roadwarriorafrica

Masson: Wild Dogs. Accomplished

I have always wanted to see Wild Dogs, and especially watch them hunt. I had thought about Botswana, Tanzania or South Africa. My wife wanted to take me for my birthday to see if we could find wild dogs. I was not too keen on leaving Kenya, and so after some research on the Internet, I found that Loisaba in Lewa has had some good sightings of Wild Dogs.

So we booked for three nights, and did not think much about it until we had to pack on Wednesday night.

I am going to break this report up into 6 parts – Getting there, Loisaba Lodge, Star Beds, the people, game drives, and other activities.

1. Getting There

You can get to Loisaba either by road, or plane. From Nairobi it is around a 5 hour drive through Nanyuki.

If you choose to fly, you can see if Safarilink has flights to Loisaba (these are seasonal). Safarilink will take between 1 hour – 1.5 hours depending on stops. If they do not have a direct flight, then they will drop you at Nanyuki airstrip and you either charter from there, or drive to Loisaba (2.5 hours).

Alternatively you can charter from Nairobi to Loisaba.

We chose to use Safarilink direct to Loisaba. We left Nairobi at 8:00 am, and were in Loisaba by 9:00 am. On the way back, Safarilink picked us up at 11:50 pm, and we were back in Nairobi via Nanyuki at 1:30 pm. The flights are very uneventful, they use a Cesena Caravan, and they are comfortable.

2. Loisaba Lodge

We were picked up from Loisaba airstrip by Laurence, who would be our guide for the next 4 days. He took us on a short game drive, and we were at the lodge by 11:30 am.

Accommodation at Loisaba is divided into Loisaba Lodge (7 rooms), Loisaba House (2 rooms, but this is the owners residence, so it is not always available. It is a 5 minute walk from the Lodge), Loisaba Cottage (3 rooms. We did not see this, as it was over 30 minutes from the Lodge), Kiboko Star Beds (3 rooms), and Koja Star Beds (3 rooms).
The driveway leading to the lodge feels like you are entering someone’s private home. We were welcomed by several staff with cold towels and a welcome juice. The relief manager Sheel took us through the lounge area onto the deck, where the view was absolutely stunning. Not a building, or car in sight, Just miles of unspoilt land with a water hole down in the valley.

The common areas of the lodge include a large lounge with an open fireplace, leather sofa’s, leather beanbags and leather poufs’. Lots of paintings and pictures make the place feel very homely. To one side of the lounge is a smaller lounge/library with its own fireplace, and on the other side is the dining room with two long tables. There is also a computer with Internet for guests to use. This whole area felt great.

We were then shown around the pool area, where there were sun beds, the pool (felt cold), a couple of veranda areas, one with a lounge area, and the second with a bar (where buffet lunches are served at), some dining tables and chairs, as well as a lawn area with tables and chairs. The whole area felt great.

Beside this area is a tennis court, boules pitch and croquet green.

We were then shown to our room. There are three clusters of two rooms each, and the so called honeymoon room. We were in room 3. First impression of the room was extremely underwhelming. The room is small, the bathroom small. I would have expected large airy rooms with lots of views, showers with views, be able to lie in bed and soak in the view. Instead the room had no circulation. The bed took up 70% of the room. There was a mini bar (no glasses), a small wardrobe, two bedside tables, and a luggage rack. The bathroom had a shower, wash basin, and a desk area with two stools. Outside was a day bed, and two reclining chairs. As I said, we were very underwhelmed by the rooms.

Both 2 and 3 are the same. 4 & 5, 7 & 8 were like 2 & 3, but had very nice wooden decks. No. 6 was the honeymoon room which had a smaller lounge area attached to it.

Loisaba is all inclusive (beer, house wine, local spirits, soft drinks and water). During the day it was near impossible to find any member of staff who could serve drinks. There were no bars as such, only stores that were locked. We went to the kitchen and asked the staff there, who told us they would call someone, but after one hour nothing. For a lodge of this calibre, there need to be staff around. Also the spirits served were poor. While it is all inclusive, also have top shelf spirits for sale. There was champagne available which was excellent value (US$100 for a Taittinger).

Breakfast could be served either at the lodge (we had this once, and they served cereal, fresh fruit, boxed juices, tea/coffee, eggs, bacon, sausages, toast, etc.), on game drives as a picnic (fruit, cold sausages, bacon and boiled eggs, rolls, tea and coffee), or as a bush breakfast which was the same as having it in the lodge, but all set up in the bush.

Lunch was served by the pool. Always 3 -4 very fresh and tasty salads, bread, a protein (chicken, fish, quiche, lasagne etc.), a cheese board and desert.

