Majestic Moorlands, Peaks and Falls - a Return to the Aberdares

[Caracal]

Enjoying both the commentary and photos of this another great report @@michael-ibk

 

The buffalo with the raggedy ears looks like he's about to walk out of my computer screen into the room and I'm wondering what his story is.

 

I'm intrigued by your avatar @@AndMic - a crimson rosella. They're year round residents and daily garden visitors here.

[Safaridude]

 

""Kenya Highlands Hartebeest", they are a hybrid between the Coke´s and the Lelwel hartebeest (Jackson race)." Calling @@Safaridude.

 

 

 

@@Atravelynn, no need for me to chime in. @@michael-ibk described it perfectly.

[pault]

I just got to the rhinos like impalas simile. I love that, Not just the numbers that might be a slight exaggeration, but I am still laughing at the thought of excited rhinos leaping 3 meters in the air. I am not laughing at the thought of your journey from Nairobi. Been there! On the first day of the holiday. Urggh!

[xelas]

Lovely photos and excellent writing, @@michael-ibk ! One day we could arrange for a meeting as you are the closest ST member I know about ! A Mittel-Europa GTG?!

[offshorebirder]

Thanks for the excellent trip report thus far @@michael-ibk. Looking forward to the rest.

[pault]

Now my internet connection is fast enough to load all the pictures and let me catch up. Wow! That's really a lot of rhinos. Great stuff. And a beautiful looking lunch spot. The traffic of the day before is long gone. Lovely photos and Solio looks very attractive. It's completely fenced?

[michael-ibk]

Thanks everybody!

Ok, about that buffalo, this shot has obviously some of you left wondering how I got that. Hari even suspected that I had photographed a padded buffalo.

It´s really quite simple, the Aberdares are steep terrain, and this guy was on the edge above the road, mistrustfully looking down on us from a very close distance, probably 10 m.



Made for an interesting angle, picture was of course taken from inside the car. So no foul play involved, this was a buffalo very much alive. Believe me now, @@madaboutcheetah ?



@@pault

It's completely fenced?

Yes, it is. And thanks for the leaping Rhino image in my head now, made me snort with laughter.

@@xelas

A Mittel-Europa GTG?!

We should definitely do that.

I didn't know Patas were in Aberdare.

They are not occurring in the Aberdares , just in Solio. Though historically they were present in Central Kenya and there seems to be one remnant population in Laikipia I think they would have been (re-)introduced in Solio.

[michael-ibk]

@@Seniortraveller

 

I´m no expert on Kenya weather patterns (which are unpredictable anyway) but I think May would be ok. From what I was told weather conditions are only getting a bit less favourable by June when Central Kenya can be very foggy. I´m sure Sandai would be a very nice combination to Laikipia Wilderness Camp, would certainly give you diversity, and it´s pretty close.

Edited June 15, 2015 by michael-ibk

[AndMic]

I'm intrigued by your avatar @@AndMic - a crimson rosella. They're year round residents and daily garden visitors here.

 

@@Caracal

 

Yes, you are right! I took the pic in Lamington National Park, Qld. in Oct. 2007. I travelled to Down Under for several times and I love your country.

 

Andrew

[Seniortraveller]

@@michael-ibk

Many thanks for the information, have made a tentative enquiry to LWC. I have really enjoyed all your trip reports, looking forward to the rest of this one and to hearing where it is you are planning to go to next!!!

[CaroleE]

@@michael-ibk

 

Great trip report, in both words and pictures.

What we have seen so far the Aberdares look beautiful and Solio even better. Very good idea to allow day visitors. And all those rhino. It is defintely being added to my to visit in Kenya list. I know a place is definitely going on this list when I immediately get the map out to see where it is!

Very envious of the lunch

Looking forward to the next installment.

[Marks]

Just fantastic! The rhinos, the colors of the bush, your obvious thrill to be there...sorry for all the likes!

[michael-ibk]

After lunch we enjoyed seeing more of the "regulars" again. If you´re close to the water in Solio there are few times when at least some mammals are not around.

 

 

 

We had gotten to the point that we would not even stop anymore for all White Rhinos, just when they were very close to the road or would be doing something interesting, like this one rubbing his horn.

 

 

We then tried to get pics of, uh, the colourful parts of this little fellow.

 

 

 

We then spent some time with these Little Bee-Eaters who were accomodating enough to fly from and back to this branch they were sitting on for several times.

