Lake Naivasha & Hell's Gate N.P.

Jambo!

One of the last "Day Trips" from Nairobi for me is Lake Naivasha and the N.P. just to its north. Lake Naivasha is one of only two fresh water lakes in the Rift Valley, thus slightly different flora/fauna than the other 'alkaline' lakes. There's also a private Reserve called Crater Lake Game Sanctuary with Green Crater Lake the main attraction. Going down into the crater was like descending into "The Lost World." It was so surreal, yet you half way expected a dinosaur or King Kong to stroll out of the jungle forest at any moment and break the serenity. There was a plethora of wildlife there, and Hell's Gate N.P. has high cliffs and gorges. The N.P. has instructors to teach you Rock Climbing if you desire. The cliffs are perfect for nesting eagles and vultures. The plains have the game animals, and this is one of the few N.P. that allow you to leave your vehicle and 'walk' with the animals. Check these pix out!

Green Crater Lake in Crater Lake Game Sanctuary

Lesser Flamingoes with a lone Greater Flamingo

Crowned Hornbill with large grasshopper waiting...

...to go feed its young through this small vertical slit

Hybrid Fischer's x Yellow-collared Lovebirds

Grey-headed Gull

Yellow-billed Stork, feeding behaviour

Syke's Monkey silouette

African Hoopoe

Common Zebra

Black Kite (Yellow-billed Form)

Nakuru National Park

Jambo to you all out there!

After this trip I have only one more national park day trip from Nairobi. Any more NP visits will be overnighters as they are too far to do in one day. So, that's the only way to see Elephants in the wild, as they're are none within a day trip from Nairobi.

Grant's Gazelle

This trip yesterday to Lake Nakuru was fantastic. Lake Nakuru has no outlet, like most of the saline lakes of the Rift Valley. It is famous as the lake that can get covered in 'pink' with a million Lesser Flamingoes, with several thousand Greater Flamingoes thrown in for good measure. So when you've seen the pictures or TV programs of all those flamingoes flying around, it was most likely from Lake Nakuru. Unfortunately, over the past few decades, the birds have drastically reduced in #s, and the experts are guessing it has to do with several factors. Some are natural, like drought, but others are due to human influence, i.e. pesticide runoff, water taken from feed streams. However, the wildlife is still abundant. Here's some pictures to ogle over of a few of the animals of which I got close enough to get good shots.

Flamingoes

BIG White Rhino Male, from about 30 yards

Rhino family unit

African Fish Eagle


Male Impala

Marabou Storks















Male Defassa Waterbuck


Kwaheri,

Randy

Ol Donyo Sabuk N.P.

Jambo everyone!

Well, it's way past time for an update, so here's the next edition. I took another trip with the Nature Kenya organization to one of the newest NP's - Ol Donyo Sabuk N.P., an isolated mountain, which was only about a 2 hr. drive (26 km - 13 mi). Ol Donyo Sabuk is Big Mt. in Maasai and the local Kikuyu call this Kilima Mbongo (Buffalo Mt.) It's called that because there are Water Buffalo on the Mt. Getting there we went through the town of Thika, which is one of the big agricultural centers. We drove by hectares and hectares of pineapple fields on the way in. Anyway, we got to the park to go to the top (2,146m=7,016ft) to see the 360 degree view and see the birds and animals. I thought we were going to drive up to the top, but NO, we were going to walk it! It was 10.6 km one way from the gate. I got about 8 km up before the Charley Horses in both calfs told me my legs were revolting! I kept going though and made to the top. Some views up top were actually blocked by trees and communications towers, so you really couldn't get a true 360 view. On a clear day (few and far between) you can not only see Mt. Kenya, but Mt. Kilimanjaro across the border in Tanzania. This wasn't a clear day! I then realised that it was another 10.6 down. I was walking around like a 100 year old man for the next 4 days, and got no sympathy from my co-workers on my self inflicted malady. I saw a lot of great birds, but no buffalo up close. Our group had to hire an armed N.P. guide to go with us to protect us from any encounters with baffalo, as they are actually very dangerous. Here's a few pictures.


