Porini Rhino Camp is located in the Ol Pejeta Conservancy, a 90,000 acre wildlife conservancy situated between the foot hills of the Aberdares and the magnificent snowcapped Mount Kenya.

My flight up to the Nanyuki airstrip was an adventure in itself – Safarilink laid on possibly the smallest plane I have ever been in – just a 6 seater. It was more a case of would the plane fit into my bag rather than would my bag fit into the plane, but it was actually quite a fun 45 minutes flight.

We landed, got our bags, and were met by our Porini camp guides, and off we set. We crossed the equator (which in itself was hugely exciting, well, it was for me anyway), and very soon we were in the conservancy.

Our first sighting within just a few minutes of entering the conservancy was a reticulated giraffe – stunning markings on its coat, which are clearly defined, and it very kindly posed for a few pictures. A few km down the road, there were 3 cheetah brothers, lying in the shade with incredibly fat bellies, having just made a kill. A little further on, zebra.

Then a herd of probably the most ferocious cows that I have ever come across, with HUGE horns … yes, the local people still wander through the conservancy (even though it is Big 5 territory) to graze their cattle. Bizarre, but a way of life that is actually quite endearing and certainly unique !

We arrived at the camp, and was greeted warmly by Paul, the manager. My tent was extremely spacious – a double and a single bed, a desk, and an en-suite bathroom with bucket shower, flushing toilet and sink / basin. I love the fact that there was also a pot of detergent just in case I wanted to wash anything – which I did, because the roads are a bit dusty !!

When I got back from my evening drive, I was escorted to my tent (the camp is not fenced, so you cannot walk around after dark on your own), and my guide waited for me to quickly pull on a jumper, and then escorted me back to the boma fire, where a gin and tonic was waiting for me. Very civilised ! My morning wake up call was accompanied by a perculator of hot coffee and some biscuits – again, a really nice touch and very welcome at 6 am in the morning !

The camp is run off solar power, so if you wake up in the night, you need to use your wind up torch, but this does just add to the excitement of being on a true safari. And listening to the sounds of Africa through your canvas tent walls while you are tucked up in your bed is a truly magical experience.

All the meals that I had at the camp were exceptionally good – 3 course dinner, cooked breakfast, buffet lunch – and the service was also superb – there was always someone on hand to charge your phone / camera battery, offer you a coffee, and so on.

I visited the Chimpanzee Sanctuary during my stay here – the Sanctuary does do a lot of good for these rescued chimps who have been previously abused, so it is worth taking the hour out of your game drive to go there. However, you cannot go into the chimp enclosure at all, so be prepared to view them in their huge enclosures (acres of land) through a wire fence.

For the rest of my game viewing, I also saw the rare Grevys zebra (there are less than 20 on the conservancy), elephant, white rhino, gazelles, waterbuck, impala, monkeys (both vervet AND a black and white colobus monkey), baboons, warthogs … it was a very impressive list all in all, and please bear in mind, I was here for just one night only !!

An extremely enjoyable stay, definately worthy of 2 nights of anyones holiday.

I arrived at Tortilis Camp in time for lunch, and was greeted enthuasically by Andrea and Manuela, the husband and wife Italian camp management team, and immediately you think ‘I am going to enjoy staying here!’.

My room, or rather my tent, was lovely – if I had to use one word, it would be ‘stylish’. You approach via a private pathway, and a covered verandah complete with deep comfy seating invites you to enter the tent. Polished wooden floors, a huge kingsize bed, and a large en-suite bathroom with double basins, a shower (with hot and cold water) and a toilet complete the accommodation.

Lunch was buffet style, but with a real Italian twist – pasta as an entre, followed by salads and chicken, and then deserts and cheese. The restaurant is open to the bush, and overlooks a waterhole, and as I sat there, a stream of thirsty zebra meandered up to the waterhole and proceeded to drink. So game viewing without even having to leave your table !

The game drive departed at about 4 pm, and we spent some time in the Park itself (and saw elephants, hippo, cheetah, antelope, zebra, giraffe … ) before driving back into the private conservancy where Tortilis is actually situated, for a stunning sundowner on top of a hill with Mount Kilimanjaro as the backdrop.

