In Adamson’s Footsteps

• Prices from $5750.00
• 10 nights

 5*

By Peter Bates Added: 12 December 2009

We arrive at Elephant Pepper Camp just before lunch. After a beautiful lunch, and a welcome afternoon nap, we head out for our afternoon game drive. Almost immediately we’re at one of the most thrilling sightings of the whole trip: a lioness with two very young cubs – perhaps two to three days old, busy suckling from their mother. At this age cubs are spotted, and they twitch every now and then as they adjust their feeding position. We watch spellbound for a while before leaving them be, and circle round to the other side of a thicket, to be rewarded with a fantastic sighting of a lone lioness. I stare in awe at the size of her paws, and watch the rhythmical rise and fall of her chest as she breathes in the late afternoon air. Later we find a huge plateau for our sundowners; vast night skies open up in all directions.

I really enjoyed my time at Elephant Pepper - for me this is pretty much the ideal safari camp: small, comfortable, elegantly simple with great staff. Last night I chatted to Robert, one of the waiters and found out how the Masai charge their mobile phones: on market day an enterprising individual brings along a generator!

 5*

By Peter Bates Added: 12 December 2009

Had an amazing time at Cottars Safari Camp. The evening drive was very good indeed - tracking down the Henry pride of lion, numbering 22 in total: two males, seven females and cubs of assorted ages. Another highlight was a week old elephant calf keeping close to its young mother. Generally if the calf can fit under its mother’s belly it is less than a year old – a useful rule of thumb for assessing a baby elephant’s age.

In the morning we went for a walk near the camp, focusing on some of the plants and trees used by the Masai. I knew about the “toothbrush tree”, but had never seen the “sandpaper tree”. Older leaves can be used to smooth the shafts of the Masai spears, whilst younger leaves are sometimes used by the women to clean their tongues! Wild sage makes a good anti-perspirant or can be used for a bit of a freshen up, and the “orange leaf tree” really fascinated me: apparently lion sometimes make use of its insect repellent properties by dragging their kill to its base to keep the flies off their food.

After breakfast I had a look at the Cottar family portraits in the mess tent – four generations of American adventurers, hunters and photographic safari pioneers. Charles was entranced by a report of Theodore Roosevelt’s 1909 safari, and moved his young family out to Africa soon after. Looking at the potted histories under the portraits is instructive: Charles was mauled by leopard three times, injured by an elephant and eventually killed by a rhino; his son Mike survived nine episodes of blackwater fever, when one bout is enough to finish off most men!