March started with hot, humid days and nights. The visibility of Mount Kilimanjaro was fantastic and some mornings the apex was completely covered in snow due to the large thunderheads that have been rolling through the area.

Early on this month, the clouds dropped 10 mm of rain in some parts of Mbirikani Group Ranch, resulting in the surrounding plains being abundant with game. This made morning rides to a bush breakfast great fun as guests would ride solidly for an hour amongst many different species.

The clouds continued to build up during the month resulting in an additional 30mm of rain. We are still waiting in anticipation for what we hope will be a long and fruitful rainy season.

Due to the rains, March brought with it a temporary pause in life of the mobile horse safaris. This meant that everyone at Ride Kenya Horse Safaris could re-group and work on the smaller details which are so important to the quality of the operation. This included ‘strapping’ horses (a form of grooming), teeth floating, pulling (brushing) manes, flat work, grid work, stable maintenance, tent repairs and trying out new recipes for next season’s safaris.

We did have a steady flow of riding guests who stayed at ol Donyo Lodge though. Looking back it is difficult to choose what would be the highlights from the each guest’s ride. One of the more exciting moments occured when a ride came across ‘Unbelievable’ who, is as his name suggests, one of the more impressive Elephant tuskers left in East Africa. Due to the lack of water in the area at the beginning of March, he was agitated and showed off an impressive mock charge which gave guests the thrill of a lifetime.

Lots of young giraffe were also born this month. As the large herds of giraffe have always come to the Chyulu Hills to have their young, we were able to ride through groups sometimes fifty strong.

This really only leaves one question: When are you going to come ride with us in the African plains?