The first post from my adventures in Kenya this summer – photos from a game drive through the wonderful Oj Pejeta wildlife conservancy. This amazing wild place is home to some of the mightiest and yet most vulnerable species on the planet.
I’d been staying on a farm in Kenya a few weeks before our game drive, but I’d already come across incredible wild animals. Out riding in the mornings we’d sometimes spot baboons stealing corn from neighbouring fields, and zebra would often graze on the crest of the hill across from my safari tent. One evening as the sun was setting a small herd of elephants, complete with tiny babies, wandered past the garden as we sat drinking sundowners.
But despite getting to see the animals of my childhood storybooks around the farm, I was unprepared for how wonderful it was to be amongst them at Ol Pejeta. This sprawling game conservancy, covering 90,000 acres in Laikipia, is home to an incredible array of animals, from proud lions to delicate gazelles, herds of buffalo and even rescued chimpanzees. Perhaps the most heartbreaking are the charming northern white rhinos. Three live at Ol Pejeta, of the remaining four in the entire world, and there hasn’t been a baby born in years. It’s sobering to learn of the devastation man has cast onto these beautiful beasts, but Ol Pejeta is part of a front of successful conservancy projects finding new ways to protect them.
Great photos! I love the landscape of Laikipia. It looks so different from the Mara.