8 Night Laikipia Ride

A full day exploring Borana by horseback and vehicle, and a picnic lunch on the Ngare Ndare River.  Borana is on top of an escarpment and the scenery is spectacular.  A great variety of species is to be seen.  Borana is home to our hosts Nicky and Michael Dyer, who own and run Borana Lodge.

Our first moving day takes us with a picnic lunch (in our saddle bags) to the west.  We cross from Borana onto Ole Naishu ranch and climb the first ridge of the spectacular Loldaiga Hills. These form a northern extension of the Mt Kenya Massive and consist of large rocky Kopje’s interspersed with Cedar forest. We cross Ole Naishu onto Loldaiga Hills a 55,000-acre ranch owned by Robert Wells and probably one of the most beautiful farms in Africa. We reach camp at the head of a beautiful valley surrounded by cedar forest where we stay again for 2 nights.

Some spectacular rides and a picnic lunch by land rover to the northern areas of the ranch will fill today’s programme amply.  At one point we shall be on the western edge of the Loldaiga Hills with spectacular views of the Laikipia Plateau below, which we will be crossing over the next four days.

We leave Loldaiga Hills and today cross four ranches on our way to El Karama home of the Grant Family.  We drop down a hidden valley on elephant and buffalo tracks with little dams before crossing Enasoit ranch and then onto the specialist cattle ranch of Mogwooni, home of the Kenyan family.  This is one of the few days we see some cattle fencing and we will have a picnic lunch here on the banks of the Nanyuki River. After lunch we cross onto El Karama ranch 13,000 acres of pristine game country and find our camp on the banks of the Ewaso Ngiro River.

A full day exploring this ranch by horse and vehicle and a good chance of a game walk along the river, before lunch.  There is a host of game including Grevy’s Zebra, the rare endemic Jackson’s Hartebeest, elephant, giraffe and hippo in the river.

A long day’s ride to Sosian.  We cross the Ewaso Narok River and traverse Segera ranch to the Northwest.  Our route takes us up the spectacular Sugoroi river valley before crossing rather monotonous black cotton plains, covered in whistling thorn (acacia Drepanolobium) which is home to the Patas monkey, a chestnut coloured long limbed primate which is widespread but rare among the northern savannahs of Africa. We reach the Mutara River and follow this pretty valley down before crossing onto Sosian ranch for a late lunch at the edge of the lovely Suguta Swamp. A short ride after lunch brings us to our camp by the Ewaso Narok River, below Sosian’s waterfalls.

A full day riding, driving and enjoying this re-habilitated cattle ranch which boasts a wide variety of game including, Jackson’s hartebeest, Grevy’s Zebra, Elephant, Hippo, Buffalo, Lion, Giraffe and all the other species. From certain points we can look back at the Loldaiga Hills over which we passed and Mt Kenya now appears a good distance away.

A last ride followed before breakfast at Sosian and our transfer back to Nairobi in time for the International return flights.