Armed guide & my driver, David


Mt. Kenya in the clouds


Look closely, there's a Chameleon in there!


Variable Sunbird, Male


Speckled Mousebird


Malachite Kingfisher

Work and some Play

My Apartment is 2nd floor at left


Roadside shops are all over the place


A food Kiosk


Another Kiosk


Jambo!...and the next installment is here. My actual work day is normally 7 hours as we start at 8 am and get out at 4:00 pm, if we can. But, what makes it long is the commute in traffic, especially going home. That’s why it’s important to get out by 4:00. Depending on which of the 2 offices, or the factory, I work from that day it will usually take between 45 min. to 1½ hrs. to get there, which isn’t too bad time wise, but weird time/distance wise. From the Apt. to the closest office is 5 km (3.1 mi.), to the factory is 15 km (9.3 mi.), and to the other office is 45 km. (28 mi.). However, the reverse commute is from 1½ - 4 hrs., as the traffic is brutal. The far office is especially bad, as we must go through the town center to get to the Apt. It’s a double edged sword on where to work from since the far office is better to get stuff done since there’s not as many people to interrupt your day…but then you deal with bad traffic. The close office is hectic as that is where most of the ‘business managers’ work from. The factory is also a pain because…it’s a factory and factories have constant fires to put out that can’t wait until your meeting or other work is done. In spite of the traffic, it’s still very exciting to be here.

This weekend I took in a few more sights and sounds (birds that is). I also found the American Embassy, the new one…remember the original was blown up by a terrorist bomb back in 1998! It’s now away from the city center and near the plush American Expatriate compound…huge houses that remind you of an expensive neighborhood in any affluent US town. There is also the ‘Village Market’ nearby, which is a very nice “mall” with upscale stores for browsing, nice restaurants, a bowling alley with foosball and pool tables, and a cinema. Then you go to the outskirts of Nairobi and see the complete antithesis…slums that have ‘living spaces.’ I can’t think of another way to describe the places. It makes the word slum appealing in comparison. Boy are we a spoiled society.

I joined Nature Kenya, which is connected to the Kenya National Museum. It cost a whopping 1,000 Kshs (Kenya Shillings), <$13.00, for a one year membership. This allows you unlimited access to all of Kenya’s National Museum sights as well as free participation in their various sponsored activities, the first of which I took advantage of last Sunday. One Sunday each month a group of birder’s of various skill levels get together and go on a trip somewhere about ½ a days journey away from Nairobi. That gives you time to return during daylight…very important here! Our target spot was the Oloregasailie Prehistoric Site. About 90 Km (56 mi.) away, way out nowhere in tribal Maasai land. In the 1940's the Leakey's were out here and made several archeological finds (handaxes and stone tools) supposedly attributable to our precursor Homo erectus (1/2 million yrs ago). We stopped along the way from and to the site, and at the site to do 'birding.' I saw about 65 birds, of which 50 were new (also called 'life birds'). There were about 20 people in the group, and I made some local friends.

The pictures I took won't upload as they take up too much memory, so I'll decrease the the size to get more pics of cool stuff for you to ogle over!

