Appreciate all the feedback from the photos. I hope you enjoyed them This is the light at the end of the tunnel as far as Expedition Nakuru goes; hold on to your hats, this may take a while...
So.. where was I? Oh yeah, the male lion crossing the road. It was SO cool.We proceeded through our transect, counting animals, recording habitats, blah blah blah. Saw some huge buffalo, a pair of rhinos chasing one another (I think for courtship purposes), and a ton of other animals throughout the park. That night is when things got interesting.. I stayed up talking to one of my friends here, about life, how it feels being the only guy, all that jazz, and we saw a jackal come into camp. The funny thing was, how unexpected its presence wa. We were in the middle of a National Park, and I forgot animals except baboons could get into camp if they really wanted too.But it gets better..You know that horrible sensation when you have to pee really bad in the middle of the night, but you're in a tent on a camping trip and it's freezing outside. Yeah, supplement that with the sounds of a spotted hyena right outside of camp and that's what happened to me. I wake up, try to dress quietly, and all of a sudden, I hear the whooping contact call of a hyena, and then some cackling. One of my roommates, Erin, wakes up and says, "Ian, what animal is that?". I then proceeded to say, in a shivering, hurried voice. "That? That's a spotted hyena. AndIgottapee, soI'mgoin'outthere. HopeIdon'tdie. Hyenawouldbeaterriblewaytogo. See ya.", and proceeded outside the tent. In case you were wondering, I ran. The thing is, hyenas don't wait until you're dead before they start eating you. They also don't choke you out first like cats do, so you're awake for the whole thing.So again I say, I ran. After quickly doing business, my curiosity got the better of me. I walked out toward the fence, headlamp in hand, and searched for the predator. And I found him/her, at least a glance. Those big red eyes are freaky in the dark alone, let me tell you. Totally exhilarated, I walked back to the tent, and soundly slept until morning.
The next day, we woke up for a traveling lecture around the town of Nakuru. We were planning on talking about the effects of tourism and human activity outside the park. Boy was I surprised when we saw the image to the right. Ya see, that leopard kill was there the day before, but no one actually saw the culprit for more than a brief second. So it was interesting coming back to the place where it was, seeing all the cars surrounding the kill, and then seeing a full grown male lion walk up the tree to retrieve it.After a while, he dropped it out of the tree and we moved on, only to see the leopard that the lion had stolen the kill from. It made sense, since it was a big male leopard, and he looked pretty stressed. My theory is that the lion saw him eating, chased him up the tree and proceeded to commandeer the food.
There he is, on the right.The day went on as planned, and we of course learned a lot. but we still had a full day of Expedition left.Unfortunately, this time I heard no crazy animal noises during the night, and didn't wake up to see any deadly predators.
The following morning, we performed a final exercise, the usual. During the afternoon, we went on a game drive, observing animals and taking pictures. We saw the two girls again, this time chillin' in a tree, lookin' all cool and lion-like.
Possibly the most surprisingly exciting part of that day, was getting to see a critically endangered black rhino, right next to the road. He was just chillin, and the more I though about it, the better the sighting actually got. Ya know, they might not be around much longer; so yeah even though they don't come near the vehicle often, or they don't do much, remember that you're even lucky to see one at all.
We ended the day on a high note, even though it rained.We saw a HUGE rainbow over the lake, and I got a few great pictures of it right before my camera died. Lake Nakuru National Park is a truly beautiful place, and should be a constant reminder to not only conservationists, but everyone, how people try to put wildlife in a box. It was great place to see incredible animals, but it now is a terrestrial island, which we should avoid at all costs.
Swahili word of the day is mrembo which means "beautiful"bro tip #1691
if you're not willing to change, don't expect your life to.
Tutaonana marafiki yangu
-Ian
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