Denys the Menace
“Can I see one of these, please…”
Hard Target
Finch Hattons is a luxury safari camp in Tsavo West National Park, Kenya. It’s named after Denys Finch-Hatton MC, a nobleman, soldier, pilot and Edwardian big game hunter who was educated at Eton and Oxford. Denys wasn’t really a ‘menace’—unless you happened to be one of the animals he shot! In fact, he became one of the early pioneers of photographic safaris when he hosted the Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII) in 1928 and 1930.
Finch-Hatton is probably best known for his affair with Baroness Karen von Blixen. Under her pen name, Isak Dinesen, she wrote a book about her experiences, starting with the famous opening line: “I had a farm in Africa…”. That was the basis of the 1985 film Out of Africa, starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford, which is now shown every other night around the campfire!
Other than that, there’s no direct link between Finch-Hatton the man and Finch Hattons the camp, which only opened in 1993 and is now a Virgin Limited Edition property. However, his life had an important influence on the kind of experience enjoyed by the guests.
Getting There
Last week, I was at Kicheche Laikipia in Kenya (see post), and I booked a road transfer to take me to Finch Hattons. It was supposed to take seven hours, but we went to the wrong gate to leave Ol Pejeta Conservancy, and then my driver had to do a bit of paperwork to enter Tsavo West, so it took us around nine hours and 15 minutes door-to-door.
It might sound like a long old schlepp, but it’s actually part of my new strategy to reduce journey times when visiting Africa. The idea is to fly out and back with different airlines to make sure I never have to take a daytime flight. That means I don’t have to stay overnight in Nairobi. In addition, I’m trying to replace local flights with road transfers to save money and time.
Now, I realise that a nine-hour transfer isn’t going to be quicker than any internal flight (!), but the point is that it allowed me to squeeze in an extra game drive. The flight schedules aren’t very flexible, so I wouldn’t have been able to do what I actually did by taking the road transfer, which was to go on a morning game drive at Kicheche, fly out in the afternoon and then do an evening game drive at Finch Hattons.
The Camp
Apart from Mfuwe Lodge, Finch Hattons is the only camp I’ve ever visited that’s been large enough for me to get lost. It’s truly enormous, and my room was so far away from the main area that I thought it must be in Tanzania…!
Main Area
The main area consisted of the lounge and lunch tents and a nearby public bathroom. There was no Wi-Fi—as a deliberate policy to encourage people to talk to one another!
My Tent
My tent might have been miles away, but it was probably the most luxurious I’d ever been given in Africa! The only other place that came close was Kings Camp in South Africa. It had a proper bed, two sinks with hot and cold running water (if you let the tap run for long enough!), a plumbed-in toilet and indoor and outdoor showers. There was also a bar with bottles of gin and vodka in it, a desk with a leather-backed chair, an armchair and two bedside tables. Phew…!
The power outlets by the bed included USB-A ports and UK-type plug sockets, so I didn’t need to bring an adapter. There was also a very good Wi-Fi connection available not just in my room but in all the buildings (109 Mb/s download and 25 Mb/s upload).
Daily Routine
Evans in his Toyota LandCruiser
The routine was fairly standard for an African safari lodge. The only difference was that I only ate one meal a day, which meant I had a normal lunch but no breakfast or dinner—although I did eat dinner one night when they bribed me with steak!
0445 Wake up
0515 Mango lassi in the main area
0530-1230 Game drive with Evans
1230-1330 Lunch in the outdoor restaurant
1630-1930 Game drive with Evans
2000-2100 Dinner in the main area (although I mostly skipped it)
2200 Bed
There were a few exceptions to the timings, the main one being that we extended one of the afternoon game drives into an all-day drive to visit the rhino sanctuary.
Food and Drink
Finch Hattons is the only safari lodge or camp where I’ve positively looked forward to mealtimes! The schedule and the food and drink offerings were flexible, and it was great to have plated meals rather than the usual lunchtime buffet. Hurrah! As you can see from the gallery (above), the chefs and staff presented all the food beautifully, and the daily menus were a nice touch that made me feel like I was in a proper restaurant.
