Safaridude and Game Warden's Excellent Adventure - February 2014

[Soukous]

another awesome installment @@Safaridude

[Pennyanne]

@@Safaridude. Wonderful instalments. Love those wild dogs!

[samburumags]

This is good stuff. Lots more please

[Soukous]

@@Safaridude That is one very impressive looking eland.It looks like a Giant or Lord Derby's but I did not think they were indigenous to the Laikipia region.

 

and boy oh boy that @@Game Warden sure likes having his photo taken.

[Zim Girl]

Wonderful wild dog sequence

 

and touching pictures of James with the cattle.

[TonyQ]

@@Game Warden

Great descriptive writing (and the picture of you on the horse - looks like you are going to play Polo!

@@Safaridude

Wonderful wild dog sequence! And very touching to see james with the cattle. It is interesting o see the scale of the "ranch" - somehow the word suggests something smaller and fenced in my mind.

Edited March 4, 2014 by TonyQ

[Safaridude]

@@Soukous

 

Yes, that is a common eland. Some of those boys get very large and obtain a bluish hew. Impressive.

 

You all may know about the bull eland's clicking noise (made by the knee joints) when he walks. What I learned on this trip is that they can make that noise stop at will.

[Safaridude]

@@TonyQ

 

Yes, all those properties in Laikipia are large. But I still like the term "ranch". I think it is very descriptive of the overall relaxed atmosphere.

[Soukous]

It was more the stripes than the size that had be confused @@Safaridude

[Safaridude]

@@Soukous

 

Going off on a tangent, I realize… and I am the one who mentioned the size of the common eland in the photo… But...

 

There is no real size difference between the common eland and the giant eland. The giant eland's longer horns and its more upright posture (like that of a kudu) give one the illusion that it is larger than it is.

[Game Warden]

Chapter 4 – Sosian Ranch - Dog Day Afternoon (Safaridude)

 

What a pleasure it had been meeting Squack for tea in Nanyuki. @@Safaridude's photo of James, him and I really captures a great meeting. Sipping coffee in the light rain, with off duty British soldiers from a nearby barracks sat round the table next to us gave one a sense of security: army vehicles passed by, 4x4s belonging to NGOs in the parking lot. It really felt like being in a frontier town, on the edge of something. Somewhere... Squack had told me that the drive to Sosian was in fact one of his favourites in Kenya. For about the first half hour of the drive I couldn't see why, once off the tarmac the landscape looked flat, scrubby, repetitive. Repetitive. Repetitive - that was until I fell asleep. And would keep falling against the half wound down window, banging my head each time. I was aware of James and SD's laughter but couldn't care: I was knackered.

 

"Leopard, leopard..." I snapped up from my slumber dribbling into my beard, where WHERE? The van had stopped. It was a leopard tortoise. Not what I had expected but at least I was awake now and ready to enjoy the drive into Sosian Lodge: the landscape had changed, hills, valleys, the road a switchback: now I saw what Squack had meant.

 

Sosian was a home. It wasn't a camp nor was it a lodge. Across the course of the days we spent there I relaxed into a state of staying with friends and this had a lot to do with the Prince Harryesque Simon Kenyon, his partner and always smiling Rosie Constant and the charming Megan who was helping out with the horses. And on this first afternoon, following lunch I took off for a drive with Simon and it gave me chance to follow up on some questions which I had sent to him for the Safaritalk interview. Sosian Lodge had until recently been a delapidated almost derelict farmstead within an overgrazed and barren landscape - thanks to the vision of a group of investors, one of whom was Rosie's father, Sosian Lodge had been restored and transformed into a wildlife and cattle ranch breeding up a head of quality prizewinning Boran cattle which co existed succesfully alongside predators whose numbers had rebounded, numerous elephants and many other plains game species. Combining tourism and ranching, Sosian had exceeded initial expectations and was becoming a firm favourite with visitors. (And for more you'll have to wait until I publish the interview...)

 

Returning to the lodge so as to collect SD and James, I was shown to my room which was a semi detached bungalow, one side of which was mine, the other, Safaridude's. (I just hoped he wouldn't snore. I would later find out...)

 

Set in lovely gardens in which horse grazed during the day, wildlife at night.

Left to my own devices for a short while, I slumped on the bed,

 

No lucid dreaming here...

And took in the view from the veranda.

 

Great birding from the directors chair.

