In what ended up being a ‘welcome back to Nairobi’ game drive, I joined other photographers for a trip to the wild side of Nairobi.

After spending about a week in Cote d’Ivoire on a client assignment, I was happy when Parag from Cameras Africa, the shop from which I purchase my photography gear locally, confirmed that a pre-planned game drive in Nairobi National Park with Paras Chandaria was still on for 10th March.

I got to the NNP main gate just before 6am and once the payments were done, we drove in aboard Paras’ customised game-viewing Defender.

The first animal we sighted was a rhino who’d just had a mud bath near the Impala Observation Point. The recent Nairobi rains had left the park green, and the animals clean.

Just past the Kingfisher Picnic Site, a confusion of guniea fowl (yeah, look it up).

We drove around for quite a bit looking for the big cats but none could be found. Even calls to other wildlife enthusiasts who were in the Park were in vain. No one had spotted the cats. So we decided to make the best of what NNP had served us on this gray-skied morning.

We spotted these rock hyraxes at Mokoyeti Picnic Site.

Yellow-necked spurfowl.

Egyptian Geese.

The rains had left pools of water along some NNP roads. As we drove through them, I decided to capture the eye candy that has always fascinated me since I was a boy.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you The Chocolate Factory, sponsored by BF Goodrich.

At about 9.30am, when we were ready to call it a day and return to our desk jobs, Paras received a call informing him of a lion sighting near Number 4. We eagerly made our way there and alas… it wasn’t just a lion… but a pride of 8 from the King Fisher pride!

Our three hours of searching had finally bore fruit and we dank to that.

Then we had a close encounter of the hairy kind.

For the icing on the cake, I got to capture this giraffe with the background of the Nairobi skyline.

Thank you Parag for the opportunity to capture these moments, and Paras for sacrificing shots you could have captured so that Chris, Joe and I could.

You too can have a personalised game drive with one of Kenya’s top wildlife photographers. Just make your booking here.