Written by Judy Scotchford who was travelling with fellow artists Lyn Ellison and Peta Boyce

New York to Nairobi

20 – 29 th September, 2009

While this trip diary is to tell you about our African experiences on our last visit to Kenya in ’09, I feel I have to first mention the fabulous time we all had in New York where we stayed for 8 days on our way to Nairobi.

Exciting Masai Mara River crossing Kenya

sorry if the connection to YO U tube is not coming up correctly-  just type in ‘Exciting Mara River crossing’ and the one by ‘scotchfordable’  is mine

This is the third exhibition of paintings of African  subjects by Judy, Lyn Ellison and Peta Boyce who have shared many African adventures. On our latest safari to Kenya we managed to catch the drama of the peak of Wildebeest migration on the Masai Mara, and the attendant predators – lion, leopard, cheetah and hyena. In contrast to this, we delighted in  the antics of young elephants, and cheetah and lion cubs. At Laikipia, we revisited a village, where I  took copies of portraits I painted from a previous visit and the Witch Doctor/Chief was so delighted he gave me a necklace and bangle made in the village.

At this exhibition we will be raising funds for a small, independent school we visited just outside Nairobi. The artists were the first Westerners to visit the school, which on its own, supports over 30 orphans.

Here are some images of a few of the  new paintings. You can have a preview of all the paintings as I add them  BRUSH WITH AFRICA section of the GALLERY

This camp is in the Ol Pejeta Conservancy which is 90,000 acres of wilderness that formerly was called the Sweetwaters Game Reserve. It also includes a chimpanzee sanctuary run by the Jane Goodall Institute and the nearby Ereri Multi-Cultural village. The conservancy is also home to the Reticulated giraffe and the Grevy’s zebra and is only a 30 min. flight from Nairobi. The Kicheche camp, (run by Sonja and Andy), consisted of 6 luxurious tents each with an en-suite bathroom with running hot water  showers! The showers in our future camps will be bucket showers so this was an unexpected luxury. We were staying in a tent set up for three and I ‘bagged’ the large bed first! There was also a lovely lounge and dining tent, though we lunch alfresco, weather permitting. After lunch we sat around the dining area and Sonja put out water, fruit and bread scraps for the local birds whilst Peta and Lyn busily photographed the incoming diners which consisted of Bulbuls, Cordon-bleus, Starlings, Weavers and some other little grey thing that Peta became excited about. On the afternoon game drive we were joined by a charming young man from America called Brent who we teased mercilessly for being stuck with us three old ‘birds’ though we soon found some common ground talking about cameras and photographing wildlife as he was going to attempt to outdo his father’s prowess with a camera. That afternoon we saw Jackals, Rhinos (both black and white), elephants, Bush Buck, Impala, Grants and Thompsons Gazelles, Reticulated Giraffe and not forgetting the birds – Kori Bustard, Spurfowl, Guinea fowl, European Roller and that guard dog of the  veld the Blacksmith Plover.

On Lyn’s insistence, we were up and out extra early on the next morning’s game drive and immediately came across a large male lion but it was still too dark to photograph him though he looked wonderful striding towards the distant Mt. Kenya. Then we had to rush back to camp as we were radioed that the cheetahs were drinking at the waterhole in front of our tent! We were too late for the cheetahs. Fortunately, we then had some lovely close encounters with Jackals, Zebras and their foals and giraffes and found a lovely spot for breakfast under the green and yellow-barked acacia trees. That afternoon Lyn again insisted on an earlier start to our game drive and we teased her about our earlier than usual 3 o’clock start because we didn’t see any game until 4 o’clock! Lyn responded by saying “well, at least we are out here by 4”.

That afternoon we saw White Rhino, Bush Duiker, Steinboks and Peta relentlessly tried to photo every L.B.B. (little brown bird) we could sight, and I was starting to feel sorry for Brent when, during a quiet spot, Lyn and Peta started to photograph the lichen on trees and then the light on the grass much to Brent’s dismay.  We tried to explain that as wildlife artists, all this resource material was essential once we were home in Australia and wanting to compose paintings that were accurate in their representation of the wildlife and their environment. In the evening after dinner we went on a game drive but only enticed Peta to come by telling her that she might see an Aardvark, however, we only saw Spring Hares and a lovely tiny Bush Baby.

