#lewamassive

[themagunga]

Meanwhile, a puncture stalled us just after Mt Ololokwe and @wattaonthego took the opportunity to paint yellow lines on The Great Northern Road that tears all the way to Ethiopia and into Cairo, I think. #LewaMassive #Travel #Wanderlust #Twaweza

[themagunga]

When we hear about wildlife conservationists, the first thing that comes to mind is usually a rich mzungu wearing a hat stitched with the map of Africa, sporting cargo shorts with too many pockets and safari boots. Perhaps with brown socks, standing next to an animal that's almost going extinct. Seldom do we imagine a Samburu woman with circles of colourful beads on her neck, rings of aluminium glinting on her arms and feet, living at the foot of Mount Ololokwe. A woman with a gap between the teeth, long earlobs and deep sockets that have been hiding eyes from the Northern sun long enough. . . We do not imagine that this woman would be a board member of a Conservancy, fighting so valiantly to keep our wildlife away from the horrible hands of a poachers by marshalling other Samburu women in joining this cause in their own way. . . Kalama is a community conservancy, meaning that it is exclusively run by the locals. They own the land here, but have donates a portion of it, 16000 ha, to giving a safe home to wildlife of the North. . . Such are the people on the ground, really. A people whose communities coexisted with wildlife long before someone came up with the ridiculous idea that ivory can boost your game in the sack. Long before the price of a kilo of rhino horns became the most expensive commodity in the black market; going for a staggering KES 6.5million. Hell, neither gold nor cocaine comes close to that neighbourhood. . . Kalama Conservancy is run by Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT): one of the beneficiaries of the Safaricom Marathon in Lewa. And this gorgeous woman, Nabiki Lesuperr, is a board member. . . When God made the earth, what was His first instruction to man? To take care of his creations. Akina Nabiki listened. . . She is not such a popular face of conservation. But a face nonetheless. A heroine by any other name is still a heroine. . . #KalamaConservancy #LewaMassive #Twaweza #YouRunIWin #SafaricomMarathon #Travel #Wanderlust (at Kalama Conservancy, Isiolo)

[themagunga]

Ngiri House will be my diggz for the next few days. I am not even going to contaminate the poetry of this place with words. Just observe and then go back to sending that 'Best Regards' email. #Twaweza #SafaricomMarathon #Travel #Wanderlust #Travelgram #ThisIsMyKenya #LewaMassive #LewaConservancy

[themagunga]

There is this road that connects Nyeri and Nanyuki. Thin and curvy and it scares the beats out if me because at every turn I am scared something might happen. To distract myself I turn to the lady next to me for conversation. Her name is Wendy Watta, a travel blogger whose Instagram (@wattaonthego) will give you the mother of all FOMOs. . . Then for a minute I turn and look outside the window and I see this. Thick cottons of clouds hanging low. Blue mountains at the back. An endless vastness of land that's begging not to be bothered. And a sky like the ones poets describe use to exaggerate their girlfriends' beauty. . . For a stretch of about 3 kilometres, there is this undisturbed nothingness running in the opposite direction. Sometimes the railway line, the old one that Indians gave us, rears its head, then disappears like all relics tend to do from time to time. . . An airstrip welcomes us to Nanyuki. But that's not the last stop. For the next couple of days I will be bringing you stories from the Lewa Conservancy. Maybe this time, we will get to know who named that place 'Lewa' and yet it's not even a bar. . . #LewaMassive #SafaricomMarathon #Travel #Wanderlust #LewaConservancy (at Naro Moru)