Day Four Part Two — Not the easiest of days

 Wednesday February 15 - Part 2

The rest of today was not an easy day but I’m glad I did it and I’m glad I saw it.

We had a lovely lunch again today with the cucumber salad, bean salad, stir fry veg and pita-type bread.  The things they do with non-meat products are very inspiring but I never seem to do them at home, as well agreed around the lunch table today.

After lunch I had a beading session with two young girls from a village nearby.  I say girls, because I believe they are still teenagers, but both were newly married with a baby.  Rashida, the camp coordinator here, served as translator for us.  I picked the colored beads I wanted and one of the girls went to work making me a double-stranded bracelet.  The beads are glass beads from the Czech Republic and very expensive to get here, and they are strung on a strand of a woven plastic sack like we’d get potatoes in at home.  

While the two girls were working, I could ask any questions that I wanted, but I felt bad asking things that may be overly personal.  The girls are not related but live near each other and consider themselves sisters.  They could not believe that it took me 19 hours to get here.   They were surprised I have no children.  I asked what I thought was safe, mostly around their beading and home life.  But they will not be going off to college now or having any more of a future than what they have now, and that was striking.

I asked if they’d like to see photos of my family and they did.  They were very excited to see photos but surprised that I still talk about my Dad.  Rashida explained that here, when people pass away, the Samburu force themselves to forget about them, to keep them from being sad.  I explained to Rashida that we remember them to help bring positive, happy memories back, but she did not translate that for them.  I’m not sure they would have understood.  Daniel mentioned that the Samburu follow a lot of the Jewish tradition, and I wonder if the approach to death is rooted in that.

After that, it was almost time for tea and the evening game drive.  Tonight we had muffins with whipped real cream which were quite good. I’ve been drinking club soda with lime because it’s most refreshing and light so I did so again today.

We did another slow drive out to the village we are visiting, and Daniel stopped when I wanted photos (Grevy’s zebra, more kudu, a few birds that caught my eye).

About 15 minute away from the village, by car, we came upon a little girl toting two large containers of water.  One was on a wire so that she could pull it and the other she was just carrying.  Daniel stopped to talk to her and it turns out she was going to the village we were visiting, so he asked me if I minded giving her a lift.  He hefted her load (30 liters of water!) into the back of our vehicle and she climbed in.  At that point I had no idea how far she had left to walk, but after the visit he said it would have taken her 2 hours, which would have been well past dark!  I was so shocked.  She couldn’t have been more than 7-8 years old and out on her own!   I just cannot even fathom what kind of existence it is that someone would send an 8 year old out to walk 2+ hours each way to carry 30 liters of water back on her own so close to dark!

Anyway, we visited the village, which is semi-permanent because the Samburu are nomadic and will pick up and move as soon as either water or grass are no longer available for the herds.  So their “houses’ are a circle of sticks with tarps or sheets of cardboard or corrugated metal over them to protect from the elements or the wildlife.  Inside (yes, I went in!) are tiny rooms with low ceilings.  One room for sitting, barely big enough for two of us.  One room for the mother to sleep with the littlest kids and one room for the father to sleep with older kids.  They sleep on tarps or animals skins.  One teeny room for the fire. Running in and out were chickens and baby chicks and goats.  Needless to say this hypochondriac was holding her breath.

There were maybe 12 kids running around among the various houses.  All had dirty clothes, bare feet and some had no pants on at all. One very little boy thought I was funny for waving at him from a (safe for me) distance, so he came running over for a hug, which I expertly ducked.  It was just so sobering.  Too sobering.  A tough message for the day.  When I left home I was complaining that the water from my new Brio water cooler was tasting funny, and now I see men drinking water straight from a well, kids bathing in it and now this little girl walking 6 hours round trip by herself to bring it back to her family.  UGH.

Daniel took me for a sundowner in a dried up riverbed that is nothing but sand now.  I don’t know why it struck me so but it was very cool.  We returned camp tonight in plenty of time for me not to be the last one back, which was good.

The night game drives I have taken on the way back to camp haven’t proven terribly fruitful.  We see the neighboring elephants, giraffe and impala by night but no nocturnal creatures yet, other than what Daniel presumed was a stump but turned out to be a gorgeous owl just sitting by the side of the road.  I got the quickest of looks before it took off. Huge eyes!

