What better way to enhance an African safari than to experience the landscape and wildlife from the air?

Visitors to the Masai Mara can opt to add a hot air balloon excursion to their stay and our latest video, courtesy of Mark Rowe, gives an insight into what can be expected.

Earlier this month, our Ol Kinyei Conservancy rangers helped in the successful rescue of an elephant from a wire snare.

Following reports of the injured elephant, rangers rushed to the scene and found a 45-year-old adult male elephant with a wire snare wrapped around his right hind limb. The snare posed a risk of cutting into his flesh and causing an infection or even death.

Here is a wonderful selection of wildlife images by our colleague and regular guest Julie Roggow. These were all taken whilst staying at our Porini Safari Camps in Kenya.

Julie has had a long association with Gamewatchers and Porini, having supported us over many years and using her enthusiasm for travel and extensive knowledge of Africa to devise bespoke travel arrangements for many of our clients.

Julie is also a passionate photographer and has kindly shared these images from her visits to Porini Camps. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

Last month, Gamewatchers Safaris and Porini Safari Camps staff were delighted to take part in Kenya’s first National Tree Planting Day. This vital initiative saw the entire nation join forces in support of the environment.

The day, 13 November, was declared a “special holiday” and we contributed to Kenya’s ambitious goal of planting 500 million seedlings this year and the longer term target of planting 15 billion trees by 2032. It was encouraging to see so many people dedicated to a greener, more sustainable future.

We’re delighted that Endonyo Narasha Primary School has joined our Gamewatchers digital learning initiative, making it the fourth school enrolled from the communities surrounding our Ol Kinyei Conservancy.

This smart learning project is a collaborative effort with WiLearn 4 Life, backed by the PD Foundation, with a mission to empower the community with digital and tech skills. WiLearn 4 Life’s CEO, Roland Diethelm, personally delivered digital learning equipment last month and students and teachers were trained on its usage.

We have Oloibormurt, Kishermoruak and Ilmochin Primary schools already receiving this program which greatly benefits remote schools and complements Kenya’s DigiSchools project which offers efficient charging solutions for tablets via solar-powered kits.

In our latest video, “Exploring the Rich History of Ol Kinyei”, you can discover the history of Ol Kinyei Conservancy, one of the pioneer conservancies in Kenya’s Masai Mara.

Established in 2005, Ol Kinyei has been a trailblazer in conservation efforts, making it the only IUCN Green List Protected area in the Mara ecosystem.

An alternative approach to wildlife conservation in Kenya called ‘the conservancy concept’ is helping to create a sustainable future for animals, local communities, the environment and visitors alike for the very first time – and the son of British emigrants to Kenya is one of those at the forefront of the movement. Jake Grieves-Cook’s parents moved to Africa in 1948 and he grew up and went to school in Kenya where has now been involved in the country’s safari tourism industry for over 40 years. He runs the award-winning Porini Eco-Camps sited in Nairobi National Park, Laikipia, Amboseli eco-system and the Mara, including at Ol Kinyei Conservancy, which borders the north-east corner of the Maasai Mara National Reserve – famous for its incredible array of wildlife, from lions and leopards to cheetahs and wildebeest.

His site is one of many conservancies across the country which operates on land leased from local communities. The idea has been hailed as defining a new era of ecotourism in the East African country – and has proved such a success there are now more than 7.5 million acres of conservancy land across 22 counties.

Conservancies means local communities directly benefit from the use of their land and willingly host and protect wildlife populations – reducing the previously troublesome human/wildlife conflicts which have been known to arise from poaching, farming and the construction of infrastructure.