Serena camp at last, May 5th

Finally made it to Serena camp my home for the next year. Right now I am sitting in the kitchen tent staring through the trees at the amazing view of the savannah below us and the escarpment behind it. Absolutely stunning. Where Talek was closed in and dense with all the tents spread out and tucked into the trees Serena is open with little underbrush and taller trees. Part of the way up a hill, the entire camp slants down towards the savannah with flat spots for the tents cut into the hillside. Where Talek was fairly dry with only a few soft spots left over from the rains Serena is dripping. As the crow flies Serena is not too far from Talek maybe 50km? But the road winds first east and south before curving west and north back up to Serena. 

Serena is in the Mara Conservancy Triangle side of the park while Talek is in the mostly unsupervised section. The Mara river splits the two and there are limited places to cross the mighty Mara river. As we drove across the rolling hills and between koppis and mountains we could see the rain coming down miles away- luckily we put a tarp over the back of the truck and everything stayed dry when we finally drove into the rain. The road into Serena camp has been hit badly by the rain with deep gullies in it and the immediate driveway is almost a creek. Wes says he hasn’t seen it this bad but a two or three other times. This means we’ll sleep in tomorrow again. But soon enough I’ll have to get used to the 5:00am work day starts. 

The grass is taller here because grazing is tightly controlled and it makes me wonder if an ecosystem that is not at its capacity may benefit from grazing to keep the grass soft and fresh. Though they do controlled burns and some areas are beautifully soft and green. There was a plethora of game right outside of Talek and Talek is heavily grazed, the sound of cow bells is a constant, softly dingling in the background admist the noise of birds, bats, and insects. The rest of the Mara was very quiet as we drove through it, granted it was the middle of the day, but as we hit the river, and then the rain, some vervets, buffalo, and elephant made an appearance. We also saw a few hyenas and topi on the way in.
Walking around at night alone in the dark I remember that there is no fence between me and any lions, hyenas, or hippos that want to eat me. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so nervous walking around at night in the woods in my life. It is also very humid, all my clothes and blankets feel dampish.