“rock and stones” + a walk on the Milgis!

our warriors looking very cool on the rocks at Lkanto

 

From the simple cave drawings to the most modern Samburu!!!  I will start by thanking Sarah of ‘Rock and Stones’  for their incredibly generous support to the Milgis Trust over this christmas period..  Sarah and Richard Vigne came on safari last month and found the perfect models for her beautiful shorts, and in return they are giving us 5% of their Christmas sales..

So come on all of you .. Get to their website and buy a pair of fabulous very classy shorts for ALL the family!!

(     https://rockandstones.com/the-milgis-trust/    )

Once again while we are on the subject of fundraising I would so like to thank Darren Almond for his incredible contribution to the kitty.. Darren, if you haven’t heard of him, takes absolutely fabulous pictures using the light of the fullmoon.. What comes out is utterly beautiful and he and his friend Richard, with Digs,  spent a good week all around the Milgis Lugga and the surrounding areas, in the middle of the night, taking pictures to raise money for our Milgis.. please have a look at the catalog and see if you would like to be part of this  ..

Darren Almond Fullmoon presentasjon (liten)

Below is a letter that Digby wrote to Darren.. i thought it said it all!!..

September 2018

Dear Darren,

We are all sitting here feeling extremely touched by the hard work that has gone into making this amazing exhibition happen.  It is hard for us to fully comprehend what an undertaking this must have been and how many hours of organising were allocated to the cause.  We really enjoyed looking at the photo’s of the venue and exhibition! VERY SMART!

 Also a belated Happy  Birthday from all of us – I hope the Norwegians threw you a good party!   Thank you so much for donating these photographs towards this humble cause, and also for giving so much of your and Richards time (very precious stuff). I hope people appreciated that you had to burn a lot of the ‘midnight oil’ to get these shots.

And I hope the photos’s captured the essence of what was a very memorable trip. I often find myself chuckling about us scrambling around in the dark…. knackered!  Lots of fun memories. One in particular was when those two elderly ladies, covered in leafy branches, walked into the middle of camp whilst you guys were snoozing after a long night. And then started singing at the top of their voices praying for rain. Whilst being a very beautiful moment, it was also very moving in that it gave some insight into how desperate the situation was at the time of your visit.  Also when your phone fell off the car….  only to be found by miracle…. especially in Africa.  oh. And that ‘elephant’ which payed you a visit during the night!

Another amazing thing happened after you guys left…. It rained… and rained… and rained.

There was water everywhere!!!! Although in hindsight, luckily it was dry for us as  we would have struggled to get the moon as clear as we had it. Certainly a spectacular sight which transforms the landscape completely!!

Otherwise We are all on good form and working hard to keep all the projects running.  Sadly we have been getting quite a few sick elephants and there seems too be a disease on the rise.  So some of the money raised will definitely be put towards treating our gentle friends.

Do you remember all of those wild dogs that we saw?? well it seems that there are even more of them now, which for us is such a big conservation milestone! However, they are starting to create a problem with some of the communities as they are eating a lot of their livestock.. giving us more challenges!

Thanks so much and keep in touch!!!! Digs

WE ARE FOREVER GRATEFUL TO ALL THAT WANT TO HELP US RAISE FUNDS TO PRESERVE THIS BEAUTIFULL PLACE!!!

On to other things!!

My shadow of ten years, ‘Ndoto’, is no more ..

YES MY LITTLE NDOTO HAS GONE..

sooo very sad, to say Ndoto died on our last safari, many of you that came on safari will know her.. ..  She was invaluable on the safari,  she was soooo vigilant it was not true.. On her last safari she saw a hunting dog crossing the Lugga about a kilometer away, in the sun set, down wind and all of us absolutely could not see it, BUT with her ranting and raving with her hackles up , we were able to enjoy the sight, but through the binoculars! 

Calmly sitting watching an elephant drinking!

Ndoto was found as a tiny puppy left behind by a a group of pastoralists on the move.. They had too much at stake to wait for her and that was it.. She would have died that night if had she not been found!.. in stead she was able to enjoy ten good years walking on safari, down luggas, over mountains, and protecting my every move by my side!

Ndoto enjoyed every view!

GO IN PEACE MY LITTLE ONE.. Will never forget you!.. you were a very very faithful friend for your whole life, of 10 years.. 

Luckily she had time to teach Salau the ropes..

luckily we have an amazing replacement who she taught every thing..

Salau.. a beautiful Ridgback.. He’s really fantastic! Learn’t every thing from Ndoto who treated him like her own puppy.. 

Now to a fabulous mornings walk on the Milgis ending at these beautiful cave drawings!

 

Early morning departure from camp with the camels with breakfast  on board..

First sighting!! A beautiful leopard crossing just in front of us!

me and my new shadow.. Salau

then soooo fun to see all the tracks from the night before in the sand..

Piggy tracks.. and my stick for size!!

A couple of Porcupines

a shape carved by the wind!

 

Guinea fowl and Civet cat

Lion next to Elephant.. Sooooo beautiful its almost like seeing the animal its self!

And off he goes!!

Hyena

Crossroad of animal tracks!

frogs I think?? on the move!

Cant mistake this one!!  Eley crossing!!

Milli pede crossroad

What a morning we’ve had .. And ending with this beautiful Doum palm framed by Ilbisiong in the North East of the Matthews range..

Over the hills and into the next lugga.. Its getting hot now and we climb up into this cave for a rest!!

A little cave becoming us!

And look what we found.. I think they are some quite old drawings in here!!

Cave drawings new and old!!

And we end here..