The next day was slightly cloudy and we had some late afternoon rain which turned the black lava soil into sticky clumps on the bottom of our shoes and the animals suffered likewise. We saw a large group of Baboons and Bush Buck travelling together and whilst breakfasting by the river, encountered Hornbill, White-eye Flycatchers, Wood Hoopoes, Starlings, Cordon-bleus, Pied Wagtail and Tropical Boubou with a backdrop of Mt. Kenya floating in the clouds. The rest of the morning we spent at the Chimpanzee Sanctuary reading the heart wrenching stories about the suffering some of the chimpanzees had undergone before they were rescued, and then we tried to identify the different characters, who in the heat of the day, were hiding in the bushes under shade. I had particularly wanted to visit the sanctuary as the last time I was there a couple of years previously, I didn’t have enough cash to be able to sponsor a chimp and they didn’t have the facilities for handling credit cards. They have since become better organized and they now have different levels of sponsorship available. I sponsored Poco who had suffered in a small cage for 9 years. Chimpanzees are not indigenous to Kenya and Sweetwaters Sanctuary is the only place I know in Kenya where you can view chimpanzees in relatively natural surroundings. Late that afternoon we came across 2 male cheetahs and enjoyed sundowners watching these two boys settle in next to one another for the night while we experimented with the ‘white balance’ settings on our cameras to see who could take the best pictures in the difficult light. We had an extremely hilarious evening around the dinner table that night swapping stories about our African adventures and bade farewell to Brent who was going on to a different camp on the Masai Mara than we were. We had really enjoyed his company and good humor.

Our last day at Kicheche Laikipia was just wonderful. It started with a sighting of a lion pride consisting of 3 females and 8 cubs all of varying ages. They were tucking themselves away in thick acacia bush land for the day. There was a little jostling for position among the vehicles in attendance and we were all suffering with frustration as a group who weren’t even interested in photographing or drawing the lions seemed to have the best viewing spot.  We waited them out, but by the time we had a glimpse of the pride they were well sheltered so we decided we would find them again in the afternoon when they would be livelier and we headed off for Ereri Manyatta or village.

2^nd October

Today was a very exciting day for us all because we were going on a school visit  that Lyn had arranged last year when she met a small group of students and their teachers that were on a once a year outing to Sheldrick’s to see the baby elephants. The founder of the school, Lucy Muthoni Kiragu started the school in 2000 with 3 pre-schoolers. Now there are over three hundred pupils and 30 staff at the school. As well there are 30 orphans who are educated and housed by the school and are mostly looked after by Lucy and her family. I was waiting for Lyn and Peta in the reception area when Lucy, Antony and their daughter Monika arrived to meet us at our Hotel and I recognized Lucy from a small photo Lyn had showed us the afternoon before and so I introduced myself to Lucy. Not realizing that I had seen her photo, Lucy had us all laughing when she said “wazungus are like gods” as she couldn’t believe how I could recognize her, and of course we were equally surprised to find we were the first non Kenyan people to visit the school. Whilst we had no idea what the facilities at the school would be like, we had brought some things with us that we thought would be helpful. Lots of things had been donated to us by other people like a digital camera, stickers, books, beanies, and an old laptop computer which were all appreciated, but perhaps the most useful thing was some money that my aunt Flora and my friend Helen had given us.  After converting this to Kenyan shillings, we went with Lucy to a schools supply shop where I was truly amazed at the quantity of schools supplies this could buy. They bought dictionaries, reference books, readers for all ages, chalk, pen, pencils, crayons, inks, exercise books, reams of colored cardboard for charts for the rooms and Lyn, Peta and myself added money for large jars of powder paint, boxes of brushes, drawing paper and of course skipping ropes and soccer balls! We had also bought, from the side of the road on the way from the airport, a large world map for their wall. Lucy, Antony and Monica then joined us in our van and Robert drove us to the school which was about an ½ hour drive out of Nairobi in Kikuyu. Naturally, the children were extremely curious about us and we were taken into each classroom where we were greeted and introduced to the children who sang to us and then we had to explain how Lyn had met Lucy and why we were there.

Next stop was the Giraffe Manor where we had the opportunity to get up close and personal with giraffes!

Do you know the difference between the 3 types of giraffes? The Rothschild’s giraffes have white socks and their markings are slightly diamond shape, and they are larger than the Reticulated giraffe. The Reticulated giraffe have a squarer shaped and more even pattern to their markings and the Maasai giraffe have a rougher, darker shape to their patterning.

At the Giraffe Manor you can feed the giraffes by holding a pellet in your mouth. As the giraffe’s tongue has antiseptic qualities, and the giraffes here are so gentle it is considered safe to do so. Thus you have the experience of ‘kissing’ the giraffe and when they slurp the pellet from your mouth with their long blue tongues they give you a little breathy ‘kiss’.  Their  tongues can be quite rough and Peta commented that she might suffer from beard rash if she did this too often.

We then spent a delightful afternoon lunching on spicy Zanzibar soup and crab samosa at the Utamaduni Craft Centre followed closely by shopping, shopping, and more shopping. The Craft Centre has a huge range of  carvings, artifacts, jewelery, African cloth, kangas, African made items for the kitchen to the bathroom, hand sewn antiques and decorative pieces, traditional beadwork and everything you can imagine from the touristy to the collectable. Consequently we overstayed our allotted visiting time and were late getting to Kazuri Beads. However, we didn’t let this deter us and promptly tried beads on for everyone we could think of including ourselves and with the combined shopping expertise of three women we promptly sorted through the massive array and bewildering assortment. We helped each other decide what piece would be just right for this or that person with the result that all our Xmas presents for our female friends and relatives were promptly purchased and we hope they take as much delight in wearing them as we did in selecting them.