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IMAGES: KITICH CAMP MATHEWS RANGE; JOY’S CAMP


From left: Kitich Camp; Joy’s Camp Below: Joy’s Camp


kenya | eyewitness Hence my surprise when our group arrived


at Kitich Camp, our fi rst stop. T e forested hills of the Mathews Range, among which the camp nestles, form an unexpected island of greenery in the semi-desert, off ering a home to rare species. After our long dusty drive from the airstrip, the camp — sitting beneath statuesque trees and overlooking a meandering stream — felt like a secret oasis. Sunlight fi ltered through the canopy and bird song was everywhere, from the whistle of black-headed orioles to the guttural squawks of Hartlaub’s turacos, which fl ashed their dazzling plumage through the understory. With no roads, other than the camp’s bumpy


track, penetrating the Mathews Range, we hit the trail on foot, winding deep into the hills. My tracker, T omas, was resplendent in traditional attire, with beaded anklets and feathered headdress. Spear in one hand, he took the lead,


while our guide Lessemana, rifl e over shoulder, led the rest of us a few paces behind. T e forest’s


trails were littered with the


calling cards of its more elusive residents: the chalky droppings of hyenas; the cloven prints of bushbuck; the trampled grass of a buff alo herd. Meanwhile, our guide’s eagle eyes picked out smaller gems: swallowtail butterfl ies landing to sip mineral salts; a rare narina trogon perched in the canopy; ancient cycads along the ridges, their gnarled trunks pock-marked by elephant tusks. But while we took in the forest’s fi ner details,


guides never let their guard drop. “Leopard,” T omas had hissed on our fi rst morning, pointing with his spear to where the cat had slipped away. And on our last afternoon, with a raised hand and a low “stay behind me”, he’d held the group back to allow a bull elephant to swagger across the clearing ahead, its raised trunk seeking our scent.


Big-game country Shaba National Reserve, next up, off ered a more familiar Kenya of heat, dust and fl at-topped thorn trees. Winding down from the Mathews Range, we met wandering ostriches and red- robed Samburu camel herdsmen, but hardly another vehicle. At the park entrance, an elegant line of reticulated giraff es — a rare northern race of the world’s tallest animal — confi rmed we were back in big-game country. Home at Shaba was Joy’s Camp, built on the


spot where Joy Adamson had once hand-reared an orphaned leopard. Our enormous safari tents were smuggled discreetly into the bush, each overlooking a waterhole where we watched buff alo lumber down to drink at dusk and dawn. Winding walkways, trodden by diminutive dik-dik antelope and lit after dark by kerosene lamps, led to the lodge’s glittering pool, where bee-eaters, starlings and other feathered gems lined up to splash their kaleidoscopic feathers. Joy’s Camp was made for lazing in luxury.


But, with wildlife to fi nd, we hit the road, winding over parched plains and lava-strewn boulder fi elds, nosing into thorn thickets and along the banks of the sweeping Ewaso Nyiro River, where, on day two, a table beneath a large fi g tree groaned with a breakfast that would have fed twice our number. Game viewing at Shaba is more about quality


than quantity. Our prizes included rare Grevy’s zebras, all dapper pinstripes and Mickey Mouse ears, enjoying the shade of umbrella thorn trees; family parties of gerenuk extending attenuated necks to nibble from low branches; and stately oryx, bearing their lethal rapier-like horns u


summer 2014 | ASTAnetwork | 103


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