Life on the Galena River

My tent is on a small wooden platform overlooking the Galena River. At night snorts from hippos and whooping calls of hyena punctuate the blackness. The dawn is a golden time when the light shimmers on the water and life on the river awakens.

   

The water is low before the rains and elephants can wander through the shallow waters to the other side where there is a sandy beach. There they have dug a mud-bath and take turns to wallow, blowing trunkfuls over their backs. They emerge with the dark pinkish copper glow of the mud - the 'pink elephants' of Tsavo are famous. 

After the elephants a colony of baboons lope down the beach. They are followed by bush buck who drink deeply.  Beach life on the other side of the river is an endless and unfolding scene.

Further downstream the river widens out and the water gurgles and plunges over flat water-smoothed rocks.  Long tawny crocodiles sun themselves on the rocks by pools, with one amber colored eye keeping a watchful eye for morsels. In the deeper water hippos are submerged with ears, eyes above the water. They also watch.

The palm-fringed wide sandy beach below my tent has fine golden sand. It would be a perfect idyllic cover shot for a glossy travel magazine.  It is also enticing.   But this beach is deserted.  The camp’s resident elephant, Mugabe, occasionally checks it out and he is not good at sharing.  The downstream  crocodiles and upstream hippos are similarly not user-friendly. I decide not to tempt fate.

The river is at its lowest.  Rains are expected in about three weeks, the water will rise and cover the rocks where crocodiles now bask. Throughout the year a major source of water for the Galena River is snow-melt and water from the shrinking glacier on Mount Kilimanjaro.  If these two sources disappear no one is sure how this will affect the river and its wild life.  But for now the banks and the river belong to elephants, bushbuck, baboons, crocodiles and hippos. 

TTFN

The Threat of Mugabe

Galdessa,Tsavo East

This morning Mugabe woke me up. At first there were stealthy footfalls then a crackling sound as something snapped under his feet. I felt his presence very close. I looked outside and he was standing about ten feet away.

Named after the Zimbabwean dictator “Because he is so mean and has a temper,” Mugabe hangs out around the palm thatched bungalow tents of the Tsavo camp. This full grown African elephant, with his wrinkled leathery skin, gigantic ears and impressive white tusks, breakfasts on trunkfuls of fresh leaves from acacia thickets outside my tent. Because of his unpredictable disposition and other wild interlopers I must have an escort each time I leave.

At 6:15 I left to join a bush drive and sure enough he was still there.  Not content with waking me up, he trundled into my pathway and just stood staring at me. I retreated. Elvis my tent guard, and Masai escort with ceremonial spear, waited until Mugabe felt the urge to take off to find another breakfast bush.

He will be back.  While I am at Galdessa Mugabe, it seems, will be part of my life.

TTFN

Satao Elerai Camp, Amboseli National Park

Amboseli is all about Kilimanjaro.   Shaped like an enormous Christmas pudding, the mountain is a looming presence in the park.  It is the first thing I see in the morning when I open my tent flap. Some mornings long ribbons of gauzy mist enshroud the base. On others it hides behind banks of of clouds. "The mountain is shy," explains a Masai.

When Kilimanjaro is visible at sunrise the top is frosted with gleaming crystalline white,  pale pink and gold.  This appearance heralds the daytime pageant which begins with a dawn chorus of crickets, and birdsong. All that is left of the velvet blackness of the African night are lion, hyena and kudu prints in the dusty elephant paths.

Kilimanjaro stands 19,000 ft and its volcanic legacy has completely shaped Amboseli. The vast tracts of the land are salty white traced with animal tracks. In some places even the termite mounds are an ashy gray.

Once entirely within Kenya (British East Africa), it is said it was given to Kaiser Wilhelm by his doting grandmother, Queen Victoria. He had complained he did not have a volcano in his territories and she had some to spare in Uganda and Kenya. So, allegedly, he received Kilimanjaro as a birthday present from Her Majesty and the map was redrawn.