Back at camp when I got to the common area, I found the older British gentleman (Hugh) there who asked how I made out, and because he made the mistake of asking, I just downloaded on him how heartbroken I was over that little girl.  He did a very good job of listening, providing perspective and explaining how the Sarara Foundation here has actually improved the lives of the Samburu immensely.  But he also said there is still so much work to be done and that people at home need to know how this water crisis is a very real thing.  I thought back to this morning at the Singing Wells where I saw two little boys take buckets of water from the well, strip naked, rinse themselves down, dunk their clothes in the same water and get dressed again.  And then that little girl.  It is a very harsh reality.

The conversation bled over into dinner and I came away ultimately feeling better about the fact that someone is trying to help and it has been effective.  But also that I can definitely help too.

After my second gin and tonic and a glass of wine with dinner, we had a vegetarian stew (lentils, beans, tomato, onion) in lieu of the beef everyone else had, potatoes au gratin, a carrot/green bean/ zucchini stir fry and cheesecake for dessert.  I’m well sated now and hopefully fueled for the hike tomorrow morning.  Up at 6:00 am for a 6:30 hike!

I sit here now listening to Boris the bull elephant right behind my tent tearing down trees so he can eat the greens.  Occasionally he’ll give a very satisfied purr or burp, I’m not sure which.  But he seems happy.

Day Four Part One — Culture Day

 Wednesday 15 February

The elephants below camp were pretty squawky late into the evening last night but things finally settled down out there around midnight.  I’d been reading/dozing for a while and finally put the book down when it got quiet.  I slept solidly until the pre-dawn chorus broke out before 6.  I got up to lay on the daybed on my balcony to watch the sunrise and was back in bed to doze some more until 7:30.  The insomnia that has plagued me at home for the last several months has disappeared.  I’m sleeping long, hard and without the aid of Ambien, which I normally have to use to get over jet lag.  Safari in Kenya is truly a wonder drug.

I wasn’t meeting Daniel until 9, so I asked for my coffee to be delivered at 7:45.  They leave it on the balcony and ring a wooden bell to gently wake you.  I enjoyed my first cup of the day out on the balcony and then got dressed and fully sunblocked up.  It’s warm even in the mornings, and I’m happy I brought two pairs of shorts and a few sleeveless tops, it’s all I’m wearing, even into the evening.  It is not unbearably hot if you’re shaded and staying still, but I did ask Daniel to put the tarp across the roof of the vehicle so the sun wasn’t beating down on me as we drove back from Singing Wells.  I don’t mind getting the sun but I do mind getting overheated.  I’m trying to keep up with my hydration here also.

Breakfast was scrambled eggs and toast and a little granola with yogurt.  I had passion fruit juice again, which is really delicious.  I ate with the older British couple who have been here 6 times before.  They have vast experience in Africa generally and are interesting to chat with.

We headed out at 9 for the singing wells.  Since they don’t allow photography, I had no idea what to expect, and it’s a good thing.  Essentially it is a series of undergound wells from which the locals bring up the water and fill troughs for their goats, cattle, donkeys or camels.  They start singing miles out as they walk their herds to this one site, and the animals know to follow them and know which trough is theirs to go to.  The locals alternate days to bring their herds, so it’s not inundated.  But the other part of the “singing” wells is when they start the relay of buckets of water from deep down in the underground wells to the surface, with the last guy filling the troughs until the livestock is satisfied.  The song is rhythmic and meant to be motivating for them as much as it is a signal to the herds of where they should be drinking from.  It is not easy work, not clean work but I saw how quickly the livestock became bloated from all they drank.  Many of the men strip naked to do the work because they want to keep their clothes clean, and some of the kids would get buckets of water to wash themselves and the clothes on their backs right there at the well site.  All of this is certainly a lot to take in, but what really dropped my jaw was when the men would drink water out of the bucket straight from the wells, water that was quite obviously muddy, dirty and otherwise unhealthy to us.  Daniel says that he drinks from it too as the Samburu have just built up a resistance to the very micro-organisms that would send us into dire illness.  Fascinating.

The drives so far with Daniel are, I’ve decided, the epitome of slow travel.  Normally on safari it is sort of a boomerang of activity from one sighting to the next, unless you’re waiting for something to happen or otherwise want to park yourself at a sighting to really enjoy it.  With Daniel, we will stop to observe, discuss, savor some of the littlest details from which I learn so much.  

