Kenya dig it?

I honestly can't belive how fast time is flying by in Kenya.  I remember arriving in the beginning of February thinking how May seemed like it was sooooo far away and even wondering if I might get homesick. Next thing I know, expedition has come and gone, and now it's time for finals and moving to Tanzania on the 19th! I don't want to leave this place and the amazing staff at KBC but I'm really excited for my next adventures and doing Directed Research in Tanzania!

 It was an eye-opening and amazing experience going to Lake Nakuru National park. For one, I got to see a lot of Kenya on our long drive there. I also didn't realize until we arrived back at KBC on Wednesday night how much it feels like home to me (never thought I'd be so excited to get back to my bed net and banda--spiders, mice & all). It didn't really seem like home when we left, but something about being gone and sleeping on the ground for 5 nights and driving 10+ hours each way made me realize how much I love this place.

Our adventure started Friday March 2nd at 5:15 when we had breakfast, packed lunches and finished loading up the vehicles for our long day of traveling.  We left at 6 am before the sun was rising. Despite how tired my body was, I could not fall asleep in the car!  My car was driven by Jackson, co-piloted/DJ-ed by our intern Jenna, and accompanied by Elyse, Sarah, Maggie, Katie and Carey.

Got up bright and early to depart at 6 am for our expedition. This is the sun rising over the Chyulu Hills.

Our first stop was a bathroom break, followed by a grocery/everything store (good ol' Tusky's) to purchase ourselves some fun snacks/cravings we've been itching for. My purchases consisted of mostly chocolate and peanut butter. After another few hours, we stopped at a little souvenir shop to get hasseled by the locals trying to sell us stuff and pee in some really questionable bathrooms. There was an amazing view of the Rift Valley, so we snapped a few pics and headed on our way. Last stop: everyone's dream come true. A small coffee stand that served COLD drinks--smoothies, milkshakes and iced coffee (I'm a non-coffee drinker but everone else was freakin out). Another two hours and we finally arrived in the town of Lake Nakuru by 5:30pm -- surprisingly, the drive actually didn't seem that bad (maybe because I was so excited to get there!). Side note: driving in Kenya is sheer and utter chaos, let me tell you. I thought Costa Rica was bad, but Kenya takes driving to a whooooole new level. People are CONSTANTLY passing eachother on the roads, whether or not you have a clear view of oncoming traffic, and people/bikes/motorcycles are just winding through traffic between cars, especially in traffic jams in the city. I'm honestly amazed I haven't seen more accidents...I guess the drivers just know what they're doing. (attn: mom & dad-- despite this apparent craziness, I feel safe with our drivers...SFS is very particular about rules when driving...they drive very carefully with their precious cargo:))

A pic I snapped of a small road-side town we passed through on our drive. This is Africa.

Nakuru had an awesome feel to it. The streets were bustling and the sidewalks and store fronts crammed with people selling things. Guys on motorcycles and little mtotos lined the roads (cabs here--they have 3 wheels and probably comfortably fit 4 although there's usually like 6-8 people jammed in them).
We set up camp as the day was winding down and ate our first of many meals out of our tupperware dishes. The camp, as I said before, was a small fenced in area inside the park (necessary to keep the buffalo, waterbuck, lions, leopards, gazelle, impala, rhinos, etc. at bay). We woke up each morning to a breathtaking view of fog settled in the valley among the hills, dotted with grazing buffalo and the occasional rhino and ungulate. After breakfast Saturday morning, we piled into the vehicles for our first field lecture in the park.

morning sunrise & our tents.

 waking up in the morning in Lake Nakuru National Park entailed cool temps, fog and this lovely view outside our camp fence

We only got to see a brief preview of a few habitats in the park  (and an awesome view from a look-out point on top of a hill/mtn) before we had to head back for a guest lecture. BUT on our way back to camp we were all ecstatic and extremely lucky to see a leopard about 20 m from the road!!! Erin, a girl in my car (from Wisco! represent), spotted it (teehee...no pun intended) as it slunk down this fallen tree and disappeared into the tall grass. That image will forever be engrained in my memory. We stopped to look for it as the rest of our caravan (4 land cruisers total) stopped behind us, semi-confused what we were looking at. All of a sudden, the leopard jumped into a tree and began climbing, turning back to look at us with its scary eyes before it slipped into the cover of the trees. It was unreal.

is a caption necessary for this?!