Staff
I was very late arriving in camp, so my absolute priority was to get out on my evening game drive as soon as possible. And that was easy enough. My driver dropped me off at 1722, and I was in a Toyota LandCruiser with Evans seven minutes later!
By the time I got back from my game drive, there wasn’t enough time for a proper briefing with the Camp Manager, Jonathan, and the Conservation Manager, Moses, so I met them the next day. They went through the history and concept of the lodge and took me on a walking tour of the whole place, including the Finch Hattons Suite, the pool and the spa.
As at Laikipia Wilderness and Kicheche Laikipia, the person I spent the most time with was my guide, Evans. He spoke pretty good English, and he had a pretty good sense of humour, so we got along pretty well.
Typically for a safari lodge, all the other staff were friendly, helpful and efficient. Nothing was too much trouble, and everything I asked for was attended to almost immediately—except when somebody forgot to pick me up from my room on the second day!
My only criticism (again!) was that the left hand sometimes didn’t know what the right hand was doing. I arranged my whole schedule with Evans, but sometimes the message didn’t always get through to Jonathan or the other staff. As a result, I ended up having lunch when I was supposed to be having a massage (even though nobody had told me!) and then going on an all-day game drive when I was supposed to be having lunch!
Guests
Finch Hattons prides itself on providing a tailor-made experience for its guests. However, one of the downsides of that approach is that there’s no obvious place or time when everyone can get together to share stories and socialise.
The table allocation at mealtimes wasn’t communal, and you didn’t get the usual gathering over nibbles and drinks at the bar after the afternoon game drive, which was a shame. When I asked if I could eat with other guests, Jonathan encouraged me to ask them myself, but that was easier said than done, so it never quite worked out.
The only time when I did end up chatting to the other guests was when Jonathan laid on a special sundowners event one evening, including what they called the ‘Masai Olympics’. This involved throwing a club at a target and an archery tournament.
The guests were divided into two teams (the Leopards and the Giraffes), and my job was to take pictures of the event. It was fun to watch the festivities, and everyone was in a good mood. I took thousands of pictures and videos, and you can see a selection in the gallery (above).
Wildlife
In the old days, when you had to take a steamship to get to Africa, Tsavo West was in the ideal location as it was right next to the port of Mombasa. However, the growth of air travel has rather sidelined this enormous national park, and it rather suffers by comparison with iconic venues like the Serengeti and the Masai Mara.
The problem is that there’s simply not as much wildlife in Tsavo as in the more popular and well-known destinations in Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana and South Africa. That means Finch Hattons has had to take a rather different approach from most safari lodges.
Instead of building your day around the standard morning and evening game drives, you can choose from a wide array of activities, including swimming in the pool, getting a massage in the spa and even watching Out of Africa around the campfire!
My job as the resident photographer was to document all this (in exchange for free accommodation), but I still needed to go out twice a day to capture as many wildlife shots as I could. Tsavo West was supposed to be somewhere I could see the Big Five and wild dogs—but it took until my very last night to do it!
The Big Five
The Big Five animals are the African bush elephant, the black or white rhinoceros, the African (or Cape) buffalo, the lion and the leopard. They get their name from the fact that they were the most prized trophies in the days of big game hunting as they posed the greatest danger to life and limb.
Unfortunately, it was pretty hard to see any of the Big Five animals in Tsavo. I had a couple of leopard and lion sightings, saw one black rhino and very few of Tsavo’s famous ‘red elephants’. Buffalo were the most common of the five, but, as you can see from the gallery (above), I only managed to get one decent shot of them.
Other Animals
The most common animals in Tsavo West are the plains zebras and the Masai giraffes, but you also find a few spotted hyenas, fringe-eared oryxes, Coke’s hartebeests, klipspringers, yellow baboons and lesser kudus—with the odd flap-necked chameleon thrown in for good measure!
