‘Kenya revisited’, a talk by Mike Mockler
Mike Mockler is no stranger to visiting Africa, having designed and led almost 100 safaris to 8 African countries over a period of 40 years. It is also where he loves to take his own holidays with his wife. He started visiting the country in the 1980s where he met Jonathan Scott of the BBC’s Big Cat Diaries series.
Mike takes small groups of 6–8 guests to Kenya where they explore two very special private conservancies that border the famous Masai Mara National Reserve. Here, game-viewing and birdwatching are superb. The conservancies provide a much richer safari experience than the National Reserve itself, as tourists and vehicles in the conservancies are limited to far smaller numbers than in the overcrowded National Reserve. The conservancies also have some delightful, small tented camps comprising 6–8 tents, unlike the overcrowded hotel-style lodges in the National Reserve.
After arriving in the country, Mike and his guests fly by light aircraft into the conservancy and then take a game drive from the airport where they see impala, gazelles, Masai giraffe, zebra and elephants along the way to the camp. The area is rich in wildlife as there is no poaching. It is the one African country that does not allow any hunting of wildlife. As a result, the animals have no fear of humans. Moreover, the Masai people benefit as they have a share of the money that tourism generates. Income from tourism also goes towards providing water pumps and clinics for the Masai.
All the animals in the conservancies, with the exception of the northern white rhino, are free to roam where they like. There are only two northern white rhinos (which are actually grey) remaining in the world, both females, and they are restricted by fencing and under constant protection from poachers in the Ol Pejeta Conservancy.
The Laikipia Wilderness Camp in the highlands of Kenya, with beautiful views of Mount Kenya and the surrounding area, is a sanctuary for black rhinos, which pluck food with their hooked lip. The conservancy has the largest population of black rhinos in Africa and not one has been lost to poachers. We saw reticulated giraffes, Jackson’s hartebeest – a rare and fragile antelope – oryx, Grevy’s zebra and the African wild dog. The camp overlooks a waterhole where we saw an African fish eagle feeding and a little grebe with a large frog in its bill. Mike also captured on film the rare Denham’s bustard and crowned cranes.
The Hidden Valley camp is a favourite for viewing a variety of wildlife, particularly lions, and we saw photographs of vervet monkeys, which can make a nuisance of themselves, baboons, sunbird, rufous-tailed weaverbird, and African blue, wattle-eye and paradise flycatchers.
Night drives are only allowed in one or two of the conservancies and during one such occasion, Mike photographed an aardvark, which is nocturnal, and a group of hyenas, which are mainly nocturnal, being chased up a tree.
Mike is a superb wildlife photographer, and an interesting and entertaining speaker, and over the course of the evening we were treated to a fascinating insight through photographs into some of Africa’s wildlife, from animals such as cheetahs, serval cat, klipspringer, buffalo, jackals, bat-eared foxes, porcupines and an eland giving birth, to birds such as the martial eagle (the largest in Africa), African hawk eagle, tawny eagle, Levant sparrowhawk (about 600), hobby, golden oriole, cuckoos (English and African), European and little bee-eaters, and secretary birds sitting on their nests, among many others.
We thank Mike for such an excellent and entertaining talk, accompanied by such superb photographs.
Diana Chambers