This morning we were coming back to camp and pulled up next to a giraffe that the camp had rescued and raised.  She was very comfortable with our vehicle so stayed put.  She was chewing vegetation and I marveled as I watched her swallow, and saw the ripples of muscle push the food down her massive neck.  I mentioned to Daniel how I’d never noticed that before and he told me to watch, and suddenly her stomach contracted, the muscles rippled upward this time and she was chewing again.  I’d just seen the whole process in reverse!  How many giraffes over how many safaris have I seen and never knew this?  It was pretty cool.   The bee-eater bird we saw yesterday was another example, watching it survey the air around it for a target, then snatch and grab and return to the branch to feed on it.  I’ve never taken the time to see that before.

I did have a fleeting sighting of a gerenuk on the way back into camp but it spooked and moved on.  I would love to see it feeding while standing on its hind legs.

As much as I’m learning about the Samburu, I’m also teaching them.  We spent today discussing how our hours of daylight vary year round, how December are the shortest hours of daylight and June the longest.  Here on the equator it’s 12 hours of each all the time.  I told them how in places like Alaska, they have light all day around the summer equinox, and they just can’t fathom that.  I also taught them about humpback whales and showed Daniel video from some of our whale watches, and it really amazed him.  He says he likes learning like that too, it’s like traveling through us for him.

Quick rest in the room before lunch.  I have a beading lesson with local ladies after lunch and a village visit tonight.  Today is ‘culture day’!

Day Three Part Two — Settling in at Samburu

 Tuesday 14 February - Part 2

A few random things I learned/saw in Laikipia…

• Hanging from trees are what appear to be wooden mailboxes but they are in reality beehives hung by the locals and yes, they do harvest the honey.  The bees aren’t doing that now when it’s hot.
• Kids are meant to be herders and be proud of whatever herds they have, be it goats, cows, etc.  If they aren’t good herders, their parents threaten to send them to school.  So yes, they get punished by going to get an education.
• The drought here is so bad that up in the northern part of the country people, not just wildlife, are dying.  The government is sending food aid to them and will for several months after any rainfall, because that is how long it will take for crops to rebound.
• We saw a natural bee swarm in a tree.  It was just a big blob of bees swarming all over each other.  It was sort of interesting, I’ve never seen anything like that at home.
• There were two female elephants we saw with foot deformities, almost like webbed feet.  Simon thinks they are sisters.  They appeared to get around fine by my eye but when they stop walking, they lift up the affected foot.

And about Sarara, where I’m staying now.  They have 6 (I think) thatched tents built into the side of the hill.  Each is quite luxuriously appointed and the outdoor bathroom is pretty swanky.  Service is off the hook so far; I could barely put down an empty glass that had had passion fruit juice in it when I was offered another.  The common area has an infinity pool where, on the other side, elephants and other wildlife come to drink in the watering hole Sarara has built for them.  Or, if you’re Boris the bull elephant, you stand in the watering hole while drinking.  Apparently Boris broke a water main late yesterday, leaving the camp without water.  That emergency repair has happened, and I suppose now they will have to keep a closer eye on Boris.  As Daniel explained it, they elephants can feel the water flowing under their feet and will stomp on the water source until it breaks through ground.  Yes, even though there is a perfectly good watering trough on the camp grounds specifically for them.  Talk about looking a gift horse in the mouth!

As I sit here writing this, I hear a plethora of birds and the occasional purr or shriek of elephants.  If there is a better way to take a siesta, I’ve not found it yet.

The focus here is very much the Samburu culture, with a lot of programs on offer, as well as nature walks and game drives.  I may partake in a walk but it is going to be very early in the day because it is HOT here.  I have already abandoned my safari pants and hiking shoes for shorts and flip flops and will put a tank top on for later.  My hopes for game drives are really just whatever I can see of the northern 5 (gerenuk, grevy’s zebra, reticulated giraffe, Somali ostrich and Besia oryx).  We were talking at lunch and it’s not likely I’ll see the oryx or the ostrich here, but the others should be possible.

