My Kenyan Adventure - And How I Rediscovered My Ullasa
/“Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.”
A Cheetah family, with Mom on the lookout
KENYA - OH, How I Missed You!
After months of planning and waiting - and then weeks of testing, isolating, hoping and praying - in January of 2022 I was able to finally take my first long international trip in close to two years - and boy, was it an amazing adventure!
Kenya has held a special place in my heart ever since my first safari there in 2017 (you can read about my trip here). I was fortunate to return in January 2020 (of course not knowing what was in store for the world a few short months later), and then again earlier this year. I have come to realize that being in the wide open spaces of the African savannah brings me a deep calm and intense sense of wonder. The internal stillness I felt during that first trip returns every time I go back.
A big tusker in Amboseli National Park, with Mt Kilimanjaro in the background
During this trip, I spent close to five weeks in Kenya doing a myriad of things: hiking around the highest mountain in the country; going on safari in three different wildlife reserves; and chilling out near, and SCUBA diving in, the warm waters of the Indian Ocean. It felt great to FINALLY be away on an international trip where I could experience a different culture, meet new people and just enjoy some sunshine!
I read somewhere recently about the Sanskrit word “ullasa” - which is a term for the feeling of joy that we get when we experience natural beauty. I feel that sense of magic each and every time I see a giraffe in the wild, hear the roar of a lion, or am awakened in the night by the sounds of a hippo eating the grass right outside my tent walls. There is nothing quite like being on safari, and each time I return having learned something new about this world in which we live in, and about myself.
After 15 days on safari during this most recent trip, I left with a very full heart - and over 13,000 images to pour through! I also came away feeling that I had gotten my fill of safari…that returning any time soon would result in me not feeling that sense of magic, losing that ullasa that makes these trips so special.
Once back home, I delayed reviewing and editing my images from safari. I took another long trip. I kept myself busy with normal life. The months came and went, and time marched on. A few weeks ago I decided to pull out the hard drive and focus on culling my images down to a respectable number to print and to share, and to finally publish a long overdue blog post.
The end products of all that work are the images and video I am sharing in this blog post. Even more important for me than the physical results of that effort was the resurgence of my sense of wonder and amazement at the things I have witnessed on the plains of Africa. I recalled, so very clearly, the privilege I felt of being able to experience such magnificence in person. And my ullasa has made me crave to return.
Does this renewed enthusiasm mean that I will be going back on safari in 2023? My answer now (as opposed to a short 6 months ago) is a resounding HELL YEAH! I can hardly wait.
Special thanks to Socially Responsible Safaris for helping to organize this epic adventure. If you are thinking of visiting Africa, I highly recommend contacting Ryan at SRSafaris
Click below to see a short (<5 minute) video compilation of my time on safari in the Maasai Mara, Lewa Wildlife Conservancy and Amboseli National Park.
Scroll down further to learn more about which areas I visited and where exactly I stayed during this trip.
THE DETAILS
The Maasai Mara
Similar to my last two trips to Kenya, I started my time in Kenya by spending 8 nights in the Olare Motorogi Conservancy of the Maasai Mara. I traveled with the same photography group and once again we split our time between the lovely Porini Lion Camp and Richard Branson’s glamorous Mahali Mzuri safari camp (voted #1 Hotel in the World in the Travel + Leisure World’s Best Awards 2021).
The camps were amazing as always: two games drives per day, wonderful wildlife sightings thanks to the skilled and lovely Maasai safari guides, and wonderful meals with old and new friends. I could not have asked for a better experience. I’ve detailed both camps in my other blog posts about Kenya (you can read them here and here). This year on the Mara we seemed to see an abundance of “cats”, and spent many game drives photographing lions, cheetah and the occasional leopard. We also saw plenty of babies this year as well: the interactions between mom and baby were fun to photograph.
Lewa Wildlife Conservancy
After the Mara, I left the photography group and moved onto Lewa Wildlife Conservancy with 2 friends. Lewa hosts some rare wildlife, including the endangered black rhino, white rhino, and the endangered Grevy’s zebra. My friends and I stayed for 3 nights at Lewa Safari Camp. We arrived in time for a long game drive en route to the camp, and then had 2 full days afterward. I think it was just the right amount of time.