Back at camp, we had a woman from Kenya Wildlife Service speak to us for a short lecture on the basics of the park and it's history.  Lake Nakuru National Park was fenced in back in 1976 because of the encroaching civilization that was generating a lot of human-wildlife conflict. They then re-introduced the Rothschild giraffe, White rhino and Black rhino -- all endangered species -- because of the relatively safe nature of the park from poachers.  After a brief WM class, we left for our first game drive in the park on which we saw plenty of wildlife and enjoyed the scenery.

Sunday morning we had a species/habitat association field exercise, which we are now doing data analysis for to determine if certain species specialize in particular habitats. We left early and began our transect drive through the park. At times, we were driving along the park fence, which is electric.

Elands--the largest antelope. They are freakin HUGE! Jenna told us about how the last time she went on this transect exercise, they saw one get electrocuted by the park's fence! ....luckily we didn't see any animals get electrocuted

some impala getting dangerously close to the electric fence....

Around 8:45, as our transect entered this strange bushland/scrubland, I suddenly spotted something orang-colored beneath the shade of a bush. A male lion!!! I loudly whispered to Sipaya to STOP STOP STOP and we slowly backed up to ogle the male. He was resting in the shade about ten meters away from the road, with a few females under nearby bushes.  We were all super excited and feverishly snapped photos from our vantage point through the hatches. All of a sudden, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye on the right side of the car, even more secluded in some bushes. Baby lions! FIVE of them!!! I may or may not have shed a tear because I was so excited that I was the one to notice these regal animals that we would have otherwise just driven right past. We spent about half an hour watching them and taking pictures, ooh-ing and ahh-ing at their cuteness, before we (reluctantly) continued on our merry way. My day was officially made before 9 am.

overwhelming cuteness!!!! the babies were all different ages and sizes.

The coolness of the rest of the wildlife was dwarfed by the lion-sighting, but we diligently finished up our wildlife ecology exercise and then got to drive around until lunch at noon. After our lunch, break and a brief Env Policy lecture, we went on another game drive until dinner.

A waterbuck--one of the heftier deer-like things I'm sure my dad would love to hunt/have mounted on the wall. Also one of the favorite animals of our Wildlife Management prof, Shem (an incredibly peaceful and sweet man who kinda looks like an older Obama).

Rothschild giraffes! They are bigger than the giraffes that live elsewhere in E. Africa and sadly only exist in protected areas.

probably the largest rhino horn I've ever seen.

The beautiful Lake Nakuru!

Somewhereeeeeee over the rainbow.....flamingos flyyy....
It usually rained in the afternoon or evening in L. Nakuru. There was this beautiful rainbow (that turned into a double rainbow!) over the lake on our way back to camp Sunday night.

Monday we woke up bright and early (a trend on this trip) to head out for our Env Policy traveling lecture.  The night before, some groups had seen a leopard kill up in some trees on their drive along the lake.  They didn't see any carnivores at the time, but as we drove past that same spot Monday morning, there were 3 other cars parked along the road--usually the sign of something interesting/exciting. Sure enough, there was a male lion who had claimed the leopard's kill -- a small buffalo from the looks of it -- and was carrying it along the trunk of this massive fallen tree. We popped open the hatches quietly and snapped pictures as he began feasting on the day-old carcass. Pretty sweet if I may say so myself. He walked around for a bit then proceeded to gracefull fall/half-jump after the carcass that slipped off the tree trunk and he was out of sight. Next goal: see an actual lion hunt/kill go down (very ambitious, I know, but we're hoping we might in Serengeti).

nom nom nom

mine.

As we drove away, Daniel who was driving the car I was in, spotted the leopard up in a nearby tree, where he was apparently shunned to by the lion.

I imagine he was pretty pissed watching the lion eat HIS hard earned meal. Tis (the circle of) life.