The dining area has a resident tree squirrel living in the tree that is the mainstay of the thatched roof.  She is tiny, maybe 5 inches long nose to tail, and her baby is also up there, about 3-4 inches if I’m being generous.  Kind of cute.

Lunch today was quite good, starting with a gazpacho and then the main was butternut squash ravioli, teriyaki cucumber and carrot salad, a cold vegetable stew goulash and tomatoes with cheese.  Dessert was a almond tart.  I had a glass of pinot grigio with that.

I headed down for tea (for me, club soda with lime) at 4:30.  I met Daniel and his spotter (I think his name is Larro) who was toting a large rifle, at 5:00.  We headed out on a general game drive around the conservancy near camp.  I knew going into this that this would not be a game-concentrated experience.  When you come to Sarara, you come mainly for the Samburu cultural aspect.  That there is wildlife here is very much second priority.  I was ok with that.  What I didn’t expect was how much I would learn.

We saw quite a bit of game on the drive out, from impala to dik dik and giraffes, some really cute vervet monkeys, more elephants and a lone Cape buffalo.  I have never seen kudu (a large antelope) that I can remember, so seeing a mother with a young baby was noteworthy (lesser kudu, which are smaller but have more stripes than greater kudu).  Daniel stopped to talk a lot about plants, their medicinal purposes for the Samburu and birds.  I learned so much it was crazy.  Especially given that I really thought there was not much more to learn about safari.

I did not know that plants will secrete a chemical in the morning when first bitten into by herbivores (impala, other antelope) that will then trigger a chain reaction among all nearby plants so that the impala will taste a bitter plant and cause it to move on. This means that first thing every day the impala are madly running from bush to bush looking for one that hasn’t started secreting the hormone yet.  The effect only lasts a half hour though.

I saw a bee-eater bird who sits on a branch looking for flying insects, particularly bees, and will snatch them in midair and then beat them against a branch to loosen the stinger before eating them.  Crazy!

The Samburu use a particular bush branch as a natural toothbrush, and the roots of the same bush to calm pregnancy pains.  There is also a plant that is good for upper respiratory infections, which is why no one here got covid (go figure…?) but taken it too high a dose will kill you.  Needless to say I will not be experimenting.

We spent sundowners talking about how Daniel grew up.  Their lives go in 15 year phases.  First they are warriors, then they train the next generation for 5 years, then they are elders for 15 years, then they can drink alcohol and be senior elders (at the age of 35).  The men are circumcised between 15-16.  Their father arranges marriages, and the bride cannot be from the mother or father’s clans to prevent inbreeding.  Polygamy is allowed but more often it is because the wife needs help managing the goat or cow herds or the home, not because the husband wants additional wives.  Daniel is only married to one wife with 4 kids.  He lives on the other side of one of the mountains here and sometimes walks 6 hours to work when he doesn’t feel like taking his motor bike.

During the first 15 years of being a warrior, if married, the men cannot be seen eating by the wife.  The Samburu believe eating is a bonding experience to be shared by the warrior men.  When they hit the 15 year mark, they have a ceremony at which the wife feeds the husband food and milk for the first time.  He says he still forgets that he’s allowed to eat with his wife.

I’m sure there is more, and with tomorrow being our “culture day” full of activities about the Samburu, I bet I’ll have a lot more to relate tomorrow.

I arrived back at camp late, and it seemed as though all the guest were waiting for me, so I didn’t bother to freshen up and we had dinner.  The appetizer was fried halloumi cheese on a chimichurri sauce, stuffed sweet potato for the vegetarians among us, broccoli in cheese sauce and a vegetable fritter.  Dessert was a crepe filled with mango and ricotta and drizzled with chocolate sauce.  Yep, the meals here are pretty special.

The folks around the table tonight had some spirited discussion.  I was telling Robert the camp manager about some of the work I do which he thought was really interesting, then we talked about the Boston Marathon (he may be visiting Boston in April) and then we got into the British royal family and Harry and Meghan.  Four guests are from the UK and despise her, so I seemed to fit in well and shocked them with some of my not so subtle opinions, but they loved it.

More than anything, it just feels good to be around people and having relaxed, normal conversation.  It’s been too long.  I feel safe doing so since everything and everyone is in open air and well spaced out.  

I get to sleep in until 8 tomorrow, what will I do with myself?  I set the alarm for 6:15 so I can watch the sunrise from my balcony over the valley. Old habits die hard.

