Hello again!
Time to continue on with everything that we did during our
expedition in Lake Nakuru National
Park!!!
DAY 3: The next
morning was quite an early morning for all of us! We were going to complete a field exercise,
so to be able to see all of the animals in their natural habitats, it’s
important to do these counts in the morning when it is cool out and the animals
haven’t retreated to the shade for the afternoon. We woke up around 5:30 am to eat breakfast
and for the first time, it was absolutely FREEZING!!! I was wearing a long sleeve shirt, a huge
hoodie, a scarf, big boots, wool socks, and long pants and was still cold. To add insult to injury, we had to be outside
of the hatches in the car, so the cold air plus the wind blowing as we flew
down the first roads was brutal, especially after being in 90 degree weather
until this point. We somehow survived
when we made it to the sunny spots and got to thaw out a little bit haha. The count that we were conducting was to look
at the wildlife in the park and what habitat they are found in. It’s important to know what animals are
generalists and what animals are specialists so that the park and its habitats
can be managed effectively because of the fence that surrounds the entire
park. We had to write down all animals
that we saw and the habitat type they were in so that in the future, we would
be able to calculate what animals were found where. The exercise was supposed to take the entire
morning to lunch, but my group only had a few number of animals in the area of
the park that we were looking at, so we were done by 9:30, which meant we got
to have a game drive until lunch!
We heard from another group that we encountered by the falls
that they had spotted five lion cubs in some of the bushland in the park, and
we were so jealous of this spotting.
Little did we know that our driver knew right where to go for us to see
them. We twisted and turned around in
the park, making me get so lost of where we were. Finally, on a back dirt road in the middle of
what seemed like nowhere, our co-driver suddenly pointed at something right off
of the side of the road in the tall grass and bushes. All of a sudden, I saw ten little eyes
peeking out at me from between the branches, and I got so excited. The lion cubs were some of the cutest things
I have ever seen in my life. They were
all lying near one another, leaning back and forth and rolling each other over
when they moved around. One was chewing
on a stick, another one was chewing on the first ones ear, and one of them was
tiny little baby no more than 4 months old.
It had bright blue eyes that you could make out even from the distance
that we were. Everyone in my car was
obsessed with these lion cubs. We sat
near them in our car, taking thousands of pictures for around half an hour
before our driver decided that is was time for us to head back to camp. We were on a very narrow road, so turning the
huge safari vehicle around was quite a task.
As we were helping our driver, Ernest, all of a sudden we noticed
something not far from the back tires of our car. As we were trying to figure out what the lump
was, it suddenly sat up and we realized that is was the dad lion of the cubs,
with a huge mane and super sleepy eyes.
He was so close to us and just staring at us, like why did you guys wake
me up! We all froze, trying to take
pictures before he got up and disappeared into the trees nearby. We eventually had to give up on seeing him
again and pulled back onto the road where we were. Then, to our pleasant surprise, we saw the
mom lion in the grass too! She was close
to her cubs, right across the road, and we couldn’t believe that we hadn’t seen
her before as were sitting there for so long.
I felt so fortunate to see an entire lion family! Never did I think I would see that, and I
could not be happier for that experience and the people that I got to share it
with.
On the way back to camp for lunch, I was so content,
listening to my music and enjoying the breeze in my hair thinking about those
little cubs. We saw some giraffes in the
distance, but I didn’t think we were going the direction that would take us
toward them. Luckily, our driver knows
we very well and quickly took a detour to allow us to see the giraffes. As we approached them, we could count 15 of
them on both sides of the road, including little baby giraffes too! I literally felt like I was in my dream, standing
in a safari vehicle COMPLETELY surrounded by some of the biggest giraffes in
the world. They were within feet of us,
and I watched their graceful yet awkward at the same time movements from tree
to tree. The combination of the crystal
blue sky, puffy white clouds, umbrella acacia trees, and a ton of giraffe made
me feel like I was in the middle of a desktop background. It was the perfect end to the most perfect
game drive so far in the park and in Africa.
After heading back and eating lunch, we all curled up with our sleeping pads and took a nap in the sunshine and the shade of a nearby acacia tree. Before I knew it, it was time to be up for our next lecture. We were supposed to have an Environmental Policy lecture about the surrounding area and the management of it, but the power was out in the campsite and he could not access his PowerPoint. Instead, we just did a review for our exam that we would have when returned back to KBC in a few days. It was very helpful and shortened our day by a lot, which was welcomed after having to be up working so early.
