Desi Dixon: Amu Ranch

The mainland adjacent to the Lamu archipelago is called Amu. There are several wildlife reserves on it and Amu Ranch is one managed in cooperation with the local community and the Sheldrick Trust. There is a bit of a crisis there at the moment with thousands of heads of cattle ushered in daily by Somalis to graze on the land intended for the African buffalo, giraffe, zebra, topi, hippo, warthog and hundreds of other species. The cattle destroy the land and bring disease the immune system of the wildlife is not prepared to withstand. The cattle are purportedly owned by the Minister of Defense and Interior Security....Kenya's. There are no ministers in Somalia; the government collapsed in 1991 and it's been a lawless mess for decades with the promise of a newly formed coalition government to be seated this month. Insh'alla.

I was invited to fly on the plane that is documenting the cattle crisis a few days on the recent trip. We literally herded cattle away from water and pushed herds together to make it a living hell for the Somalis on the ground to separate the herds. Here are some snaps of that adventure, not recommended for tourists. This post may need to come down for obvious reasons....enjoy while it's up.

Refueling the plane after flying from Manda to Amu (15 minutes).

The nubs on this tree are highly toxic and are scraped by indigenous people to apply on their spears for greater effect when hunting or making war.

The "cemetery" tree at Amu Ranch. Buffalo.

Giraffe.

Warthog.

Cattle on the march to the water.

Herding them at 20 feet.

That's zebra below with the shadow of our plane.

More cattle. I am hanging out of the window trying to get a good shot with no idea when the plane will take a sharp turn or dive closer to ground. Iron stomach.

Manda airstrip.

Baby giraffe. Maybe 7 weeks old with umbilical cord still attached. Was separated from its herd because of the injury to its right rear leg. Probably a spear wound. We tried to "herd" it with the jeep back to its parents but it got jittery and ran into my door and then took off into the bush.