Private park area

Grassland habitat with the North Pare mountains in the distance. 

Through a mix of both curiosity, tenacious resilience, and a lot of good luck, we recently gained access to a non-public conservation area. Unfortunately I can't get into the details of the place since there are still pending issues the managers are dealing with (permits, registration) and I promised I wouldn't "publicize" the area. However, I can say it's a fairly large space with no other visitors in reasonable proximity to us to allow for frequent visits.

The majority of the landscape is grassland, with  acacia thicket around a river that bisected the area. There was a small lake in the middle and although there aren't any "big" animals, there are a healthy population of ungulates, which are quite concentrated. And although it might not be the elephants and lions you imagine, an ungulate spotting can still be great especially given their elusive nature. We saw a southern reedbuck, natal duiker, and female waterback. We also saw suspected honey badger burrows and numerous birds such as grey hornbills, a pangani longclaw, and a migrating osprey.

We started out by exploring the grassland, which was hot and sparse, completely devoid of trees. There have been some recent rains so the grass was somewhat green though obviously drying. It was a clear day and the North Pare mountains were visible in the background. We spent some hours driving around to try to get a feel for the parks landscape but we discovered that the only two roads where you can cross the river were flooded, so half of the park remains unexplored.

The grassland was hot and it soon became too hot to motorcycle around the area. We then went along  a path by the river and the acacia thicket was a unique environment which, somewhere between a forest and an acacia scrub. Although there wasn't full forest cover, it was much cooler by the river and we saw a few monitor lizards along the way.

At the end of the day it was a raging success. We're hoping to explore all the different sides of the park and take advantage of the private access!

Small lake in the middle. 

When I see grubs like this I think how great of a meal this would be for a bird or small mammal. 

Ana watches some birds on a log. 

Pretty barren grassland. 

Guess whats behind that cloud? Mt. Kilimanjaro.  

Seeking some shade. 

Forested area.