Still alive and well. (Mail Address Included)

     Alright, it’s about high time I finished this post. It has been half written for a week and things just keep cropping up so that I never finish. Oh well. Today marks just about the one week mark for us in Tanzania and I cannot stress how different this country is from Kenya. Everything is green and lush, the air smells of moisture and vegetation, the weather is cool and mostly overcast in the morning, the terrain is mostly hills and farms, the people hardly know any English at all, all the while Kenya is seemingly the exact opposite. The staff here say that the shocking contrast is only due to the fact that we are here during the wet season and normally water is a problem, I find it extremely hard to believe.

     The camp itself is much more recent, there are five bandas divided into two. Three or four people are on each half. Each side has an attached bathroom, complete with a hot shower…an absolute luxury comparatively though I do miss team showers after playing soccer. The camp is much smaller, still fenced in but we are allowed to leave the fence and wander into the town or wherever else we want at any time. Such freedom did not exist at KBC, in fact our soccer field is at the primary school half a mile down the road. The staff here is just as fantastic and I do wish we had met them earlier so coming here would have been more akin to visiting old comrades rather than a repeat of KBC orientation. Unfortunately, we cannot see Kilimanjaro from where we are, but we do have a similarly fantastic view of the surrounding hills, as we are very near the summit of one of the larger ones.

     The schedule has been quite busy lately which is one of the reasons this post has taken so long. Since arriving, we have had three classes, one traveling lecture, two informational movies, a trip to Lake Manyara National Park, a field exercise, two assignments assigned, and a day trip to Ngorongoro Crater conservation area. Today we have class and packing for expedition. Tomorrow we leave for a five-day spell in Serengeti National Park (be jealous). After that we have one exam, then the remainder of our time will be spent slaving over our Directed Research projects (yes I know this is a fragment).

     In reality, there has just been way too much to talk about in this past week. I’m not even going to try. However, Ngorongoro is the most spectacular place and it would be a shame if I did not elaborate on our time spent there. Lion cubs. That is all.

     Alright fine, I guess more is needed. Ngorongoro crater is the 6^th largest unbroken crater in the world, and it’s extremely unique in that it harbors an extremely high diversity of flora and fauna. In fact, the crater has the highest concentration of large cats than any other protected area. There is also a somewhat healthy population of the extremely endangered black rhino in the area, of which we saw 6. The crater rim is such that some of the wildlife cannot move out of the crater area, presenting a rather unique ecosystem for studying predator-prey relations and human wildlife interactions (as the traditional Maasai still utilize the land for grazing cattle). As already mentioned, we saw rhino’s for the first time, as well as a cerval cat, multiple hyenas, wildebeest galore, elephants, and many lions. In fact, we were at one point 3 feet away from a lion and lioness as they slept o the side of the road. Very cool.

     But the highlight of the day belonged to a rather intimidating lioness with her two young cubs. We happened to spot them as the lioness was observing a large group of zebra and unfortunately for her, the zebra knew she was there. However, her cubs did not care much for hunting They decided to pass the time by playing with each other and trying to take down the mother (which was quite amusing to watch her annoyance build). Fifteen minutes observing them resulted in practically hundreds of photos taken by our group as well as a few videos (ask me about them when you see me next, they are worth seeing).

     So, I think I’m done writing for now. Oh one last note, I shaved my head. Oh and here's the Tanzanian mail address before I forget...

Kevin Sherman
SFS Center for Wildlife Management Studies, 
P.O. Box 304
KARATU, TANZANIA
East Africa
 

Cheers.

I regret to announce, this is the end.

     I am going now, and I bid you all a very fond farewell. Appropriate, as this is the last post you shall be reading from Kenya (worried were you?). Tomorrow at 6 AM we are loading up the land cruisers and undertaking a 6-7 hour journey across the border into Tanzania. As exciting as this sounds, it’s actually quite difficult to pack and leave willingly. None of the staff switch with us, which means for the second half of the semester we shall have totally new professors, camp staff, even SAM (Student Affairs Manager). I’ve even heard that the new camp doesn’t have its own football pitch nor volleyball court…not exactly pleasing news but we shall see what happens.

     That being said with a few random bits of news to note on, not a whole lot has been going on here the past week. Everyone was busy studying for exams, which went relatively well, and finishing up the last of the assignments, which was just annoying. Preliminary grades are in, so far so good on that front, and now it’s on to packing. Now to the random news: celebratory goat roast accompanied by KBC version of Party in the USA sung and written by us, last minute laundry scrambling, too much free time to speak of, last football game at the secondary school in which I re-pulled my quad, preparations for a D&D game that will easily pass the time on our border crossing trip (don’t judge), and I do believe that’s all I have.

     I also want to mention a gift idea that a friend and I came up with. One of the staff members here, by the name of Abdi, is a big fan of music. He once told me a story one night around the campfire about a past student, who for his going away gift, gave Abdi his little Ipod shuffle (the clip on kind). Abdi said that the little piece of hardware held about 300 songs and he listened to it during his work here. Apparently he even went and bought a semi-decent speaker set from Nairobi (for how much I didn’t ask) which he set up in his shop in Kimana so he could play his music all the time. According to his account, a month after getting the gift his store was robbed and everything was taken, including the IPod. This brought me to thinking, and as my friend Molly was sharing CD’s and music with him I decided to combine my gift and hers. Therefore my Ipod has now become his Ipod, with separate playlists of my music and Molly’s music for him to explore. As it was a gift to me, I have no attachment to it and I think he will be overjoyed and the gift will be greatly appreciated. Unfortunately I don’t have an extra set of headphones so I’ll have to work that kink out. Oh well.

     Anyways, that is just about it from the KBC. I’m really going to miss this place, the staff, and the mountain. It’s going to be very odd waking up the rest of the semester without Kilimanjaro in the distance.

