Common zebras are white stripes on a black body with no white underbelly and clump together in groups of 5 + for protection. The back structure of both varieties is very weak and they cannot be ridden like a horse or donkey.
The terrain around Sosian Ranch is rocky with rivers and streams and lots of trees, incuding this "yellow fever acacia" that grows near riverbeds--so called because early settlers thought it was the source of yellow fever. The source, of course, was the mosquitos that bred in the rivers--but the name stuck.
Our guides, Joseph and Peter were with us the whole time, and Donna, the neighbor/manager who subs for the managing couple when they are away, saw us off on every game drive and welcomed us home from every drive. This seems to be an Offbeat Safaris policy, which we really appreciated.
There is a research station fairly nearby that tracks wildlife behavior and some species of particular interest are "collared" with radio transmitters that can help with tracking for game viewing.
The next morning we were rewarded with an incredible sighting of the extremely endangered wild dog pack that lives in the area. There are 13, including 7 puppies.
The puppies scrambling up a large rock outcropping.
Mama (with the collar) and papa.
All out for the morning hunt.
We realized how lucky we were when Peter told us that a fellow from South Africa had been at Sosian for three entire weeks, just looking for a sighting of the puppies. None are found in the wild in South Africa. He had no luck, left the day before we arrived--and there they were on our first morning! If you think having the tracking makes sighting easy...well, not so. The area is vast, the terrain uneven and brush-covered and the dogs move very fast. You are trying to keep up in a big old Land Cruiser--they only vehicle that is truly suited for this level of bush country.
Jospeh took us on a bush walk, armed with a spear--which he called his gun. Unlike the camps in South Africa, guides in Kenya (at least in Offbeat camps) carry spears sometimes, but no guns. They say they are trained in animal behavior and are able to avoid most dangerous situations.
We kept to open territory and Peter was spotting us from the vehicle on a nearby hill.
We learned to spot fresh lion tracks...a big guy!
The next morning Donna set up brunch by the river for us...very cool!
And we ran into a family of Grevey's zebra hanging out together...unusual.
At the end of the day we stopped by a grove of trees that leopards (very shy) like to hang out in and bingo--spotted a kill (impala) that had just been stashed in a tree for a later meal.
It took a few tries over a day or so, but we finally hit the jackpot.
Bud spotted him first and we waited and waited. He was about 12 feet from us in this shot.
I am writing this from the First Class Lufthansa lounge in Frankfurt, trying to catch up. Arriving from Cairo was a comedy of errors. The jet way wouldn't open, so they fussed for about a half hour before giving up and finding external stairs...for a rear exit. We were in 1 A and 1 C so were the last off the plane. They then wanted to do extra police checks (something about Cairo, I suspect). Then they misdirected us to the lounge and our gate---ALL US flights now leave from a special gate area---area "Z". this is different from last fall when came through on the way home from Sarajevo. We had just finally found the sky train to Z and the police cam and pulled us all of the train, so we had to go round the other way and start over. Grrr.
We finally got it all sorted out, after going in and out of passport control and security about 4 times and walking a mile. Turns out they had a limo waiting for our plane to take us over to the lounge via the tarmac--I saw it, but had no clue it was for us! If we ever get to fly this class again, I'll know.
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