Spring Edition 2019

TRAVEL
My wonderful
wilderness
Home for 10 year old Fynn Carey is
Laikipia Wilderness Camp in northern
Kenya. We asked him (and his mum)
about his life living in the bush
PHOTOGRAPHY: © SHUTTERSTOCK
What’s your house like?
The house is made of chicken
wire and mud and has a tin roof.
It’s really noisy when it rains.
Do you have brothers or sisters?
I have brothers, Tristan and Rafe.
Tristan and I get into trouble for
raiding the storeroom and eating
things in the fridge that are
meant for guests. Mum goes mad
and says it won’t be long before
we’re raiding the booze and then
we’ll be in real trouble!
Do you have any pets?
We had a pet eagle owl which
we found in a dry river bed after
his nest got raided. He was really
tame and used to sit in people’s
bathrooms. He even got in the
shower with one of the guests
and showered next to her - that
was so funny. He slowly went
back to the wild and started
catching his own prey until one
day he was gone. We’ve also got
our dog Boris and when it rains
we go rafting on the river with
him. He is huge, weighing 40 kg
but he loves going down rapids.
What’s your
favourite animal?
I love wild dogs; their puppies
are so cute. They aren’t scary and
once, one sniffed my foot.
What’s it like when other
children come on safari?
I love it! There’s so much to do
here. There are lots of animals
like lions and elephants but kids
mostly get excited to do fun stuff
like looking for scorpions with
our special torch that makes
them glow in the dark. We
always have grown-ups with us
and we’re not allowed to pick up
scorpions ourselves in case you
get stung. My dad got stung once
and went crazy, it was so sore.
What should every visitor do?
Fly-camping. The best place we
go is this valley where there are
owls and leopards. We cook beef
fillet on a fire and then we sleep
on bedrolls around the fire or
in see-through tents so you can
look up and see the stars.
Bush sleeping in cosy safari tents
You hear hyenas and
lions at night, and
sometimes a buffalo grunting
which is an alarm call when they
have seen something like a lion.
It’s really exciting. Fishing is fun
too. Sometimes you catch tilapia,
which are tasty, but mostly we
get catfish – which aren’t!
What’s the best thing to learn?
It’s fun to teach children about
tracks. You can tell a lion track
as it’s got three pads at the
back, and dogs have
two, like hyenas. You
can see if a track is
fresh as the edges are
sharp and nothing has
gone over the top of it.
Photography is really
cool too, and kids enjoy
taking pictures of animals even if
they haven’t ever done it before.
Laikipia Wilderness is one of
many family friendly safari camps
available through safari experts
Aardvark Safaris. For more
information on this and all their
safaris please contact 01980 849160
or see aardvarksafaris.com
Unusual pets
Boris with Fynn, Annabelle & Rafe
SPRI NG 19 ★ schoolnotices.co.uk 59