After playing another game of cards with some friends, we
got to head out for ANOTHER game drive to wrap up the day. The first place we ventured to was called
Lion Hill, which is a rough road up the top of one of the hills that makes the
border of the National Park. The road
was bumpy and no one felt great, but the view from the top made it completely
worth it. You could see the entire park,
including the whole lake. We took tons
of pictures, including one of my favorite pictures where we spelled out the
word KENYA with our bodies. It was so
funny to try and coordinate everyone on the side of a hill, but the picture
makes it worth it. After saying farewell
to the other groups, we headed on our way down the hill and on to the rest of
the park to look for leopards. The
problem that occurred though, was that it began to get cloudier and darker
before our eyes, and when we least expected it, the sky opened up and it
started pouring. We had to scurry and
close the hatches so the entire inside of the car didn’t get soaked, and all of
us were so mad that we had to sit inside.
The animals also hate the rain, so most went running to hidden places
where we wouldn’t see them in the rain.
Just as we had all give up on the day and seeing anything cool, we
noticed a huge rainbow forming over the lake!
It was very defined and ran from the center of the lake to the middle of
the forest near the front gate. It was
so bright against the dark sky and was an incredible view of the park in a
whole new light. We even saw where the
rainbow hit the ground in the middle of a dense forest. I had never seen the bottom of the rainbow
hit the ground, but unfortunately a picture couldn’t capture the colors spanned
across the trees. We drove back to camp,
and on the way, we saw that a baby waterbuck had been killed and dragged into a
tree by a leopard. We couldn’t spot the
leopard at all, but we waited as long as possible just in case. That night, the power was still out from the
storm, so we ate dinner in the light of our headlamps and flashlights before
heading out to the campfire. We all
didn’t stay long because it was so cold and damp. We definitely slept great that night after
such a long day.
DAY 4: The next day
called for another early morning to head out for a field lecture before the sun
was beating down on us. We had our
normal breakfast and I was somehow lucky to not be cook crew again. It was chilly again, so we had to bring
hoodies to the stops we were going to make.
We first stared driving, but as we approached the area where the
leopards, kill was the day before, we saw a male lion climbing up the tree
going to steal the leopards food!!! We
found out later that that leopard was watching from above as this happened, and
I wish I would have thought to look up!
We got to watch the lion, who was so happy, licking the waterbuck and
enjoying himself. He decided to stand up
and try to move the kill, but to his surprise, the kill started to slide off
the branch that it had been balanced on!
The lion panicked and tried anything he could to save the kill from
falling, but as the kill slid off and tore towards the ground, the lion went
with it!!!! The lion had refused to let go and instead fell with the kill and landed
on his head on the ground several meters down.
I was amazed that we saw all of this happen, but I couldn’t help but
burst out laughing when I saw the mighty king of Africa fall off a tree over a
piece of meat that he could have collected below. It was quite an event to see and I was so
happy to have a chance to witness such a strange thing happening in nature!
When we first started the exercise, all of us thought that
we would be driving around the park and going to different sites to see the
effects of humans on the park, but to our surprise, we immediately went to the
front gate and left the park after conferring with the rangers to make sure we
could get back in later on in the day.
We drove and drove, about 40 minutes from the gate of the park, which
was much farther than any of us expected.
The place where we stopped seemed so random when we first got out of the
car, but after we sat down with our notebooks, we learned about the river that
we were sitting by and the effects of humans on it. The lecture was for Environmental Policy, yet
our wildlife ecology and wildlife management professors also contributed to the
lecture. The river that we were sitting
next to was one of the main four rivers that feed into the lake in the middle
of the national park, making it imperative to the wildlife and plant life that
lives in the park. However, the water
was completely disgusting and brown, with donkeys drinking out of it and local
dumping their waste and garbage into it.
Also, there was a Kenyan experimental recycling plant that was dumping
all of their wastes directly in the river.
