Briana's Travels

We finally arrived at Ol Pejeta Conservancy on a late Sunday afternoon. It feels a little like returning to a second home, although it's been a while - last time I was here (except for one overnight last summer to have meetings to set up this summer's field season) was 2011, when I was pregnant with Toby! Here's a few photos from our first few days. We stopped on the equator sign to take some photos during our drive to where we're staying. Toby, me, Fire, Kari, and Ella on the equator sign Fire and Ella walking on the equator Me and Toby on the equator On the way we passed impala, gazelle, zebras, and elephants - I am the driver so I don't get much of an opportunity to take pictures, but I'll try to get some good animal photos in the next few weeks! My favorite sign on the entire conservancy We are staying at the Stables . This used to be a research center, but was converted to budget accommodation. That said, the people who stay at ...

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 ...

I'm a little behind on my blog posts since we've been so busy in the last week - I'm going to try to catch up with this post and one more this week, and then post once a week or so for the rest of our trip. Last Friday (July 27) we - me, Toby, Ella, and a Kenyan PhD student from George Washington University Joanne - drove to a town called Mogotio in Baringo County in central Kenya. I  collaborated with a Kenyan colleague of mine who got her PhD at George Washington University and did a postdoc at the Smithsonian, Habiba, to put together a workshop on teaching evolution for Kenyan high school biology teachers in Mogotio. Me, Joanne, Ella, and Toby at our lunch stop in Naivasha Me and Toby crossing the equator for the first time, on the way to Mogotio We stayed in a lovely hotel and conference center owned by Habiba's sister (or aunt? both were there) called Lomanira Splendour . We got there in time to have dinner and settle into our rooms, and meet up with...

On Sunday, we left for an overnight trip to Olorgesailie . This is a prehistoric site in southern Kenya where I helped run the excavations and camp for 6 years, from 2004-2010. I was really excited to see many of the Kenyan excavators again, some of whom I haven't seen for many years, as well as for Toby to have his first experience at a real archaeological site - and sleeping in a tent! We (me, Toby, and Ella) first took a taxi to a place called The Hub in Karen, a suburb of Nairobi. The Hub's tag line "more than a mall" is a very appropriate description. There's a place inside the mall similar to a Chuck E. Cheese that was pretty amazing to see. Toby thoroughly enjoyed it! In between the playing, we had a delicious brunch. This is basically Kenya's version of Chuck E. Cheese This was kind of like an electronic whack-a-mole game Toby was really good at this car racing game - he kept winning free games! There were kid-sized motorized ca...