A slice of camp life

Let me take you on a little tour of Serena Camp:

This is the (long) driveway leading up to camp. We're pretty well hidden in our little thicket.





The first view of camp as you clear the driveway. The green cruiser is Buffy, who we're borrowing temporarily from the other camp while the white cruiser, Mac, is being serviced in Nairobi.



This is my tent :) And yes, I have a bed. Also a desk, some shelves, and the little dwarf mongooses come play right outside the window by my bed in the mornings.







The view outside my window:



The kitchen tent. The camp staff are Philomen, Moses, and Jorgi and they're amazing cooks. Philomen, who's the most senior of the three, used to be assistant chef for Safari Club, one of the lodges in the Mara. I'm definitely not going to go hungry out here.



The lab/solar/dining tent. When we're not out in the field, we're usually working here.





The amazing view from the lab/solar/dining tent:



The shower:



The view while taking a shower :P



The toilet, or in Swahili, the choo (pronounced "cho"):



The long and winding path to get to the choo:



The path from my tent to get to the lab tent, which is kind of visible off in the distance:



And to give you an idea of how spread out things are, here's a picture I took standing in the lab tent, of the other end of camp. Can you spot all three tents? Haha!



As you've probably noticed, there are no walls or anything to keep the wildlife out. We regularly get elephants, hippos, warthogs, mongooses, impala, dikdik, genets, cape buffalo and assorted other wildlife in camp. (Tip: learn what hippos and elephants sound like fast, and if you hear them nearby, just hunker down and wait for them to wander off before you come out of your tent.)

So this is where I'm living for the next year, and I love it! The wildlife usually come visit us at night, but if I see any during the day, expect some pictures!

Sorry for slacking on the posting...

Looks like I've got a little bit of catching up to do here, but I've been pretty busy since getting to the Mara. There's so much to learn about the hyenas, not to mention taking care of camp business. The other day Dave turned to me and asked, "So, you think you'll be ready to run this camp in 5 weeks?" (five weeks being how long he has left before he leaves) and I all I could do was stare at him with a WTF?!?! expression on my face. Seriously?

Anyway, my first day on the job was CRAZY. I arrived in the Mara on Feb. 8 in the evening. On Feb. 9 we were out at 5:45 am to go do a morning obs session. So we drove around watching some hyenas, and I got in some practice ID-ing hyenas ASAP. Jeff and Dave were cramming as much knowledge about geography and getting around in the Mara into my head as possible, and trust me, trying to figure out where the hell you are when you're standing in an ocean of 3-foot high grass? Well, not so easy.

After watching the hyenas for a few hours, we decided to go and do a few prey transects. While we're on the transect, we come across three adult male lions lounging around a buffalo carcass at the base of a hill. Pretty cool right? So we watch for a while, then continue our transect.

We get around to the other side of the hill, about a quarter of a kilometer away from where we saw the lions, and oh shit, WE GET STUCK. Have I mentioned that it had been raining in the evenings for the past few days? Well the trails were messy. Really, really messy. We slipped into a rut, the wheels were spinning, and the car was high-centered. So, we had to pile out of the car and try to figure out how to get the car unstuck, periodically glancing over our shoulders to make sure that, no, the lions hadn't decided to stroll around the hill to come help us out.

So, there we were, on our hands and knees in the mud under the blazing sun trying to 1) dig up some rocks to put under the wheels, 2) dig the car out, and 3) keep a look out for wild animals. After an hour of digging, pushing (and yes, I definitely took my turn at pushing), burning rubber, and judicious use of the high-lift jack, we did finally get the car unstuck, at which point we decided that we were done for the morning and headed off back to camp for breakfast and showers.

The boys claim otherwise, but I'm convinced that was all part of their secret hazing conspiracy. Loads more to report, but it'll have to wait until I get the chance to type it up. Coming up in my next post, pictures of camp!

Picture update!

Hey everyone, have some pictures:

This is Photon, a cub in one of the clans I'm studying. I have a bit of a soft spot for him -- he's my second successful ID.


A sunset in the Mara.


Black-backed jackal:


Bat-eared foxes:

Giraffe!



Another cub, Jameson. This one's a little out of focus because I had my zoom lens on and he came right up to the door of the truck and stared up at me. SO CUTE!


We ran into two elephants fighting each other about 15 meters away from the road. It was amazing, they were all out bashing at each other!