 

 

 

 

 

In an area a bit drier we found a most unexpected animal:

 

 

Actually, this was outside Solio, I took this picture over the fence. Obviously, this dromedary would belong to somebody. Still, it just felt weird seeing a desert animal in an environment like this.

 

 

The fence

 

Less accomodating than the Bee-Eaters were these Meyer´s Parrots. Always fluttering around, always keeping to the canopy, and never coming real close, they are a real pain to get pics of. Still, I very much enjoyed watching them with the binocs, have only seen them fleetingly before in Samburu and Meru.

 

 

 

This cute little Impala fawn was pretty startled about our appearance about which we felt a bit guilty.

 

 

"All good, little one, we´re not here to harm you."

 

 

And this herd would make a good McDonald´s ad.

 

 

We found a lot of water birds at a lovely little pond, Egytian Geese, Spoonbills, Sacred Ibis, Red-Billed Teals, Yellow-Billed Ducks and Yellow-Billed Storks.

 

 

 

[michael-ibk]

The highlight of our afternoon was this impossibly cute Rhino calf - probably not much more than a week old according to Paul.

 

Always keeping close to Mum.

 

 

This was the maximum distance it dared to separate.

 

 

They had been pretty far away, but to our delight they decided to come closer to the road.

 

 

Paul mentioned that in general, White Rhino calves tend to walk in front of their mothers, Black Rhino babies tend to walk after them.

 

 

When they crossed mother was carefully shielding its offspring from us.

 

 

Papa soon followed - an impressively horned guy. In a way it´s hard looking at these horns and not getting angry about the stupidity and ignorance of all the people attributing all kind of semi-magic properties to what´s basically nothing more special than hair or fingernails.

 

[xelas]

@@michael-ibk

”In a way it´s hard looking at these horns and not getting angry about the stupidity and ignorance of all the people attributing all kind of semi-magic properties to what´s basically nothing more special than hair or fingernails.” - you are so right. They should consume their own fingernails instead, best from the left toe !

The rhino puppy is unbelievably cute! And papa ... ooze with confidence and power!

Edited June 17, 2015 by xelas

[pault]

Amazing shots of the little rhino calf. Wonderful. Highlight!

[TonyQ]

The baby rhino is such a beautiul animal - and great to see mother and father as well.

It is a pleasure looking at animals with a green background - it shows them up so well.

[graceland]

Oh the baby!! so precious; as I am behind in reading....but the photos are all excellent. Great job, Michael!

(though I am getting confused with all these trip reports....summer time is no time- dolphins are back - but I sneak in

here as much as I can...so much to see!)

Edited June 18, 2015 by graceland

[Double Dare]

I can't keep up with all of these wonderful trip reports!

[armchair bushman]

Great report! Looking forward to more! Really like that Impala herd shot for some reason.

[michael-ibk]

Thanks again, everybody!

The weather was constantly changing, sometimes we even would have to close the roof, but sometimes the sun was also fighting to break through. Successfully so, and we very much enjoyed the warm rays creating the wonderful African light.



A group shot of all the regulars together. It quite accuratley shows the overall ratio of the number of Impalas, Waterbucks, Zebras and Crowned Cranes in Solio.






We then found another Rhino baby, but unlike the first one Mum was not the least inclined to have us around her little one, so they ran.





I found it very amusing how both their tails were curling up so neatly.



As mentioned Solio has a lot of Rhinos. No need to give the numbers here (and they can be quite easily googled), but from what I´ve read Rhinos often surpass the carrying capacity of the place and have to be relocated. Ol Pejeta, Lewa and many others (even out of Kenya) have all been beneficiaries. By 2010, Solio had translocated 93 black and 52 white rhinos to other reserves, all the while maintaining its own healthy population.

Read more about Solio and its Rhinos here:

http://www.kenya-wildlife-safari.com/Frankcon/documents/40YEARSSOLIORHINOS.pdf
https://blogs.exeter.ac.uk/africafieldcourses/category/solio-ranch/

Some birds of the afternoon:



Not quite sure about this one, probably a Greater-Blue-Eared starling, but the eye colour doesn´t seem to fit - too orange. Which would make it a female Sharp-Tailed Starling but those don´t occur in Kenya?!



This one has the "conspicuous yellow eyes" a Greater Blue-Eared Starling should have according to my birdbook (Stevenson/Fanshawe Birds of Eastern Africa - to be recommended)



Cardinal Woodpecker



Blue-Naped Mousebird



Augur Buzzard

We were wondering what had prompted this Impala to "fly":





Apparently this Black-Backed Jackal was the culprit. And for some reason he seemed to feel very guilty about the commotion he had caused and beat loose quickly.