The landscape in Lewa was quite different than the Maasai Mara…there were spectacular acacia and palm trees, lots of green rolling hills, a swamp with reeds, and lots more vegetation in general, all with Mt Kenya as the backdrop. Lewa is a private conservancy, a fairly large area with an interesting story of how it came to be. It’s fenced in, mostly to help with conservation of the rhinos that are there.
Photographically it was much different than the Mara as well, mostly due to the topography. There are some places that are off limits for off-roading, and at times we wished that weren’t the case. That said, I loved that it was so different and we took our time to photograph things we’d just drive by in the Mara…We were lucky to see some lions up close, had fun photographing the rhinos, Grevy’s zebras, reticulated giraffe, ostriches, gazelles, etc. A highlight was an elephant parade we came across - all lined up and walking together.
Lewa Safari Camp itself was very nice. The grounds were heavenly. There are 12 thatch covered tents with ensuite backrooms and private verandahs. There is a nice indoor dining room, outdoor verandah, and a lovely pool with shaded seating around it. They prepared an awesome bush breakfast for just the three of us, with a cook etc on a beautiful overlook far from camp. The food overall was very good. They bring coffee & tea to your tent for your wake up call, which was much appreciated, cold towels when you return from game drives, etc - lots of little touches like that.
There are other things to do in Lewa, aside from just game drives. We were feeling a bit burnt out from all the game drives and spent one day going to a forest (although it took us 5 hours to get there because we basically did a game drive along the way!). You can also visit the onsite spa, a local village, a school, or go horseback riding.get there because we basically did a game drive along the way!). You can also visit a local village, a school, do horseback riding, and there is a spa onsite.
Amboseli National Park
Next we stayed for 4 nights at Tawi Lodge in Amboseli National Park. I have to admit that my first impressions of Amboseli weren’t great. The airfield and nearby shell of an old hotel are in the National Park, which allows anyone to drive their own car through, something not allowed where we safari in Kenya. Close to the airstrip there is a large swamp with tons of flamingos, which were very cool to photograph. The park roads are wide and dirt (not paved) but it still feels very different than most other places I have visited. Tawi lodge is a good 1hr+ drive from the airfield if you don’t stop for game viewing.
Amboseli is famous for being the best place to see elephants, especially the big tuckers with their iconic tusks that nearly hit the ground! Tawi Lodge sits on a conservancy, so when we stayed in the conservancy itself we could drive off-road. Many of the big tuskers were hanging around the conservancy, so it was easy to find them plus lots of other wildlife.
All the usual suspects are in Amboseli as well, including cape buffalo, lion, giraffe, zebra and wildebeests. One of the most unique animals that we saw was the gerenuk: an odd looking giraffe-necked antelope with large eyes and ears that eats standing on it’s hind legs and feeding on trees!
Kilimanjaro is nearby and on a good day can be in the background of some wonderful photographs. In general though, I found that photography in Amboseli was not super easy, mostly because you can’t go off road in the national park, and the conservancy has a lot of vegetation. We had one of the Tawi safari jeeps to ourselves for our game drives: note that Tawi lodge only has 3 safari vehicles and 3 driver/guides on staff, so try to reserve these in advance.
If you want to see the “elephant crossing” you need to go into the national park, and that’s where things feel less authentic. Twice a day, families of elephants cross some main “roads” to go to the swamp and hang out all day. It’s fun to see for sure, but you find yourself alongside a half dozen or more small safari buses from Nairobi or Mombassa with drivers who don’t turn off their engines, cut in front of each other, etc. It’s frustrating for those of us who know better. If there is a pride of lions, it’s the same thing. There are also delivery trucks in the park, which speed along and kick up tons of dust and just make you feel like you aren’t on safari. For those reasons I preferred staying inside the conservancy.
Tawi Lodge itself was nice. Our tent was big, and the bathrooms huge (but offer zero privacy and would be a big challenge for folks sharing a tent who don’t really know each other). The outdoor common areas of the lodge are nice, and there is a lovely pool with loungers and a large fire pit - both of which overlook the highlight of the property, the water hole. Throughout the day, the water hole t attracts every kind of animal: it’s wonderful to just sit and watch the wildlife interact there.
The food was good and they also brought a tray with coffee and tea to our room with our wake up call, which I had grown to really appreciate. We did a sundowner every day in the bush, but did not have a bush breakfast.