Day Three — Leaving the black princess for a slice of spoiling

 Tuesday 14 February

The overnight was much quieter.  I only heard the nearly constant laughing of the hyenas nearby and once I heard lions a good distance away.  We’d planned with Simon to leave again at 6 am and try for Giza first.  This was my last game drive to try to see her in daylight.

Over coffee the German girls let it slip that they weren’t really jazzed about seeing the black leopard again and wanted to try for lions.  No one let Simon know this though and he really wanted to get me that daylight shot so we spent the first hour and a half looking for her.  

It didn’t take long at all.  A little after 6 he saw a shadow on the rocky riverbed that turned out to be her.  She was sitting there cleaning and flicking her ear with her back foot, like any preening princess would.  The question was, which way would she go?  Cross back over to the (inaccessible to us) other side of the river or head towards us?  And the bigger question for me, the inexperience darkness photographer, is would she wait until closer to sunrise?  I was really hoping for golden hour, with that perfect golden light.  

Simon made an educated guess, and came very close to where she’d eventually cross over.  We did have to double-back a bit so we’d see her coming right at us.  I was just firing off shots with abandon, maybe a little too carelessly as some of them are a bit overexposed (here come some Photoshop lessons when I get home) but she looked right at me several times.  I won’t deny it was a bit like when Morrissey looks right at my camera.  I felt like I was the only one in her world.  She’s a rock star indeed.  I’ve lost count and will have to confirm when I review all the photos but I think I took 4 or 5 sets of photos from different locations.  I think if I had to be picky, I’d have loved that golden hour experience, but I’m beyond thrilled that I saw her on 3 of 4 game drives, really up close and hunting at that!  

At some point two other vehicles joined our parade following Giza and I think she grew weary of it.  In the end she retreated to the other side for some privacy.

Simon then tried to deliver on the lions again.  I sort of felt like it was a bit of a lost cause with only an hour or so until (I thought) we’d have to be back at camp to eat and pack before heading out to the airstrip.  He gave it his best effort, cruising through thick bush, following fresh lion tracks and using his historical experience to track them.  To no avail.  I let him know at some point that I’d have to pack and eat before we left for the airstrip, which I think clued him in that time was a’wasting and we needed to get back.  In the end, I had 20 minutes to pack and eat.  I did it, but it was a bit close.  

We had a good chat on the way to the Sosian airstrip.  He’s a great guy with really good experience and admittedly an immense passion for his job.  I told him how lucky he was to love what he does like that and he said he is equally blessed by having a boss he admires and who takes care of them all.  I was sad to leave him at the airstrip, and I truly feel like I have a friend in Laikipia now.

Arriving at the airstrip, I was met with the vision of the smallest plane I’d ever seen, a 2-seater Cessna, literally me next to the pilot, that’s it!  It was amazingly smooth, probably the smoothest flight I’ve ever had, big or small.  I would definitely do it again, although if it were windy or crazy turbulent I’d probably rethink that!

I was met by Sarara’s guide Daniel.  He began to explain the Samburu culture to me, since this is my first exposure to the area and the tribe.  They are very strict culturally to the extent that they can only marry within the tribe.  He also asked that I not photograph any Samburu people because they believe that photographs take away a person’s soul.  Something to think about in this selfie-obsessed world!

Sarara is set up much like Emakoko, with separate thatched cottages set into the hillside.  I’m in #6, which is about 2 flights of sandy stairs up.  It’s all screened in, with a door to an outdoor shower area.  Thankfully there is also an indoor toilet so that I don’t have to think twice about using it in the middle of the night.

The camp manager greeted me and introduced me to all of the staff.  It is not lost on me that his name is Robert.  I’ve felt Dad along on this journey and little hints like that only reinforce the feeling.  I teared up and quickly had to recover so they don’t think I’m certifiable.

Gearing up for lunch now…

Day Two - Part Two - The Game Drive Ain’t Over Till It’s Over

I spent a lovely siesta lying here reading my book and watching a pair of dik-diks just off my veranda.  I thought to myself “I haven’t taken a photo yet of a dik-dik, but they don’t stay still long enough.”  Put a pin in that thought.