This is a hammercop (Cara, this one's for you). A little embarassing, I misheard the name when they told me what is was, so for two days I was calling it a "hammercock." Urk.


A really pretty afternoon sky.


My first cheetah!


Another one for you Cara! Great crowned cranes!

In the Mara

I've been the Mara for just a day and a half and already I've seen hyenas, lions, elephants, topi, Grants and Tommy gazelles, impala, giraffes, warthogs, mongooses... it's crazy! Longer post later but in the meantime I uploaded a few pictures. I can't post many and I can't do super high quality because of internet limitations, but enjoy anyway :)

More when I have more time!

Turning 24

Despite the mishaps we encountered in Nairobi, we decided on Sunday that we were going to head out to the Mara the next day, Monday. Cue frantic produce shopping on Sunday afternoon and an early morning on Monday to try to get supplies for two camps packed on to one truck, plus four people, two of whom were carting around all their luggage for a year.

My mom called me just as I woke up on Monday morning to greet me a happy birthday (love you Mom!). After that though, I pretty much put my the whole birthday thing out of my mind. We were crazy busy and I had only known my fellow campers for 4 days, so I wasn’t expecting anyone to remember. Turns out they did though, and they managed to surprise me with candy and a serenade of “Happy Birthday.” They’re pretty awesome J Thanks guys!

We grabbed a quick breakfast and filled up at a gas station, and then headed of to the Mara. After around 30 minutes of driving we hit the Great Rift Valley. The view was amazing, and according to Kenna and Dave it was the clearest they’ve ever seen it. We descended one side and shortly after hitting the bottom of the Valley we ran into our first wildlife of the day -- zebras! They were completely gorgeous!

We drove all the way across the valley and up the other side, then stopped for lunch in a city called Narok. Someone had recommended the chili prawns, so I decided to be brave and risk possible bacterial gastroenteritis. Totally worth it, the prawns were delicious, and no, I did not get sick :P

We reached the gate to the Mara at about 5 pm and met up with Jeff halfway through the park. We split up the supplies for the two camps, and then Steph and Kenna went on to Talek Camp while Dave, Jeff and I all headed to Serena Camp on the other side of the Mara River.

The drive through the Mara was amazing, there were animals everywhere! I drove from the place where we met up with Jeff all the way back to camp, and I had to try really, really hard to not drive us off the road while going, “EEEEE! Elephants! Ooooh, hippo! OMG hyena!” Ok, so I was a little excitable, so what? Happy Birthday to me!

We got to camp just after dark so I didn’t really get a good look, but my tent is great, the bed is comfy, and dinner was amazing.

Ok, bedtime for me, we’ll be up at 5:30 tomorrow morning to go watch the hyenas.

A Comedy of Errors

If I had been watching the past few days from a third person standpoint, I would probably have found it all hilariously funny. In fact, with a little distance it will probably make for a hugely amusing re-telling. Right now though, I think I‘m leaning more towards bemused disbelief.

So yesterday the whole gang (there are five of us currently in Nairobi) heads off to downtown Nairobi to file some paperwork that would get Steph and me, the two newbies, added on the research permit. After about a 45 minute drive through morning rush hour traffic we get there, only to find out that we’re missing a stamp and signature or our paperwork from Kenya Wildlife Services. Sooo, that’s a bust, we can’t do anything more until we stop by KWS and get that last bit filled out.

Then we stop by the science supply store (also downtown) were we need to get some isopropanol. So, we get a little lost, eventually make it there, and, oops, they’re out of isopropanol. Turns out camp will be fine without it for another 3 months, so fine, we leave it at that instead of wandering around trying to find another supply store.

Next stop, renewing the gun permit. Don’t get excited, the gun permit is just for the tranquilizer gun. We stop by the police station where we think the office is supposed to be. Nope, wrong place. We have a quick chat with one of the policemen to see if he knows where we should go, and he tells us that we need to go to all the way to the industrial area… huh? That’s way out of our way. Then, as we’re pulling out of the compound, he comes jogging up to the car to tell us no, wait, he just asked someone and we really only need to go about 10-15 minutes away. Ok, no harm no foul, he caught us before we had to drive clear across the city.

