Its always a treat to see Mt. Kilimanjaro. Imagine our delight at seeing it bathed in moonlight with stars twinkling above. Magic!
We were lucky, the mountain came out from behind the cloud on most days that we were camped in Amboseli. One evening we enjoyed a traditional dance put on for us by the local community with the snowy peaks as a backdrop.
Images Copyright Ninian Lowis
Tsavo is one of the oldest parks in Kenya and one of the largest in the world! The east of the park is a vast wilderness of arid bush, broken by the glimmering copper of the Galana River with its lush green banks. Black lava flows reach fingerlike off the Yatta plateau. Cooling swamps, Mzima Springs and the still waters of Lake Jipe interrupt the silvery grasslands in the west. The game here can be incredible, we saw leopard, rhino, lion, hippo, enormous crocodiles, elephants stained red by the soil, klipspringers, plains game and a myriad of birds. A favorite of Denis Finch Hatton and Bror Blixen, a safari here is not for everyone. The wilderness is vast and it takes great patience and many hours of searching to find all these wonderful creatures.
Ninian has been camping in the Mara for five nights with our guests.
They saw a total of seven individual leopards in this time, including a mama with cubs.
The migration has begun. This herd of early arrivals was at least 10,000 strong. All this long grass will soon be mowed short by all the zebras and wildebeest.
The Mara crocodiles are eagerly anticipating the arrival of the migrating herds of wildebeest and zebra.
The migration this year began earlier than usual and the herds have waxed and waned over the past few months. 
Several large rains storms recently have caused the animals to change direction resulting in large numbers in the Mara. Three days ago Ninian and our guests found huge herds of wildebbest and zebra gathering to cross the Mara River.
Excited to watch the spectacle of a river crossing, they elected to sit and wait while the animals built up the courage to take the plunge. Our camp crew gathered the lunch they had waiting in camp and sent it out to them, and four hot hours later their patience was rewarded.
Keen fishermen, inspired by Ninian’s fishing tales, our guests were eager to try fishing the huge trout in the high-altitude lakes of Mount Kenya. The mountain is just over 17,000 feet high, wild and beautiful.
The most comfortable way to get there is by Helicopter. Many of the “blue tarns” are at over 11,000 feet, icy cold and clear, fed by glacial melt water. These lakes were stocked years ago and some of the trout there are now enormous.
Only a few people have had the privilege of casting on these waters, and not all of them have had a prize to show for their efforts. Through a magical combination of the moon being in the right phase, luck and skill, our fisherman came back with a record catch including one fish that weighed in at 5lbs
After a wonderful visit to Lewa Downs, Ninian and our guests headed to Tanzania.
Their first stop was Lake Manyara for a night before driving to the world-famous Ngorongoro Crater, ( a UNESCO World Heritage site) at the eastern edge of the Serengeti in northern Tanzania.
The crater is part of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, which covers more than 3 100 square miles of wilderness. Sheltered by the crater walls, the forests, grasslands, fresh springs and a large soda lake offer a wildlife haven. They also visited nearby Olduvai (Oldupai) Gorge (which was excavated by Lara’s grandparents, Louis and Mary Leakey in the mid-1950s). Based on fossil evidence found at Olduvai, it is known that various hominid species have occupied the area for 3 million years.
Next stop the northern Serengeti where they witnessed a spectacular river crossing
The plains were dotted with tens of thousands of wildebeest.
Their final stop before heading to Rwanda was Singita Grumeti Reserves to stay at Sasakwa Lodge.
Image courtesy of Singita Grumeti Reserve.
One of three exclusive properties on the Grumeti Reserves 340,000 acres private concession in the Serengeti. Here they were lucky enough to get a wonderful view of a mother leopard and her two cubs.