Dinner was in the lodge on a common table with the managers, and comprised of an entrée, main course and desert. It was always a fixed menu. Again very tasty and fresh, and not pretentious at all. Dinners were a fun affair with lots of laughs. We always had Humphrey Carter, the helicopter pilot join us, and he as a ball of laughs. Also there as a volunteer manager from the US – Christina. Dinner could also be served in the bush.

We were never asked about food allergies / preferences, and our friends were served beef for lunch, which they don’t eat.

There is also a spa. I found the location to be wrong. If you have million dollar views, make sure if you are in the Jacuzzi, having a massage, etc, you can swallow in the views as part of your therapy. The Spa overlooked some back paddocks.

The staff are excellent. You really felt like in someone’s home. They are very polite, professional and forever smiling. They made our stay extremely comfortable.

The stay at Loisaba includes all your game drives, bush walks (we did not do), horse riding (bloody fantastic in the bush), camel rides, white water rafting (if the river levels permit), and fishing. Quad Bikes are US$100 per hour, Helicopter around US$2000 per hour and then Spa treatments.

3. Star Beds

There are two lots of Star Beds at Loisaba. Kiboko which is on the side of a hill, overlooking Kiboko Dam and hills, and Koja, which is on the River. I found the site for Kiboko more scenic.

What is a star bed? Basically a room that has a huge deck, and your bed gets wheeled out, so that you sleep under an open sky with the stars to tuck you in.

As it was low season, we did not have to book the star beds in advance. We arrived at 3:00 pm, dropped our luggage off and went for a game drive. We then got back at 7:30 pm.

There are three rooms – 2 double, and one that has two decks for families. In the middle there is a dining area and an open fireplace. The views are to die for, both in front, and above you. There were like a gazillion stars. The only pity was (if you can call it that), it was 3 nights after a full moon, so we saw the most amazing moon rise, but then lot less stars, as the waning moon was very bright. Who cares – it was amazing!!!!

The place is run by the local community. We started off by the fire with many a drinks, and then had dinner. The quality of food was the same as the main Lodge. Excellent.

We were then escorted to our deck for the night, which we climbed to, and closed the trap door.

The deck we had consisted of a shower on one side (these are bucket showers, so you “need” to order you hot water), and a toilet on the other side. The back wall was sheer rock. There was a wardrobe to one side, two safari chairs and the bed. The bed was large, draped in mosquito net that we could see through, covered in very warm duvet, hot water bottles and soft pillows. It was heaven. There is no electricity, so you are using torches and hurricane lanterns.

Sleep came so easily, looking up, and in front at stars, and the moon. Throughout the night w heard Hyena, and lion calling. In the morning, as dawn crept in you were woken so gently, with birdcall and crisp air. Then a tray with coffee. The sun came up in front of us, and it was absolutely stunning.

We left for a game drive, so did not experience breakfast here, but am sure it would have been as good as the Lodge.

4. The People

What makes Loisaba special is also the people. From the old man who was the gardener (always smiling with a very toothy grin, who gave me porcupine quills on the birthday as a gift, and then a selection of succulent plants in a milk carton as a leaving gift), to the wait staff (Mwangi, Mike), to the kitchen staff who made some great food, to the room stewardesses (Regina who looked after us), and also the managers. We always felt genuinely welcome.

5. Game Drives

Loisaba is actually a 61,000 acre working cattle (Borana) ranch that has turned into a conservancy. It is wild. It is isolated. It is free of vehicles mini vans, lodges and PEOPLE. If you want to escape, this is your place.

We saw:

➢ Baboon
➢ Beisa Oryx (some large herds)
➢ Water Buffalo
➢ Burchells Zebra (lots of them)
➢ Bushbuck
➢ Dik-Dik (lots of them)
➢ Eland
➢ Elephant (very big males, all red and dusty. We would have seen over 200 elephant)
➢ Gerenuk
➢ Giraffe
➢ Greater Kudu
➢ Grants Gazelle
➢ Ground Squirrel
➢ Hare
➢ Hippo
➢ Hyena – Spotted
➢ Hyena – Stripped
➢ Hyrax
➢ Impala
➢ Jackal
➢ Klipspringer
➢ Leopard
➢ Hartbeast
➢ Lion
➢ Mongoose
➢ Ostrich
➢ Serval Cat
➢ Thompsons Gazelle
➢ Vervet Monkey
➢ Warthog
➢ Water Buck
➢ Wild Dog

And then close to 100 different types of birds. It was amazing.

There are rangers who patrol the ranch, and have camps in strategic areas. So we were told on the Saturday morning, that the Wild Dogs had been seen heading back up to their den at 5:00 am. We stood a chance to see them that evening when they would come back down to hunt. So we headed out to the bottom of the hill, along a river, and found some huge boulders to sit on with two bottles of champagne. We waited. Then we waited some more. We sipped. We talked. We ate in the area we were in. All of a sudden, Laurence and Kofia – our guide and ranger said they saw a leopard. We all sprang up and there, about 100 metres away was a huge male, walking with his tail held high. We jumped in the car and drove towards where we had seen him, but he had disappeared.

