Kenya Yoga Retreat Recap - June 2022

In June 2022 I set off to my home-away-away from home in the Ol Pejeta Consevancy in Kenya to guide the Safari and Conservation Kenya Yoga Retreat. My co-teacher, Laura Messer, and I ended up doing two of them, due to demand, resulting in a whole glorious month away at Ol Pejeta Safari Cottages. Here’s what we got up to…

Arriving in Nairobi

Our retreat attendees arrived into Nairobi from all over the world and spent a night or two at the Ole Sereni Hotel where Laura of myself met them and we begun our drive up to the Ol Pejeta Safari Cottages. The Ole Sereni Hotel is my go-to hotel in Nairobi because the price point is just right, the rooms are really comfortable, the food is great (with views of Nairobi National Park) and it’s only a ten-minute drive from the international airport.

A GAME DRIVE ON DAY ONE!

On safari in Ol Pejeta Conservancy

Each retreat was six nights at the incredibly beautiful Ol Pejeta Safari Cottages. Our days were spent rising early in the morning for yoga on an open deck overlooking the river before heading out for the day. Saluting the sun as it rose through the acacia trees was always a magical way to start the day and always my favourite part of the day. After yoga we piled into our 4WD safari vehicles with a hearty picnic breakfast for a morning game drive to see what the day would bring us. We saw herds or elephants every day, giraffe, zebra, buffalo and more and we were lucky enough to also see big lion prides, often on fresh kills and the elusive cheetah too. We’d often here leopards calling at night and our night patrolmen said they had seen them roaming the grounds around the camp but we were not fortunate to see them ourselves. maybe next time!

Here are a few pictures from our game drives

After lunch at camp we’d rest up, wind down with a gentle vinyasa class or a restorative session in the afternoon and then leave an afternoon game drive. On our last day we combined these two and took our yoga mats out on the game drive for an incredibly special final yoga class in the bush!

HERE ARE A FEW PICTURES FROM OUR MAGICAL YOGA CLASSES IN THE BUSH

Sundowners on the plains

Ending our days with a glass of wine on the plains was the perfect finale. One night a we found ourselves surrounded by hyena and it was thrilling to hear them calling to one another across our group in the darkness. On another night we saw two big white rhinos approaching us, silhouetted against the fading sky. It was so special!

Conservation experiences

A really important part of the Kenya Yoga Retreats is educating everyone about conservation; what endangered and extinct really means to the people on the ground who’s like-work it is to save animals from extinction and to preserve their natural habitats. On this retreat we visited the Northern White Rhinos; the last two of their species alive. We learned so much about the poaching issues these rhinos, and rhinos all around the world, face and it was truly humbling to meet the last two of a species and to stare extinction, literally in the eye.

As part of our conservation experience we also met the K9 security team and learned about how Ol Pejeta is training blood hounds to help them find poachers and keep potential threats to the rhinos at bay. We concluded this important part of the trip with a talk by James Mwenda, who is the figure-head for rhino conservation in Kenya and his passion and commitment to preserving the species left us all speechless.

MEETING THE LAST TWO NORTHERN WHITE RHINOS LEFT ALIVE

MEETING THE BLOOD HOUNDS OF THE K9 SECURITY TEAM

We had an incredible few weeks in Kenya leading our first two Safari and Conservation Yoga Retreats. They were such a success that we’re heading back to Kenya in May 2023 and you’re invited to join us!