A week in Kenya

From Arusha it is about 90 minutes drive to the Kenya border at Namanga so we decided to have a short holiday in Kenya to see some new country, new habitats and new birds and other wildlife.  Our friend and Tanzanian safari company owner, Stanley Mbogo, recommended a Kenyan company - Naturepoint Africa (https://naturepointafrica.com) - and we booked our requirements through them.  They basically organised everything and provided a driver (John) and a safari vehicle.  

Mount Kenya, second highest peak in Africa, from Castle Forest Lodge

In November 2020 we drove our car across and went to Amboselli National Park for a couple of days (https://tanzania2019-2020.blogspot.com/2020/11/the-grass-is-greener.html).  Getting a car through the border crossing is complicated and confusing and there are people who want to help you (for a stiff fee) so we decided to take the 0800 shuttle bus from Arusha to Nairobi this time.  At the bus station there was a chap selling floppy hats with tourist slogans.  I said politely "hapana asante" ("no thank-you") three times but he persisted and I frustratingly asked a fellow traveller "how many times is enough?".  Quick as a flash the hat seller said 'eight'.

Jenny with a Maasai woman at Namanga border post.

We had the usual rigamarole getting through immigration but reached Nairobi by mid-afternoon.  Nairobi is the location of our nearest High Commission and Jenny had spent a couple of days here in 2021 when she was trying to get a new passport.  It is a large city with 4-5 million people and is modernising rapidly with new high-rise office and apartment buildings and expressways.  Our safari company collected us at the bus station as promised and delivered us to our hotel.  We stayed at the Flora Hostel (https://florahostel.com)- a basic but clean, comfortable and cheap hotel run by nuns.  

Advertising signs in East Africa are an endless source of entertainment.  
This one advertising Crown paint was common - "If you like it - 👑 - it"

Early next morning we were off to our first lodge but had a lunch stop on the way at the Sagana Getaway Resort (https://iconsaganagetaway.com) which is famous in birding circles for being a good place to see Hinde's Babbler - only found in central Kenya.  We wandered the grounds for a couple of hours and eventually caught up with three.  Birds were active and we saw Little Sparrowhawk, Black Cuckoo, Wood Sandpiper, Eastern Olivaceous Warbler, Parrot-billed Sparrow and Eastern Golden Weaver.  

Hinde's Babbler - a Kenyan endemic.

Northern White-crowned Shrike

After a nice lunch we pushed on to our home for the next two days - Castle Forest Lodge (https://www.castleforestlodge.com).  This is outside Mount Kenya National Park but deep in the forest on the southern slope of the mountain at 2060 m.  It was quite cold here in the evenings and each cabin had an open fire that was lit while we had dinner and warmed things up nicely.  The days (once the sun was up) were warm and sunny.  There was usually some cloud hiding the mountain peak during the day but the view was clear both mornings.  A couple of tiny patches of snow were visible.  The peak looked close to the lodge but checking on Google Earth it is 25 km away.

Looking from Castle Forest Lodge dining room up towards Mount Kenya.

The standard cabins at Castle Forest Lodge

From the lodge you can walk down the entrance road for several km through magnificent forest or continue up higher.  There is also a series of waterfalls close by to explore.  We did a couple of long walks down and shorter walks up.  Apparently there is a chance of encountering elephants higher up so it was not encouraged.

Jenny at the first waterfall

The birding was excellent.  Two special birds here are Red-fronted Parrot and Olive Ibis.  Both occur in Tanzania but the Ibis in particular is rarely seen there.  We saw a couple of pairs of parrots one morning but the Ibis was problematic.  It spends its days foraging along small forest streams and roosts at night in tall trees.  The best chance to see them is when they are flying to or from their roost trees but this tends to happen in the evening and morning gloom.  We heard them both nights while we were having dinner around 7pm and Jenny caught a glimpse of one the second night.  On our last morning I was up and six and walked up the hill to an open grassy area with views out over large areas of the forest.  Several honking birds flew by unseen then a pair flew right over the lodge and I was able to see and tick them - silhouettes in the pre-dawn light.

