September 6-8: Ol Pejeta Conservancy

First order of business, the log structure hanging from the tree along the road at Lake Bogoria was a beehive carved out of log cut in half. They placed beehives at regular frequent intervals (~50 m) along the main road presumably as a living “fence” to deter elephants – and also for the production of honey as a byproduct. Mark figured this one out immediately and actually he was the only one to submit a guess (perhaps nobody else viewed the post?).

After leaving the flamingo spectacle at Lake Bogoria I headed east to the Ol Pejeta Conservancy for two main reasons. First, I had a few days to kill before resuming my original schedule so that I can meet Mark and Kirsten at Mount Suswa Conservancy on the 16th. Second, this conservancy has both species of rhino (black and white) as well as cheetah (and the other cats), both of which are on my bucket list to see on this trip. I don’t have a map to show my route and destination because this was unplanned, so I included the map above for an indirect reference. On the map above, Ol Pejeta is labeled as a National Reserve (which it is not) and it is located east-southeast of Lake Bogoria and northwest of Mount Kenya.

Ol Pejeta is a “Conservancy”, which basically means that it is a private entity administered and managed in cooperation with the local communities for the benefit of people and wildlife. Ol Pajeta supports a staff of ~600 locals and, like most if not all conservancies, does allow some grazing of domestic livestock, but presumably under close scrutiny so as to not diminish the habitat quality for wildlife. Ol Pejeta claims (but I’m not sure it is true) to have the second highest density of “wildlife” in Kenya, after the Maasai Mara, and supports populations of all the big predators, including 6 lion prides,~15 cheetah, ~20 leopards, and at least at one time had 2 packs of wild dogs. The landscape is comprised of gently rolling hills with grassland plains on the hills and scrub woodland in the valleys. Mount Kenya is visible to the southeast which provides a nice backdrop when the clouds don’t obscure the view. Here are a couple of photos:

My exclusive campsite for the first two nights was called Ol Lerai and then I moved to nearby Ewaso. Both are located along the major seasonal river through the Conservancy, the Ewaso Ng’iro River and, interestingly, are a stones throw from the equator. Basically that means that the temperatures don’t change that much over the course of the year or between night and day. Here are photos of my two campsites, the second I much preferred because of the nice shade trees. Both had toilets but no water.

I went to Ol Pejeta pricinpally to observe white and black rhinos and, with any luck, cheetah. I saw plenty of rhinos, mostly white, but struck out again on the cheetah. I think I am fated not to see cheetahs on this trip, perhaps as an enticement to return next year? Here is a composite video of my wildlife observations, with a focus on rhino:

Ol Pejeta Conservancy composite video (24 minutes)

Photo Gallery: