On The Trail Of Kenyan Lodges

The urge to walk on the wildside and to be one with nature beckons Neeti Chopra as she visits Kenya's popular lodges and game park reserves

Close encounter with a one horned Rihno at Lake Nakuru

As the plane began its descent onto the Nairobi airstrip, I eagerly took in the beautiful greens and the browns of the land below that awaited me.

I let my imagination meander as it took me through endless rolling savannah, lush rainforests, extinct volcanoes, and geothermal springs. After all, I was on my way to some of the famous and stunning jungle lodges and game reserves of Kenya.

As soon as our plane landed in Nairobi, I took a tour van to reach Sarova Lion Hill Lodge, Lake Nakuru. I immediately prepared myself to take a front row seat and be a part of the energy and wonder of a real-life drama. Once in Kenya, I felt as if I was being driven by the raw forces of nature.

The road, which would take me to my destination, reached the edge of the Great Rift, winding down the precipitous face of the Kikuyu Escarpment. The breathtaking view from the window of my van was - for lack of a better description - simply stunning! The entire drive was a source of some serious roadside entertainment.

Sarova Lion Hill Lodge, Lake Nakuru

The idyllic setting of Sarova Shaba Lodge

Situated in the heart of the Rift Valley, Lake Nakuru is one of Kenya's most famous alkaline soda lakes. And what makes it a great base for a stay in Kenya, whether on a holiday or otherwise, is the luxury and comfort that Sarova Lion Hill Lodge offers.

Located high on the plateau overlooking Lake Nakuru, the view from the lodge was panoramic with shimmering pink shadows created by millions of flamingos, pelicans and marabou storks. With beautifully-plumes peacocks and their peahens strutting by the patio, the view was simply breathtaking. It was better than Discovery Channel. It was live!

The expansive lodge has cottage-style accommodation with 64 chalets, which offer a unique vantage point with a view overlooking a lake that merges hazily with the distant hills. Beautifully landscaped with natural foliage and a startling variety of flower gardens, the lodge is surrounded by electrical fence 24 hours a day for safety.

The splendour and beauty of the lodge left me more than impressed. What I absolutely admired about the place was that the rooms had been constructed so as to include the trees within the living area of the room and verandahs. The room was cool and elegant with generous double beds romantically swathed in netting and modern en-suite bathrooms to luxuriate in. In fact, it was a spacious 'room with a view'. The beds looked out onto the private verandah with stunning views of the surrounding park. The room was open-fronted that allowed warm soft breeze to envelop you.

But I was eager to get to my room and step under the shower after the long flight and the pretty - but nevertheless tiring - road trip. The swimming pool and sauna were a bonus and I felt all the tiredness and tensions of modern living drain away.

After a relaxed afternoon comprising lunch, an elaborate affair of local delicacies, I headed out for an exciting episode of game drive in Lake Nakuru Game Park. We were lucky to sight a host of wild animals: baboons, blue monkeys, elephants, gazelles and giraffes. A rhino sanctuary also provided the opportunity to spot the highly endangered Black Rhino. And our luck didn't run out even as we turned back to return to the lodge. Along the red, bumpy, clay road, we got a chance to encounter a buffalo, waterbuck, impala, Rothschild giraffe, and leopard.

But if I had to choose one moment of the drive that had etched itself in my memory, it would be the sight of perhaps two hundred Lesser Flamingos that seemed to cover the lake like pink satin stretched across its translucent waters of Lake Nakuru. Bird life, particularly the flocks of thousands of these flamingos that create a shimmering pink hue over the lake, is the key feature of this park. It is one of the biggest attractions and makes a perfect postcard photograph from the distance of an open-sided car.

Darkness falls quickly in equatorial Africa and witnessing the amazing sunset from the comfort of the lodge's Bar terrace was an amazing experience. I arrived in time for a sumptuous dinner at the very aptly named 'Flamingo Restaurant'. The Southern Cross blazed in the night sky as a huge campfire crackled and we were served hors d'oeuvres and drinks. The dining tables laden with silverware looked like a perfect setting for delicious Italian cooking of fresh pasta and homemade focaccia. A three-course meal was just what I was looking for: the corn soup whetted my appetite and the delicious grilled pineapple chicken was suitably accompanied by a rich dessert. And while I was busy enjoying my dinner, the heavy scent of jasmine filled the chilly but fresh air.

My first day in Kenya had ended and I had just enough strength to trudge to my room. It looked ethereal with the white netting let down over the bed at night to prevent mosquitoes and other creepy crawlies from invading your sleep area.

