During the rainy season over April, I kept busy working on my flying hours in my (1957) Cessna 182, 5Y-KUC, known to the family now as “Uncle Charlie.” A vintage aircraft with the latest GPS navigation systems (and a new engine!) has made for some spectacular and safe flying over what I consider the most impressive landscapes in Africa. One of these flights included flying Halina over the Great Rift Valley and up to her first pony camp near Mt. Kenya – truly a stunning location to ride, fly, hike, fish, and of course enjoy the abundant wildlife that make Kenya so unique. While Halina and I were at pony camp, Oliver and Stephanie kept busy at home, graphing animal numbers and rainfall, as well as cataloging the fascinating night visitors captured with our remote sensing camera traps; trundling aardvarks, diminutive dik-diks, and hyena-chasing-hippos amongst them!

Halina and I with Uncle Charlie – about to take off for pony camp!

Kids and their ponies at pony camp, with Mount Kenya in the background. Halina and Flashman are farthest to your right.

On the Laragai front porch

During a mobile camping safari, we stay at select permanent camps and lodges while our own camp moves from one wildlife area to the next. We have a very short list of properties that we consider to be the best, and we visit them often: we know the managers, local guides, and wildlife well, and our guests are guaranteed a special experience during their stay.

One of our favorites over the past few years has been Laragai House on the Borana Conservancy. We have loved observing elephants at very close range as they drink from a small water hole next to the front porch, as well as when they swim in the dam below the house – viewable from the breakfast table.

The lodging is exquisite and exclusive: whenever we stay at Laragai we take over the entire house. Visit their website here to see what the interiors are like. While we certainly spend a lot of time relaxing by the two gigantic fireplaces in the central room, we also always enjoy horseback riding, swimming, game drives, and picnics during our stay. Tennis, a visit to the owners’ farm, and a helicopter flight to fish on a Mt. Kenya lake are also often on the itinerary.

We have had excellent viewings of wild dogs and leopards, and spend a considerable amount of time with the elephants. We also track lions here: Borana is home to a huge pride monitored by the Living with Lions team. We were also excited to recently hear that the fence between Lewa Downs and Borana may soon be taken down, in order to allow movement of rhinos throughout both conservancies. With more than 600 rhinos illegally killed for their horns in 2012, rhinos need all the help they can get, and we are happy to support Borana with their efforts by staying at Laragai often.

Riding Borana

The pool at Laragai

The Borana pride of lions

Picnic dinner near the big dam