Africa all in one place
The hugely varied terrain of this massive wildlife park in Kenya make it home not only to the ‘Big Five’, but also archaeological finds and warm hospitality, writes Sue Williams.
When wildlife legend Sir David Attenborough decided to make a new TV series about Africa, his producers were faced with a seemingly insurmountable problem.
The veteran broadcaster was nearing his 90th birthday and couldn’t travel with ease all around the continent for his pieces to camera. So instead they came up with an ingenious solution: find one place that had examples of each type of African landscape to serve as vastly different backdrops to his appearances on screen.
And so Attenborough ended up in Kenya at Lewa, a massive 160 square kilometre wildlife conservancy and Unesco World Heritage site by the foothills of Mount Kenya.
As a bionomic microcosm of Africa, it was perfect – with forest, rainforest, savannah, dry desert, mountain moorland and swamp. It’s also so beautiful that it’s the place Prince William – a long-time Lewa fan since spending his uni gap year there – chose to propose to Kate Middleton while on safari in 2010.
Even more critically, Lewa has an incredible variety of wildlife. One guest a few years ago took an astonishing photograph with four of the Big Five in the same frame; lion, buffalo, elephant and rhino. Everyone gathered around to marvel… until someone spotted, on a branch of a tree above the group, a leopard lying there.
‘‘No one could believe it,’’ says Calum Macfarlane who, with wife Sophie Brown – a fourthgeneration Lewaian, runs the lodge. ‘‘I’ve never seen anything like it before, or since.’’
You forget such things at your peril, however. A few weeks ago, Macfarlane got out of his vehicle for a closer look at a rarely seen bird, an African finfoot, and came face to face with a lioness with newly born cubs. He backed away, she mock charged, he backed further away, and eventually he made it safely into the vehicle.
Animals have been protected here since Brown’s greatgrandfather took it over and gradually expanded. Her uncle set up a black rhino sanctuary in 1983, which in 2015 became East Africa’s first local communitymanaged wildlife sanctuary.
Now it has everything, including rhino calves – it has 11 per cent of Kenya’s black rhino population – baby elephants and species unique to this part of Africa: the prettily patterned reticulated giraffe, the Beisa oryx and the largest population of endangered thin-striped Grevy’s zebra in the world.
Many of the inhabitants are so used to humans they don’t turn a hair when you drive up to observe them.
As a result, visitors often become the butt of jokes. At some of the new stone Gaudi-esque ‘‘earth pods’’, designed to blend into the landscape, there are openair baths for guests to enjoy the wide African skies with a glass of chilled champagne – but only in daylight. Too many considering a soak under the stars have heard Macfarlane’s jest about adding a little olive oil, pepper and salt to marinade themselves ready for the lions.
Occasionally, visitors do get nervous. A hot-water bottle is always waiting for you in bed at night when you return to your eco pod or stone-and-thatch cottage – one man became so scared at feeling a warm lump under the covers of his bed, he sounded the alarm…
But generally guests sleep soundly after full days of game drives, game walks, horse or camel riding and meals in the bush, all with guides from local tribes. There are also scenic flights in the yellow bi-plane, helicopter rides over the SUPPLIED conservancy and picnics on the cliffs, fishing, swimming, and eating under the stars.
With Africa still considered the cradle of humankind, there’s even an archaeological site at the conservancy with hand tools and axes excavated by the famous Leakey family and dated to half a million years old. In addition, guests can visit a nearby Maasai village to marvel at one of the most fascinating cultures left in the world.
Quite simply, it’s one of the most marvellous places in Africa ISTOCK to see wildlife, meet local tribes and sample the warm hospitality of a family-run lodge, dedicated to conservation. And if it’s good enough for Attenborough and the prince… – Traveller ● The writer travelled courtesy of The Classic Safari Company and South African Airways.