Over Easter I stayed with a friend on Lewa Wildlife Conservancy as I was in the region for work the week before. We approved the company who iwll build the fence for the elephant corridor which is an exciting step. I saw footage of elephants using the proposed route on Easter Monday which was really exciting as we can be more confident than ever that elephants are happy with our choice of route. As ever the well travelled ‘family’ accompany me on all these adventures and I was able to introduce Gizmo to his first Elephant and Rhino. He was suitably impressed. I travelled back to Nairobi yesterday and will be meeting with my Trustees tomorrow lunch time to update them on our progress.

Well it’s been a day since I wrote the above and my Trustees meeting went well. I’m back up to the mountain region tomorrow but this time to attend a wedding on a conservancy called Ol Pejeta. Convenient as I have a meeting on the Monday in Nanyuki. I’ll report back on everything next week, this time with pictures.

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Anyway I am here because I had a meeting with Kisima, Marania, a KWS representative and a Trustee to decide on who wins the contract for the elephant corridor fencing phase. Its so exciting for this to now be a reality. The corridor passes through Marania and Kisima Farms following a parallel route to the 10 to 4 mountain bike challenge to the south. This corridor is really a historic conservation effort for Kenya. It makes me very proud to have been able to be such a big part of it. The next step is to get the job for the underpasses tendered out. We have already surveyed the two sites. On completion the elephants will be using the corridor and avoiding two public roads by walking underneath them. Virgin Atlantic are sponsoring the cost of the underpasses. In the photo below Charlie Dyer (on the left) is seen on top of one side of the Nanyuki - Meru highway where the underpass will be built.

Always a sucker for the cute and cuddly I can’t resist finishing this post with the photos below. Those of you who read about Widget, a great companion to me for over 5 happy years will be pleased to hear that my heartbreak is healing with the help of Chalkie and my new addition which very close friends bought for me a couple of weeks ago. His name is Gizmo WingNut Weeks and he is already a big part of my life. The pictures below were taken last night by Sara Dyer whose Great Dane was fascinated by tiny Gizmo. Pippi was so gentle and playful it was like neither of them could see that there was such a massive size difference. Ahhh.

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The wheatlands in the picture above are an example of commercial agriculture reliant on the climate provided by Mt. Kenya. Another good example is the flower farms on the foothills of the Mountain on the Western slopes. These businesses are a big part of Kenya’s export economy and provide a great deal of employment and income but the story is much bigger than that. Two of Kenya’s most important rivers, the Ewaso Ngiro and the Tana Rivers supply millions of people with water for subsitance agriculture, and allow pasoralism in marginal areas. Not to mention the businesses in Nairobi and other towns reliant on the hydropower supplied by the Tana River and water supplies for drinking and washing along the Rivers and tributaries. To the North and East of the country these rivers flow for miles and miles and sustain people with crops and livestock from the North East of the country to the central highlands and the arid lands of Northern Kenya.

Encroachment into the forests and the problems that accompany such destruction is simply a destruction of the backbone of the most precious of Kenya’s resources. Helping the Trust to help Mt Kenya’s habitats and the Government agencies that work with us will help Kenya on many levels.

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It is unusual for a calf who is not hurt or has not fallen into a hole or a well to be separated from its family. However, in a few cases they might be ill and not strong enough to keep moving with a herd or the herd is forced to move so quickly through an area that know to be danagerous that a little one might not keep up or get stuck on the wrong side of a fence. I called the Senior Warden first to get permission for Edwin to take action and then made sure that the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust would be willing to help me organise getting the little calf to their HQ in Nairobi National Park. They are always ready to assist and immediately had a charter plane on standby in Nairobi to collect the elephant from the nearest airstrip at Nanyuki. The difficult task was down to Edwin - getting the elephant transported to Nanyuki which is a good 40 mins drive away. He managed to hire a pick up and collect some KWS rangers from their post at Kihari Gate. Together with the community they managed after several hours to load her in the pick up and cover her in a tarpaulin so that she would be less distressed.

Some hours after that first call from Edwin I was relieved to hear they were on their way to meet the plane with the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust team waiting for them. Arriving at the Airstrip the team gave the little ele water and then sedated her before loading her carefully onto the chartered plane.