I also kept hearing a banging noise in the outdoor bathroom.  More like an intermittent rat-a-tat.  Curiosity finally got the better of me and I peeked through the tent flaps and found a bird hanging from the side of the mirror looking at himself, pecking the handsome looking bird in the looking glass.  It was hilarious.  And then a second bird showed up, the first flew off and the second did the same.  I thought this was novel until I told Simon and he pointed to his much dented side mirror on the jeep, and it too had been pecked to death.

After a slice of carrot cake and another Stoney Tangawizi, we headed out on our game drive.  The plan was much like last night’s, at 4:30 we’d drive the loop to look for lions and then just ahead of the golden hour we’d head back to Giza’s territory and look for her.  Since the morning was a bust I think we all had big hopes for tonight.

The search for lions was a slog, unproductive and frustrating. Where the other guests had seen them this morning was quite a way’s away and deep into the thick of the overgrowth.  We would make our way deeper in, somewhere in the vicinity of where their guide told Simon, and just keep plowing our way through thick bush hoping that at some point we’d look and see a pile of lions under one of these bushes.  It went on.  And on.  And as we ducked and dodged bush branches and thorns, I think we were all growing weary.  And with one eye on the clock, I saw our time in daylight rapidly coming to a close.  In my head, I was writing a very different blog post for today.  But I remembered too that on a game drive everything can change in an instant. 

We made it back to Giza’s territory around 6:00. We drove a bit and went back up to the overlook, this time not for a sundowner but to survey the area with binoculars.  We had a pretty good 180 view of her territory.  It was that extra degree on the far right we didn’t have which we would soon find out was critical.  The sun fell behind the horizon while we were standing up there and I actually said aloud “there goes our light.”  I was bummed.

We descended and just started driving around where she’s most likely seen.  Not even 10 minutes into this, Francis, our spotter, yelled to Simon who looked right and high up, and there on a rocky outcrop laid our heroine.  Watching us as we were looking for her.  Of course she was.  In the rapidly fading light and about two stories up, she was reallly bumming me out.  But through my super zoom, I saw her yawn.  And I had hope.  Cats don’t yawn and not get up.  It’s rule number one.  So suddenly I had hope.

We tried to guess where she’d come down and the path she’d follow, and position ourselves there so I’d have the head on shot (I am the only photographer in the vehicle).   We sat there, unable to see her, for maybe 10 minutes.  And Simon was impatient and moved us back so we could see her, but facing forward so we could quickly reposition if she moved.  When she moved.

Suddenly she stood and started stalking something to our left and up further behind her.  We lost sight of her entirely but the hunt must have been a bust because she changed course and headed down.  And down.  And directly along the path we predicted.  Simon quickly moved the car in place and she deviated slightly so she was not coming straight on at us, but a little forward of us.  No worries, this was still a better shot than last night.

We leap-frogged her a few times.  Let her pass, moved ahead of her, let her pass, moved ahead.  None of the shots were what I really wanted, but still better than last night.  At one point, she changed course and came right at us, but did it sneakily from behind a bush so that by the time I saw her she was too close!  I couldn’t take a photo, she was an arm’s length from me.  All I could do was put the camera down and watch her as she passed under me, and out the other side.  

On our last leap-frog ahead of her, she nearly caught up but then stopped.  What I didn’t see that she did were three dik-diks just ahead of us.  One was a baby.  Suddenly, she made maybe three hops and snatched the baby.  The parents scattered and Giza held firm.  She’d caught dinner.  Or at least a snack.

We crept up even with her as she stood, looking side to side and around her, as if trying to make a decision.  Finally she continued in the direction she was heading and took the kill up a tree.  Simon heard the male leopard huffing somewhere behind us, so we really hope she was able to eat before he got there to steal it from her.

The sunset at 6:44.  We found her at 6:55. she came down from her perch at 7:14 and made her kill at 7:19.  The course of our entire day changed in that 35 minutes.  It was just such an adrenaline rush.  And now I have my photo of a dik-dik.

What I think was most special about it was that we were alone, just Simon, Francis, the German girls and me.  No other vehicles to get in our way.  This was our sighting.  It wasn’t the madness of a public park or even jockeying for position with other vehicles from our camp.  Just us. And Giza the huntress.

