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at the field site

So now, we've made it to the field site. (OK not in real time, but in my slightly-behind-the-times story-telling time). Peter gets a tour of the key areas of the camp: the kitchen, the mess tent, the bathroom, and the shower. We walk to the end of "camp cliff", and Peter quietly, smiling-ly, surveys the scenery. Finally he proclaims, "Well, it's not the Mesozoic, but it's beautiful!" (For those of you who aren't fossiliferous like we are, the Mesozic is the time period when dinosaurs lived - that's the age of the sediments where Peter's done his fieldwork before. It was funny. For us paleo-dorks, at least.) By the end, he liked the camp locale so much he was wondering how much it would cost to buy the land, set up solar- and wind-generated power facilities, and build a permanent research camp or a B&B!

While I was busy doing my work in camp, Peter had a great time exploring and seeing animals (he racked up a pretty impressive list of sightings - including warthog, gazelle, and even his favorite, guinea fowl! We went to the baboon cliffs one late afternoon, to watch the baboons settle down in their sleeping site for the evening. They are often very active - grooming, calling to each other, chasing each other around, mating, warily looking at those other primates across the chasm who are looking at them...







Peter also made himself very useful, the helpful guy that he is. We had a paleo-artist visiting who's work Peter happens to really like [names excluded to protect the innocent, and artists!], and they went out surveying for fossils and artifacts with us.



Peter also helped with excavations. Here he is, laughing at Alison's suggestion that they should imitate the three wise monkeys (see-no-evil, hear-no-evil, speak-no-evil), which she was getting ready to do.



And, he entertained the local kids! First, teaching a few how to play frisbee:


[first you put the frisbee on your head... just kidding!]







And second, while we were running. We went running down the paved road near camp, and we passed a group of Maasai girls ranging in age from about 6 to 16. A few of them started to run along with us (or rather, in back of us), and Peter turned and ran backwards to see them, made faces, and they were giggling like mad! They ran with us for a few hundred meters, and then stopped, panting, smiling. It was great fun.

Next stop, Lamu!

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