Dave and I had a very full week this week, and I’ll try to fill you in a little bit...
Last weekend we went on a safari to Tsavo East with Nat and Laura, the other two international volunteers here, which was a lot of fun! We left at 7 am Saturday morning, and drove a few hours in a large van over bumpy gravel roads until we reached the gate. (Fun fact: in Africa what we usually would call “washboard gravel” is referred to as “corrugation.” Took me forever to figure out what people were talking about! Whatever you call it, we saw and felt a lot of it). Our guide, Albert, works here at the center in the research and monitoring area and guides on the side. Our driver, J.B., also used to work at A Rocha until recently, when he chose to focus on his safari business. They were a very fun team to go out with. When we go to do field work along the coast here, Albert has been teasing us about certain “local” varieties of the safari animals that live along the highway, such as the Sabaki Impala or Gede Zebra (both are pictured below!). But he assured us that on safari, we could take him very seriously.
The drive within the park was very beautiful, and we saw many amazing animals. Tsavo has an elephant population of approx. 3000, so we were fortunate to see many of these humongous creatures. We also saw giraffes and zebras, the two I was most hoping to see! The giraffes were very beautiful and gentle-looking, and the zebras were very cute and plump. Dave was commenting that it was no wonder lions liked them compared to all the skinny gazelles and antelopes around! There were many cute grazers, varying in size from knee-high (the awkwardly named Dik Dik) to the Waterbuck (like a bigger, stockier white-tailed deer). There was a variety called the Giraffe-necked gazelle which were particularly cute and gangly. The scenery was quite amazing, very vast and open with mountains in the distance. We also saw a very hilarious family of baboons, scratching and looking and scampering around. They had some very cute babies that were just learning what they could do too!
We pulled in for the night about 6pm, once it starts to get dark, and stayed at the Leopard lodge for the night. It was a very nice comfortable stay, and we really enjoyed the food. They had a pool, and as it had rained and was a cool evening, the water felt just like the Guenther pool at home in the summer! We enjoyed it, but it was not as appealing for those who favoured hotter climates! It was quite refreshing to take a swim, as we had gotten quite warm and dusty during the daytime.
The next morning we were off early, and experienced a beautiful sunrise as we were driving out. We saw a giraffe that was taken down by a lion the night before (which was a sad sight), and waited a while to see if the lion would reappear. Though we saw a few silver-backed jackals, we concluded the lion was probably enjoying a siesta after its big meal and carried on. As our pass was only valid for 24 hours, we drove a little quicker on the way out so we could make it to the gate for 11, and after a quick bathroom break we were on our way home again.
On Monday, it was work as usual, though we started getting some training from Henry and Belinda, the center managers, to take over some of their responsibilities while they go on their yearly holidays. I am taking care of guest bookings and some of the hospitality aspects, and Dave is sharing that with me. He is also the “on call” guy for some of the maintenance concerns that may crop up. We’re hoping that there won’t be many. It has been very different since Henry and Belinda left on Wednesday, as our workdays are not quite so defined as they used to be, and we’ve been finding it a bit stretching at times! Coordinating people’s schedules can be difficult even if you have the same mother tongue and culture, so when you start mixing second (or third!) languages and different cultures in, it can be challenging. But everyone here is patient and helpful, and we are learning. I will certainly be glad when Henry and Belinda are back though!
We are taking a brief hiatus though, as it is our anniversary this weekend! It is hard to believe that this time a year ago we were having a wedding, and now we are here in Kenya. We are hoping to do some snorkelling and some of the “touristy” things around here that we don’t often get a chance to do because of our volunteer hours.
Well, that is about all from here, there are more pictures of the safari on my facebook if you would like to see them!
Talk to you soon,
Hannah
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