Dinner tonight was a bush dinner around a campfire.  The cooking staff had made dinner which was reheated over the campfire.  I’ll be honest, I was still riding the high and vaguely remember a chick-pea stew of some sort, veggie stir fry and french fries.  However I do remember my two celebratory gin and tonics and the tree tomato crumble for dessert, which was really amazing!

It was nice to sit and chat with the guides and Ron the camp manager.  I learn a lot from talking to them and it’s nice to be with people again, face to face and having fun conversations.

My charter flight doesn’t leave until 10 tomorrow, so I get one more early morning game drive before we head to the airstrip.  For now I’m going to try to hunker down and get some sleep.

Day Two — Searching for dogs and cats

 Monday 13 February

Never in all of the camps I have stayed at have I heard a more active night than I did last night.  The noise of the night started as soon as I returned to my tent from dinner and continued all night long.  The leopards huffing (confirmed that noise with the camp manager) went all night long and was definitely within feet of my tent a few times.  Hyena were constantly laughing from their den nearby and twice I heard lions roaring, once in the wee hours, again just before I awoke and again as we had our coffee before the game drive started.

The area seemed busiest around 2-3 am, when I laid awake listening to the chorus of wild voices all around the tent.  I heard my fellow travelers up and about and venturing to the open-air bathroom off their tent (no thanks, I’ll wait until closer to dawn!) and wondered how I would ever get back to sleep with all this going on.  Next thing I knew the alarm was going off at 5:30 and I was throwing on clothes, sunblock and a hat and off I went.  Amazingly, I got a very solid night’s sleep with no help from the Ambien that I usually need to beat jet lag, so that’s a first.

All of my overnight reconnaissance I shared with Simon when we met up at 6 am, figuring any of it may be a clue to where we’d find our girl Giza this morning.   He said that the male leopard we saw last night has been harassing her and stealing her kills, which is why she is so lean and always needs to hunt.  When he harasses her too much, she retreats to the other side of the river.  That is apparently what she did last night, because our very persistent searching this morning did not uncover her.  The other vehicles from camp came up empty as well.  One vehicle came across the lion pride I must have heard overnight, feasting on a kill they’d made.  We will try to find them on tonight’s drive before we start the search for Giza again.

I was shocked by how cold it was when we started out.  I had a fleece on and wrapped myself in a Maasai blanket for the first 90 minutes or so but all was forgotten by 9 am when the sun had warmed enough to shed both for short sleeves.  The wind started to kick up again midday, which makes it comfortable in the shade and takes the edge off the direct sun a bit.

The young women I’m sharing a vehicle with wanted to do walking safari, so we dropped them back at camp at 8 and headed out with the antenna to try to track the wild dogs.  We needed to get to a high point over the valley in order to get a clear signal.  We tried 3 times and came up empty, not a blip to be heard.  The last viewpoint though was pretty spectacular, with an expansive view over the valley and surrounding mountains (including Mt Kenya).  We had coffee, banana muffins and a hard boiled egg there to hold us over until brunch.

In lieu of the dogs and leopards, I had some great sightings of giraffes and elephants, particularly at the dam we visited late yesterday (when there was no one but a lone hippo there).  Today was a vision of coexistence with nearly 40 elephants, 20+ zebra, dozens of impala and a dozen or so giraffes all drinking at the dam with the hippo floating about on his own.  Pretty idyllic if you ask me.

All of the camp visitors and guides met at the dam where the camp team set up brunch.  Today it was a wonderful pasta salad with peppers, carrots and onion, a beet salad that I loved and vegetarian (for me) version of scotch egg.  More fruit salad and a Stoney Tangawizi to wash it down.

We were back at camp by noon so I took a nice hot shower and then took my siesta, which starts off as updating the blog, then reading a bit and finally dozing until the alarm goes off to alert me to tea time at 4:00.

I feel bad for Simon at times because I know he wants to deliver on the cats, and I keep telling him anything is good, any animal is a bonus and not to worry.  The landscape here is such that it’s not at all very tall but it is dense at ground level, not flat and open like the plains of the Mara, so you could very well be driving right by a cat you just can’t see.

Day One - Part 2

 Sunday 12 February — Part 2

Headed out at 4:30 after a bit of tea and chocolate cake.  If only every day had a pause for tea and cake…

Now that it’s over I’ll fully admit that I was hoping beyond all hope to see this melanistic leopard.  I’m not going to deny it.  I also knew though that I only had 3 full game drives to do it.  The odds, as they say, were not necessarily in my favor.  Add to it the uncertainty of Mother Nature and well, I should really know better.

