Big Five – FeedDear Advisor Partners,
I write this blog sitting just outside the fence of Tsavo West National Park in the private Mbulia Conservancy owned by the Taita community, who are based inside Tsavo West National Park, with the Mkamba community on the other side near Tsavo East National Park.
The view is just stunning, looking out over the sanctuary with Kilimanjaro as the backdrop. Not even 24 hours since I arrive and already I have spotted a leopard by a water lagoon, three herds of elephant, and even a herd of the famed and heavily endangered “big tusker” elephants. Incredible!
Tsavo likely has a historic connotation for anyone who read about the ghost and the darkness described in John Henry Patterson’s 1907 book The Man-Eaters of Tsavo, detailing his experiences building a railway bridge over the Tsavo River. Well today on the way in, I went right past the old Kenya Uganda railroad where the two male lions were caught in the late 1800s. One of those lions remains on display at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. If you haven’t heard about this book, I urge you to read Col Patterson’s original published journal. There are movies, of course, but trust me, the journal is better.
The Mbulia Conservancy is magnificent as is the story of the Taita people who built that railroad during the time of those lions. Today the same Taita community is at the forefront of conservation, working in partnership with the Mbulia Conservancy as lessors of the land that Kipalo Hills is built on. Where else could you have a secluded camp like Kipalo Hills in a secluded conservancy such as Mbulia nestled deep inside Tsavo West National Park?
This is the Kenya even Hemmingway didn’t write out. Explore these extraordinary locations and much more on our President’s Pick Wilds of Uganda and Kenya.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of my adventure. And if anyone wants to know what it was flying through Amsterdam to get here, just ask.
