We left the coast of Kenya for a change of scenery and something else to do, than to chill on the beach. On the way inland on the very busy Mombasa – Nairobi road, we stopped at the Rukinga Conservancy in the Tsavo area. There is a great campsite, Kivuli camp, in the middle of the conservancy and many things to do here. Beside of game drives, you can also visit the “Wildlife Works” office and learn about all their projects to make it possible that wildlife and local communities coexist. More about that soon.
We were advised to take a ranger on game drives. Not only are there no signs to show you the way around the park, but there is also an elephant, which is troubling them: he likes to attack cars and has already killed a female ranger during such an attack. We drove with our car, together with Charles, a very kind ranger, sitting in the middle, helping us to spot many animals we would have missed. They didn’t charge us anything for that service!! We love Rukinga!
On one of our game drives with Charles, we finally spotted 2 young male lions, which was a lovely experience, we are grateful we had just before leaving Africa.
On that game drive we finally ran into the infamous elephant they call “Naughty Boy”. We were watching some giraffes, when Charles spotted him hiding behind a bush. We were not very close and wouldn’t have thought much about it, as all the other elephants we had met here were very relaxed. But Charles recognised him and made us back away and take a different route. He was sure, when we would have crossed an imaginary line, he would have attacked us.
Charles did also a bird walk in the morning with me, showing me all the birds around. The hornbill family with 3 grown chicks was always around us. It was fun to watch them still feed them and their funny behaviour.
After 3 nights, we left Kivuli camp and drove past Voi for some shopping, visit to the ATM and fuel station. We took the road to Taita Hills and went to the Lumo Conservancy. Their campsite was closed because of constructions, but we could camp in the middle of nowhere, which was nice for a change. In the evening, a ranger came and made us a campfire, but otherwise there was nothing there. (We paid 114.- USD for that one night)
We did some game driving, but didn’t see a lot, no idea where the animals had gone. As there are no fences around any park, the herds go where they find the best food and the predators follow them. The landscape was fantastic, the gras was high and there were many birds. Otherwise we only saw some Coke’s hartebeest, few zebras, ostriches and one giraffe.
We had a view of Kilimanjaro in the distance and could make out the snow on its peak. A sight to say inwardly good bey to Africa. Let’s hope we will be able to come again.
We returned to Rukinga Conservancy, where we spent the last days before we had to hand over our camper to the shipping company in Mombasa. More soon!