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!