As we took off this morning on our flight to Lewa which is the first destination of Matt and A-C’s Honeymoon, we flew over Kibera slum where half a million souls live cheek by jowl on the outskirts of Nairobi. An hour later and we step off Pete’s little yellow airplane into Eden; lush grasslands, browsing elephants and tall acacias. It’s not fair, I know, but I am a lucky man.
Early the following day we set out on a game drive in a clear, fresh highland morning. There is something about this time of day which I love, the fresh air, the promise of a new day the birds greeting the sun with a chorus of sound and the thrill of anticipation at what lies ahead. We were not disappointed when shortly into the drive we found a big bull White Rhino who was unhurriedly patrolling and marking his territory. The early light was great and Mt. Kenya looked close enough to reach out and touch.
Later we found the Three Brothers, Lewa’s famous trio of cheetah who had obviously eaten well the previous day as they were nursing huge bulging bellies. We learned that they had in fact killed a young zebra the evening before. These boys have held reign on the central plains of Lewa for about 12 years now and they are a formidable force; large and efficient, they are the stars of several documentaries by the BBC and Discovery Channel.
Last and certainly not least we came across a male Yellow neck Spurfowl singing his territorial claim from the top of an acacia tree just beside the road. His song seemed to be a celebration of the rains and the return of food and plenty for a while. Lewa is vibrant with life, finally getting rains after a prolonged region wide drought which devastated East Africa. To look at it now you would never have guessed.
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