We stopped at three different locations around Nakuru to see the land and observe how impossible it would be for Lake Nakuru Ntl Park to exist if it were not enclosed with a fence -- civilization has cropped up right next to the fence! Also, all the pollution from people living in the water catchement area drains into the lake because it's the lowest point around. There has been very little study focused on the implications of this on the wildlife that relies on the alkaline lake for survival -- particularly the diverse array of birds that stop at the park during their migration routes and others that call the park home. There is only one species of fish (introduced tilapia) that exists in the lake for the birds to feast on. Much like what I study in my lab back at UST, this interests me a lot because the pollution that enters the lake affects virtually all the wildlife, particularly the fish, and the animals who eat the fish, etc. etc.  Shem brought up a good point that this would be a great location to do graudate school research for those of us interested in studying water quality, which definitely sparked my attention..... :)

After lunch we had a prep lecture for our Wildlife Ecology excerise that was scheduled for Tuesday morning. Then, of course, another evening game drive!

more white rhinos! my grandma requested that I include more pictures of myself, so sorry for those of you who are here purely for my Nat Geo wildlife pics....you gotta deal with seeing my face..and my nasty camp hair :)

This one's for my friends who are vikings fans.......This is what you fools look like to the rest of the world
 ;)

the elusive Black rhino! it was raining when we saw this guy roaming about. they are solitary fellas, whereas you will see numerous white rhinos foraging together at once.

the flamingos!!!

Tuesday morning we had a WM exercise studying the behavior of white rhinos and zebra. There is no shortage of zebra in the park, let me tell you. Each time we encountered a zebra herd or saw any white rhinos, we had to stop and observe their behavior for TWENTY minutes. Got a little boring when all the zebras mostly did was graze. 

White rhinos foraging near the shoreline of Lake Nakuru.

zebras feeding and one rollin around in the dust.

it's crazy how prehistoric-looking rhinos are. They are insanely cool to see up close and listen to as they munch grass and breath really loudly.

Our excitement during this slow-paced exercise was provided by an entertaining group of hyenas terrorizing the shoreline near some of the zebras we were watching graze for twenty straight minutes.

crazy drooling hyena on the prowl.

The spotted hyenas bickering.

Any time I want to complain about the occasional boring, tedious exercises we have to do, I just remind myself that I'm getting credit for doing this -- being in Africa, going on safaris, basking in the sun and getting all this unique hands-on experience -- when I could be sitting in a lecture or lab in MN freezing my butt off...... Life is pretty good. Hakuna Matata. :)

After our exercise was complete, we headed to a game lodge inside the park where we were treated to the world's most aaaamazing buffet. It was a dream come true. This place is ~$900/night to stay at, but they were gracious enough to let us exploit their swimming pool and restaurant for an afternoon.  I stuffed myself with chicken, red snapper, beef tenderloin, salads, pasta salads, rolls, and more dessert than I ever imagined possible -- creme brulle, chocolate lava cake, fruit salads and passionfruit mousse...and I think I'm forgetting a few things. A few of us even splurged on glasses of wine to completely indulge :)

The workers in the restaurant wondered where we had came from and what we were being fed because we collectively ran a train on that buffet and scarfed down our first plates of food like we hadn't eaten in weeks.  I was so thrilled to get some different food from our regular menu -- especially the amazing desserts.  After swimming and basking in the sun like beached whales, we went on our final game drive of our Lake Nakuru expedition. The weather was absolutely perfect--the sun was shining the entire time, which kept us warm and meant no rain! I think the gorgeous weather was our departure gift from Nakuru.  On our drive, we stopped for the first time to pay attention to/take pictures of the craaazy fearless baboons that line the roads along the lake.

wittle baby! they kinda look like martians...

