Kenya

Join two internationally renowned artists, Gregory Wellman and Karen Laurence-Rowe in November 2020 on a safari expedition catering to artists, photographers and conservationists. This safari will support two conservation organizations - Artists for Conservation and Soysambu Conservancy. 

As a special feature of the 2016 Artists for Conservation Festival at Grouse Mountain, Vancouver, I am honoured to have the opportunity to allow the public to view my largest and most challenging work yet.

Dec 9th - Well, one would think we would be slowing our pace in preparation for our return trip but no so.
Jeff Whiting has a really exciting meeting this morning with the United Nations Environment Program here in Nairobi. We are hoping that, before long, Artists for Conservation Foundation might develop a working relationship with the UN.

Dec 8 - For some reason I couldn't sleep (maybe it was the scotch) and woke early this morning while it was still dark. The Tree Hyrax and Spotted Hyenas where still sounding off nearby. The night was still and the stars were bright, different from most all our previous nights in the Aberdares that were cloudy and overcast. All others were asleep so, without a sound to disturb them, I stepped out on the veranda in the cool night air. It was a beautiful night and I was sad to remember that today we would start our return to Nairobi and the long trip home. Our expedition was nearly over.

Dec 6th - After an early breakfast we headed out for a game drive in the park. The birds here are unbelievable!! Rosse's and Hartlaub's Touraco sailed across our path with bright red wing patches glowing in the morning sun. Overhead both Marshall Eagle and African Crested Eagle circled. These are big birds of prey! Marshall Eagle is big enough to take small antelope and the Crested Eagle will take monkeys. They are both magnificent birds. New mammals for me were Suni, a tiny little forest antelope (Marshall Eagle food) and Giant Forest Hog. The forest hog is really big.

Dec 6th - Today we began yet another grand adventure! Guy had arranged for us to stay in a small cabin way up in the mountains of the Aberdares National Park called "Rhino Retreat". It is a small outpost built by the Kenyan army in the 1990s. The cabin was created for the use of a gallant group called "Rhino Ark" that formed to make a last ditch effort to save the remaining Black Rhinos in this giant national park. Murray's Dad was a founder of the group and Guy's Dads soon joined in the effort.

Dec 5th - Today is December 5th, my wife, Linda's, birthday! It was bad enough missing Thanksgiving with my family, but missing my wife's birthday was too much. I wish this trip did not fall on her day. I had to come up with a way to send a birthday greeting that would clearly show I was thinking of her and how much I cared. So before I left, I arranged for her to receive a gorilla-gram birthday greeting at her workplace.

Dec 4th - Today was our planned visit to Nakuru National Park. Akeley was one of the first to document with photography, the spectacle of thousands of flamingos at Lake Nakuru , so I , once again, was anxious to follow in his foot steps. After purchasing more food and supplies in nearby Nakuru town, the fastest growing city in all of Kenya, we entered the park. The park is noted for it's efforts in desperately trying to protect the last remaining rhinoceroses in East Africa. One Black Rhino's horns are worth $350 thousand US dollars on the black market.

Dec 2nd - After an early breakfast and some shopping for food and supplies for the week, we drove out of town and started our descent into East Africa's Great Rift Valley, vast valley plain and volcanic region created by the slow spreading of plates in the earth's crust over millions of years . This was the same route that Akeley would have taken in 1926, during his last trip to, what was then, British East Africa. He writes in his journal how disturbed he was with the dissapearance of game during his visit way back then.

Dec 1st - - Flying from Kigali to Kenya impressed upon us the environmental change we had traveled through. Rwanda was higher in elevation and green with heavier rainfall. Kenya lower in elevation, drier and gold and ochre with savanna grass. We were met at the airport by Guy Combes, fellow Artists for Conservation member and native to Kenya. His cousin, also born in Kenya, Murray Combes was to be his teammate and, with Guy, our guides while in Kenya.