Today the snowy cap and glacier are endangered like much of the African wildlife. Satelite images of the crown reveal rapidly shrinking ice.  In ten to fifteen years experts estimate snow and glacier will be gone. Currently the run-off water from the volcano feeds watery swamps where hippos and elephant wallow. The water table supplies water to support tree and bush life.  What will this mean for Amboseli Park, the wild animals, the Masai who herd their cattle and goats there? No one knows.

But this morning Kilimanjaro was the first thing I saw. The remaining snow gleamed. Strings of gray elephants plodded along age old tracks at the base of the volcano, once given by a Queen to a Kaiser.  This morning Kilimanjaro seems like the essence of Africa.

TTFN

No elephants on this trip yet.  These are from my 2004/5 visit.

Rushed to window this morning to see what I could see in the park outside.  Four giraffes loping along and a couple of gazelles.  Not bad for a Sunday morning.  Cacophany from weaver bird nests hanging in adjacent tree.

Went to lunch at beautiful home of Linda's cousin.  Lunch was outside under an arbor - a proper English Sunday lunch.  Conversation touched on Al Qaeda operative recently taken out in Mombasa which has caused riots there.  Several thought it work of Israeli Mosad. Then upcoming elections in Kenya was discussed. Ten candidates, one of the most popular has proven links with Al Qaeda.  That lead to security concerns.  6 suicide bombers was intercepted this last week - fortunately.  Heading towards American Interests.  The Norfolk Hotel?  bombs and lots of amunition 4 apprehended, 2 got away.   Now I know why we are staying here.

Looking forward to taking off to the bush tomorrow.  Somehow lions are more predictable.

On the way back from lunch got caught up in bad traffic. Noticed construction project headed up by Chinese.  They are a huge presence here. It is unlikely poaching will cease while Chinese money is pouring into the country. They have just completed a 12 lane highway right through the heart of Nairobi. High speed rail is also planned.  Currently it is quicker to walk.

Dinner at Carnivore included sliced bull's testicles, ostritch balls and crocodile tail.

And so to bed.

TTFN

Nairobi Arrival

Wonderful flight from Heathrow to Nairobi.  Had window seat but looked out onto wing so could not see anything! Lunch, nap, tea. Time went fast.   Deluxe meeting as I came off plane. Very well taken care of.  There seemed to me a stronger Moslem presence in the people at the airport. Lots of veils. 

Was told things have changed a lot since I was here New Years 2004/5.  Lots of construction I was told. Turns out it is the security which is very heightened - Middle East style.  Mirrors under car and looked in boot before we could approach hotel.  Metal security to get into hotel a la airports. Need to use room key to get into the area where I am sleeping.  All of this is quite different.  I suspect the Norfolk Hotel is difficult to protect - one of the reasons we are not staying there. I remember guards outside Norfolk in 2004. Hotel Ole Sereni, is in what was American Embassy. They have moved even further out.

We are on the edge of a national park here and apparently I can see a water hole from my window but it is dark and I was warned not to open it because of mosquitos. One thing that has changed is computers and wifi!  Is this ever great.  More tomorrow.  It gets light at 6:00 am.  Guess who will be hanging out of the window!

TTFN

Olympics and Paralympics are over, Autumn is here

There was a great send-off for athletes on Monday, complete with a flypast. Now London is slowly getting back to normal.  There is a definite feel of Autumn in the air.  In St. James' Park the Autumn Crocus  are up meeting leaves as they slowly begin to scatter on the grass.
It has been a dry week - no rain - balmy and pleasant with diners enjoying outside tables at Carrafini until quite late. Now its time for Nairobi where rain is forecast.

Lewa wildlife announced this morning that they have lost more rhinos this week.  It will be interesting to get out in the bush and find out what is really going on.
TTFN

London Calling, September 11, 2012

"How was your flight?" asked the customs official
"Wonderful!" I replied.  "Both pilots were women so we arrived 45 minutes early."

"Ah, girl power!" he said

As I walked towards luggage claim I mused on the book I had read during the flight, Too Close to the Sun, about Denys Finch-Hatton who was played by Robert Redford in Out of Africa.   Flying was in its infancy in 1915 and it was considered to dangerous for women to fly as their hats might blow off and get entangled in the propellers...  Oh have we come a long way

Watch this space.
TTFN