So off we went. We did a lap around the dam, hoping to maybe see the lions who belonged to the paw prints we saw near there earlier today.  But Simon says that there are more leopards here than lions, so it was maybe not likely we’d see them.  We did see a hippo momentarily, before he submerged in the dam and only graced us with a couple of nostril views after that.

We spent some time with an older (approx 50 year old) matriarch elephant, and likely her two daughters and possibly two grandchildren.  It was a nice sighting, watching them eat acacia peacefully on their own.

But it wasn’t leopard.

As the sun started to go down, I lost serious hope, figuring we’d just try again tomorrow.   We climbed up to an overlook high above the river and watched the sun go down.  I had my classic G&T sundowner and enjoyed the moment.  I shared my vehicle with two young girls from Germany who were also keen (but maybe not AS keen as I was) to see the leopard.

We sat quietly contemplating the rapidly falling darkness and suddenly we heard a “woof-woof” guttural bark from far below us, off to the right.  “LEOPARD,” said Simon.  And never did you see a bunch of safarigoers pack up the sundowners and descend the overlook.  Off we went in the direction of the woof.

Now color me crazy, but it does seem odd that we’re looking for a black leopard in total darkness, doesn’t it?  Right.  After about 20 minutes, Simon asked me to swap seats (I’d been in the front next to him) with the spotter, who was in the back row of seats.  The spotter was now going to use a spotlight to catch the eyes of whatever is out there.  And it worked.

Not even 10 minutes later we spotted a leopard, a big burly male of the “normal” type, meaning not black.  He stood frozen in the light and then crouched down.  Clearly not typical leopard behavior.  At that point I had that “we should not be doing this” feeling.  We shouldn’t.  So we moved on.  On any other safari, seeing a massive male like that would be icing on the cake.  But not this safari.  No way.

Not much longer after that, the spotter saw her, the beautiful young melanistic female, Giza.  They don’t name any other cats here, just her.  Search for her on social media and you’ll see that she’s lit up the airwaves lately.  I’ve seen it, and now I wanted to see her.  And there she was.

She is petite, and lithe, and the spotlight catches the subtle shift in shades of black as her spots and what should be golden yellow merge.  She is, in a word, ethereal. 

She is also very difficult to shoot in this light for a photographer like me with rusty skills. But I tried, and so far I think I might have a couple of keepers.  But we followed her for maybe 15 minutes as she tried to hunt.  And a couple times I said aloud “I feel really bad about this”, “this” being tracking her with a spotlight.  And then I realized she was using it to help her hunt.  Positioning herself between us and a dik-dik so that her prey was blinded by our light, yet she could see everything clearly.   I watched her slink along on her belly and she came oh so close until another dik-dik sounded the alarm.  At least we didn’t blow it for her.

We tracked her through some of the scrub bush around here and at one point she flopped and rolled and showed us her belly (as a cat owner, I saw that as a sign that she’s comfortable anyway?). And then she walked right towards us and I fired off a few shots.  I pray that they look as good at home as they do on my tiny camera screen.  Fingers crossed.  I flopped back in my seat in the vehicle and a tear came to my eye.  It actually happened.  I saw her.  What a relief.

We headed back to camp, which I expected to be a 15-20 minute drive and instead it was maybe 2 minutes.  She is literally on our doorstep.  And as I sit here now typing this before bed, I hear a “woof-woof” quite nearby.  And the camp managers’ 4 dogs are barking, which they do only when they hear her or the male nearby.  So she is likely quite close by.

Like any addiction, you get a hit and you only want more.  And I do.  We made plans to be up at 5:30 and out at 6:00 tomorrow, heading back to where we left her.  Now I want, no, need, to see her again.  #addicted

Dinner tonight was quite good.  A yummy spinach souffle, stir fried vegetables, rice noodles and sticky toffee pudding.  Our pre-dinner drinks had yummy zucchini fritters.

It’s 9:30 pm now and I haven’t gotten more than 5 hours of sleep since Friday morning.  I’m wired for sound and just want to get back out there.  It didn’t take me long to remember why I wanted to come back so badly.