Sundowner at Joy’s.

I had the pleasure of spending a couple days in the Shaba Reserve at Joy’s Camp in Northern Kenya, named after the infamous Joy Adamson who reared the orphaned lion, Elsa and later the leopard Penny. Joy was also author to several books, including, Queen of Shaba. 

The sight where Joy was found dead to commemorate her work with animals.

The landscape was much more desert like than the Rift Valley and hotter. After spending a few days bouncing around in a safari vehicle, it was a great change of pace to start each morning with a hike. Grant it there was a ranger following me with a gun, which added a little excitement and it felt good to get a little exercise.  And mysteriously our safari vehicle always arrived to pick us up sans driver at the end of every hike…

Guide and ranger post walk, no doubt annoyed at me with the heat at 9am!

Food was refreshing and Joy’s has a resident tailor on hand (check out the “Sleeping Around” page for a pic of the sweet pants they made me).

In addition to the wildlife, I also saw my first sand tornado which we had to wait and let pass our Cruiser.

Basket weaver bird nests.

Cape buffalo, a singular buffalo is more dangerous than a herd…FYI.

Monitor lizard (the guys who steal croc eggs) tracks on our hike.

Impala.

Sand tornado.