Kenya: Kicheche Valley Camp, Mara Naboisho Conservancy
Greeted on arrival to camp by one of the “little five,” a baby leopard tortoise.
From Lewa Conservancy, we made our way on another scheduled chartered flight to the Masai Mara area in Kenya, specifically to Kicheche Valley Camp in the Naboisho Conservancy.
A number of ‘group ranches’ adjacent to the Masai Mara Game Reserve are owned jointly by the Maasai people and have been set aside as conservation and wildlife dispersal areas. These are called ‘conservancies’ and there are a number of them in the Masai Mara area, such as Naboisho Conservancy and Olare Orok.
We spent all of our time on the conservancies and didn’t go into the reserve at all. Mostly because the conservancies offer a more intimate experience. The Masai Mara Game Reserve can be more crowded because they do not limit the number of people and vehicles allowed in the area. Also the Reserve is only open for specific hours so night driving is not allowed. Walking safaris are also unavailable in these areas.
The conservancies on the other hand, are large tracts of land adjoining the reserve. There are no fences, and wildlife wanders freely between the conservancies and the park. There are fewer visitors and you never end up with twenty vehicles around one wildlife sighting. But the real advantage is being able to go off road on game drives, this allows a chance to get closer to the wildlife. Conservancies only allow permitted vehicles that belong to the conservancy on safaris. They also restrict the number of vehicles (and tourists) allowed in an area at a time which generally means that when you get a sighting, you have it all to yourself. Not to say visiting a National Park or Game Reserve isn't special, we just really like the benefits of the conservancies!
Our first sight driving from the airfirld to camp was this pretty Maasai giraffe taking a rest.
Kicheche Valley Camp Game drives
What can I say? This was my favorite camp of the places we stayed in Kenya. The food, the staff, and our guide were A+++.
My favorite moment during our first game drive from camp was when our guide Mika handed his binoculars to Jim and asked if there was a lioness up on the hill about 300 meters away. Jim looked and looked and said, nope, it's just a log, no lioness. Mika asked if Jim was sure. Jim said, yep, pretty sure it's a log as he's staring through the binoculars. Mica said he was pretty sure there was a lion there—he could see an ear. Yes, that's right, our guide “thought he saw an ear” of a lion from 300 meters away. Of course, he did see a lion.
The lioness that Mika identified from the glimpse of an eat 300+ meters away.
The very next thing was also amazingly cool. Right down the hill from the lioness were two male giraffes engaging in a little dominance war. We spent about thirty minutes watch the two “necking.”
In intense bouts, male giraffes compete for dominance by steadying their legs and swinging their necks to deliver sledgehammer blows to each other with the stout ossicones atop their heads.
National Geographic
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After more than thirty minutes watching the giraffes dancing, we went on to see baby giraffes (so many baby giraffes), a hippo finding dinner, and other animals settling in for the evening, and finished off with sundowners in a scenic spot.
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Up early the next morning brought an exciting cheetah hunt. Unfortunately (for the cheetah!) it was unsuccessful. Cheetahs are clearly the supermodels of the African landscape. I’ve never seen an animal seemingly pose for photos like a cheetah… and those eye markings! I know they are to cut down on sun glare while hunting, but man, it's some impressive eye makeup. Fun fact: unlike most cats, cheetahs hunt during the day.
Since we had a spectacular guide (seriously, remember the lion ear?), he suggested giving the cheetahs some time to look for their next meal while we went off to look for other animals.
Lionesses with their adorable cubs! Oh, OK, let's take a break from watching a cheetah and her two boys to hang out with some lions.
After our fill of watching the adorable lion cubs, Mika suggested checking in on the cheetahs. Sure enough, they were in hunt mode when we got back. We got to see them attempt to grab a baby antelope, but the scattering heard successfully evaded the mama cheetah. Her sons were of no help at all. She looked pretty hungry so I'm sure she found another meal after resting up.
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I’m telling you right now, baby anything is adorable- baby lions, yes, baby giraffe, also yes, baby everything! That was all before we even had our breakfast! As I mentioned in this post, breakfast in the bush is one of my favorite activities!
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After breakfast there were more beauties to see: elephants, more lazy lions, hyenas, and of course, stinky hippos.
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Every day, the menu would be posted on a chalkboard. Once staff realized that no one at camp (us or the one other person staying there) were interested in cocktails, they came up with a mocktail of the day instead of a cocktail of the day. (Have I mentioned how much I like to be pampered?)
Our afternoon /evening game drive was eventful as we watched some vultures dine on a baby impala. As we were watching, two jackals stole the impala remains. As they were triumphantly running off, a hyena came slinking in and stole the prize from the jackals! Such is life as a jackal.
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Day 3 at Kicheche Valley Camp
We had one last morning at Valley camp before heading out on our walking safari to the Kicheche Fly Camp. Breakfast was with elephants after looking for a leopard that had been spotted with a kill early that morning. No luck on the leopard and its kill, but so many beautiful lions on the move that morning! We ended up seeing Jill, the other guest staying at camp, while spending time viewing the lions. She took some cool pictures of us observing the lions.
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Kicheche Valley Camp was definitely our favorite tented camp of the trip. I'm already trying to figure out when we can get back there.
INTERESTED IN DOING THIS?
We’ve had several people already asking us about our itinerary or how they can do something like this. For this trip, and all our prior African safari trips, we worked with our travel agent Casey at Mango African Safaris. She has always listened to what we want and put together an itinerary that suited us perfectly, so we highly recommend Mango.