"let me GO, mom!"

the setting sun cast this beautiful lighting on everything making for some awesome picture taking :)

We were all very sad to leave Nakuru Wednesday (3/7) morning, but nevertheless piled into the vehicles to begin our looong drive home. We made the same stops on the way back home to break up the long drive, and my vehicle was lucky enough to get into a little car accident when we were driving through the chaotic traffic in Nairobi. Got a firsthand glimpse at how incredibly corrupt the police and goverment is here in Africa, which was really frustrating/depressing. The man who bumped our Land Cruiser in the round-about and cracked his headlight got the cop on his side even though it was 100% his fault, and WE had to pay HIM (or the cop...I'm still not sure) at the end of it because the cops barely even listened to our side of the story. It was really disheartening because this corruption exists everywhere--especially in environmental policy, which makes me not even want to get involved in that field. Anyways, we walked away unscathed (minus our driver Daniel's wallet) and pissed off at the authorities.  We finally got back to camp (after stocking up on more goodies again at the grocery store) around 6 pm. Even though KBC didn't really feel like home yet before we left, something clicked while I was gone and suddenly I realized how insanely comfortable I am here, how happy I was to be back and how much I love it! We were all exhausted and went to bed pretty early after eating dinner that night.

Thursday was an "all-rest" day for students and staff. While I was under the impression that this meant the opportunity to lounge around, it was actually a day to frantically write our EP papers about our field exercise (interviewing small-scale farmers on human-wildlife conflict) the day before we left for Nakuru. After spending all day hanging out and working on EP and WM assignments, we had our much anticipated Maasai prom. It had been cancelled and rescheduled twice, so we were excited to finally have the time and energy to don our wraps and beaded jewlwery and dance!

some of us at our "Maasai Prom" on Thursday night. (Back, L to R: Ceroni [an askari] Maggie P, Anna, Becca, Carey, Paige, Karen, Laura, Karianne, Sarah, (Front) me, Ally, Elyse, Katie and Jen)

Friday we had a short class to do the statistical analysis on the species/habitat association exercise from Nakuru. Then the rest of the day was dedicated to finishing our EP and WM assignments to hand them in. Work work work....

Saturday 3/10 we took our third and final trip to Amboseli National Park. We started our day with a lecture/Q&A with the Senior Warden of Amboseli. Then we started a field exercise in which we got to walk around a 1 square-kilometer enclosure that KWS & researchers have set up within the park to observe the effects of giraffes and elephants on woody vegetation (it is semi-fenced-in with electric wires about 6 ft high to keep the giraffe & ele out).  There were KWS rangers with their bad-ass uniforms and guns patrolling the area (that was seemingly devoid of life anyways) while the 9 groups walked our transects using GPS and throwing this wire square thing to randomly take samples of the vegetation in different blocks (the data analysis was being done by KWS so we just got to do the fun but very hot field work part). Back at the car waiting for other groups to finish, I was talking and eating lunch with some friends. Someone mentioned how crazy/cool it was that we were sitting out in the middle of Amboseli National Park (something most people are not allowed to do), eating lunch next to our car, with beautiful Kilimanjaro in the distance--all the while getting credit for this.  When each day is filled with new experiences and seeing awesome wildlife, it's easy to forget how lucky I am to be here, learning such amazing stuff with a great group of people.

me, my awesome safari hat and Kili! (in between the clouds)
walking through the enclosure in Amboseli during our vegetation density exercise

Today (Sunday 3/11) was a non-program day. Some of us went to a local church this morning for the first time. It was so interesting to see the different yet similar way of worship here. The service (95% of which we couldn't understand--except for the brief snippits the pastor would occasional say directly to us muzungus) was mostly singing, dancing and music courtesy of a man playing the electric keyboard. There were actually two pastors, one speaking in Swahili and one in Maasai. They were all so excited to have us as guests for the day and welcomed us into their one-room cement buildling they called their church, that was decorated with fabrics and streamers (like the ones people hang up for rummage sales that have small mult-color triangle flags hanging down) and plastic lawn chairs. It was just such a contrast from the church that I'm used to -- so structured and somber. The joy and passion kind of caught me off guard. We stayed for about two hours before we left, although Jenna said that people will literally stay there all day worshipping. Sure made me ponder about the elaborate, expensive places of worship we build in the US.

Monday and Tuesday are full days dedicated to studying for our WE, WM and EP exams on Wednesday and Thursday. Wish me luck!!! Hopefully I can put this knowledge to use and score good grades on my essays.

Now, I leave you with another picture that will make even the manliest man say "awww!"

awwwwwww. how can you not love those faces?!