So we headed back to our rock. All of a sudden, we saw a black animal running. Then another one. Man they were fast. Wild dogs. Four of them. Chasing. Hunting. We were so pumped. A dream come true. They were 200-300 meters away, and we were back in the car on the chase. We went around where we had seen them, and back tracked on a parallel track. 13 of them we found. They had already killed and eaten a Dik Dik, and were now playing. It was around 6:30 pm. All of a sudden, the Alpha female called, and they all followed. So did we. The chase was on again.

Around 400 meters later, we saw them all ripping and yelping and tearing apart an Impala. I times 1 minute 55 seconds later they had torn the Impala apart and within 4 minutes all traces of the prey were gone. Hyena had been following them, and tried to get in on the action, but they were nipped off by the Dogs. This was so cool. Now the dogs were playing as if nothing had happened. Light was fading, and we watched them for 20 minutes. Then the call again, and they were off. We had seen what we wanted, and we headed home.

Close to the Lodge, there is a leopard hide. A piece of meat is hung up from a tree, to attract one of 4 leopard. I don’t agree with this practice, however, we spent two evenings in the hide. The first time, there was a Stripped Hyena who waited for at least an hour, until the leopard came, and was straight up the tree, tucking into his meal. The Hyena hanging around at the base of the tree, waiting for scraps to fall. The second time we went, the leopard did not show while we were there. The hide is well built, and we always went into it with sundowners.

We were amazed at the array of game we saw. Never a dull moment. The animals were more wary of vehicles then those in the Mara. They were wilder. The lions shy. The giraffe always looking over to see who we were.

We were in heaven. Loisaba is a little peace of heaven on earth.

6. Other Activities

Loisaba can be a hive of activity, or a calm oasis. It is up to you. You can choose from game drives, game walks, horse rides, quad bikes, camel safaris, white water rafting, bush dinners, bush breakfasts, village visit, fishing, helicopter rides, and so on.

We went riding on our last morning for 2 hours. The horses are well trained, and we enjoyed being in the fresh air for a few hours. While we did not see much game, the Syce’ that accompanied us were well trained, and knowledgeable. I think longer rides, may yield in more game.

It is so good to be able to choose from different things to do, that are not mundane.

Overall impression – Loisaba is a very cool place to be. The accommodation is wanting, but the people, the game and activities make Loisaba a great place to stay. I would recommend at least 4 nights including one in the Star Beds.

kimburu

Thanks for an eye-opening review. I would have expected the rooms to be a plus and the general game a negative at Loisaba. I guess I got the wrong impression somewhere - not that I have ever looked at the palce seriously.

It is "in Lewa"? Is that an approximation or an actual?

Local2542

I agree with kimburu, I would have also expected the opposite experience. In the process of planning our next safari, and had crossed Loisaba off - maybe not now!

Thank you for a great wild dog encounter - and congrats on a nice safari!

sandi

In these last few years, wild dogs seem to have returned Laikipia, Samburu, Masai Mara and Tsavo, and areas in Tanzania which is a thrill for those who encounter them wherever. I've yet to see these amazing animals.

roadwarriorafrica

Loisaba is in Laikipia but near Lewa. With the game, insist on long game drives.

Planning next trip......... Now to Namibia

Richard_Trillo

Congratulations on seeing wild dogs! Still a dream of mine, too. Interesting point about the accommodation. I also thought it was a little plain (though I didn't get a chance to stay, just visited) compared with say Ol Donyo Wuas (now Ol Donyo Lodge) down in the Chyulu Hills which is fantastically beautiful and lavish and also offers a wide range of activities, especially riding.

Just a clarification on the question of Loisaba's location (and with all due respect to you roadwarrior), it's nowhere near Lewa, but about 80km to the northwest, in northern Laikipia, high in the hills west of the Ewaso Nyiro river.

Richard

atravelynn

You really scored <b>RoadWarrior</b> with the canines--not only wild dogs, but striped hyena. Wild dogs in Kenya is really a special sighting. Even making it your mission is no guarantee, so you must have been thrilled. Hopefully the dogs will hang around and flourish so more people can share your experience.

Can you tell us how common or uncommon the striped hyena is in that location?

<b>Richard Trillo</b> can you tell us about your wildlife viewing in Chyulu Hills and seasonal pros/cons? Maybe a separate thread.

gred78

Please post pics..........

roadwarriorafrica

Richard - Thanks for the clarification.

atravelynn - The stripped Hyaena is not very common, but used to come out where the leopard bait is.

gred78 - My wife took photo's, and I film. Still need to download the film, and try and get some photo's from her. Soon

atravelynn

Thanks RW.