August 25th
Did a Nairobi trip for the first
time! It was super exciting to see Talek and the view on the drive to Nairobi
after being in one place for three months. Talek has a beauty quite its own
with the rolling mountains are large trees growing next to the Talek river. The
shortness of the grass makes doing observations ridiculously easy so I don’t
think Talek can really complain about their 100+ hyena clan. There are about
150+ hyenas total to memorize here and since they’re not all in the same clan
we don’t get to see them every day like the Talek animals. And once you DO have
them all memorized then Talek is clearly the easier camp to do RA work in.
Going off road is often impossible here and when you can go off you have to go
slow because the tall grass hides rocks and holes. They say Serena is a lot
more beautiful but after being here for three months Talek was very refreshing.
It was very fun to go along on Talek obs and just get to sit back and enjoy
seeing hyenas. I came up a day early and therefore go to spend two nights in
Talek before we left for Nairobi.
Kevin was flying out on the 16th and Julia on the 15th. The drive to Nairobi from Talek was
extremely dusty, they hadn’t been getting much more rain than we had, which is
to say close to none. Once we hit the pavement it was a little better. In Narok
we ate lunch at this cute little restaurant that is next to a Kenol gas
station. There are quite a number of stray cats that know they can get bits of
meat by being adorable and I didn’t hold back on indulging them. We see animals
every day out here but we never get to touch or cuddle them and I am a bit pet
animal deprived. After Narok it was my turn to drive and it was my first time
driving in Kenya that wasn’t bush! A little nerve wracking getting up to 100kph
on the downhills and going up the escarpment (a very steep road going up over
this mountain drop off) wasn’t very fun. But we made it to Nairobi before it
got dark out, and of course the moment we made it over the escarpment it
started to rain. I think it rained every single evening I was in Nairobi but
there were some beautiful sunny mornings.
We got most of the Nairobi errands
done fairly quickly (tent repair, supply shopping, getting money from the bank,
dropping off Visa stuff, etc.) and it was super bizzare to eat out at nice
restaurants and take hot showers at the cottage. After Julia left Kevin and I
went horse-back riding at Achi Stables which was very close to the cottage.
Adorable naggy little ponies that we cantered around on through the Ngong
forest. Got my horse fix but I could still use more!
Unfortunately I got a bad bout of
diarrhea that took away my energy for the next three days though I still got
most of the rest of the errands done and also had a chance to visit the giraffe
center and get some cute giraffe photos. Dave flew in on the 18th and we picked up his friends
and Wes’s friend from the airport the following night.
Last couple days have been a huge
party with Dave and Wes’s friends here, got super drunk two nights ago and had
some good laughs. These guys saw a leopard on their first day and multiple
servals though they didn’t get lions until the drive out. The wildebeest had
mostly moved on before I left Nairobi but now that Serena has been getting rain
too (it was super green when I got back!) they’ve been circling back around.
The elephants have come back to the area and we’ve been seeing a lot of them as
well as a lot of baby animals. Saw the tiniest baby thompson’s gazelle
yesterday all dark brown, must have only been a day old, about the size of a
bunny rabbit in a little pile in the middle of the track. Haven’t seen any
rhinos in a long time though. The beginning of July was the last time we’ve
seen one and even that one was the first we’d seen in a month.
Fasting today and did yoga for the
first time ever this morning, which was actually really fun. Felt totally
stretched out and realized how much I need to work on balance, breathing, and
flexibility. I feel like Dave’s little cult follower- he has me eating less
refined carbs, fasting, trying out yoga, not shampooing my hair (but still
washing it!), not shaving my legs or armpits, etc. Well actually the not
shaving is my own thing I think because a s a man I don't think Dave has ever
shaved his legs or his armpits. However I will quote him on this, when I said
that I was growing out my hair he said "so you're becoming a real woman
now!" which I thought was great. And its true! No more will I conform to
society's standards of women "should" look like! However I'm fairly certain
that I will revert back to society's ways as soon as I am back in society. Its
very easy to be a hippie bum out here when you see a total of four different
people all week.
Punched out a rough draft of my
personal essay for the NSG graduate fellowship which feels really good but I
don’t think I’m going to be able to write it for prenatal because Kay really
doesn’t think that I’m going to be able to convince the reviewers that birth
weight is something I can feasibly get out in the field. Oh well! So now I need
to really start reading up on cognition and get myself focused on that and get
a rough draft for a cognition proposal done. Super insanely excited to be doing
cognition work with hyenas while Zoe does cognition work with bears. I know
that there will be all sorts of awesome competition and idea sharing going
on.
I bought a chess set (which I haven’t
played with yet) and a clothing hanging in Nairobi which is just the size to
completely cover a window in my tent. Super beautiful with the light coming
through. I also rearranged the furniture in my tent so now it’s really starting
to feel like my own place. Will put up some photos on facebook at some point in
the hopefully near future. :-P
Wes and friends are all gone so now it’s just Dave, Emily,
Julie, and I which feels really nice. I like a quiet camp, though it is nice to
meet people and have fun sometimes. I don’t know how I’m going to adjust to
life back in the states. But Nairobi wasn’t too bad, the number of people was
not overwhelming so I think I’ll manage. Loving the hyenas more and more every
day. And every day brings in something new, each sunset is even more stunning
than the last.
Yay a post! Sounds still wonderful. You will have to teach me yoga and eating habits and convince me to not wash my hair haha. I got Bindi! She is happy to be done with the 2 day road trip (she was very good and peed only in her litter box and even relaxed on the passenger seat sometimes instead of hiding under my legs).
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