I had no idea where SD was or what he was doing and so I took a wander which led me to the Sosian pool.

 

A hidden oasis.

And as it was hot and it had been a long tiring drive from Meru, I was ready to sink into the warm water. Before I did though, it was time to change. Into the Mankini...

[michael-ibk]

And everyone stopped reading and vowed never to open this topic again...

[graceland]

I thought GW on horseback would be a great new avatar - yes quite a suave polo player!

However, I will withhold opinion until he steps out of the pool

 

Sosian looks like a place I could live for awhile.

Really loving this TR @@Safaridude and @GameWarden;

what fun you boys are having with James and Squack.

 

I was not aware of Sosian (or perhaps it was in its' dilapidated state) when I visited Laikipia.

 

Photos are superb - however, I am enjoying the words as well.

[Safaridude]

Interlude 3 – The Mankini Incident (Safaridude)

 

OK, so a couple of months ago, somehow, the subject of Borat mankini was brought up on ST. Matt got it as a holiday gift or something (I don’t care to investigate the origin of all this). And now, Matt insists on putting on the mankini and having me take photos of him…

 

Yes, the situation is grim, obviously. But what am I to do? I mean, why am I so special as to turn down my travel mate’s one wish? I try to take it in stride. I am resigned to it. After all, life is not always peaches and cream. “Upon us all, a little rain must fall”, Led Zeppelin once sang…

 

At least I succeed in insisting that he wear something underneath (all of you ST members owe me one).

 

Without further ado…

 

Surely one of the most cracking photos in the annals of Safaritalk

 

A full frontal...

 

James about to cough up his liver laughing...

Edited March 4, 2014 by Safaridude

[Game Warden]

and having me take photos of him…

 

It was obviously the highlight of Safaridude's and James's Safari Perhaps the best sighting they had...

[twaffle]

Hahahahahahahaha

[JD5000]

enjoying the report thankyou .cant believe its a year since we were at meru .we had the park to ourselves for 3 days .seriously the guard at the gate said nobody else had come through the gate on one of the days .we went in the rhino reserve and did spot one rhino and the biggest giraffe we have seen this guy was huge.we stayed at about one minute from the gate .

and then on to laikipia the road down is indescribably beutiful like an english countryside in early may full of sunflower and feilds of rape seed plants .

looking forward to the rest of the report .

but when are you going back to do archers post ,samburu and shaba .????

julie.

[FlyTraveler]

@@Safaridude, you shouldn't have insisted that @@Game Warden wore something under the mankini. He would have looked great with the mankini, the helmet and the beard only... How often one gets to see something like this... It would look even better on walking safari - challenging the lions (with Stretch Ferreira as a guide, for example) :)

[AKR1]

K

We definitely owe you one. I will buy you a drink the next time we meet?

[madaboutcheetah]

K

We definitely owe you one. I will buy you a drink the next time we meet

 

I was thinking the same........ GW, you should try stand up comedy one day too.......

[michael-ibk]

Cowardice! What a cop-out! But ... actually, thank you so, so much for NOT giving us "the full monty".

[JD5000]

Wheres the next chapter .

Been in work all day was looking forward to the next bit ,come on 52 days till my next safari need drip feeding safari please please please !!!!!!!!!

julie.

[graceland]

Interlude 3 – The Mankini Incident (Safaridude)

 

OK, so a couple of months ago, somehow, the subject of Borat mankini was brought up on ST. Matt got it as a holiday gift or something (I don’t care to investigate the origin of all this). And now, Matt insists on putting on the mankini and having me take photos of him…

 

Yes, the situation is grim, obviously. But what am I to do? I mean, why am I so special as to turn down my travel mate’s one wish? I try to take it in stride. I am resigned to it. After all, life is not always peaches and cream. “Upon us all, a little rain must fall”, Led Zeppelin once sang…

 

At least I succeed in insisting that he wear something underneath (all of you ST members owe me one).

 

Without further ado…

 

Surely one of the most cracking photos in the annals of Safaritalk

 

A full frontal...

 

James about to cough up his liver laughing...

Ouch....

 

Glad I WAITED a day to view this.

Is that a Michael Jackson move?????

 

Love the look on James' face.

Actually I would have loved to see this in person......

[safariguy]

My eyes are burning.

[Soukous]

That's like wearing pants under a kilt, definitely a cop out.

Perhaps it's time that @@Game Warden changed his avatar.