Kilimanjaro Bush Camp – Day 28 – 4/23/11

Today was very relaxed.  With no field work to do Wacheagi had breakfast and then gathered to discuss our objectives and how we are going to analyze our data.  There was the usual debate about various statistical tests and a few questions were will need to sort out with the help of Chui Kubwa.  However all our work for today was finished by quarter to ten am.  At loose ends two girls and myself began cleaning the chumba and library areas.  I know that I am a neat freak but the way people just leave their stuff everywhere is pretty embarrassing.  We went through piles of papers, sorted through the covered side table and threw lots of stuff out.  One DR in particular had stuff everywhere so I grouped all their stuff together and stuck it in the mailbox of one of group members.  Everything else either was put in a pile in the center of the chumba or was thrown out.  The place looked so good but I am saddened because I know that by tomorrow morning it will look just as bad as it did this morning.  Our little cleaning project finished by about 11:30 so I watched a movie while eating lunch.  The internet began working so I was able to get online for a bit before all the other groups got back from their data collection.  At around 4pm a group of students went to Oloitokitok to pick things up from the tailor and to walk around but I remained behind to take further advantage of available internet.  Dinner was very good since Christina had made brownies and the kitchen staff made their version of guacamole and teriyaki beef strips.  The student presentation after dinner was on honey bees which was really interesting and I learned a few new facts.  For example did you know that a queen bee is “made” by the workers feeding their chosen queen a special jelly that causes the queen to grow to twice the normal size of a honey bee.  Honey bees also communicate food sources and locations by performing a dance where the type and number of wiggles give details or direction of what they are describing.  After dinner was complete, Wachezagi gathered in Molly’s office and called Shem to ask him about the questions we had come across this morning.  Jess got on the phone and got his answer and filled him in on our progress.  Shem then asked to speak to another member of the group and Nicky got on.  After a short chat where Nicky said we were all doing well, making good progress, and looking forward to his return.  Nicky also told him all our plans for non-program day tomorrow which includes a trip to the local tourist bar where Nicky said we planned to get a little “soaked” (Shem’s way of saying drunk).  Shem said this was ok and then asked to talk to another member which made us all laugh.  Greg took the phone next and had a similar chat with him before wishing him a good night and a speedy return to KBC before hanging up.  So now I have just finished my second movie and begun working out the final kinks of my post-SFS program plans.  Tomorrow is non-program day and Easter so hopefully the Easter bunny can find me all the way in Kenya!
ps- the picture above is from our last non-program day when we went to the Mada lodge

