Here we go again....

Well, it has been a while. So much so, that I’m not sure where to start! I kept a blog when I took an overland trip from Cairo to Cape Town in 2011. Now I’m about to embark on a new adventure and due to several requests from family and friends, I am starting up the blog again. This is the “test run” blog entry to check that I can still remember how to string a sentence together and that my log in works!!

As most of you will know, I have a huge love affair with the African continent so it will come as no surprise to learn that this is where I am headed once again. Having visited 16 of the 54 African countries, this next trip will take in a few more. (And yes, I did just google “number of African countries” to find that out!). This trip will focus on West Africa, beginning in Ghana on 1^st Feb and finishing in Morocco at the beginning of May. As the itinerary stands, I will be travelling from Ghana, through Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau, Senegal, Gambia, Mauritania, and Western Sahara before reaching Morocco. For more info, visit www.overlandingwestafrica.com who I will be travelling with.

If my next adventure interests you (or horrifies you which seems to me a common reaction), then feel free to follow the blog.

Off to complete the dreaded packing now and I leave you with this quote…

“Africa changes you forever, like nowhere on earth. Once you have been there, you will never be the same. But how do you begin to describe its magic to someone who has never felt it? How can you explain the fascination of this vast, dusty continent, whose oldest roads are elephant paths? Could it be because Africa is the place of all our beginnings, the cradle of mankind, where our species first stood upright on the savannahs of long ago?"

Brian Jackman

Two years of blogging comes to a close....

For those of you that follow my blog, you may have noticed that blog posts have been a little thin on the ground recently. I originally set my blog up to keep a record of my travels during my belated “gap year”. As you know, my travels led me to Kenya where I have spent the best part of the last 18 months working at a safari lodge on Lewa Downs in northern Kenya. How time flies when you are having fun. I’ve now decided to stay a little longer – frankly the economic situation in the UK, not to mention the atrocious weather is a little off putting – so for the foreseeable future I will be taking on the job of lodge manager.

Part of my new job has been to set up and run the Facebook page for the lodge – uploading photos and details of events that have occurred and raising awareness of what an amazing lodge Lewa Wilderness Trails is. With that in mind, I now think it is time to bring my own blog to a close. For those that still want a snapshot of my daily life on Lewa, then check out www.facebook.com/LewaWilderness and like us on Facebook!

I had always planned to include in my final blog a list of some of the top experiences and places visited over the past two years, so – in no particular order - here goes….

-          Swimming with whale sharks in Mozambique

-          Snorkelling with manta rays in Coral Bay, Western Australia

-          Getting crazily close to rhinos whilst walking on Lewa

-          Riding with lions on Lewa

-          White water rafting the White Nile, Uganda

-          Seeing mountain gorillas in Uganda

-          Horse riding in Lake Malawi

-          The White Desert, Egypt

-          Visiting the mountain kingdom of Lesotho via the Sani Pass

-          Bunji jumping off Bloukrans Bridge, South Africa

-          The Taj Mahal, India

-          The holy city of Varanasi on the River Ganges, India

-          Sky diving over Abel Tasman National Park, New Zealand

-          Hiking the Routeburn Track, New Zealand

-          Flying in the biplane over Lewa and Samburu

-          Galloping along the Wilderness airstrip at sunrise with the biplane flying alongside

-          Awesome Odyssey times with great people (Odyssey is the company I did my Cairo to Cape Town trip with)

-          Seeing cheetah cubs

-          Spotting wild dog

-          Staying at Rutundu, Mount Kenya (where Wills and Kate got engaged!

And there are many many more besides. All in all, when I reflect on the past two years, life has been pretty damn good. So goodbye for now, thanks for reading – don’t forget to check out Facebook – and I will blog again next time I go on my travels. Not sure when that will be, but – given my wanderlust - the chances are it will happen again sometime…

Rainy season

Well, the photos I've just posted of the horses were taken a couple of months ago before the rains. The grass on Lewa is now a beautiful emerald green after a massive deluge of rain just over a week ago. It literally rained for four days and nights which is very unusual. Roads were impassable and previously dry rivers were in full flow. The mud was something else and I was not out of wellington boots for about a week! It reminded me somewhat of living in Britain except here no one complains about the rain.

Back to normality now and sunshine and blue skies. We had a very naughty elephant come into camp a couple of nights ago. He decided to take a walk through the stable yard taking down fences en route and then destroying a large yellow fever acacia tree that overlooks the yard! He tried to come back last night but after a few rounds of gunfire (not at him obviously - just into the sky to scare him off), he thought better of it and has hopefully learnt he is not welcome.

Went for a lovely walk the other morning, along the river and then up into the hills. Saw a crocodile basking on the river bank. Having seen signs of a buffalo, we were then tentatively walking up the hill through scrubby bushland when Rakita (the guide) grabs my arm and beckons me to follow him quickly. My heart stopped for a moment as I feared we had happened upon the buffalo - probably the most aggressive and dangerous animal on Lewa. To my relief, I did not need to scramble up a tree, Rakita's excitement was due to him having spotted two bushpigs which are incredibly elusive and hard to spot. Fortunately, we never did see the buffalo, but had an amazing time watching elephant and rhino, especially a mother and three month old white rhino lazing in the sunshine below us as we sat on a rock above them.

