to some strange colonial tradition and it is one that is continued here at Wilderness Trails.

There seem to be giraffes all over Lewa at the moment. It is a very beautiful sight watching them walk along the ridge of the hill opposite our open sided dining room whilst you are eating breakfast. They are so majestic when they move. I never get bored of seeing giraffes whilst out riding either. You get a true sense of their size when you are on a horse as they tower over you with their long necks.

So far I have been very fortunate in that I haven’t had a single guest fall off their horse. Clearly, this couldn’t last forever. The saving grace was that on this occasion it was only a family member of the owners and not a paying guest. Also, she wasn’t injured as children bounce very well! That said, I was quite relieved to find she was okay as there isn’t much you can do when a pony canters off apart from stop your own horse and watch the horror unfold. I won’t be trusting Oyster (the naughty little pony) again with children who can’t ride…

No more foals this year. Both mares that were supposedly in foal tested negative when the vet came last week. In some ways, I am relieved as the foaling is quite stressful but it is also very exciting and rewarding so I am a little disappointed that I won’t have any more foals to watch grow up.

The horses are still hard work but I have managed to get out and about a couple of times. One evening for sundowners (drinks at sunset on the hill enjoying the Lewa views), although we were a little late reaching our chosen point due to a puncture. We did see a couple of lions en route though which was a treat as big cats are often hard to find. Fortunately, they weren’t around when we were changing the tyre! Also went on a game drive one evening. Lewa is vast (over 60,000 acres) so there is still so much of it to explore. I often think that I will never learn my way around entirely. There are not exactly a huge number of signs to follow and the “roads” are just dirt tracks.

Signing off now as the polo ponies are due back from their ten days away at tournaments. It is cold where they have been so I think they will be happy to be home to the warmth of Lewa and to get off the lorry and stretch their legs after an eight hour journey. I’m just hoping they don’t look too dreadful after the rigours of polo and travelling…


Friday 1 June 2012

Back to Kenya!


What a whirlwind of a week. It has flown past and I am struggling to recall what exactly has gone on.

It was fun driving up from Nairobi to Lewa seeing Kenya again. Everywhere looks nice and green after the rains until you get to Lewa which is really not green at all. It seems to have rained everywhere else but here! In fairness, there has been some rain but not as much as people would like. Despite taking the main entrance into Lewa (the longer route to Wilderness) to maximise our game viewing, there was surprisingly little game around. No time to dwell on these things as it was then straight back out to the polo club for an evening of drinking and dancing. The polo season is upon us and club chukkas (kind of like weekend practice sessions) had started at the local polo club about 45 minutes drive away. I did quickly manage to race up to the stables first to see my gorgeous foal, Champagne. It was almost dark but she was of course pleased to see me and she has grown beyond belief! She is no longer a little baby, although she does still like to have tantrums…

The other two foals have also grown so much – I barely recognise them. Santa has changed colour from a bright bay to a very handsome dark bay. He still has one bad leg but it is slowly healing and hopefully one day he will be a really lovely horse. Sheba is the most unfriendly foal ever and, like her mother, is very aloof.

I would like to say that the other horses are all well but that would be a lie. I am very glad that Ness (who has been covering for me) has been here all week to help out because there are so many problems. We are injecting horses left right and centre, bandaging, stitching, cleaning wounds, etc, etc. Could these horses be any more accident prone? Ness has now gone off to the polo tournament at Gilgil with six of the polo ponies leaving me with the four injured ones to look after. Thank goodness we actually do have the vet coming out next Tuesday to spend the whole day here. I think he could be busy…

We also have three new horses come to stay at livery for the next couple of months. They are Friesan cross Boerperd (a South African breed) which makes for a very large well built horse. They look huge compared to ours and the syces cannot get over the size of them. The farriers are particularly amazed by the size of their feet as they have never shod feet that size!

Nothing else to report other than horsey stuff because all my time has been taken up with them. The lodge reopens to guests tomorrow.