Kilimanjaro Bush Camp – Day 28 – 4/22/11

Today was our last day of data field collection.  Everyone is a bit tired by now and our group had a few bumps this morning.  I had cook crew so I was up early.  My group saw me packing my own lunch and thought I was making lunches for our guide and askari so there was a last minute dash after Wachezagi waterfall to make lunches before we ran out the door.  Then as we were packing the lunches and dividing up the equipment we discovered that our GPS was gone.  It had been sitting on the table next to Jess’s notebook and lunch but now it was gone.  The other two DR groups had left and without a GPS we could not collect data.  Daniel called the professors of the other two DR groups to see if any of the students had two GPS units while Christina, Jess, and I took everything out of our backpacks  and searched everywhere in case we had just overlooked it.  We finally heard back from the Environmental Policy DR that they had an extra GPS that they were leaving in Kimana for us to pick up on our way.  While I was digging through all my stuff Molly was talking with us on the porch outside her office.  She was telling me about a student who had left camouflage snake guards after her semester.  I thought this sounded hilarious and she pulled them out of her office to show me.  They come up to just behind my knees and go all the way down to my ankles with a flap that extends down over my hiking boot shoelaces.  They are made of stiff plastic and covered in soft camouflage fabric and fasten at the top and bottom with nylon straps.  I looked absolutely ridiculous but I didn’t care.  Driving back to Elerai-Rupet for the second half of the sanctuary we used the GPS to drop each group as close to their starting point as possible.  Kipepeo was the last group to be dropped and we still had to walk a kilometer to our starting place therefore making out start time much later than others in our DR.  Today we had Ramon as our askari and David as our local guide.  The bush in our quadrant was the toughest we have seen yet.  The grass was never lower than my waist and often above my head.  There were thorn bushes all over, our visibility was very limited, and our forward progress was incredible slow.  I was compass girl again today so I was leading the way.  After doing this for about 30 minutes I was very grateful of the snake guards.  I could walk through thorn bushes without a scratch and few plants stuck to them.  Yes they were very warm but the benefits definitely outweighed the cons.  There was one point of our first transect that was interesting.  I was walking along trying to hold a straight line while going through a few thorn patches as possible.  I was walking between two well spaced bushes when suddenly I saw a very thin yellow thread right in front of my eye.  Looking left I saw it was a thread of a spider’s web….three big spiders.  They were different colors (one was yellow, one was orange, and one was green) with patches of black on their quarter-sized bodies.  I began walking to find a detour and one of my group mates spotted what I was avoiding and had a minor breakdown (she really hates spiders).  Unfortunately We encountered another web only a few minutes later with the same type of spider so my poor group mate was rather paranoid the rest of our transect.  It was noon before we finished our first transect and the total area covered was quite small in relation to the effort it had taken.  We walked a buffer and then stopped for a water and quick snack.  We all opted to eat oranges since the day had turned oppressively hot and we still had a lot of walking to do.  The other groups had finished by now and we still had a ways to go.  As we began our second transect, we got a radio call from Gerenux saying that they had accidentally covered more ground than needed.  They had covered enough so that even though we had only walked 500 meters on this second transect, we had enough area covered for our group by taking what we had done today with the Gerenux extra.  It was the best radio call we had ever gotten.  I enjoy being out here in the bush but when I am sweating and just fighting through the bush while seeing no animals I just want to sit down and drink water instead of walking transects.  While this meant we had no more transects to walk we still had to walk nearly a kilometer to get back to a track accessible by cruiser.  We crammed ten students, four askaris, four guides, and Daniel who was driving into one cruiser and began driving out of the sanctuary interior.  When we reached more open ground the askaris and guides got into Martin’s cruiser and we got to spread out and have seats to ourselves again.  Back at camp we were still the first group back and immediately had our wrap up meeting where we planned to meet in a few hours to put together our project proposal that was due tonight at 9pm.  Kipepeo met and made corrections to combine the parts we each had written into a smooth paragraph.  This we then combined with the other half of the introduction that the Shem n’ Ms had written.  At 5pm all of Wachezagi met and discussed our objectives and the statistical tests that we plan to use to analyze our data.  By dinner it was all put together with only a few minor corrections to be made and then sent off the Shem via email.  After dinner I had to wash dishes as part of my cook crew and now I am heading to my sleeping bag to rest up after a long day in the bush under a hot African sun.  Tomorrow we begin the dreaded data analysis. 

Kilimanjaro Bush Camp – Day 27 – 4/21/11

Kilimanjaro Bush Camp – Day 27 – 4/21/11

The usual rush to get out the door, team waterfall and we left camp by 8am.  It was a slightly longer drive today into Elerai-Rupet Wildlife Sanctuary.  The bush was very dense on either side of the track in and we only saw two giraffes and a few lesser kudu the whole way.  Kipepeo was the second team dropped off with Steven as our guide and Lydia from KWS as our askari.  Daniel was not able to get us right to our starting point so we began forging our way through the grass and bush for about 600 meters.  I was compass and range finder girl today so I got to lead (yay!).  At the starting point we organized ourselves and set off eastward on our first transect.  It was not easy walking.  Thorns grabbed our clothing and the grass made the ground, and rocks, totally invisible.  Trees and shrubs made it impossible to walk a totally straight line and the sun continued to rise and get warmer.  Despite the heat and finding ticks on our pants and shoes often I enjoyed being out in front looking for animals.  A little more than a kilometer in our transect took us on top of a rocky outcrop with a great view over the sanctuary and toward Kimana far in the distance.  We were about to continue on when something caught my eye.  It was an elephant!!!  They are hard to spot because they dust themselves with the red dirt of the area which makes them practically invisible.  We recorded the elephant , noticed three giraffes browsing nearby, and I took a few pictures of the view and me standing on a rock before we continued on.  This first transect ended up being a total of two km long with 450 meter of visibility.  A short water break and we began walking our buffer to the next transect.  Just as we were about to finish our buffer and start the transect I looked up just in time to see five startled giraffes before they turned and bolted into the bush behind them.  I still can’t believe I was so focused on the compass and ground I nearly walked into 5 giraffes!  Our second transect continued through the dense bush and there was one point where Lydia pointed to a especially dense shrub/tree cluster and whispered there was an elephant behind it and that we should go around it quietly.  The rest of the transect we saw four other giraffes and no other animals.  Once we had finished this transect we took another short break and then began forging our way back to the road.  At the road we found a shady spot under a tree which actually had not thorns and made ourselves comfortable.  We enjoyed out lunch together and began picking off the prickers from our socks and pants while we waited for Daniel to come get us.  Back in the car we nearly drove past the Shem-anigans because they were sitting a little back from the road and were hidden by grass until they jumped to their feet to flag us down.  On our way back into Kimana we made a quick stop at the local “Golden Brown Cake Shop” and I got a queen cake (looks like a cupcake but not as sweet) and a piece of black forest cake.  They were good but in general a bit bland.  Our wrap up meeting took less than ten minutes and then we were free for the rest of the afternoon.  I put together my portion of the project proposal and watched a movie.  In the middle of my movie it began to pour.  It is the rainy season so this was not shocking.  What was rather different was that the sun was shining brightly to entire time.  I ran outside trying to find a rainbow but saw nothing except bright sun and got rather wet in the process.  Tomorrow we walk the other half of Elerai-Rupet and then were are finished collecting data!  This means that from tomorrow onward we will be in camp analyzing data and writing a really long paper.  However I get one more day of freedom in the bush and I plan to enjoy it fully. 

