Final Fieldwork Week

We're home now - arrived yesterday. Our travel home was uneventful... well, except for running into my colleague René, his wife Susana, and their 5 year old son Andres in the Nairobi airport on the way home! René and Susana took Andres to the field in Mozambique for the first time this summer, and were on their way home to England after attending a conference in Nairobi. Toby and Andres got on like a house on fire, running around the waiting area together and calling to each other across the plane. It was very cute, and Toby kept talking about how much he enjoyed making a new friend. But back to our final week, which was pretty busy...

Here are some of the highlights of our last day off.

Toby imitating the gape of a hippo at "Hippo Hide", a place at Ol Pejeta where you can
walk along the banks of the Ewaso Nyiro River

Kari, Ella, and Toby walking along the river

When I was doing my PhD research at Ol Pejeta, I offered to create some educational material for display at Hippo Hide (in exchange for a discount on some repair work on my vehicle). The hippo footprint outlines in the cement were still there!

We also visited the chimpanzee sanctuary - here's Toby reading one of the signs on the path there

Charles, the guide, was very patient with all of Toby's questions

Charles had actually done some experimental butchery research with me and another colleague when I was a PhD student there, so it was great to see him again!

We saw a snake for the first time during the field season in the chimp sanctuary - can you spot it?

That afternoon, our archaeologist friends John and Alison - who were staying at Sweetwaters Tented Camp for a few days after doing research in Nairobi for a few weeks - stopped by for a visit. Here they are with Ella and Fire.

After that, we dropped them back off at Tented Camp and stayed for a drink and snacks. Here Toby met a marabou stork for the first time.

Some other events that week:

Push starting the vehicle of tourists staying at the Stables - another first for Toby

Toby and cows

Isaack shooing a rhino away from the start of one of our transects

The superb starlings that hang around camp will eat your breakfast if you're not fast enough

We found a young (1-2 year old) black rhino mandible on one of our transects

One afternoon a group of Samburu randomly dropped by, had lunch, and did some dancing

The Samburu group with Fire and Kari (left), Toby (middle), and Ella (right)

Just some gorgeous morning light

Ella with a big stick bug on her arm on a transect

The coffee filtering system grew more elaborate as time went on - I am the only non-coffee drinker of our field team

Recently hatched yellow-necked spur fowl eggs seen on a transect

Fire (middle) and the rest of the team that day celebrating our last transect of the season

Me and Fire, triumphant and very sweaty after our last transect of the season

In case I haven't mentioned it yet, the food is really good. I mean, here we're having ICE CREAM in the field!!

Toby doing some more nature observations for school

On our last night, we went out and sat by a spotted hyena den. It was a real highlight of the trip! The cubs crawled all around and under our vehicle, and even chewed on it a bit.