Birds
My favourite African species are birds of prey, rollers, kingfishers and bee-eaters. Unfortunately, there weren’t many of any of those in Tsavo. I did get quite a few four-star images (see gallery), but not many of them involved birds in flight, and I had to compromise on the species involved. Who’d have thought I’d end up spending so much time photographing blacksmith lapwings?!
Beggars can’t be choosers, I suppose…
Verdict
Keep on trucking…
This was the last leg of my three-week visit to Kenya, and I’m tempted to say that it was a struggle to find wildlife to photograph. However, I somehow ended up with more four-star images from Finch Hattons than from either Laikipia Wilderness or Kicheche Laikipia!
I’m not quite sure how that happened, but I guess I might’ve dropped my standards slightly in the desperate search for photos to put in this blog! Who knows…? Let’s hope Finch Hattons is happy with the images I give them when I get home. I was given a target of 100-150, but I have around four-star wildlife pictures and 500 other shots of the staff, food, guests and facilities, so I certainly have the numbers.
Anyway, I enjoyed my time in camp. I would’ve liked to socialise more with the other guests, but I got on well with all the staff and especially Evans, so that made the experience much more pleasant as we were spending as many as 15 hours a day together!
The food and accommodation were also exceptional, so I hope this is the start of a beautiful friendship. With any luck, Virgin Limited Edition will invite me to Mahali Mzuri in the Masai Mara. We shall see…
Species
Here are all the species of animals and birds I saw. The ones I’d never seen before are shown in bold.
Animals (33)
African bush elephant
African wild dog
Banded mongoose
Black rhinoceros
Black-faced vervet monkey
Cape buffalo
Caracal
Coke’s hartebeest
Common bushbuck
Common eland
Common genet
Common waterbuck
Dwarf mongoose
Eastern white-bearded wildebeest
Flap-necked chameleon
Fringe-eared oryx
Grant’s gazelle
Hippopotamus
Impala
Kirk’s dik-dik
Klipspringer
Leopard
Lesser kudu
Lion
Masai giraffe
Nile crocodile
Pallid ground squirrel
Plains zebra
Red-headed rock agama
Rock hyrax
Spotted hyena
Water monitor
Yellow baboon
Birds (70)
African grey hornbill
African hawk-eagle
African hoopoe
African jacana
African paradise-flycatcher
African pied wagtail
African spotted owl
Augur buzzard
Bateleur
Black-faced sandgrouse
Blacksmith lapwing
Blue-naped mousebird
Crested francolin
D’Arnaud’s barbet
Eastern chanting-goshawk
Eastern paradise-whydah
Eastern white-headed bush-shrike
Emerald-spotted wood-dove
Fischer’s starling
Fork-tailed drongo
Golden-breasted starling
Great white pelican
Greater blue-eared starling
Grey heron
Grey-headed kingfisher
Hadada ibis
Hamerkop
Helmeted guineafowl
Laughing dove
Lesser striped swallow
Lilac-breasted roller
Little bee-eater
Lizard buzzard
Long-tailed fiscal shrike
Marabou stork
Martial eagle
Masai ostrich
Namaqua dove
Orange-bellied parrot
Pied kingfisher
Pygmy falcon
Red-and-yellow barbet
Red-billed buffalo-weaver
Red-headed quelea
Ring-necked dove
Rosy-patched bush-shrike
Sacred ibis
Somali golden bunting
Southern red-billed hornbill
Southern yellow-billed hornbill
Square-tailed drongo
Straw-tailed whydah
Striped kingfisher
Superb starling
Tawny eagle
Verreaux’s eagle-owl
Von der Decken’s hornbill
Vulturine guineafowl
White-backed vulture
White-bellied bustard
White-bellied go-away-bird
White-browed sparrow-weaver
White-headed buffalo-weaver
Woolly-necked stork
Yellow-necked spurfowl
If you’d like to order a framed print of one of my wildlife photographs, please visit the Prints page.
If you’d like to book a lesson or order an online photography course, please visit my Lessons and Courses pages.