Sad times as horse numbers have now been reduced by one. 27 year old Lester reached the end of the road after many years of service as a fantastic guest horse. He has been slowly retiring for sometime, only coming out to provide much pleasure to small children as he takes them safely through the bush in the number two spot right behind the lead guide horse. Even some of the syces were sad to see him go. It was the only kind thing to do though as old age and arthritis were getting the better of him and he could no longer keep up with the herd. Lester was affectionately known as "mzee" which literally means old man in Swahili but is very much a term of respect. What was most endearing was that Finn (another mzee of the yard) always stayed with Lester close to home whilst the rest of the herd went further afield. I hope he is not missing his old friend too much.

Happy horses

The herd grazing contentedly on Lewa with Mount Kenya in the background

Being let out of the stables in the morning

Peaceful times on Lewa

For the first time ever, I am spending the rainy season on Lewa. The last guests left on 4^th April – after a thankfully rain free couple of days. The rain started with a vengeance before the end of March so some of the last guests of the season had their holidays somewhat interrupted by the rain. Probably a bit annoying when you can’t even fly into Lewa because of the weather. I quite like the rain here. It doesn’t do that British thing of raining all day every day. It usually rains very heavily for a couple of hours and then stops and the sun comes out. I’m less keen on the muddy stable yard and leaking stables but at least they too dry out quickly.

Now that the lodge has closed and the family are away, I have moved into the main house. I admit it – I don’t fancy the dark walk to my normal home at the end of the garden. Too much game comes wondering through the grounds when the lodge is closed and quiet, and the generator isn’t on as often. I don’t want to meet a lion en route to my room! Also, my house has a lot of leaks which isn’t great in a rainstorm. I have to strategically position all items so that they are not underneath one of the leaks. More to the point, I have the novelty of TV to watch each evening if I live in the main house – a luxury indeed…

So my current day goes something like this. Rise at 6.30am, head straight to stables, check and treat any sick horses, ride the polo ponies (which is equivalent to a morning workout in itself now that they’ve started canter work). Organise what jobs need doing at the stables that morning and then have a lovely peaceful leisurely breakfast on the verandah about 9am. No requirement for polite conversation with any guests – it’s just me and the dogs and a stunning vista to enjoy – may be with some giraffes or elephants to watch on the hillside.

Post breakfast, check the syces are actually doing the tasks they’ve been set, update any horse records, spend some time on the internet, read, swim, sunbathe – it’s a hard life… Then lunch (enjoyed in a similar vein to breakfast), followed by a siesta before afternoon stables at 4pm. Horses safely tucked up in their stables, happy, groomed and fed, it’s time for a bath and dinner in front of the TV. Although a lot of the staff go on leave during the closed season, there is still a cook, waitress, room steward, gardeners, maintenance teams, mechanics, night guard, etc. I am getting so used to being looked after, I sometimes wonder if I will actually be able to remember how to cook and clean for myself….

And finally, just a little snake story. I was sat in the office yesterday (as indeed I am now) when a snake falls out of the roof and lands on the floor next to me. I almost had a heart attack – it narrowly missed me!! It was a revolting, small, thin, bright green snake – yuck. I had to enlist the help of others to remove it. Even if it isn’t poisonous (which it wasn’t), I do not wish to share my office with it.

Ndonyo Wasin and Rutundu

Back at work after a lovely few days off. First stop was a trip up north camping out in the wilds of Samburu land. Kate and I took the tarmac road two hours north to the town of Sereolipi, before heading an hour into the bush to the village of Ndonyo Wasin. Home to the Thorntree project which sets up schools for Samburu children, we stayed in a very basic camp just outside of the village. Loved camping out in mosquito net tents and sleeping under the stars. We helped out in the school a bit, helping the kids with their reading, and filming videos to send to the sponsors. We also did some walking and visited the “singing wells”. As Samburu is such a dry area, water is a huge problem. In times of drought, the Samburu operate these singing wells in order to get water for their cattle. Teams of Samburu warriors (some of the wells are seven men deep) form a human chain to haul water up from deep in the ground, singing as they work.

Then it was back to Lewa for the night and a much needed shower, before heading up Mount Kenya to Rutundu. Major climate contrast from hot, dry, dusty Samburu to the freezing cold mountain climate. To get to Rutundu, you drive for about three hours from Lewa, through the fertile farmland on the lower slopes, then into the forest, before emerging onto the moorland. It is one seriously bumpy road! The accommodation at Rutundu is two log cabins set above a lake. This is the place to go if you want complete seclusion from the world. There is no electricity, no mobile phone reception, and no other human habitation for miles. Rutundu is in fact the very place that William proposed to Kate – well, if it’s good enough for royalty then it’s good enough for me…. It is a beautiful spot. There is nothing to do apart from enjoy the splendid isolation, walk and fish. The lake is well stocked with trout – it must be because even I caught a small one! I had intended to put it back but I think it sustained serious head injuries when I dropped it so we ate it that night – at least it didn’t die in vain. I was trying to get a Chris and Ben style photo of me and my fish but I underestimated how slippery these fish are, hence it landed on its head in the bottom of the boat!! By the way, whilst catching a fish was quite exciting, I still don’t see the attraction of fishing – far too much sitting around waiting and getting cold for me…