Kilimanjaro Bush Camp – Day 26 – 4/19/11

SO today was a non-program day.   Unfortunately the message didn’t get through to my brain and I therefore was wide awake at 5:50am.  I gave up and on my way to the bathroom looked up as usual to admire Kili in the early morning light.  Kili was there looking as beautiful as ever but so too was the full moon!  A perfect bright circle as the sky went from gray to light blue and pink.  I dumped my stuff under the sink and raced to get my camera I had left in the library last night.  I spent the remaining time before the moon was hidden my clouds taking pictures.  After brushing my teeth and tiptoeing back into and then out of my banda I put the pictures on my computer and fiddled around with photo enhancing software I have until the breakfast bell rang.  This morning a group of people were going to Oloitokitok to get things from the tailor and the walk around the market (today was market day), another group was going hiking, and some stayed at camp.  I stayed at camp and tackled the mountain of laundry that has been growing.  Once all my clothes were clean (or as clean as I could get them) and hanging out to dry on the line I crawled back under my mosquito net and read until lunch.  Last night I had voted to go to a lodge just outside Amboseli National Park to have their buffet lunch and go swimming in their pool.  By 12:30 a group of eleven students, the two alumi, and a few staff members loaded two cruisers and we headed off.  The lodge was gorgeous with high ceilings, open floor plans, and wonderful views of Kili.  The buffet was good although the dessert table was less exciting than we had in the Serena Lodge in Tsavo.  Still I very much enjoy the beef meatballs, the salads, and lamb on a stick.  The eating area was circular with a central staircase going up to a small eating area with a viewing area at the very top.  The lodge also had two large (but smaller than life size) giraffes overlooking the buffet which happen to be directly behind our table.  I chose a seat that gave me an unobstructed view of Kili while I enjoyed potato croquets and pasta salad.  After we had paid for the buffet, a group of us wandered to the bar located across the main walkway from the eating area.  This area was full of comfortable couches and chairs around low coffee tables.  The bar was dark wood with the usual glass shelves in front of mirrors as the back drop.  Most of the students got beer and after perusing the menu I ordered a Bush Boy Cocktail.  It’s the Kenyan version of a screwdriver: vodka,  grenadine, and orange juice.  It was very sweet, red, and came in a fun glass.  Finally everyone moved to the pool and what a pool it was.  It was a free form pool with a deeper inner pool connected to the pool deck via two small wooden bridges, a circular hot tub at one end, and a shallower outer ring of about 0.8 meters deep.  The water was cool and very refreshing.  For a while we swam, held breath holding contests, floated, and raced.  Like the buffet we had a perfect view of Kili.  I got my camera out and began documenting and somehow ended up being group photographer.  We did get one really cute group photo of us group on one of the bridges with Kili shinning in the background.  The pool was great and the pool attendant provided each of us with a small mattress to put on the lounge chairs which were lovely to stretch out on after swimming.  I of course was under my towel to prevent my skin from turning frightening shades of red even though I had applied a lot of sunscreen.  The other students headed back to the bar but I stayed at the pool enjoying the silence broken only by the breeze ruffling the acacia trees and the call of the doves perched in them.  We left the lodge by 5:30 pm and drove to a curio shop a few kilometers from the lodge.  At the curio shop they had carvings, jewelry, paintings, spears, masks, shields, drums, and all sorts of other things.  Wandering through I saw lots of things I liked but none that fit my strict luggage requirements or small, and study enough to survive travel.  I could also hear my fellow students at the front bargaining and not having much success.  These two factors enabled me to limit myself to three small items when I checked out.  I am not the world’s best bargainer but I was pretty happy with myself for these three things having gotten the man down to less than half his original price.  Back in the cruiser we headed for camp with only a very quick stop in town to drop off a tire that needed to be repaired.  I had just enough time to bring my laundry inside the banda before the dinner bell rang.  Since it is Passover we had a totally kosher meal and one separate dish of pasta.  I must admit to eating a large helping of pasta since the other options did not appeal to me as much and I have to tramp through another wildlife sanctuary tomorrow and will need energy.  After dinner the Jewish students here led all of us through a one hour sadar service.  This was really interesting since I had never been to one before.  Each student got to read a part of the story and those that knew Hebrew sang or said the prayers.  The administration refused to allow the traditional wine so we made do with grape juice.  It was also not possible to get matzah out here so a few students had made true unleavened bread this afternoon which we tore into pieces.  The real treat came when we got to eat cut up apples and walnut covered in cinnamon which is another traditional food for sadar service.  I have not eaten an apple or walnuts since leaving the US so this was incredible!   And now I am writing this in the library before going to sleep in preparation of a long day tomorrow. 