Kwaheli

Nairobi National Park

Jambo! Swahili for Hello or Good day! Fortunately almost everyone here speaks English, as their schooling teaches them English and Swahili, and they also speak their local village language, which only their villagers understand. Anyway you will learn a little Swahili along with me. Now, on with the show. Oh My God! Nowhere in the world can you jump in a car in the center of a city of 3.5 million people, drive 4 miles and enter a nature sanctuary that you can drive through and see such a great variety of birds, game animals and the carnivores that hunt and eat them! Nairobi National Park is that place! I spent all of last Saturday riding about the 44+ square mile park in utter wonder of a time long ago. I was literally in a National Geographic video. I was no sooner in the park taking pictures of birds and animals, when a warden (with a carbine) came walking alone down the dirt road. My driver, David, stopped and began to chat in Swahili. I only understood one word of the conversation - Simba. Yes, he was asking if any lions were around. The warden walked around and jumped into the car and said, "I'll show you a lion!" Who was I to argue with a cop with an automatic rifle. So off we went, and I mean backroads. A sampling of the sightings: Zebra, Gazelle, Impala, Wildebeest, Buffalo, Ostrich, Nile Crocodile, Warthog, Hunting Dog, Hippopotamus, Bushbuck, Masai Giraffe, Black Rhinocerus, Eland...but no Simba! As I was standing "outside" the car taking a photo of a Giraffe, the warden quietly said "Simba," and I was back in the car in an instant! I thought he said it to get me back in the car, and it worked as technically you are not supposed to be out...and there she was. 150 meters away walking slowly through the grass, slightly panting. We slowly drove up the road, passed her and stopped. I took a few photos as she stood there gazing at prey, and yes we are prey in her eyes! We were about 10 meters away. She then went into the bushes back the way we came. We were very, very lucky to see her. The warden said she was very hungry to be out in mid-day like that. We took the warden back to where we picked him up. It turns out he had worked the night shift and was going back to his station to sleep when we met. I had asked David earlier if it was okay to tip him and he said yes, but 100 Kenya shillings would be more than enough...I gave him 200, after all he did show us Simba. (77 Kshs = $1.00) I'll try to post a few pictures and videos in each update. Kwaheri (goodbye) for now!
Note: Turn the sound ON to hear the warden & David chatting in Swahili, over the english on the car radio.

Now in Africa

Holy Moley! Getting here took forever! 28 hours from door to door. Left home at 1:00 pm Tue. 5/4 and got to my new apartment in Nairobi at about midnight Wed. 5/6 (Kenya is 7 hrs ahead during our EDT (normally 8 hrs, but they do not change to Daylight savings). A bit of a problem occurred, as my global cell phone issued to me to keep in touch, decided to part with my company, as it never got off the plane in Nairobi with me, but it evidently got off with someone else. One minute I had it, the next not - and I hadn't even got off the plane yet! After a marathon "discussion" with Nairobi Airport Security - the chances of getting it back are none to impossible.

Tried to connect to the internet and couldn't, tried to call Maggie, but couldn't - no Intl. calls from the Apt.

I finally got to bed at 2 am and "slept" until 6:30 to get up and go to work. Tough day without any good sleep for 2 days, but I'll adjust.

This place is awesome! Stay tuned as I now have internet, and can give you all updates... Oh crap, it's 12:30 am and I gotta get some sleep.

Okay... up at 6:30 and off to work again. Thank GOD the company provided a driver for me (even on the weekends!) as there are 3 million people living in Nairobi and none knows how to drive a lick (except my driver David...he's great). The roads are all under construction and whoever has the guts to stick their nose out and step on the gas wins! All the intersections are 'roundabouts' (also called 'circulars' and only the major ones have stoplights, and those are basically ignored! To top it all off... they drive on the left side of the road! Can you even imagine sitting in the drivers seat on the right side of the car, driving on the left side of the road, coming up to a circular with 3 million cars trying to take dead aim at you! No...I don't think you can until you experience it yourself.

The company also provided a furnished apartment with 2 bedrooms, so there's room for any who cares to stop by! I'll update with pictures, as I got to go to sleep ,and get up at 5:00 am to go to visit the Nairobi National Park just 4 miles from downtown.

So, again stay tuned as pictures are forthcoming.

Off to Africa

Well...one week from today I will be in Africa for 3-6 months. Our darling daughter told me about this sight to keep you all up on my journey. Soooo, grab your cup of coffee...or glass of wine and stay tuned...