Since we're only in the field for a limited time, we don't take many days off. In fact, yesterday (Saturday) was our first full day off since we arrived about two weeks ago, so let me start there. We went to Nanyuki - the nearest town to Ol Pejeta - to do a few errands, but mostly to visit a few coffee shops, go shopping and have a leisurely lunch at a restaurant which sits right on the equator. It was a very relaxing day!
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| Toby playing one of the games I brought for him to Kenya at our first coffee shop stop: Dorman's |
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| The group at Dorman's |
One of our shopping stops was
Nanyuki Spinners and Weavers, a women's craft cooperative that focuses on weaving.
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| Toby feeding a goat at Spinners and Weavers |
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| Toby perusing the handmade woven crafts at Spinners and Weavers |
After that, we did a few more errands and then went for a delicious pizza lunch at
The Painted Dog Bar and Restaurant.
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| Toby enjoyed being around the lily pad filled ponds at The Painted Dog |
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| Some of the chalk-written decor in the bar |
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| Fire enjoying her wine |
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| Toby found a sawed off stump and spent quite a bit of time playing on it |
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| Toby spontaneously doing a handstand against the stump |
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| Toby pretending he was an eagle sitting on an eagle egg |
I was thinking to myself yesterday that one thing I really miss being out here is exercising. Yes, I walk a few kilometers every day, but back home I normally do some kind of pretty vigorous exercise every morning that gets my heart rate up. Little did I know that my heart rate would be spiking today…
Today (Sunday) started off well, with a great view of Mount Kenya.
This morning we went out to walk a bush transect. Our first several days were open plains transects, but we’ve now transitioned to walking in more closed/wooded habitats. Given all the large dangerous animals in this kind of habitat – like rhinos, buffalo, elephants, and lions – we all walk closer together, with a little less idle chitchat, and pay closer attention to our guards. Guards is in plural, as with this habitat we always have one armed (with a gun) guard – normally Isaack – and another patrol, usually with some kind of hand-held club-like weapon.
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| Bones from a giraffe skeleton with Mount Kenya in the background |
This morning we went out to finish a transect we had to stop
in the middle on Friday afternoon - because it had been so productive with
bones! We were about 3/4 of the way finished with the 1km transect, and decided
to add another 500m onto the transect. At about 150 meters from the new end of
the transect, I heard Isaack simply say to the four of us – me, Fire, Ella, and
Kari – in a low, firm voice: “run!” What I didn’t hear was him cock his rifle
as he was saying it. I didn’t know what the danger was, but it didn’t matter.
We all ran like the dickens behind a bush, breathing hard. It turns out we were
quite close to a buffalo that Isaack and the patrol had not seen as we were
walking. We decided that this was a fine time to end the transect – so we
turned off our digital data collectors, and slowly and quietly walked back to
the vehicle. Thankfully, the only animals we encountered on the way back were
giraffes, who I have decided are our protector animals. We drove back to camp much
earlier than usual, and Toby was surprised (in a good way) to see us. We spent
the rest of the morning catching up on computer work in camp.
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| Isaack with the buffalo partially visible behind a bush (photo by Kari) |
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| This is now officially my least favorite buffalo on the conservancy (photo by Kari) |
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| Ella, me, and Fire huddled behind a bush, waiting for further instructions from Isaack (photo by Kari) |
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| Isaack, Ella, and Fire with giraffes |
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| Selfie with giraffes |
This afternoon brought different excitement. We were going to a new part of the conservancy where we haven’t done transects before, and decided to try a road we haven’t been on before. Isaack warned us that the road wasn’t good, but I’m a good bush driver (if I do say so myself), so I decided to try it. Well… after all of 30 seconds, we ended up very stuck in the mud. This wasn’t my first stuck-in-the-mud rodeo, so I put the car in 4 wheel drive, rocked it backwards and forwards several times, and pretty quickly managed to get the it out so we could head in a different direction.
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| A view of the tilt of the Land Cruiser stuck in the mud (photo by Fire) |
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| View of the mud track the wheel was stuck in, after I'd reversed the car out (photo by Kari) |
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| Mud and grass stuck to the tire after being stuck in the mud (photo by Kari) |
And after all that effort? We didn’t find a single bone on our afternoon transect, which was in an area with very high grass and low visibility. Oh well.
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| Ella, Kari, and Fire on the bone-less afternoon transect |
This evening involved a hot shower, a delicious meal (as always), and some post-dinner honey whisky and a few squares of chocolate - which I think were very much deserved! After Toby fell asleep, I joined a few other people by the fire pit watching for the Perseid meteor showers. We saw a few smaller shooting stars, and then one pretty spectacular bright orange fiery meteor that broke up as it streaked down the sky after it entered our atmosphere. And with that, it's time for bed.
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