This trip was devoid of much fun, but we were able to escape one morning to the Shimba Hills Park in southern Kenya. This small park is in a set of hills just inland from the south coast; home to elephants and the rare Sable Antelope.
We first came across a herd of water buffalo, with this young one bounding all around the adults.
This guy’s horn was just knarly, he was the tough guy of the herd.
This oxpecker was getting really personal with this buffalo. At one point the bird was inside its ear.
The elephants in this park are slightly smaller than the elephants from the plains due to the forested hills stunting their growth. These were enjoying the morning sun in a hillside meadow.
This ‘teenager’ was alittle upset at us, trumpeting, flaring its ears, and charging us a couple of times.
As we waited, more and more came out of the forest and began to graze on bushed and grass.
This is the first small herd of the Sable Antelopes that we saw, the males are a black and white and the females a more muted brown. The skins of the males were so sought after during colonial times that they were nearly wiped out, but have made a good recovery within this park and now their numbers are climbing.
A second herd finally had a male, whose contrasting hide was just amazing to see. He was very protective of his herd of females, always putting himself between us and them.
This shot of the herd from a distance is one of my favorite African shots so far.
Here is one of the giant land snails, which I had seen their empty shells so many times, but never a live one. This guy was crossing the road and we all had to stop and see it up close. It was so large, I had to put my cell phone down to give it a size reference.
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