A charging elephant, a missing cat and a wedding

In my last blog, I wrote that there are a huge number of elephants on Lewa at the moment. So clearly, it was only a matter of time before a charging incident. We are on a lovely morning ride with some guests heading up the hill when we come round the corner and encounter a herd of elephants. Not on the track blocking our way but close enough that it could be a problem. So we continue walking quietly by trying not to disturb them, but straightaway a young bull elephant starts walking towards us with purpose, flapping his ears and most definitely not happy. We start trotting to try and give the herd the space they want, but that wasn’t enough for this elephant. He starts trumpeting and running, we start cantering up the hill. The elephant is now on the track and running up behind us fast making very loud angry trumpeting sounds. It was fortunate that we had a good track ahead of us because he followed us for quite some time before he gave up the chase. To be honest, it was really fun – the horses loved an excuse to gallop up the hill, the guests loved the adrenalin rush (fortunately they were all experienced riders), and everyone had a good story to tell at breakfast.

Sad times though, my friendly little tortoiseshell cat has now been missing, presumed dead, for a week - probably eaten by a leopard whilst on her night time wanderings. It is not the same now when I go up to the stables each morning. The two cats would always come bounding across the yard to greet me – not because they love me so much, they just want their breakfast! Now I just have one sad little tabby cat who misses her sister desperately… They would sleep curled up together, wash each other, and play and fight together so she really doesn’t know what to do with herself now that she is alone.

For the first time ever on Lewa, I found it necessary to wear a dress. The wedding of Will and Emma’s niece took place last weekend up on the hillside near Pombe Rocks. Kate and I got invited to the evening dinner and dancing and - after stressing greatly about what to wear - had a lovely time and a very late night. It’s all very well wearing a dress during the day but it is freezing once the sun goes down, hence our what to wear dilemma! The trick is to keep dancing so you don’t feel the cold…

A Snake in my Room

For someone who doesn’t like snakes, there is nothing more traumatic than, whilst sitting on the toilet, suddenly seeing a snake dart across your room and catch a lizard!! Squirrels and lizards I can cope with in my room – even squirrels that try and get into my chocolate supplies – but snakes I draw the line at. Guide to the rescue to remove said snake from my room pronto, although they assured me that it wasn’t a poisonous one…

The last week of January has been a quiet one guest wise, so I’ve been on a few excursions. A day trip to the Tana River – not that we ever quite made it to the point we planned to get to due to a lack of passable roads, but we found a river that runs into the Tana. A fun day out and we got a few interesting looks as I don’t think they see too many muzungus (white people) in that area.

Also took a trip up to Borana, the neighbouring ranch to Lewa, to visit a friend. Had a great time riding on Borana as it is great riding country with lots of hills and forests - not as much game as on Lewa but very pretty scenery. After riding, we took a trip by car into the Ngare Ndare Forest and went to the waterfalls. As we were supposedly on a recce to find horse riding routes, we were ill equipped for swimming but the water looked so inviting that we jumped in clothes and all regardless. Icy cold water but most invigorating!

Another great morning out was buggying and quad biking. Some friends have set up a business offering trips by motorised buggies and quad bikes. They are great fun for exploring areas outside the conservancy as long as you are prepared to get seriously dirty and dusty! The buggies, which take one driver and one passenger, are great for off-roading and a lot more comfortable than a car for bumpy African roads.

Lewa seems to be teeming with elephants at the moment. They say elephants are incredibly intelligent so perhaps they know that poaching is on the increase in Kenya and that they are safer inside Lewa than outside (Lewa has never lost an elephant to poachers). However, elephants and horses don’t get along so well and I’ve encountered a few angry eles on rides recently. A lot of ear flapping and rumbling noises if you get too close to them. Quite fun as long as they don’t decide to full on charge you!