Safely at the Trust where she now sleeps with experienced Keepers and spends her days walking out with other orphans, the Keepers at the Sheldrick Trust decided to name the 8 month old baby Kenya. She will remind us of the time a coalition was finally signed between the leaders of a country divided and held to ransome by greedy hardliners. It is a good time for all democratically minded people and a time of celebration for the solidarity that most Kenyans feel for one another. We think it is fitting that an elephant called Kenya will help us to remember be grateful for this time.

Edwin and I visited Kenya today. She is already socialising well with her peers and drinking the milk formula which she will need for another 2 and a half years. Kenya is the one in the blanket in the photos below. Edwin is in blue petting Kenya in the last photo. He accompanied little Kenya all the way to Nairobi from Mt Kenya to her new home. Thanks to the experience of the unbelievable team at the DSWT there is hope that Kenya can have a heathy and happy life and join other orphaned elephants who make it in the wild as a mature adult. Something we very much hope for Kenya the country.

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In November last year a group of us were able to send Ibrahim Wafual and Dedan Ireri to Columbia to take part in a paracycling competition and they were the first Africans to be able to attend the event. I know these guys through the 10 to 4 and they have taught me more than I could ever teach them. They did us proud and came back with qualifying times for the Bejing Paralympics this year. We hope to get them there. I started the initiative and could not have waved them off so proudly were it not for their unbeliveable supporters and many of my freinds. It was an incredibly emotional goodbye ceremony, not least because all Dedan’s crew from Jamii Bora, an oranisation that supports getting people off the streets turned up to support him. Ingrid and her team are just the most inspirational group of people you could ever meet.

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This is part of the little group with a very young calf that was already at the waterhole in front of Mountain Lodge when I was last up there. The other group with the snared elephant came in a bit later but were not around long enough to let us help the limping elephant.

The youngest elephant in the middle of the group is the one with the snare. She never came close enough for Dr Naymweya to try and dart her. We hope she’ll be back with her family again soon. Pictured below is Dr Nyamwea with KWS rangers who assist him when he treats wildlife along with Humphrey (our Field Co-ordinator, and Edwin Kinjuanjui who operates from Mountain lodge and works with the Trust). From left to right: a ranger, Dr Nyamwea with his dart gun, Edwin, a ranger and Humphrey. The KWS rangers who help the vets are trained to work with vets on operations such as this one, translocation and probalem animal control projects.

In the meantime I have been trying to raise money for two guys who have become friends through my mountain bike challenge that I organise to raise funds for the Trust. They are Dedan and Ibrahim and I help them because there is so little support from the Goverment for people with disabilities and these guys have incredible will power and enthusiasm. The paralympic comittiee in Kenya is not funded and there are no offices. Another friend of mine who is blind was made president and he needs assistance so we have entered Dedan and Ibrahim in an event in Columbia and it has been up to me and the guys to look for funding to send them over there to represent Kenya. We have very little time left because the event is on the 8th Nov but I have tried my best to get support. Amazingly there has been a great deal of support from kind individuals but very little from our National corporates which includes Kenya Airways. I am rather shocked by this. Until this morning we had 200,000/- shillings pledged by individuals and one small company. Give up is not an option I am particularly fond of so I have kept at it. Today I got confirmation that Ingrid Munro from Jamii Bora here in Nairobi will support Dedan through the company. She got Dedan off the streets and says he is like a son to her. I am overwhelmed. Now I must find the money for Ibrahim to go to Columbia with Dedan. I don’t intend to let him down.

Dedan is on the left and Ibrahim next to his aborial bike. Ibrahim and Dedan both have one leg. Through the support and exposure a team of supporters have given Ibrahim and with his uncompromising willpower he recently got a sophisticated leg in the US. Dedan will get the same kind of support if he can go to Columbia. If the guys do well at this parapanamerican event they may well qualify for the paralympics in Bejing next year. There is no hope of them getting there if they don’t go to Columbia next week as this will be the last qualifing trial. I need to find another 10,000 Euros or some donated air fares and half that. I am still working on some airlines.

I just found out that the vehicle I was telling you about that we got for the Trust from a donation given by AFEW Kenya will be ready for its second lot of modifications on Monday. It is very exiting! Humphrey our Field Co-oridinator is doing his driving lessons at the moment so that he will be able to use the Suzuki from next year. In the meantime the Land Cruiser donated by AFEW USA is also being modified specifically for is work with the new Joint Wildlife Protection Team. The new Ford Ranger is pictured below on the day I went to collect it! Thanks to AFEW and CMC Motors Group we have made an initial deposit and need to find the (interest free) balance of 1m shillings over the next two years.

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