Kilimanjaro Bush Camp - day 24 and 25 - 4/17-4/18/11

Kilimanjaro Bush Camp – Day 24 – 4/17/11

The morning routine of breakfast, packing lunches, and gathering equipment was the usual rush and WM DR was on our way by 8am.  Today we were going to Montikangu Wildlife Sanctuary and we each had to cover 3.24 km².  We took a familiar dirt track back into the community from the main road and crossed into Montikangu.  Driving along the track, we were planning how to split groups up to get people as close as possible to their starting points when the car shut off.  The cruiser was still moving but the engine was not running.  Once we coasted to a stop Chui Kubwa (Shem’s title if you forgot) tried to start the engine numerous times but the engine would never turn over.  And so we sat waiting for Ernest to drop the guides and askaris and come back to get us.  When he got back to us Chui Kubwa decided that only Kipepeo and Shem n’ Ms should go with Ernest to their start points.  Shem-anigans and Gerenux were suppose to go to the other side of the sanctuary and someone from camp was already on their way to fix the cruiser and for Ernest to come all the way back would waste time and gas.  Kipepeo was dropped off with our guide for the day Steven and a new askari names Teresa.  The walk to our start point was only 700 meters away and an easy walk since the day was clear leaving Kili very visible and the grassland we were walking through had two herds of gazelles and impala, as well as about twenty zebra and seven hartebeest.  Most of the habitats we walked through today were open bushland or wooded grassland.  There was much more vegetation covering the ground and the shrubs and trees were not browsed to near bareness like yesterday.  We were laughing as we counted the wildlife and livestock we spotted as we strolled across the gorgeous areas.  We had decided in the cruiser that the whole WM DR would go by the name of Wachezaji which means players.  Therefore Ernest (who is badly in need of a DR name) would be the coach with Shem remaining Chui Kubwa and the manager.  So now we all had code names to talk to each other on the radio.  There were times when we could hear Shem but Shem n’ Ms could not so we got to relay a lot of info back and forth.  Our second transect took us directly across a large grassy area and we had terrific visibility on either side so we were able to cover over 2 km².  The last transect went through the middle of someone’s shamba (farm) and we ended up jumping across the deep gullies to complete the transect.  The cool part was that this last transect had gone within 300 meters of where our cruisers now stood parked making for an short if difficult walk back to Shem and Ernest due to dense and prickly bush.  Back at the cruiser we sat down and ate lunch before beginning the endless task of removing all the prickers and spiny plant parts that had stuck to our pant legs from walking through lots of bush and grass.  Loading up we got GPS coordinates from Shem n’ Ms and went in search of them to pick them up.  It took us a long time since they were really far out there and the road winds about instead of going in a straight southwest direction like we needed it to.  On our way to find Shem-anigans and Gerenux (they had ended close together and walked to meet each other) I was reminded of why seat belts are so important here.  Yes the roads are dangerous but in our experience the belts are to keep you down not inside the car.  The bumps are so big out here that unless you are driving or in the passenger seat, you will hit your head repeatedly on the unpadded metal roof unless you tightly strap yourself to the seat.  Eventually everyone was in the cruiser and we started back to camp.  Most people were so tired (the Shem-nanigans climbed a very tall, steep hill three times during their transects) that they fell asleep despite the rough terrain but I listened to my ipod and watched Kili out the window.  Wachezaji had another wrap up meeting upon return to camp, planning on making the GIS map for tomorrow’s transects and begin discussing the proposal tonight after dinner.  The rest of the afternoon was free with most people doing laundry. 