Back at the camp, dinner was again as wonderful as lunch. Service was discrete, polite, and efficient.

I went to bed early, and as I was walking down to my tent (the camp is fenced, so you can walk around safely at night), I heard the hyenas starting to call … I found out the next morning that literally just after I had left the restaurant, 4 lion appeared at the waterhole, so guests abandoned desert and stood watching them for ages from the safety of the bar / restaurant.

Tortilis is definately a camp for people who want to enjoy luxury on their safari, and who expect superb quality food and outstanding service. If this is you, then you most certainly will NOT be disappointed.

Who says man can’t interfere with nature in a positive way ?

The newly opened underpass connecting the Ngare Ndare Forest / Lewa with the Mount Kenya Forest was built in the hope of re-establishing the only remaining connection between Kenya’s second-largest elephant population of 7,500 animals in Samburu with the estimated 2,000 in Mount Kenya.

The idea behind the underpass or corridor were to help genetic connectivity between these 2 elephant populations and also to reduce the habitat pressure within Lewa.

The underpass has been deemed a success, as one elephant lumbered his way down the corridor on the night of January 1st. Let’s hope many more follow suit shortly.

You may think that all elephants, zebras and giraffes look the same … but if you take a closer look you will see that zebras all have slightly different stripey markings; the same applies to the markings on giraffes; but you have to look at an elephant’s footprint to notice the difference between individuals.

Elephant only have 6 sets of teeth during the course of their lifetime.

They get their last set at the ripe old age of around 45 years, and this set can last upwards of 10 years.

But once this set have worn down, then unfortunately the elephant dies as they cannot break down and digest the food any more.

The last in our folklore series … I do hope you have enjoyed these stories !

Why the Zebra has a Stripy Coat

The Creator originally made all the animals the same. After a while, the animals became bored with all looking alike, and asked if The Creator could do something to help them.

The Creator agreed to help, and spent weeks making many coats and horns of varying styles, shapes and sizes so that the animals could put them on and look different.

When The Creator had finished his work, he invited the animals to come along and choose what they would like. The animals were very excited, and all eagerly rushed off.

All except the fat Zebra, who was too busy eating his dinner. Zebra was well-known for his love of food, and nothing would come between him and his mealtimes.

When Zebra had eventually finished eating, he was extremely full, so wandered slowly along to see The Creator. He passed many of the other animals on their way back home, and was surprised at how different they all looked now.

Elephant had chosen a plain grey coat, but had a magnificent pair of tusks to set the outfit off.

Lion had chosen a lovely sleek coat with a fine mane of hair around his neck.

Rhino, being a bit short-sighted, had chosen a coat that was a bit too big for him, so it looked baggy, and the 2 horns he had picked out were different sizes.

Zebra quickened his pace, his mind going over what sort of coat and horns he would like.

However, when he eventually arrived at The Creator, he was dismayed to find that there was only one coat left, and no horns at all.

The coat was a rather garish black and white striped one but as there was nothing else to choose from, the Zebra had to take it.

To this day, Zebras are still wearing their black and white coats, and you will very rarely see a thin Zebra because they are still always hungry and eating.

Symbiosis is the act of any 2 (or more) different species living and interacting together, and the African bush has many, many examples of how this works.

For example, a red oxpecker and a kudu have a mutually symbiotic relationship – meaning that both parties get a mutual benefit / positive reaction the relationship. So how can a bird and a mammal have this ? Quite simply, the red oxpecker will land on the kudu, and eat the annoying ticks. The oxpecker has a highly tuned ‘danger alert’ system, and will fly away immediately as soon as it senses danger – thus alerting the kudu to also flee.

An elephant and a dung beetle have a commensalism symbiotic relationship. This means that one party benefits but the other part is totally unaffected by the relationship. In this case, the dung beetle feeds off the nourishment in the elephant’s dung … whereas the elephant doesn’t really care at all about what happens after he has passed the dung !

Finally, humans and mosquitos have a paracitic symbiotic relationship – which is when one party benefits and the other party suffers … I think you fully understand what I mean here !!

More folklore for you to enjoy !

