Happy Thanksgiving..... much to be grateful for...

Happy Thanksgiving to all our American Friends ......and a reminder to ourselves that we have so much to be grateful for this year. After all these years when our friends in America have probably become fed up with us moaning about endless droughts and the ensuing hardships in the community (...remember 2009 when 80% of cattle died..) In 2011 we have to remind ourselves daily to be grateful for wonderful rainfall.. since March we have not had to worry about empty dams and water tanks and November is proving to be the best rain season that the community can remember for many years.

The conservancy looks stunning with waving grass more redolent of the Masai Mara than of these semi arid lands. Whilst it is somewhat more challenging hunting for the game in these conditions it is certainly there..and at least elephants are always easy to spot... yesterday we stopped counting at 300 and this Greater Kudu was spotted in the morning 'drive' to work ....

It was also the first time in six years that I have spent most of the morning being stuck in the mud... but am certainly not complaining as the sun was out and it is amazing how many friends you make along the way when you are trying to dig yourself out!

So if next year drought bites again, we will look back to this blog and remember that we are not always crying drought....

Water.. Water ... Water...and Water Holes...

After six years of struggling with a cycle of droughts we are now swimmingly enjoying one of the wettest rainy seasons the Kijabe Group Ranch has ever seen... as rains sweep across kenya. The conservancy has never looked better. In our strategy to build more dams, to keep elephants out of the community dams and mitigate the conflicts they cause there, last month we embarked on a major new dam project.

As the workforce is now underway constructing the seven metre (yes METRE!!) wall for this latest dam, their biggest challenge is not to drown in the ever deepening lake! Enormous thanks to recent volunteer Audrey and her Great Friends for their fund-raising for this project... and to Derek for his fund raising AND very useful technical support. the rain is also working to our advantage in having dispersed our resident 80 elephants further north .. allowing the workforce to get on uninterrupted .....