We didn't see many mammals.  There was a squirrel I haven't identified yet - possibly a new one for us or possibly a colour variant of the Ochre Bush Squirrels we have in our Arusha garden..  We also saw Colobus and Blue (Sykes) monkeys.  There were also some interesting Lizards to identify - a Skink and a Chameleon.

Mystery Squirrel.

Mystery Skink

Mystery Chameleon

Apart from these two we saw lots of good birds and many new ones for me.  Some other highlights were Jackson's Spurfowl, Hartlaub's Turaco, Eastern Bronze-naped Pigeon, Cinnamon-chested Bee-eater, Mountain Oriole, White-bellied Tit, Yellow-whickered Greenbul, Grey Apalis, Kikuyu White-eye, Tacazze Sunbird, Kandt's Waxbill and African Citril.  54 species and 10 lifers.

Kandt's Waxbill (a juvenile)

Cinnamon-chested Bee-eater

White-eyed Slaty Flycatcher - not particularly dangerous.

Hartlaub's Turaco

After two nights in the forest we headed west around the mountain and then north to Buffalo Springs Nature Reserve.  On the way we crossed the equator.  We stopped at a curio store complex here and there were chaps demonstrating how the water goes down the plughole different ways on either side of the line.  Trouble was they weren't doing it on the actual line but some distance south so I suspect some trickery in their demonstration.

This line is about 30 m south of where my GPS said it should be.

I'm a nerd!

Buffalo Springs NR is dry bush country with the Ewaso Nyiro river on the northern boundary.  We stayed at Ashnil Samburu Camp (https://www.ashnilhotels.com/samburu) right on the river and each of the cabins has a verandah looking out over the water.    In Africa with safari lodges what you pay doesn't always reflect what you get.  I don't know what Ashnil cost us because the whole trip was one price.  It was a very nice lodge with attentive staff and great food but I bet it is way more expensive than other places we have stayed that were just as nice or better (Rwakobo Rock and Kipling Lodge in Uganda, Tarangire Safari Lodge and Africa Safari Lake Manyara in Tanzania for example).

Buffalo Spring NR landscape

Lots of elephants.

One of Jenny's favourites - Kirk's Dikdik

There is only one Giraffe species but a number of subspecies.  
This is a new one for us - Reticulated Giraffe.

Beisa Oryx - another new mammal species for us.

Anyway - the birding in the park and around the lodge were excellent.  Because of the dry conditions we had to work hard for some bird and mammal species.  We did several game drives but only found a few Somali Ostrich on the last morning as we were on our way out.  We saw Gerenuk (new for us) in the distance on the way in and had a better view of one on the way out.  We missed Grevy's Zebra totally which would have given us the full Zebra set.  On the plus side we had close encounters with Lions, Cheetahs, Elephants, Reticulated Giraffe and Beisa Oryx (new for us).

The Gerenuk was one I had wanted to see for many years.

A Cheetah mum and her two cubs.

Two half-grown lion cubs - part of a pride of 10.

I'm still trying to work out the identification of a couple of birds species from photos but managed to get a good list.  Highlights were the Somali Ostrich, Vulturine Guineafowl, Lichtenstein's Sandgrouse, Somali Courser, Goliath Heron, Egyptian Vulture, Steppe Eagle, Eurasian and African Hoopoes, African Paradise Flycatcher (a spectacular white-morph male), Rufous Chatterer, Golden-breasted Starling, Gambaga Flycatcher and Donaldson Smith's Sparrow-Weaver (don't you just love some of these names?).

We saw several large flocks of Vulturine Guineafowl and one mixed flock with Helmeted Guineafowl.

Rufous Chatterer in the lodge grounds.

Taita Fiscal

Somali Ostrich (juveniles).

Donaldson Smith's Sparrow-Weaver

After an uneventful drive back to Nairobi and another night in the Flora Hostel (with Montane Nightjar calling in the wee hours) we caught the shuttle back to Arusha and I now have another 90 days to spend here.

Now we turn our attention to having these two young women coming to stay in a bit over a week.

Liz and Sophie, Mernda, September 2022