The following is my account of our camping trip in Tsavo National Park! Enjoy!

Saturday October 4, 2008\

Tsavo is amazing!! One day in and I already love it! We hit the road at 7:30 this morning and drove a couple hours east(ish) to Tsavo. As soon as we hit the gate we threw open the hatches and started game driving. I was in the front hatch and thoroughly enjoyed the wind in my face and the chance of getting to see more wildlife. I don't think I've ever been this happy in my entire life and coming to Kenya was the best decision I have ever made! I wake up every morning tired but thrilled to be here and anxious to see what fabulous experience awaits me next. I can't say I've ever been bored. Everything is so exciting and despite the fact that I have three papers hanging over my head I couldn't feel more carefree!

A little way into the park we stopped at Shetani Lava Flow. It was the first lava flow I'd ever been to. Kiringe and Okello gave brief lectures on Tsavo and discussed some of the things we will be studying this week. The lava flow was really interesting and it was another gorgeous afternoon so it was easy to enjoy. Everywhere you looked there were the black rocks made of lava and here and there were Ficus trees whose green was striking against the black backdrop.

After Shetani we stopped at Mzima Springs. Mzima is an oasis within Tsavo. It's a spring whose water supports hundreds of animals that reside in Tsavo. It is really known for the hippos that make their home there. We saw more than a dozen hippos all chilling out together in the middle of the springs when we arrived! They were just hanging out in a big pile of hippo, having fish clean their skin and soaking up some warm rays. The hippos are what makes the spring so clean and many of the animals that live there rely on the hippos dung to survive. Anyway, to spare you from the details, we saw lots of hippos, vervet monkeys, a couple of crocodiles, zebra, eland, impala, a turtle, and some fish. I really enjoyed it!

After Mzima we drove into our campsite and set up camp. We had quite the tent city going on with more then a dozen tents. We also brought most of the staff, including our chefs and a portable kitchen. The cars had to be strategically placed around the perimeter of the campsite. Why may you ask? Well, simply put the lions of Tsavo are man eaters. Yes, it's true we are camping among lions who have been known to attack people and are possibly an entirely different species than the lions in Amboseli and other parts of Africa. So we had to take necessary precautions which included propane lights that illuminated the camp all night, 2 askaris with spears in hand and a KWS (Kenya Wildlife Service) armed guard. The askaris escort us to the choo (toilet) after dark and are up all night watching over camp.

Let me tell you, I am glad we have night watchmen because this evening several of my fellow students and I were sitting around the campfire enjoying it like you always do when you're camping. It was about 11:00 and we heard a low growl-like noise. Quickly we all shushed and listened. It was lions roaring!!! My hear skipped a few beats, but with each roar I calmed down. No more were black bears the animal to fear while camping! The lions continued to roar until about 2:30 AM, though I didn't listen the entire time, and the next morning the askaris said they guessed that the lions got as close as 200 meters from our campsite!!! Thrilling, right?

Sunday October 5, 2008

Oooooeeee! This morning I got up extra early for 5:30 AM cook crew. We have cook crew at KBC as well, but there's no minute to spare while we're here in Tsavo so breakfast was at 6:30! Our first destination: Chyulu Hills, a park inside Tsavo (basically). The Chyulu Hills are a lifeline for Kenya because they have more water than most of the surrounding area. Needless to say, with their water resources the Chyulu Hills are an object of disagreement. The surrounding group ranch inhabitants used the Chyulu Hills in the past to graze their cattle and shoats in the dry season. Now that it's a national park grazing is illegal within its boundaries. However, we definitely saw a few hundred cattle within the park boundary both this morning and yesterday on our initial drive in.

In addition on the east side of the hills there are a number of upset and now landless people who used to live in the hills but have been forced out due to its inception as a park. Beyond that there are other land discrepancies that plague the area but none of them can take away from the beauty of the hills. We drove up into the hills a way and then got out of our cars and had a passionate lecture delivered by Tome and Okello concerning the history of the hills and the importance of conserving them and the importance of conservation in general.

After a quick lunch we had a quick jaunt up one of the hills. By quick I pretty much mean straight up the side of a steep hill. When we crested one ridge we looked down and could no longer see our vehicles because they were more or less directly below us. Above us was still another ridge, but once we were on top of that we had a spectacular view! You could see for miles, and a large part of the hills were in our view. It was amazing and it looked like we were on the edge of the world. It was amazing!

The hike was not even the best part of the day. We returned to camp and had a short break before we piled back into the land cruisers and went for a game drive. Sipaya (one of the staff and one of our drivers) was hurrying us around and the second all the doors closed on our vehicle he sped off. Usually game drives are a nice causal pace to avoid scaring the wildlife and so we an get a good look at things, so we were a little surprised by the speed we tore out of camp with. Well, little did we know that the professors had gone on their own game drive and spotted a pair of Wild Dogs on the side of the road not too far from our campsite. Sipaya skillfully drove us there at 80 kph and we arrived in time to find the dogs still on the site of the road hanging out under a tree right next to the road. Just so you know, Okello, has only seen wild dogs in Tsavo one other time in eight years so we really lucked out! All in all it was a successful game drive and on the way back to camp we stopped at the top of a hill to watch the sunset.

Monday October 6, 2008

Today was more typical day for us. We had lecture in the morning and then a guest lecturer just before lunch. Our lecturer was a research leader in Tsavo and he told us about the history of the park, current and past research, and the many challenges researchers and managers face in the Tsavo ecosystem. He and his colleagues definitely have a tough job. Conservation in Kenya is not an easy task.