How the Elephant got his Tusks

The Warthog used to have beautiful long ivory tusks, but his friend, the Elephant, only had small, curling tusks. Elephant was extremely jealous of his friend’s tusks, and wanted the tusks for himself.

One day, Elephant saw Warthog out walking, and had an idea.

“Oh, Warthog,” said Elephant, “I have such a problem. I have been invited to a ball this evening, and I am worried that my little tusks will not be grand enough. Can I borrow your wonderful tusks just for tonight, and I will return them to you tomorrow morning?”

Of course, the trusting Warthog agreed to this, and the 2 swapped tusks.

However, when the next morning came, there was no sight of Elephant, and Warthog realised that he had been tricked.

Warthog rushed to find his other friend, the Pangolin. “Don’t worry,” said the Pangolin. “Now you have smaller tusks, you can live with me in my burrow and always feel safe.

And Elephant will be hunted for those tusks, and will never find a safe home to hide in again.”

And to this day, Warthogs still live safely in burrows away from predators, and the Elephant is still being hunted for his magnificent ivory tusks.

One of the best folklore stories !

Why the Elephant has a Trunk

The Elephant used to only have a small snout in The Beginning. This didn’t bother him unduly, in fact he was rather proud of his small nose because it never got in the way of feeding and drinking.

Because of his great size, mealtimes were very important to Elephant, and he had to eat and drink a great deal in order to keep his great strength up.

However, he did find it uncomfortable, because he had to go down on bended knees to reach anything.

One day, Elephant was at the river, and was kneeling down drinking from the fresh water.

Crocodile swam past, and saw Elephant at the water’s edge. Crocodile was feeling particularly hungry, and saw an opportunity for a good meal.

Crocodile swam stealthily up to where Elephant was, and suddenly lunged out of the water and grabbed Elephant by the nose.

Elephant was startled, and tried to pull away, but Crocodile had a firm grip on his nose.

Crocodile used all his weight and strength to try to pull Elephant into the water.

However, Elephant was also very strong, and he dug his feet into the bank and fought back.

The 2 battled for hours, and with every pull and tug, Elephant’s nose stretched a little more. Eventually, Crocodile became too tired to pull any more, and let go of Elephant.

Elephant ran off, with his now very long nose hanging down in front of his feet. He was distraught, and hid in the bush as he was too embarrassed to face the other animals.

Soon, Elephant realised that his new stretched nose was more useful than his previously small snout. He was able to reach food and drink without kneeling any more, and could even reach high branches and pull them down to eat the fruit and leaves.

All the other Elephants soon realised the benefits of having a long trunk, and one by one they too visited the river and taunted the Crocodile to try and pull them into the water.

The Elephants always won the tug-of-wars, and all ended up with lovely stretched snouts, but Crocodile remained hungry.

To this day, all Elephants still have their long trunks rather than a small snout, and Crocodiles have learnt that it is a waste of time and energy attacking Elephants when drinking at the water’s edge.

Guests at AmaKhosi Safari Lodge, about 3 hours from Durban, are used to their rangers taking them off road during exciting game drives in search of Africa’s Big 5 … but recently some guests got a slightly closer encounter than maybe they had bargained for !

An everso slightly curious elephant decided to investigate the Land Rover that the guests were sitting in. He came so close, it would have been possible to actually reach out and touch this gentle giant of the bush.

Ranger Philip Khumalo, however, showed why it is important for all rangers to be fully qualified and comfortable in their surroundings. He instructed his tracker to get into the vehicle, and then told all guests to remain extremely quiet and very still, and eventually the elephant, having satisfied his curiousity about this ‘strange metal thing’, wandered away.

Generally, when out on game drives, although the rangers will approach wildlife so that guests can enjoy an unbelievably close encounter, they do like to keep a respectful distance from the animals, in order not to spook or scare them – but if these animals decide to come closer on their own accord, then the ranger has to be prepared for all eventualities. A good and experienced ranger will always ensure that he has parked his vehicle at a sighting with an ‘easy exit route’ – so that he can move away if he feels that it is safe to do so without scaring or frightening the animal greatly. Guests safety always comes first.

I think it is fair to say that these guests probably didn’t need the zoom feature on their camera in this sighting !!