It started raining again, and only for one last time the sun caressed the woodlands with its warm light.





Crested Francolin

A very grumpy old dagga boy was our last sighting before we left Solio at exactly 18:30.



A bit tired, but very happy with our day at Solio we returned to Sandai. Again we enjoyed a very tasty dinner and had interesting conversations with other guests, three Italian families working in Nairobi who had come up for the weekend (Petra gets a lot of people living there.) Our most "crowded" day at Sandai, but five of the other guests were participating in a silent Yoga retreat, so we didn´t even notice them. Starting tomorrow it would be much more "private", three other guests max, only one other for two days.

[michael-ibk]

We got up at 06:30 next morning and left Sandai about half an hour later after a rich breakfast with eggs, bread, jam, musli and fresh fruit. We had decided to go to the Aberdares today. I totally fell in love with this place last September, it´s so different from the classic "Safari Africa" and still it´s "very Africa". If you know what I mean (probably not).

Before driving to the gate we needed to get our tickets at park headquarters. No way to buy them at the gate, so a little extra time is needed. The ticket for one day is USD 65,--, there are no half-day options. We then proceeded to Treetops Gate (which is closer to the road than the Ark gate) but were held up: A car was coming around the bend, and Paul stopped and drove as far right as possible. There would have been plenty of space and time for the other one to get past us or stop in time as well but the driver was obviously daydreaming, and *bang*! He crashed right into our front passenger door. Not too much of an impact, but the door was badly dented. It took Paul some time to get everything organized, but the other guy admitted his fault, even apologized to us and they had the car repaired the next day. So not too much harm done, we just lost a litte time.

And finally we were at Treetops gate again.



The park entrance

As you can see it was a very wet day. It would rain on and off (more on) all day long, and we rarely could open the roof. But we were absolutely determined to enjoy the day despite the weather, and we did.



Our first mammals were warthogs. They are noticably bigger here in the Aberdares, and not very shy down in the lower regions of the park, the so-called Salient.



Two Silvery-Cheeked Hornbill, braving the elements.



Lots and lots of Olive Baboons in the Salient, we´d see a lot of troops this day.



Mum shielding her little one from the rain.





The very wet Aberdares. Unlike Solio, the roads are quite ok even in a weather like this - but of course a very good 4x4 is definitely needed.



Why this Olive Thrush felt the need to take a bath I really don´t know.



Buffaloes are everywhere in the Salient (and even migrate up to the highest regions of the Aberdares at times). The park is big, covering an area of 767 km², from altitude of 1829 m up to 4001m, so the topography is very diverse. Basically there´s the Salient at the lower zones, bamboo forest higher up, then the moorlands and the alpine area.



Golden-Winged Sunbird, stubbornly refusing to look my way.

Green, green and green.



Common Bulbul. A good benchmark bird for size since they are so common and easily recognizable even from afar. When trying to identify other birds I could always ask myself it it was smaller or bigger than a Bulbul with is 18 cm.



Some, uh, plant stuff.



Gymnogene aka African Harrier-Hawk. A first for me.



And my mystery bird. Thumbed through my bird book a couple of times but couldn´t find a match. Ideas, anybody?



White-Eyed Slaty Flycatcher (I think)



Tropical Boubou



African Dusky Flycatcher

This buffalo blocked the road and was apparently challenging us for *ahem* a pissing contest. The length of his "performance" was really quite bizarre.





This one looked a bit less imposing with his not-quite perfect horns.



Higher up we reached the bamboo area. Not many animals to see, apparently everybody was seeking shelter from the rain. Very sensible, only stupid tourists would be around in a weather like this.



Up here Jackson´s Francolin is replacing the smaller Scaly Francolin from the Salient area.



We had a delightful sighting of a Jackson´s Francolin family:



And, looking a bit miserable in the rain, a Spotted Hyena on the roadside.





We had almost reached the moorlands, these very cool Podocarpus trees overgrown with Usnea lychen are kind of a gateway to the highlands.

For just a few seconds I spotted Colobus monkeys but they were instantly gone. Damn!

[CaroleE]

@@michael-ibk

 

And it just gets better and better! (despite the rain and the small accident)

 

The Podocarpus trees, fab! Great catch of the African Harrier-Hawk (a sucker fior a raptor me )

[xelas]

@@michael-ibk

 

Taking photos in an overcast day is like someone up there is holding a big diffuser! Brilliant colours, but probably also high ISO??

[pault]

That's pretty poor looking weather. Hope you can see something once you get up top.