Kigio Wildlife Camp

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Kigio Wildlife Camp is a special natural retreat inside the impressive 3500 acre Kigio Wildlife Conservancy. Thse pictures show the place where we stayed. At night or in the morning we needed to signal someone to come guide us back to the lodge because of the danger from animals that might be around our home.

 

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This is the sink in the bath area and this is the rather unusual toilet.

 

The brand new lodge provided superb accommodations in an unique location overlooking the woodlands and the Malewa River, which together attract over 200 species of birds to the area. Designed in a dramatic architectural style inspired by traditional African building methods, the lodge’s thatched-roofed buildings create a rustic feel, while its cozy sitting area with fireplace and the dining room and bar offer a warm and inviting ambience. The dining and sitting areas were situated in a glade overlooking a towering red cliff that houses colonies of bee-eaters.

The Kigio Wildlife Camp is renowned for its excellence and innovation in environmental management and resource use. The lodge uses solar power to generate electricity; waste is recycled; water is filtered using natural methods; and hot water is supplied by efficient kuni boilers. In addition, local farmers provide much of the food, and local community members are involved in the running of the lodge and conservancy.

 

Guestrooms are housed in five traditional style buildings and three tree houses. Among other amenities, these spacious and luxurious suites feature en-suite bathrooms with hot and cold water and spectacular views of the peaceful surroundings.

It was a great place to stay because they were focused on the environment for the animals as well as making a difference in the lives of people living in the area surrounding this sanctuary.

 

 

The dining Hall was open to the outside and the food was fantastic.

 

 

 

In the morning we took a nature walk with our wonderful Kigio guide, Mohamed.

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Mohamed talks to Rachel about plants. . . Here he shows us a whistling acacia plant

Here is Rachel with our dear new friend, Christine.

And we saw some giraffes. How many do you see? I see four.

This is a group of female impalas

There are also a number of Rothschild's giraffe, translocated for safety from western Kenya. Waterbuck, zebra & Cape buffalo are very common. Lion are present in the park and, like the lions of Lake Manyara in Tanzania, are quite often seen in the acacia trees. Leopard are also sometimes sighted, but we did not see any of these elusive big cats. The bushlands offer eland, warthog, impala, mountain reedbuck and dik dik, whilst rock hyrax and klipspringer occupy the cliffs and escarpment.

Speaking of leopards. . . . .

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The guides took us to an impala that had been killed by a young leopard that was not strong
enough to pull his kill up in a tree. The leopard ate all he could and left the rest for others.
The impala was probably a lone male who had no herd of females.

 

 

Kigio Wildlife Conservancy was formed in 1997 on what was formerly a dairy and beef ranch of 3500 acres. The revised management plan was to create a wildlife sanctuary with emphasis on protection of all biodiversity and to create a sustainable eco tourism destination.

Wild life was present on the land but numbers were declining and the last remaining Giraffe died as a result of poaching in 1996. The KWS worked to relocate some of Kenya’s most threatened Rothschild Giraffe, of which only 250-350 individuals remained in the world, provided the property was fenced. The costs of fencing the boundary came from the European Union, Biodiversity Conservation Programme (a body set up to allocate funds for the protection of biodiversity) and the Tusk Trust (UK) who pledged funds for the cost of capture, translocation and release of the Giraffe and Born Free Foundation (UK) offered funds to erect holding pens.

With these facilities in place some Rothschild Giraffes were moved from Lake Nakuru National Park to Kigio. Subsequently another young male Giraffe was moved from Giraffe Manor in Nairobi to join the herd. The Giraffe have settled well and there were five births in 2003. Plenty of other wildlife has settled and numbers of many species have increased significantly; there are now 1500 head of wildlife in the sanctuary, up from 100 in 1996.

 

 

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A really full candelabra tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Defassa Waterbucks

We think this is a bachelor heard of Impala

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Impala . . . . . You will notice that they are easily identified by the black stripes on the rump.

This kind of thing happened many times because of the rough roads and thorns.

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Kirk's Dik Dik - a very small delicate antelope It grows to 28 inches in length and weighs up to15 pounds. The Kirk's dik-dik exhibits a fidelity in monogamous behaviour. All year-round they stay in pairs, follow each-others activity patterns and spend over half of their time with their partners and they do not live long seperate from each other. Males show no parental care.

People Helping People

Because of the social, environmental and animal concerns of Kigio Wildlife Conservancy, we were shown some of their compassion for the people within there geographic surroundings. We went to three work projects. The first was an effort by widows to make beads out of paper.

 

The women here made beads that were very small or larger by winding strips of paper just tightly enough to leave a small hole in the middle. These were then protected, painted and strung into various pieces of wearable jewelry. Here a man demonstrates how they cut the papers out of discarded magazines and catalogues.

 

The rooster lived in the compound.

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Next, we went to a place where women made baskets for local sale as well as export.. . . .

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These are some of the women who make baskets. . . . . .. . .These are some of the baskets they make. We bought three.

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Rachel bought baskets from Ester.

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This is a mud and stick house that is common here. . . . . . This is an above ground water cistern for the dry months.

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A new friend proudly shakes a hand that shook Barack Obama's hand. . . . . .. .. This is a factory where weaves make cloth.

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This is how the wool is first prepared. . . . Then, inside dark rooms, the wool is woven into beautiful creations.

When you buy something from a foreign country, just remember these pictures and hope that the money went to the prople.

Some sights along the roads we traveled.

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Most people must carry water to their homes. . . . . . .Children often walk miles to school, as do mothers when shopping.

This is a refugee tent village. We saw several of them.

We saw, as you will see, many more animals. We also saw people living their own lives in their own country. The animals were facinating and the people were too as we all live on this great planet in our own unique ways. We are all one people.

 

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