Lewa Wildlife Conservancy and Black Rhino

July 6, 2014  Lewa Wildlife Conservancy

After breakfast we said goodbye to the wonderful people at Sabuk and went to the local airstrip where our charter plane picked us up and took us on a 20 minute flight which saved a six hour drive.  We went into the Northern Frontier District and landed at another tiny dirt strip.  Josh had a great talk with the pilot who had a short hop round trip to make and he invited Josh to fly copilot with him and even allowed him to take the controls for a while.  Josh was thrilled!

We were met by the Land Rovers from the Borana Lodge and taken into the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, a private park dedicated to wildlife conservation.  They have been instrumental in re-introducing the rare and endangered Black Rhino into the wild, and a substantial portion of Kenya’s Black Rhino population lives here.  The landscape is hilly and very dry:

We arrived at the Borana Lodge and were shown to our rooms.  Ours is giant, with a lovely fireplace and a huge picture window overlooking a large artificial pond. 

The Conservancy has a number of artificial ponds to supply the abundant wildlife with water, thus increasing dramatically the game population here.  In the afternoon we went out for a game drive, and I’ll include photos of some animals.  First, a large herd of Cape Buffalo:

The Oryx:

Reticulated Giraffe (the ones at Giraffe Manor had been Rothschild Giraffes):

African Pelicans:

 The endangered Black Rhino:

 Finally, we parked below Pride Rock, made famous by the Lion King:

  

We hiked up to sit on the rock for sundowners and to watch the sunset, then back exhausted and exhilarated for dinner and to bed.