Lunch in a treehouse

We (me, Toby, Ella, and my colleagues Fire and Kari) finally drove north to Ol Pejeta Conservancy on Sunday, July 29! I have been doing research at Ol Pejeta since 2002, and Fire and I have been working there together since 2007. Kari is a Finnish ecologist who works with Fire and who we have invited onto our project.

Fire and I have a tradition of stopping for lunch at the Trout Tree Restaurant which is about a 3 hour drive from Nairobi, very close to Nanyuki, the town where the turn off to Ol Pejeta is. The Trout Tree Restaurant is built in an enormous Fig Tree along the Burguret River, below Mount Kenya, and trout is farmed and cooked there. We had a really nice leisurely late lunch (including fresh trout for the non-vegetarians) as it rained a little bit, and then got on our way to Ol Pejeta.

Fire, Toby and me

Toby was totally captivated by the trout ponds

Toby at the entrance to the restaurant

A good view of the tree that the restaurant was built around

Trout farmers

Ella, Toby, and Fire enjoying the enormous slices of chocolate cake we got for dessert

Toby found a playground I didn't even know was there

Toby enjoyed climbing on the playground

There are black and white colobus monkeys that hang around the restaurant

Toby feeding geese at the restaurant

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D minus a week and a day

I'm leaving for my annual migration to Kenya soon, just like the wildebeest.... well, only there's a few million less of me than there are of them. Also, I'd like to think I run in a few less circles than they do, given that they spend their year basically making a big circle between Kenya and Tanzania in the Serengeti/Mara ecosystem (though that's debatable!). I'm going through my usual 'I'm leaving soon' routine: getting together with friends who want to spend a little time before I leave for a few months; making sure I can take care of all my (as my fab friend Fire calls it) "personal admin" online while I'm gone - banking, paying utilities, etc.; adding things to the duffel bag I keep stocked during the rest of the year with my 'going to Kenya' things. It's always hectic, and no matter how well I plan - and those of you who know me know I plan! - there's always a lot to do at the last minute. So it's D (departure) mi...

moonshine (the celestial kind)

I was going to write about our excavations, but I had to change topics after the spectacular moonrise we had this evening. It's a full moon tonight (or nearly so), and early this evening this soft glowing orange orb was visible just above the horizon after sunset, rising ever higher, and becoming ever brighter, into the starry night sky. There is nothing like watching a moonrise in the African bush. I would have taken a picture of it after it rose, but I don't have the photographic expertise - here's one I took of the full moonrise last year. Last night, the moon was so bright that when I got up in the middle of the night to pee (a sign I'm keeping well hydrated!), it was casting shadows everywhere, and I didn't even need my flashlight. It's perfectly gorgeous. The moon isn't the only gorgeous thing here - beauty can be found growing delicately among the rocks, or singing a song in the trees, in the form of a colorful red and yellow barbet.

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...

Briana's Travels

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