Ewaso Lions

Category: West Gate | Date: Sep 08 2008 | By: ewasolions

Many of you have asked me what it is like to live at the Ewaso Lions research camp or Echo Lima camp as its known. It has been an amazing few months in this small bush remote camp in the West Gate Community Conservancy and I want to share with you some of our experiences here.

We set up the camp on June 6th. We decided on the location as it was the only flat bit of land we could find which had a few trees and was within close proximity to the nearby Sasaab Lodge staff quarters where we would get water. Our site is open and is at the base of a small rocky hill. On the other side of the hill is the Pukur lugga (sand river) where livestock come to drink during the day and hyenas and lions at night. The views are spectacular as we are surrounded by hills and the Samburu sacred mountain, Ol Lolokwe, is in the distance.

The Pukur lugga near camp

We put up a small mess tent using a canvas sheet and some ropes, a bush kitchen, dug a hole in the ground as a loo, erected some posts for a bathroom and 2 tents for sleeping. We collected dead logs and trees pushed over by elephants to form the posts of the loo, bathroom and kitchen and surrounded them with sack material.

Joseph in the kitchen

The Bathroom

We live in perpetual dust and have had some strong winds over the past few weeks. This is the windiest time of the year and our camp has blown away a few times with the materials surrounding the loo, bathroom and kitchen collapsing. And since the structures are held up by dead trees, everything is always falling over!

We have many animal friends visit our camp on a daily basis. The nearby lodge camels often graze on our site as do donkeys who stray from the Pukur lugga during the day. However they vanished once after they got a whiff of the lion scat near the bush laboratory in camp, and nowadays keep their distance.

We have 2 dik diks that have become so accustomed to our presence that they feed on the Acacia pods in the mess tent whilst we are sitting there! 15 kudus also ran through camp a few days ago which was great to see.

The birdlife is amazing. We have all kinds of hornbills, yellow spotted petronias, various weaver species in camp everyday feeding on the crumbs in the kitchen and near the mess tent.

We also have predators in camp. Hyenas are heard almost on a daily basis and on one occasion 2 hyenas killed a donkey in the Pukur lugga. We’ve also had lions walk through without us knowing it as we saw their tracks in the morning in between my tent and the warriors tent.

Shower and tent area

Big bull elephants love the area. The Kipsing lugga a few kilometers away is one of their favourite resting areas and it is where all the lone bulls come together and hang out in their bachelor groups. Often in the evenings, they leave the Ewaso Nyiro River and move towards the hills feeding well into the night. We have had elephants in camp often at night, and on one occasion 2 huge bulls came and knocked over one of our Acacia trees to the ground. We only had 4 large trees on our site… and now its down to 3.

Unfortunately we also live with termites; a real nightmare to live with! They have been eating away at the loo for a few months now. However much we try to get rid of them, they return. I am worried that they will eat the entire loo and it will collapse at some stage. I may need to get a plastic loo seat soon.

The termite infested loo!

We have many human visitors too during the day. Warriors often walk through camp. Women from the nearby Sasaab village stop by to ask for lifts to West Gate or Archers Post. We chat about the weather, livestock, the village and more. The lodge staff or conservancy scouts and personnel come to say hi often and for a quick cup of chai as we catch up on news within the group ranch. The Echo Lima camp has become a popular spot over the past few months and it has been great meeting new people and getting to know the community.

I am able to power my laptop and charge our phones using a fantastic solar set-up which has worked out really well so far. Thank you so much for your contributions to date towards paying off the loan for the solar system. I still require $200 to complete payments and am grateful for any donation towards this.

Joseph packing away the solar system every evening from the mess tent, which is the shadiest and coolest place in camp

We get water for our camp from the nearby lodge staff quarters. I carry 4 20-litre plastic jerricans in Gypsy and fill them up there. The 4 cans last us about 3 days depending on how many we are in camp. We put 1 jerrican out in the sun for hot water – its amazing how hot it actually gets! Water is scarce in the entire region, and living here has definitely taught me how to use only what is absolutely necessary. It is incredible how quickly one gets used to living off a small bucket of water a day.

Camp tap – a plastic bottle with a hole and covered with duct tape

Meals are simple but wholesome. Our main meal is ugali and dengu (green lentils) which we eat almost every day. I get vegetables once a week from the reserve and this lasts us a few days. We eat a lot of rice too. Joseph recently made bread in a small hole in the ground with some tin foil, coals and pots. It was amazing and the best bush bread I have ever eaten!

The bush oven

Joseph putting the finishing touches on the bread

Bush bread!

We planted 2 umbrella thorn Acacia trees in camp with the intention of planting more. One of our trees was doing really well but sadly we woke up one morning to find it totally eaten. We saw gerenuk tracks all around. The other tree is doing well and we are keeping the dik diks away from it.

Raphael and Joseph plant an Acacia tree in camp

Every morning I leave camp at 5 30 am to drive through the Conservation Area looking for tracks and predators. We are normally back by 8 am by which time Jeneria is ready to leave on his patrol. We then have a radio-call with all the scouts to check that everything is ok before they leave on their patrols and to also see whether anyone heard lions at night or received a report.

I then normally head out again after a quick breakfast of camel milk chai and bush bread. I attend community meetings, conduct recces within the conservancy, map the group ranch, follow the scouts on their routes, visit schools, look for lions or sit in villages and chat to the community about lions. Every day is different and is planned the night before. However, I have learned that it is sometimes best to just head out and see what happens during the day as every day something new and unexpected happens and being flexible is the key to working and living out here. Sometimes planning just doesn’t work!

I normally head back to camp by 3 or 4 pm, have a late lunch and then sit on my laptop doing emails, report writing, funding applications or writing these blogs. By 6 pm, I have a “shower”, we eat dinner by 7 30 and chat and laugh until about 8 or 8 30 and then its off to bed.

Living at the Echo Lima camp is quite an experience. I love every single day of being here. The hot, dusty, windy days with stunning sunsets and starry nights, and working with a great team, has been fantastic and I look forward to new adventures that each day brings.

Heading out on a new adventure…