SUYIAN SOUL

Suyian Soul is a very special small camp about 30 miles northwest of Nanyuki and 3-4 hours by car. The windy, bumpy dirt roads keep you from pushing it too fast, plus the need to take the occasional pic. Lauren has been to this lodge twice before for a birding class (would be fun) and a snake one (no thanks!) The retreat is run by Anne Powys, who is a fourth generation Kenyan. Her grandfather purchased the ranch in 1963 and raised Boran cattle on it; there are currently about 3000 head.

Checking into Suyian Soul is not like checking into the Mandarin Oriental. Keep in mind, that Chuckie does not camp and my idea of camping is checking into a five star hotel with a view of the mountains. Our Suyian version of luxury suite was a hut known as banda with a thatched roof and walls that are granite slabs, but only go up halfway and are open above. The thatched room is supported by irregular gnarly tree trunks that are quite beautiful in their rustic appearance. Above the granite pony walls it is open to the elements; no windows or screens and my impression was it would be easement for all the big and small critters of the night.

The beds have mosquito netting and despite reassurance by the folks at the camp, my fear the first night was that something bigger than a mosquito might want to crawl in with me.  While the elephants cannot cross the wires that hang down at the entrance to the camp to shock them and keep them out, that does not prevent lions and anyone else from crashing the party, but they claimed to have never lost a guest, so I laid in my bed the first night listening to the sounds of the animals in the distance, mostly hyenas and elephants, and waited for my predator. 

We were off the grid in our rooms, no WiFi, no cellular, and the only way to reach out to the world and to WhatsApp Scotty, was to go up to the office. Our showers were safari style bucket showers in which we would tell them when we would like to take our shower and they would fill them with water that was the perfect temperature; given that the air temp was a balmy 75-80, the showers were great.

The loo was another interesting adventure, as it is a “throne” with a long drop; they did not smell, but all these gnats would fly up when you opened the lid, and what was most weird, was not to flush which to me was kind of like driving an electric car without the sound of a v8 engine. We would walk along a sandy path to our banda from the main hut a couple of hundred yards away and at night and the path was lit by sporadic solar lanterns. The sound of the birds and insects at night required me, the fragile one, to wear earplugs to sleep. After I got past my first night fears, I was able to log in some great sleep over the next couple of nights. 

Suyian is the Maa name for African Wild Dog. The ranch comprises just under 44,000 acres and is surrounded by other wildlife conservancies. Anne grew up here exploring the forests and granite hills and knows every inch and crag of the property. We saw many species of wildlife including elephants, Cape buffalo, baboons, zebras, giraffe, impalas, gazelles, camels, and last but not least, a rare black (aka melanistic) leopard. We saw this beautiful cat on our first walkabout after settling in. Our guide first saw him on a rock just lying about and then we watched from across the riverbank as he moved about. For a while, he was just staring at us and not moving, but I think once he realized we were not a threat, he seemed to be comfortable to go back into the grasses and then come back out for a bit.

Anne noted that some people will come to her lodge for years and never seen one, so this was truly a special sighting. Of course, with this early sighting, I had high expectations for either an encore performance on one of our subsequent walks, or the appearance of a spotted leopard, but neither happened. When you go out on safari, while expectations can run high, it is important to be realistic and then pleasantly surprised by whatever you may encounter.

We did a safari drive on two of the mornings of our 3-day stay and a safari walk each afternoon and again on our last morning. Being able to walk the land with our guides was particularly special as you get to feel the crunch of the salt lick where the animal like to come down for just that, a lick of salt. There was always a guide and a guard on the walks.

In addition, sighting elephants where you are walking, which we had on our last morning walk, becomes a yellow flag on the play and requires you to re-route, as people outside of vehicles can be seen as a threat to an elephant, especially if it is a mama and her kid. Last thing we wanted was to be trampled by an elephant. On our second morning drive, we had breakfast on top of the granite mound overlooking the valley and took in the beauty of the land as far as you could see.

We could see and hear elephants below us and watch them munching on some trees; it is nothing for them to break off a third of a tree to get some delicious leaves for breakfast. The elephants are quite destructive as their population grows and the amount of land for them to forage diminishes. The camp where the huts are located is obviously completely elephant-proofed, and what I found particularly interesting is that they hang African beehives in the trees outside the camp which they want to protect from the elephants because apparently, the elephants are afraid of bees!! 

The variety of birdlife seen on all the various safaris has been notable, but we particularly enjoyed a big bird show every morning having breakfast under an acacia tree where we would be entertained by a variety of starlings, weavers, go-away birds, doves, and so on who were given a bit of a bird buffet on a table about 20 ft in front of our dining table. On our drives, we got to see the most beauteous one, the lilac breasted roller; nature is just amazing to have such a bird evolve and find its place in the jungle. 

Life in Kenya and especially at Suyian Soul was not always magical. In 2017, there was an armed invasion of the lodge, and the looters vandalized and burned the staff houses to the ground. Apparently, there was some shit being stirred up for political power by an MP in the county of Laikipia, which is where the lodge and Lauren’s house is located, around the land being held by conservancies which were owned by whites. All was eventually rebuilt, but it does make you pause to think about how challenging it can still be as a minority in a country where your people were party of the colonial past. 

Anne is a gentle and soulful person, hence Suyian “soul”, and she appears to have been able to move on from this horrific event.

She is not burdened by the day-to-day noise that we all get bombarded with the simple life she has created by minimizing her exposure to the ongoing craziness of the world and enjoying the beauty of the everchanging nature around her. Her goal is to make the conservancy a better place than what it was when she took over. For example, they rotate the cattle on different areas to graze and fertilize the soil. All the power is solar, and the long hole toilets are used so as to conserve water. Anne clearly loves the diverse people who are from various tribes working at the lodge and respects the land. There is a Jewish principle called “tikkun olam” (and no, I have not become a born-again-Jew while abroad) which means that Jews are not only responsible for creating a model society among themselves, but also are responsible for the welfare of the society at large. While in these very dark days of what is happening in the Middle East, this ideology may seem lost by Bibi Netanyahu, but it is a goal I think we all try to follow as we engage with our family, friends, neighbors and the world around us.