Fast forward a few minutes to where we’re sitting in traffic trying to make our way to the firearms department. Traffic starts to move, we accelerate slowly from a stop to inch forward… AND THE BACK WINDOW OF THE BRAND NEW FIELD VEHICLE FALLS RIGHT OUT OF ITS FRAME!!! Now the glass is pretty sturdy, it hit the ground and stayed in one piece… until the car behind us decided to roll over it. So there’s us, with 5 people in the Suzuki, staring blankly at the huge honking whole in back hatch, and the thousands of tiny pieces of glass on the road that used to be our rear window.

So once we’re over the shock we manage to get to the firearms bureau and get the permit renewed, but we have to leave some people with the car since, hey, no way to lock up now.

Permit in hand, we proceed to KWS to get the research paperwork signed, but oops again, we show up just at lunch hour (yes, at this point it was only noon, we were out and about by 6:30 a.m., go us!) and the person we need to see about this has just gone for lunch. We get re-directed to a very nice gentleman who can help us out, but then he lets us know that the person who needs to sign is probably gone until some time next week since he has to attend a funeral out of town. We apparently just missed him since he was there all morning. Yay.

As this was happening, Dave (one of the veteran hyena researchers) started feeling sick. We were all pretty worried, so we dropped him off back at the cottage to rest.

We had a little more luck that afternoon, managed to pick up another field vehicle from the shop after some routine maintenance, got some butane for the camp stoves, stopped by the chemist for malaria meds, and went grocery shopping. At least we managed to get a few things done.

SO, after all that hopefully today would run a little smoother right? Not quite. We took Dave to the hospital since he was still running a temperature, and they promptly decided to test him for everything under the sun. The plan was apparently to check for everything, rule things out, and go from there. (Not a bad approach actually, if I get sick I’d prefer they be thorough, but poor Dave had to wait there for 2 hours.)

We get back into the car (the one that had just come back from the shop) only to find that for some reason the seatbelts are locked. We tried every possible method of jiggling, jerking and finangling the damn things and they just wouldn’t move. This isn’t such a big deal in the field since you don’t really use the seatbelts out there, but in the city the police will stop you and hassle you over it -- they’re pretty strict about the belts.

So, back to the cottage to change cars, there’s one other tiny one that seats exactly four with no extra cargo space. This is fine, four can fit comfortably and there were only four out of the five of us out running errands today, except that we were supposed to do the big grocery shopping trip today and get all the food supplies for the two camps. No way we could do that now since there’s nowhere to put it in the car.

We go off to get a few of the smaller things done, get some paperwork copied, get some money changed at the ForEx, pick up the mail… which mostly goes alright except that the post office is closed.

Back to the hospital to pick up Dave, and it turns out it’s a bacterial infection. Not too bad, at least it’s easy to treat,. At that point we decide that we’re done for the day, stop to get something to eat and head back to the cottage. Yay for downtime, which is when I’m writing this.

Anyway, we’ll be in the city for a few days longer than anticipated, but we’d all rather give Dave a few days to recuperate.

Despite all the mishaps, I am still enjoying myself :P At least life is interesting, right?

Bye for now, I’m going to see if I can help Andy fix the seatbelts in the car, and if not then I’m off to study more Swahili.

Just checking in

So after a total of 24 hours in transit, I arrived in Nairobi this morning at 6 am local time. We were out all day running errands and getting paperwork set up (and I'm very proud of myself for not just curling up in the back of the truck and going to sleep) and I'm all set up with a phone.

I met several of the other hyena researchers and they seem like an awesome group. We're going to have a lot of fun ;D

I tried a little driving today. The truck is a manual, so I'm in the process of refreshing my memory on how to handle one of those. Driving in Nairobi reminds me a lot of driving in the Philippines (i.e. massive amounts of insanity with very little organization) BUT everyone drives on the left side of the road! My stick is on the left side, and my blinker is on the right! O.o Ok, so this will take a little getting used to...

We'll be in the city for a few more days running errands and resupplying before we drive out to the Masai Mara. I can't wait!

It starts.

I don't have much time -- I'm sitting in SFO waiting to board my plane. The flight leaves at 7 pm PST and I'm so excited I don't quite know what to do with myself. From here it's off to London, a six hour stopover, and then Nairobi. Luckily I won't have to spend the whole stopover in the airport. My buddy D is going to pick me up for a quick lunch. I'll get to see two or three hours worth of London ;P

So here I go, off on my crazy adventure. I have no clue what to expect, but I have a feeling it's going to be amazing. I'll drop in for a quick hello once I get to the camp, and hopefully I'll have some pictures to share.

Take care everyone!
Camille