The light streaming through the window warmed my face. As I roused from sleep, I realised that the room offered me the luxury of enjoying the panoramic view of what lay outside from the privacy of my verandah. And though I would have loved to ‘sit and stare’, I had to move on; I had a journey to get on with and other lodges to discover.

View of the bar at Sarova Hill Lodge	Big game viewing at Lake Nakuru
Swimming pool of Sarova Hill Lodge	Stampeding herd of wild elephants in Shaba Game Reserve

Sarova Shaba Lodge, Shaba Game Reserve

My next stop in Kenya was at the Sarova Shaba Lodge. From Mount Kenya, we took a charter flight to Samburu in order to visit Shaba - one of Kenya's most pristine game reserves that boasts untouched scenery and unspoiled grandeur. The central attraction here is the meandering Ewaso Nyiro River on its way to the Lorien Swamp. The Ewaso Nyiro acts as a vein of life, bringing water from the vast Mau Forest to the North, down into the lowlands through Shompole and finally, at the end of its journey, into the alkaline flats of Lake Natron.

The riverine swamp stood out in stark contrast to the rugged and pitted tracts, which make up most of the sanctuary. And it is here that I caught a sight of a leopard, stretching lazily on a branch. As I moved further towards Sarova Shaba Lodge in the tour van, two lions lurked slyly in the tall Red Oat grass, eyeing some unsuspecting impalas. I waited quiet breathlessly to witness the drama of a live kill but the predators were too slow and the graceful doe-like animals swiftly dashed off.

Wreathed in morning mist, camouflaged in river-stone and cloaked in indigenous creepers, the Sarova Shaba Lodge came across as a triumph of ecological and architectural fusion. Located in the heart of the reserve, the Sarova Shaba Lodge also offers chalet-style rooms. It is an oasis of flora and fauna with sparkling spring water flowing and cascading all over its grounds. The open-sided reception is an unconventional construct with a banana-leafed thatched roof. For me, it had a 'Treasure Island' feel to it and is truly a unique African experience for those with a true sense of adventure. The rooms facing the river have embossed leather headboards, wildwood mirrors and flamboyant prehistoric wall motifs depicting fleeing giraffes, gazelles and plunging buffalos.

I went out for a game drive towards the end of the afternoon. Shaba boasts of a unique collection of animals found only in that region. This includes the reticulated giraffe, grevy's zebra, gerenuk and beisa oryx as well as 150 recorded species of bird life.

I was back at the lodge in time for a refreshing sundowner. I looked on from the viewing deck at the crocodiles lazily climbing the riverbank beyond which the sun slipped slowly below the horizon. The lodge also organises early evening entertainment with enchanting and rhythmic dances by the local Samburu dancers. My day ended with dinner at the Surpelei restaurant that overlooks the swimming pool and serves a wide variety of cuisine to suite the most cosmopolitan palate.

Yes, I did have a chance to taste some delicacies of the region - antelope, ostrich, zebra, warthog. I was assured by the attendant that the meat would be from farm-raised animals. He brought out the food in stages, describing each type of meat but I couldn't bring myself to eat the animals that I had seen in their natural habitat just a few hours ago. So, even though I enjoyed the theatrics of the presentation, I begged off the exotic meat and stuck with my usual marinated chicken and BBQ ribs.

Morans posing in the sunset at Sarova Shaba Lodge	Swimming pool, Sarova Shaba Lodge
Camel ride , Sarova Shaba Lodge	Restaurant at Sarova Hill Lodge

Luxurious suite at Sarova Hill Lodge	‘Birds of a feather flock together’ - flamingos at Lake Nakuru
Born Free Suite, Sarova Shaba Lodge	Bush Breakfast at Sarova Shaba Lodge

Among The Wild

I had spent the last two days amidst wild life in reserves and game parks. But I had not felt this uncertainty that I felt now. Once darkness sets in, it is unsettling to realise that there is nothing between you and the unknown creatures except some fine metal meshing. And although the nagging fear slowly receded the boisterous noises kept me up almost all through the night. I couldn't even read in bed since there is no electricity between ten in the night to five in the morning. The lodge, however, provides a flashlight in every room.

I woke up with the laughing of the hyenas and chirping of the birds. But it was already time for me to bid them goodbye. I took a charter from Samburu to Nairobi and then transferred to an onward flight to Mumbai.

I had plenty of time during the flight to indulge myself on my memories of the past two days. I realised that a wildlife safari in Kenya was not just about looking at wild animals. Outstanding cuisine, excellent accommodation, fabulous country settings amidst the primeval scenes of Kenya and personalised service - all these characteristics of the stylish lodges of Kenya held me enthralled. Suffice to say it was a totally different experience in a totally different world.