It was so sad to see how the people in the area have no desire to take
care of the animals in the park and don’t think about anyone accept
themselves. It was shocking to know how
much dependence is on this water, yet it is not treated well and is the
nastiest water I have ever seen. The
next stop was near the first one, with a view of the National Park and we
learned about the past wildlife corridors that had been in that area. One of the last hartebeest in that area was
seen at this stop. It was insane to
think about what it used to look like in that area before it had become such a
large city and how the wildlife could have moved around in all directions and
are now trapped by a fence. This stop
was quick before loading back up and heading to the last stop. I somehow fell asleep on the drive to the
last stop, despite the super bumpy roads we took to get there. This stop was on top of a huge hill that over
looked the entire park and city, and there were giant mansions right by where
we were sitting. Apparently, the
mansions belong to Japanese business men that work in the park on new
technology. They were unbelievable and
definitely the largest, nicest structures I have seen in Kenya. At this stop, we learned about the treatment
plants that have been put into place to clean the water before it goes into the
lake. However, both of these plants are
not effective and barely take anything out of the water. The technology in them is completely outdated
and no updates have been made, making them worthless. It’s so sad when a situation seems so
hopeless, like in this case. I wish so
badly that I could help this problem, but when there is no support from the
local people and no money to fund these projects, its seems impossible to be
able to help. I look forward to one day
coming back and contributing in the best way possible, no matter what this
means. I yearn to have the chance to
come back and do research or projects that will benefit the wildlife and the
well-being of people in the area. That
is what wildlife management, ecology, and environmental policy is all about.
After we returned from the field lecture, it was already
time for lunch and we had tons of time after eating to do whatever we wanted. We did not bring our computers, so it was
amazing to take naps, play cards, sit in a tree and talk to people, and read
for fun. I really took advantage of that
free time since I knew when we got back to KBC, we would immediately begin
preparing for exams. After around 3 or 4
hours of doing absolutely nothing, we loaded up again, this time with different
groups for another game drive. We did have
to complete a very basic assignment during this drive, but nothing that took
away from what we were seeing. Once
again, the weather seemed questionable and smell of rain was in the air. We had driven for about twenty minutes when
the rain started to sprinkle. We stayed
out the hatches during this, but we quickly realized what a mistake this was
when the sky opened up and the rain started pouring!!! Our hatches were stuck,
and one was in the trunk of the car, so we were all soaked by the time we actually
were able to close them. As miserable
and cold as we were, I could not stop laughing at how funny we all looked
trying to close the hatches. The car was
soaked on the inside, as well as all of our clothes, but I couldn’t help but
grin when looking around at all of my classmates that looked like wet
dogs. This game drive was not as
successful as others from the week due to the rain. The animals had all hidden
from us and there was no rainbow to make up for the bad weather. I still enjoyed the company of the group I
was with and had great learning opportunities from our driver and his
experiences.
Immediately back at camp, we changed into dry clothes, or
the driest we could find in our tents and curled up by the fire place to warm
up. Dinner was really great that night
with a lot of my favorite foods from the cooks here, and then rap was so fun
outside. Suddenly, a huge bus pulled
into our compound at around 9:30 at night!
We had no idea who this group was, but it turned out to be a secondary
school from Nairobi that had come as a part of their curriculum to spend two
nights in the park and look at the geology in the park. It was interesting to share three bathrooms
with all 26 of our students, our staff, and then the entire secondary school
and their staff, but we made it work the best we could. The hardest part was sharing the
kitchen. You can only imagine the amount
of food and equipment needed to cook for all of these people, so no room was
left there. It was interesting to make
dinner and breakfast the next morning.
The best part about this school was what happened after our RAP was over
and they had gotten settled in. The came
and joined us by the fire and I met a girl named rose that was studying biology
at her school. Like all of the other
girls I have encountered, she wanted me to sing for her. I somehow managed to turn it around, however
and had her sing songs for me! To my
surprise, she knew tons of songs that I did, and after ten minutes, both of us
were singing Justin Bieber at the top of our lungs, gaining the attention of
everyone else around the fire. We
continued singing songs for another hour, everything from Rihanna, Lady Gaga,
and Lil Wayne and by the time I went to sleep, I was losing my voice from
singing all the random songs with my new friend. It was so great to meet these kids and
immediately have music being something we could bond over. I loved this night and will never forget Rose
and her beautiful voice that blew me out of the water. Unfortunately I had to call it quits because I
finally had cook crew the next morning and had to be up early to get cooking.
Well it is once again time for bed here! Stay tuned for the rest of expedition, exams,
community service, and the change to Tanzania soon!!!
Have an amazing day and I miss all of you so much!
Love,
Mollie Ann
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