Sweetwaters Tented Camp 
at Ol Prejeta Conservancy: Overview

The 90,000 acre Ol Prejeta Conservancy is a private reserve in the heart of Kenya. The conservancy is situated on the equator, in Kenya’s Laikipia Deistict, between the foothills of the Aberdares and the snow-capped Mount Kenya. The conservancy hosts a large variety of animals, including the “Big Five”, Grey’s zebra, Jackson’s hartebeest, cheetah, and chimpanzee. It is also the home of the Jane Goodall Chimpanzee 
sanctuary.

This is a unique place. One of my favorite parts of the this reserve is the lit waterhole that is next to all the tents. During the day, it hosts a variety of wild animals including zebras, warthogs, and countless antelope. One of my favorite memories was dinner at Sweetwaters. The elephants would come to drink water in the evening just as dinner was being served.

Sunrise over the waterhole that sits next to all the tents at Sweetwaters Tented Camp.

Lodging:
Lodging in my opinion was about a star below the Intrepids at Samburu, but nonetheless, it was a great experience. Nearly every tent has a waterhole view with some tents having a clear view of Mount Kenya. The Dining room was large and offered a variety of buffet style meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The desert options here were exceptionally good with their bread pudding being among the best I've ever had. There was complimentary tea and coffee in the lobby for anyone to have before going on their game drives.

Game Drives:
Now the game drives here are a bit different than the game drives in Samburu. First of all, the roads are much better than the large game reserves. And second, the amount of animals you will see in a short amount of time is vastly greater simply because the reserve is so much smaller than the much larger Samburu and vastly larger Masai Mara. For anyone wanting to photograph all types of animals, Sweetwaters offered a near guaranteed opportunity to do so. The big cats, however, are still very elusive. We did not see any leopards or cheetahs here and only saw one lioness hidden in the bush. There are plenty of opportunities for bird photography and some beautiful landscape opportunities as well. In fact, one of the prettest meadows I've ever seen happens to be within Old Prejeta Conservancy.  Below are some highlights of the game drive.

African Fish eagle. 

Baboons in a meadow. 

Mount Kenya.

African Cats: The Cheetah...

Here are my favorite photos of Cheetahs in Kenya, Africa. All of these photos were taken with a  few Canon 7D bodies equipped with a 100-400mm Canon L IS lens.

I observed this Cheetah for about 1.5 hours as it relaxed on the plains. Visible right behind this magnificent cat is it's cub. At sunset, these two began stocking prey in the field as a hunting training session.  Canon 7D with 100-400mm L Lens. 

This animal was so curious that it walked right up to our vehicle to get a better glimpse. I think he was just impressed by the camera! ;-)

Kenya: Samburu National Reserve...Part 1

Last month, I got to experience something I've always dreamed of; a photo safari in some of Africa's most renowned game reserves. As a nature lover, it was an experience of a lifetime to say the least. As a photographer, I ended up taking nearly 80 gigs of photographs and 50 gigs of video.  But with all those photos, not only did I have to spend some time converting from RAW to jpeg, I also had to come up with something educational to write about utilizing the photographs. 


With so many photographs, what am I going to write about? This is where you have to help me. 


I'm interested in fielding any questions that you may have about taking photographs in nature, traveling with equipment, or whatever it may be. I welcome any topics regarding my experience in Africa. Just message me. 


For now, I just want to spend some time summarizing the places visited during this trip. Just in case you ever decide to go there. The primary tour operator for the safari was Vintage Africa . Our driver and guide, Edward was absolutely amazing; knowledgeable, friendly and aware of the places to be for photography.  


Samburu National Reserve:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samburu_National_Reserve


This is the homeland of the nomadic Samburu people, whose culture attaches great value to tending their livestock of cattle, sheep, goats and camels as their main economic activity. It is located north of Mount Kenya.


Samburu's dry and arid climate gives it a very unique landscape compared to most places in Kenya. On a clear day you can see the snow capped Mount Kenya in the distance. Samburu is home to most of the "Big Five" including Lions and Leopard. An interesting component of Samburu is that it's rich in species not seen in southern Kenya's more famous parks. Those species include the Grevy's zebra, reticulated giraffe, kudu and gerenuk. But it is probably best known for it's abundance of African elephants. 

In Samburu, it's not rare to be surrounded by large groups of elephants. 

Elephants on the path during a morning game drive

Elephants:

Elephants, elephants, and more elephants! For anyone who wants to see these beautiful animals roaming gracefully in the open, Samburu is the place to go. In fact, during my time there, BBC was filming and broadcasting live, the elephants for their real time documentary Planet Earth Live.


Lodging/Tents:
Samburu Intrepids Luxury Tented Camp
This luxurious tented lodge sits on the bank of the Ewaso Nyiro River with a private view of the wildlife-rich river bank. Each tent sits on a raised deck overlooking the brown river where the elephants often make an appearance next to the tents or the crocodiles come out to lounge by the river’s banks.

Elephants welcoming us to Samburu as we drove into
The Intrepids Luxury Tented Camp.

This place was just amazing. Every "tent" was worthy of a 5 Star rating. It was a completely self sustained camp. Electricity would shut off everyday between 3-6pm and then again at midnight until 4am for power generation. The water was heated via a solar powered system.

As far as food was concerned, the chef was up to par with any 4 or 5 Star resort. Breakfast offered a full breakfast buffet with every type of breakfast food available. The cook making the omelets was fabulous. Dinner was a formal affair (by bush standards) of sorts. For both lunch and dinner, the chef created a great five course meal including vegetarian entrees.

My download station in my tent at Samburu Interpids. Of course, the monkeys
were curious. 

Every evening, the on site naturalist gave a wildlife presentation that went well with game drives. Additionally, star gazing and walking safaris were offered.

Bathroom within the tent.

Bed with mosquito netting within the Tent. 

Game Drives:
There were a total of four game drives in the two days we were there. Normally, as is custom with all places, you participate in an early morning game drive and a afternoon/sunset game drive daily. I found that the early morning game drive was particularly more active than the evening, but that may have just been by circumstance.

Here are some photos of the wildlife at Samburu National Park. In my next entry, I will summarize my second stop; Sweetwater's Tented Camp near Mount Kenya.

The rare Grevy's Zebra. There are only 2500 of these.  Notice the white belly, different from the common zebra. 

Impala

Gerenuke

This owl is only 5 inches. Tall..don't know what it was but it was a rare find. 

Eastern Pale Chanting Goshawk

Dik Dik...this animal stands only 16 inches tall. They are one of the smallest antelope in the world. 

The olive baboon. 

Black velvet-faced monkey.