We are Sikhs,” I said.

This was in response to Taznim Mamuji of Finch Hattons, managing the uber-luxe camp in Tsavo West, when she said their minimum stay was two nights. We just wanted one. I explained that my aunt, was visiting Kenya after a 50-year absence, and was accompanied by her husband — his first visit.

The reason behind a one-nighter was that they also needed to spend a night at the Makindu Sikh Temple, a spiritual pilgrimage for every East African Sikh because of its role in our history.

Mamuji gave in and we drove in for our day in Tsavo West, another place Sikhs have a close affinity to.

Back in 1898, Sikh workmen were terrorised by the infamous Man-eaters of Tsavo, during construction of the Uganda Railway between 1896 and 1901.

The Man-eaters

Among the first casualties was, “a fine, powerful Sikh named Ungan Singh — seized during the night and carried off by a huge lion” writes Lt-Col John Henry Patterson, the site engineer in his epic book, The Man-Eaters of Tsavo.

In the mid-morning heat, animals sensibly hide under the shade while first-time visitors arrive fully anticipating prides of lion, leopards and elephants trumpeting their way across the Tsavo.

We drove between the snow-lined dome of Kilimanjaro and the youngish 500-year old Chyulu Hills — both massifs, from a volcanic outburst.

Maasai giraffes with the volcanic Chyulu Hills in the background. PHOTO | RUPI MANGAT

The hills soak up the rainwater, which resurfaces crystal clear at Mzima Springs from where it is piped to Mombasa 250 km away.

At midday, the sun is intense. Only Maasai giraffes and Burchell’s zebra brave the heat for a drink at various water holes. On the western side 40 km later, the grass vanishes, but we soon arrive at our destination, Finch Hattons Camp.

In a word, it’s enchanting but fvastly different from the camps of yesteryear, laid out for visiting game hunters.

We make the late afternoon game drive since wild animals prefer to stroll out during the cooler hours of the day.

The plains serve up handsome Maasai giraffes craning their necks at us, while zebras, waterbuck, warthogs and a few wildebeest roust about.

Literature has it that Denys Finch Hatton, famously known as Karen Blixen’s lover of the Out of Africa fame, turned conservationist after years of hunting. He made photographic safaris fashionable in place of the destructive gun-toting hunting safaris.

The night passed with glimpses of the night browsers at the spring, including civets, the white-tailed mongoose, hippos, bush babies and crocodiles.

After breakfast, our 24-hour sojourn ends with a chance encounter with a the majestic leopard female lounging up a tree by the roadside. She’s one of the hundred in the Tsavo enclave that borders Tanzania’s Mkomazi National Park.

Our visitors said they were truly awed by Africa’s splendour and wilderness.

A good drive is from Nairobi via Kajiado to the new road connecting to the Emali road and into the Chyulu gate.