Kilimanjaro Bush Camp – Day 25 – 4/18/11

I was up in good time this morning and managed to make the lunches for our guide and askari and begin gathering all our Kipepeo equipment.  It was a good thing I did since Christina came up to me shortly afterwards to tell me she was sick and staying behind today to rest.  Wachezaji met for waterfall at 7:30 and we were driving down the road by 8am.  Today we were covering the Kilitome Wildlife Sanctuary which is right next to Amboseli National Park.  The quadrant Kipepeo was assigned is literally sharing a long border with Amboseli so I was very hopeful we would see lots of animals dispersing from the park.  The usual splitting of the groups into two cruisers went smoothly and Jess and I were dropped less than 1 km from the park gate.  Today we had Steven as our local guide again and Ramon as our KWS askari.  Ramon is older and has been working for KWS since 1983.  He is very knowledgeable about wildlife and pointed out all sorts of small things in the bush I was not noticing.  We walked about 500 meters northwest to our starting point through much overgrazed areas mostly large dust patches.  The nice thing was that there were many paths to walk on which made our progress very quick.  Starting our first transect by walking straight east, the bare ground continued and we saw large herds of cattle, shoats, and donkeys.  The walking paths and numerous tracks of cars, bicycles, and motorbikes gave further proof of heavy utilization by the local people.  Besides the domestic animals, we saw impala, two giraffes, and Grant’s gazelles.  Unfortunately we did not continue on this transect for very long because a family of elephants were getting a bit close and our askari insisted we turn and go around them.  We walked north for about 1km to create a buffer and began our second transect.  By now we had left the cluster of local houses far behind, and were in true bushland.  On this transect we saw another gathering of Grant’s gazelles, zebras, a single wildebeest, and lion tracks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Crossing this were elephant prints so we were able to look very closely at both of these.  Ramon told us the lion tracks had probably been made this morning while the elephant tracks had probably been made within the last 4 hours.  Our second transect was really long so on our third transect we only needed to cover about 500 meters since we had such long ranges of visibility.  It was only 11:30 and we were finished! We headed for a shady tree and tried to radio call the rest of Wachezaji.  We were so far out that only Gerenux could hear us and they relayed our message to Chui Kubwa.  Under our chosen tree we plopped down in between the roots and ate our lunch while a beautiful giraffe slowly walked across the open area and disappeared into the dense bush where another giraffe was browsing on acacia leaves.  The temperature in the shade was perfect and we had a slight breeze every now and again to cool us off.  We drank lots of water and waited while Steven talked to Shem on his cell phone.  It was decided that Arnest (Yeah I found out this afternoon I have been misspelling his name as Ernest) would come get us if we would walk the 1 km to a rough dirt track.  Well rested this was fine and we set off.  Earlier Ramon had discovered Jess’s ipod, and been fascinated by it.  SO now Steven, Jess, myself, and Ramon were walking through thick dense bush singing Bon Jovi and Cher songs while surrounded by about a dozen perplexed giraffes.  It was easy to walk toward the car since it threw up a huge dust cloud and we just aimed for that.  The other askaris and guides were in the crusier and made room for us to pile in.  We joined the other groups under another tree where Shem held a short meeting.  Due to some personal family business he was leaving for a few days starting on Wednesday so he wanted to thank everyone now and take a group picture.  The picture was a bit interesting to manage.  Being a bright clear day we wanted Kili in the background but this put the sun in our eyes.  Also how to get everyone in it?  Well we decided we didn’t care about the sun and Nicky luckily has a timer on his fancy camera.  He opened a roof hatch, borrowed Liz’s lunch Tupperware and zoomed in on everyone (we were already assembled) as much as possible, turned on the timer and scrambled out of the back seat and raced to get into the picture within the ten seconds the timer allowed.  It was pretty funny but the two pictures we took looked pretty good.  We drove back to camp and were the first DR back.  Sitting on the porch chatting and sewing were two girls none of us knew.  They turned out to be SFS alumni (one from fall ’08 and the other from spring ’09) that were visiting for a few days here at camp.  Caitlin (’09) is currently managing a research project in northern Kenya on Blue Monkey social behavior.  Mary (’08) just finished working at an orphanage.  We had our usual wrap up meeting while removing as many pirckers and stickers from our pants and socks as possible.  Tomorrow is non-program day so my feet will get a small break from walking and there will be opportunities to go to the market.