Expedition to Tsavo

Hamjambo! Habarini ya asubuhi? Yes I am still alive, much to the demise of more than a few lions of Tsavo West National Park. If you’ve ever watched “The Ghost in the Darkness” we were basically camping for six days in the man-eaters’ territory. There were two other guys in my tent, which even though it was meant to be a four-person tent it was still a little cramped. Also on a random note, only about 10 people showered the whole time we were there (I may not be included in that number) and no guy shaved. So at the moment of writing this I have the makings of a pretty full, red-ish beard. Not sure whether I’m shaving it or not. Overall though, the trip was fantastic. Commence the novel writing.

Day 1-> We started out the trip at 6:30 AM on last Wednesday by driving to a hill overlooking a primary school and the crux of the three adjacent group ranches. After climbing the hill we had our last Wildlife Management lecture in Kenya on top, followed by climbing down to get mobbed by six year olds that were swarming our land cruisers. They have been dubbed Zombie Children in respect to the way they were pouring out from every direction as if we had unknowingly walked into a zombie movie. From there it was a two-hour game drive through Kuku Group Ranch and Tsavo Park to get to Mzima Springs. If this name isn’t familiar to you, I would suggest you look it up online. Mzima springs is the equivalent of a desert oasis, and it is equally gorgeous and teeming with life. There was a pack of about 10 hippos (pronounced e-po’s) relaxing in the water 60 yards off from the observation deck where we were standing, and they were massive. Not a huge fan of them (bad temperaments and all) but the hippos are a key stone species in that environment and without them, the whole system would fail…so I guess they are ok.

Day 2-> The whole day consisted of an excursion into the Chyulu hills for an Environmental Policy lecture on natural resource management of the Tsavo region. Probably the greatest/worst drive ever…great for those of us able to ride outside the hatches of our land cruisers, terrible for those who were driving. The roads [term used loosely] were about 30% rock, 70% pothole for about 2 hours until we hit Chyulu NP. From there the land cruisers morphed into submersibles as the elephant grass, which was about 2.5 meters in height, had completely overgrown the road. So it was basically a blind drive up and through the hills; over cliffs and whatnot that dropped about 400 feet mind you. It was a good drive for sure. And after the lecture near a KWS outpost, there was a hike up the neighboring large-ish hill. Unfortunately, I failed to remember to pack the machete or the spear, so the hike was basically a swim/walk through the grass up the hill. At the top, clear view across the range lands almost all the way to the foothills of Kilimanjaro and also you could see some of the volcanic craters of the surrounding hills. And to make it even better, on a branch of an acacia tree at the very top [I happened to have climbed the tree next to it unknowingly] was a chameleon, which are extremely rare.

Day 3->All day was spent at the camp (exciting I know), with a guest lecture from the head research scientist at Tsavo and a presentation by the students to the faculty of solutions we have come up with for the environmental problems in this region. No big deal.

Day 4->Gulia Rhino Sanctuary. Yup. With the exception that we didn’t see a rhino this day made my trip, I shall explain in a bit. We started off the day by driving to the sanctuary and meeting up with KWS representatives in charge of maintaining the enclosure. From there, with the help of a bit of radio telemetry, we drove to the relative location of a collared rhino in the hopes of spotting it. When it became apparent that the rhino was deep in the bush, we headed to a nearby guesthouse for a lecture. However, on the way there, we spotted a pack of guinea fowl on our left, which wasn’t anything too special, until a leopard burst out of the underbrush not ten yards from us. As my goal for expedition was to spot a leopard, this made my day completely. Unfortunately, the cat was too fast for anyone to even think of raising their cameras for a photo. Oh well. So onto the guesthouse, where the aforementioned KWS gave a lecture on how they monitor the rhino population in the sanctuary; only about 60 rhinos sadly remain of what used to be a population of about 300 due to poaching in the 1980’s… Afterwards, we went on an epic game drive through a region of the park called Rhino Valley and though we saw many different species, no rhinos. Kind of puts the magnitude of the population situation into perspective when there are no rhinos in a rhino sanctuary and Rhino Valley.

Day 5->The day began with a species count in Tsavo. There were four groups that divided certain regions of the park, going for a three hour game drive, recording every species seen and the habitat they were found in. I never realized how numerous Dik Diks are in Tsavo (look em up). Our car was driven by our mechanic here, Harrison [happened to be the driver of my car from Nairobi to KBC], and the man must be part eagle with what he could spot from behind the steering wheel. Let’s just say a jackal, lying down, in four feet of grass, 200 yards off. Mighty impressive for sure. From the game drive we went to a lodge, for a well deserved and much needed swim and relaxation period. Might I add that the back porch of this place had one heck of a view? I don’t know if it was artificial or not, but there was a watering hole about 60 yards off that was quite popular with the local wildlife. Upon leaving the lodge, we were alerted by one of the employees that lions were spotted not too far up ahead, and lo and behold, not 200 yards east, a lioness was lying under an acacia bush right next to the road. As strange as it seemed, she was relatively undisturbed by our vehicles. As we were looking around for the rest of the pride a herd of about 30 buffalo crossed the road 20 yards further along, and it became apparent that we were smack in the middle of a stalk. When the lioness stood up to circle the buffalo we drove further up, just in time to see two more lions moving around behind the pack. I was lucky enough to get a somewhat decent shot of the buffalo grazing with the lions moving in the background. Unfortunately, with the fading light we couldn’t stick around to see how the rest of the story played out. With all this excitement at the end of the day, a few of us decided to sleep around the camp fire that night to see if any visitors graced our campground with their presence. We didn’t see anything but there were lions roaring in the distance around 2 in the morning. Not a bad way to end expedition, as the next day only consisted of packing and rolling out. Sorry for the book.