In the afternoon Okello split us up into four groups and gave us an hour and a half to discuss the challenges facing the Amboseli ecosystem and suggestions or ways to move forward in conservation. We discussed ways to make agriculture and tourism sustainable for the area. They are daunting tasks. In truth, the area cannot really support agriculture because there is not even enough clean water for all the people living here. But how do you stall or stop agriculture? It's a process that comes with the 'developing' of a nation; it goes hand in hand with the settlement and transition to a more sedentary lifestyle. To tell farmers that they can no longer be farmers is not even an option because it is their livelihood. What else are they supposed to do? Yet continuing to expand agriculture will only bring its demise sooner. So what do we do?

Personally I think that there needs to be more outreach. Someone needs to help farmers make their livelihood sustainable for them and for the environment. Currently such services don't exist. Maybe someday, if I have anything to do with it, something will be in place. It's an issue that cannot just be ignored.

As far as tourism goes, it's a fickle industry but Kenya in general has a lot invested in successful tourist endeavors. So how do we support the tourism industry and protect against the low periods? How do we stop tourists from tipping drivers so much that they will pull illegal maneuvers like off-road driving in the national parks? How do you get tourists to invest more in the conservation of the parks that they spend thousands to come and see? Again, tricky questions with many answers and even more problems, but even here there is a way forward. What Kenya needs is money and interest in conservation, and that's what we are all here for, though we may not all realize it.

This evening we had a nice little treat. Tsavo is right near the Nairobi-Mombasa highway and the town, Mtito Andei is right outside one of the park gates. We made quick stop in town and got ice cream at the gas station. It was appreciated by all of us and almost made me long for Wisconsin, but once I got back in the car and took my place in the back hatch I was comforted by the cool air and the beautiful sunset overhead.

Tuesday October 7, 2008

Game drive was today's name of the game. We spent approximately 8 hours game driving today and it was awesome! This morning our game drive was actually a field exercise for Wildlife Ecology. Our task was to find, identify, count and record the large mammals that we saw in given transects. The final goal that will be obtained with analysis of our data will be to draw conclusions on the habitat preferences of the species that were observed. We saw a ton of Dik-Dik, a tiny deer like animal, giraffe, elephant, zebra, tons of impala, baboons, warthogs and a Klippspringer. I advise you to look at pictures of these if you don't know what they look like. They're all great and interesting animals.

When we finished our transect we met up with the rest of the group and went for another hike before heading back to camp for lunch. This hill was a leftover of a volcanic eruption. The rocks were black and deep red. The view from the top was again spectacular and we could see for miles. (Or should I say kilometers?)

After lunch we all took a much needed two hour break before jumping back into the cars for a four hour game drive! We ventured to Rhino Valley in hopes of seeing a recently released rhino. However, we were not so lucky. We did have the thrill of nearly be charged by an elephant! Apparently they don't like it when cars race by and disturb their feeding. Well one of the cares in our caravan did speed by and my car was left behind. One of the male elephants in the family that was feeding alongside the road trumpeted at us and then proceeded to break through the brushes towards us. He was angry and not even the thorns were going to stop him! So we sped off to keep him at bay.

Just a little bit farther down the road we came across a male and female elephant with a tiny little elephant in their care. Harrison (our driver that time) said the baby was probably not much more than a week old! We watched as it ran back and forth between its parents. It was the cutest thing I've seen the entire time I've been here! Adorable!

Wednesday October 8, 2008/Thursday October 9, 2008

Our last full day in Tsavo! Sad day, but yet still very fun filled and eventful. Our first destination this morning was the Ngulia Rhino Sanctuary. It's a 100 sq. km. area within Tsavo that is fenced off and serves the sole purpose of helping increase Kenya's Rhino population. There are about 70 rhinos in the sanctuary and nine were just taken from it and placed in the park with the hopes that they will roam wild and free and reproduce!

We were supposed to have a guest lecture with one of the managers of the sanctuary, but he was off on assignment so we went game driving instead! Sadly none of our vehicles came across any of the 70 rhinos in the sanctuary, but we did see lots of impala, guinea fowls, zebra, giraffe and even a buffalo. After our game drive our guest was able to join us. He discussed some of the practices the researchers and rangers use to track the rhinos and keep tabs on them.

Afterwards we went to Ngulia Lodge and had a lunch buffet. I broke down and treated myself to it because the thought of another PB&J with a hard boiled egg wasn't appealing. (And the buffet was quite a bit cheaper than the past ones) It was pretty good and the lodge was pretty swanky. However the highlight came late in the afternoon as we were lounging around on the patio at the lodge letting our stomachs settle.

A large family of elephants came around a ridge and walked within 200 meters of the patio over to a nearby water source. They too had a baby elephant in their care and when they stopped to drink they surrounded it to make sure it stayed safe. I watched the elephants for quite a while and then stepped inside for a cold pop. Shortly afterwards I heard someone say something about a rhino coming through the valley so I got up to investigate. Sure enough one of the nine recently released rhinos was lumbering across the valley in the direction of the lodge!! It was so exciting, our first rhino spotting and it wasn't even in the sanctuary! It didn't venture too closely, but close enough that I could see its horn without binoculars! It was a great way to end the afternoon!!

We game drove back to camp and then settled in for our final night at Tsavo. I had every intention of staying up late around the campfire but the series of early mornings tuckered me out. So sadly I didn't hear the lions roaring, though I was told they got pretty close again.

Then Thursday morning we packed up night and early, packed up the Rhino (our big white gear transporter) and hit the road. Our final game drive through Tsavo was bittersweet. We won't have the opportunity to visit there again, so it was sad to leave, but the landscape on the way out was so beautiful that it was hard to really feel too bad. The whole drive out I actually felt more and more happy with each passing kilometer. I am exactly where I want to be right now and there's nothing that is going to bring me down! Bring it on Africa, I'm ready for my next adventure!