Month: July 2016

This morning we met the conservation groups, the managers of the safari lodges, Rangers, and the folks from Ewaso Lions (a total of 60 people) to clean up part of the conservation area.

Unlike a game park, in the conservation area are shops…

… and villages…

… as well as wildlife. There are no trash cans around so folks just drop their trash. The conservation groups are working to change that.

So we worked and walked alone in Africa surrounded by goats…

… donkeys…

and even a troop of baboons- who ran by too quickly to take a picture.

After all of the adults worked from @7-11 am we went to the school. There were 300 kids (through 8th grade) gathered.

The folks from the conservation area talked to them and then they went out to clean up the school yard.

When the kids first came out of class they were rowdy and all talking at once like kids do. There was ONE word from the teacher and instantaneously-seriously instantaneously– all 300 were quiet. It was amazing.

After a morning of work we had a real treat- a picnic by the river with Ewaso lions.

The Warriors shard their meal of rice and vegetables and we shared our box lunches. We were struck that we were eating where lions, leopards, Impala, etc. all come to drink. Here is our view at lunch:

It is a harsh environment here. The river is the only way water, not much grows in the desert. There is no grass so no herbivores which then means there is no prey for the carnivores. It is hard living for the people too. They have to walk a long way for water out of a muddy river. Here is a dry river bed:

We saw a group of 9 giraffes today.

A great morning and is only 1:00pm!!

This morning after breakfast we went to Ewaso Lions to see our friends. It is great to be back with them! The project Shivani had got two very uncrafty people was crafty. Cheryl made a lot of leaves to make a tree. My job was to “help” three Samburu women build a model of a Samburu house. They were serious and built it like a real house. My job was to hold a stick where they told me to.

Then we went looking for wild dogs and found them! We have seen them both trips and people come for years and never see them! We are really lucky! We have excellent guides and luck was with us. ( Oh, we saw a well-hidden leopard on the way).

This morning we started out and found fresh lion tracks!

So we followed them

They were tracks of a male and two females. And we found them!

They were 2-year old siblings. They played, crossed close to car, climbed a low tree and settled down by the river.

It was a fabulous morning!
 

What fun we had with elephants this afternoon! We saw a large family at the river. They decided to go in and cool off! They laid on their side. They put their head under water. There was a tiny 5-month old. She lost her footing in the deep water. Her mother reached out with her trunk and helped her up!

A few minutes later we found another elephant  family. One came so close we could have reached out and touched her. We then watched two elephants greet each other –they reach out with their trunks and touch one another.

Then a bull elephant came right up to the car.

The evening ended with a leopard just chilling on a tree branch.

We have had a great start. We like Jelly our guide. Tomorrow we leave at 6:15am for a game drive. Back for breakfast. Then we will spend the rest of the day with our friends at Ewaso Lions at their camp where we are told a project awaits us.

We left Nairobi this morning on a tiny plane and  arrived in northern Kenya — the Samburu region. We are both excited to return; we both love it here. It is high desert-very hot. We were met by our guide for the week -Jelly.

The first animal we saw, from the plane as he ran very quickly across the runway,  was a Somali ostrich. This is one of the Samburu big five, distinguished by his blue neck. The first mammal we saw was an impala. We saw several Impala herds, a baboon troop, a group of bull elephants, dik-diks, and gerenuks (another is Samburu big five–an antelope with a giraffe-like neck). This was just on our short drive to the camp.

We are eating lunch outside overlooking the river. We have to keep our tent zipped due to the monkeys! We are going on a game drive this evening. Tomorrow we are spending the day at Shivani’s camp where she has a project for us.

We made it! Safely settled in our hotel in Nairobi. Tired but thrilled to be here again!

Security very tight here. To get into hotel first they check car, then bags and bodies go through a metal detector.

Tomorrow we catch a flight on a tiny plane to go to Samburu. I wonder what the first animal we see will be?