Today we have a guest blogger, Heather Gurd, write about her experience in Westgate in August.  Heather is an intern from the UK and has been a tremendous help over the past few weeks and a  fantastic volunteer to have.   I hope all the readers will enjoy a different perspective to our work and life in Samburu!

At the end of July I spent an incredible week with Shivani and her team at the Ewaso Lions camp in Westgate Community Conservancy in Samburu. Having just graduated with a degree in Conservation Biology from the University of Exeter, I arrived hoping to gain some practical experience in the field but I feel I left with so much more.

The adventure began as soon as I stepped off the plane. Still unsure what to expect and with doses of anxiety and excitement in equal measure we headed for the bridge that connects Buffalo Springs (where we landed) to Samburu. When I say ‘bridge’ I think ‘obstacle course’ is possibly a more appropriate definition as, following the devastating flood, it now merely comprises a rickety ladder, a large lump of concrete and a fallen tree. But with some assistance from Gilbert of Save the Elephants, it wasn’t long before I had scaled the bridge and received a warm welcome from Shiv and a fully clad Samburu moran who later transpired to be Jeneria. England already seem like a distant memory.

When we arrived at the Ewaso Lions camp I honestly wasn’t expecting it to be so…habitable! I’d seen pictures of how it looked in the early days and was amazed at how much it has obviously progressed since then – the ‘mess area’ is totally transformed and a great place to sit after a long hot Samburu day. I say hot, although the week I visited the weather was behaving most bizarrely and it even rained on a few occasions.

One of the highlights of the day would be to get up early to drive Shivani’s transect in the Conservation Area and record all the animals we saw (usually a lot of gerenuk and a particularly photogenic hare!). We also had a couple of great leopard sightings; one in the morning and one in the evening and the last of which literally took my breathe away. We were busy searching for Magilani as we had noticed some fresh lion tracks and were worried as it looked as though she might not have her cubs with her. Then Jeneria spotted it, right next to the road. I had seen leopard in a park before, and have since, but nothing matches that feeling when you spot a big cat outside of a reserve. Totally magical. Unlike most of the other animals in the Conservation Area, who flee in response to the slightest of sounds, the leopard seemed completely unfazed and in the end it was us that left him.

Leopard in Westgate Conservation Area

A more obvious difference, was in terms of the behaviour of individuals residing in the community area and those in the reserves. Take baboons as an example – on my last morning in Westgate Shiv, Jeneria, Shane (an Ewaso Lions donor and friend from Australia) and I ate breakfast on the top of a hill with stunning views and just nearby was a troop of baboons peacefully basking (…meditating even) in the morning sunshine. As soon as we set off down the hill, however, they scattered like dominoes in search of somewhere ‘safer’ to continue their snooze. Baboons in the park are far from scared, in fact they seem to like nothing better than to scare an unsuspecting intern and will take any opportunity to scavenge food that arises. The same came be said of the vervet monkeys – woe betide you if you leave your tent even partially unzipped. Whilst the big cats seem to pose for photos instead of seeking shelter in dense vegetation surfacing only at dusk (or 6.30pm sharp in the case of Magilani …so I have been told). Whilst a sighting of a big cat is always special, in the park you can on occasions be left feeling slightly guilty as the troops of safari vehicles descend on and surround a pride of lions or a solitary leopard and what should be a wildlife park suddenly ends up looking more like a carpark.

During my stay I also assisted with entering the scouts livestock data and have continued working with Shivani during my internship with Save the Elephants (where I have been based now for the past seven weeks) and I hope to return to Westgate in a couple of months. The nature of the work I was to conduct for Save the Elephants was very similar to that collected by Shivani during her morning and evening patrols of the Conservation Area and so it made sense for me to assist with both simultaneously.

Another highlight of my stay in Westgate has to be the Warrior Watch meeting. The programme itself is a fantastic idea. The warriors are the ones who spend the most time out in the bush and so provide an invaluable source of information. In return they receive lessons in reading and writing so it is a win win situation. I felt honoured to have had the opportunity to attend one such meeting and tried my best to help teach numbers, letters and syllables. I was overwhelmed and encouraged by just how enthusiastic the guys were. Huge smiles spread across their faces when you told them they had got something right. Whilst I worked mainly with Reria (a complete joy to teach), Shane worked with Lemeen and at one point we found him running madly around the classroom in an attempt to explain what ‘run’ meant.

Reading with Reria

Back in camp Shane and I were treated to a lovely surprise at dinner on the last night. Phillip, the Ewaso Lions cook had baked us a cake. Now all the occasions I had heard him beg Shiv for coloured icing made sense and when she insisted it wasn’t required (how could you possibly need coloured icing in the bush anyway?) he took it upon him self to make good of what was available – this just so happened to be Turmeric! In fact all the guys in camp were completely fantastic and went out of their way to make sure you were alright…to the extent that they kept piling food on plates at any opportunity they got and Moses took me on a couple of lovely walks.

A surprise cake on our last night!

All in all it was a fantastic experience and I learnt such a lot. I’m excited to return to Westgate in the near future! It seems once you have had a taster of living out here you just don’t want to let go!