In praise of wildebeest
Some people think they’re ugly and stupid, but I think blue wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus) are marvellous and handsome creatures. What stripes! Such lovely beards! And crazy tails! One of the reasons we went to East Africa last month was to see the wildebeest at the time when they were giving birth. A wildebeest calf can [...]
Flash floods in the Mara
After a long period of devastating drought, East Africa was lashed by torrential rain earlier this month. Uganda suffered mudslides which killed scores of people, and a deluge in Kenya’s Samburu national park left acres underwater and washed away valuable conservation research. The storms hit south west Kenya, too, while we were visiting the Masai [...]
Spotted big cats
I find it endlessly thrilling to see any wild creature living free and doing its own thing; from the absurdly common but excessively beautiful impala, to the ordinary everyday superb starling, so aptly named. But there is a special thrill reserved for encounters with big predators; the carnivores at the top of the food chain, [...]
Lionesses and cubs in the Mara
We had some fantastic sightings of lions in the Mara. And not just lions lying about sleeping; lions actually doing stuff. We stumbled across this very healthy looking pride of about 10 females and their eight cubs, resting near the Talek river. When we first reached them, they were, indeed, lying about sleeping, waking and [...]
Elephants in the Mara
I first visited Kenya’s Masai Mara game reserve ten years ago and I remember being moved to tears when I saw my first wild elephant move slowly out from behind a tree. I returned to the Mara last month and this time was able to share its breathtaking wonders with my husband Moth who had [...]
Crossing the equator
The equator is an imaginary line on the Earth’s surface equidistant from the north and south poles. Last month I crossed this line overland, the first time in all my travels I have ever done this. It’s silly really but I can’t begin to tell you how excited I was! We stopped at a roadside [...]
Kissing a giraffe
Last month we had a free afternoon in Nairobi, so on my daughter’s recommendation, we visited the Langata giraffe sanctuary. From a raised platform, you can get up to giraffe height and see these evolutionary marvels very close up indeed. From such close range you can really appreciate their glamorous eyes. These wild animals are [...]
The terrible price of Kenyan flowers
Not so long ago, roses were expensive. Now you can get six blooms for £4 at my local Tescos. The real cost of cheap flowers was revealed to me in all its horror earlier this month when we visited Kenya’s Lake Naivasha, a large freshwater lake in the Rift Valley, formerly home to a thriving [...]
