One Long Game Drive

That's what my life has become - one long game drive. I honestly think that Elise and I should start a safari company - we seem to have crazy luck when it comes to spotting animals. Today we saw two male lions at extremely close range, two rhinos (separate spottings), and an elephant, just to name the exciting ones. Giraffe, buffalo, three kinds of zebra, gazelles of various kinds, warthogs, ostriches, oryx, hartebeest, waterbuck - these are run-of-the-mill. It's because we're always out at the right time, in the early morning before the sun has even pinked the clouds and the world is still in a greyish dawn haze, when you have to squint to see the road and the pale acacias in the distance might actually be the zebras you're searching for.

I know that I've been quite slack about reporting all of our adventures... There's just never any time, the schedule is hectic and we're way behind as it is. I think that sometime I'll just have to declare a day off. We still haven't had one... it's mostly because Dan proposed an unreasonable amount of samples for Elise's project, and we're struggling to meet the near-impossible task of getting them all. The zebras only drink once, in the morning, so we must be out at the crack of dawn EVERY morning in order to catch them. Any time off must thus be taken out of MY project, which we pursue in the afternoon. Bummer. But it's not so bad - we do, after all, see lions and rhinos and elephants on a regular basis! We're out before all the little tourist safari minibuses, and we chuckle to ourselves about how thrilled they would be to see the animals we see. Later in the day, any lions are immediately surrounded by two, three, four, or more minibuses, wageni (tourists) spilling out the top with their telephoto lenses.

I've been learning some Swahili - mostly from Patrick, Dan's assistant at Mpala. We were at Mpala for four days studying the Grevy's Zebras there, as the Grevy's at Sweetwaters are very irregular because of their low density. It was absolutely fascinating to watch them after studying plains and hybrid zebras so intensely for the previous three weeks - the differences were glaringly obvious. They are - not to be obvious, or anything - a completely different species! They're not just a funny-looking plains zebra, they are totally different. It was eye-opening, for sure. And now my eye is much more honed to see the Grevy's characteristics in the hybrid zebras.

We had an almost-too-close encounter with some lions the other day - we were driving along one of the roads on Sweetwaters with Patrick when we saw a female lion coming up the road ahead of us. We slowed to watch her, and she actually loped towards the car and right past my (closed) window, about two meters from my FACE. I turned backwards to look at her and noticed that THE TRUNK WAS OPEN and this lioness was staring in at me from very close range. I yelled at Patrick and we sped up, going past another lioness who just looked at us, a third lioness who ALSO ran towards the car and looked into the open trunk, and then a male lion who just looked at us. We drove about 60 meters past them and then Patrick jumped out to try and fix the trunk while I looked around for lions. I stared into those tawny eyes and saw one thing there: I AM GOING TO EAT YOU. I'd like to think that if a lion attacked me, I would do all kinds of heroic and adrenaline-fueled things to keep myself alive, but those eyes were positively hypnotic. Liquid gold, absolute control, one purpose in mind, and I was ready to roll over and paste a sign that said "prey" on my forehead. Gorgeous, though. Gorgeous.

It's very different staying at Sweetwaters than it was at Mpala. I'd love to tell you about the people we've been meeting - Manchester University MSc and grad students, Earthwatch volunteers, Dickson and Katharine who keep us fed, and all the people at Mpala (too many to mention right now).

Also - Elise and I have started a new project: The Guardian's (a british newspaper's) cryptic crossword! Excellent. Here's a clue for you all to think about: "Marsupial takes time to perch (5)." Elise just solved it... CAN YOU? Or "Trial of precious metal trade (6)." I solved that one yesterday. Really, I should be posting the ones we haven't solved yet, but our pride dictates that we solve them all ourselves. Further crossword updates forthcoming.

Tell me how you're all doing,

love
Jenn

Back in the K.E.N.Y.A.

Hello, everyone!

I have returned to Kenya. My days consist of following zebras around and writing down everything they do.

I currently write from the research office of the Sweetwaters Game Reserve - one of the two properties (the other being Ol Pejeta Ranch) which are soon to be combined into the Ol Pejeta Conservancy. I am here with Elise, another Princeton student, and Justine, Dan's assistant at Sweetwaters. She monitors the zebras for him year-round, and has for about three years, which means that when we drive past a herd of hundreds of seemingly identical zebras, she can call out, in her delightful Kenyan/British accent, “Oh, there's stallion 01560 and his harem! They lost a foal the other week.” She recognizes hundreds of zebras on the game reserve, and a fair number on the ranch as well.

There are many adventures to report - our 12-hour escapade in Dubai, or various vehicle mishaps, or interesting animal behaviour (I could relate hours upon hours of Very Interesting zebra behaviour, but I'm not sure you want to hear it!). All that, though, must be saved for a later date - we've been madly busy trying to sort out a good schedule for observation, and so far the days have been going from 6am-6pm, at which point I basically eat dinner, possibly shower, and then do a few little things before collapsing into bed. The office is a short drive from the research center - a five minute walk in the daylight, but it must be driven in the night, so that we don't get eaten by lions or trampled by elephants. (Highly unlikely, but possible. Thus, we drive). A short drive... But the last thing you want to do when you're tired. We can't really use it during the day because the research staff are in there, besides which we've been very busy.

As soon as I get some time/energy/coffee, though, I promise to write up some of the adventures that have happened. I'm doing very well, very happy, feeling exhausted with a healthy exhaustion at the end of the day. It's not the stressed out, caffeine-extended exhaustion of a day at Princeton... It's the comfortable, healthy exhaustion of a long day out in the sun and wind. We're going to Mpala for a week on the 11th so that I can get some control data on the Grevy's zebras there, so we'll see the rest of the Princeton gang as well as the other researchers there, and Elise will get to see some different countryside. Very exciting!

Before I know it, I'm sure I'll be back at home. The days are already flying past - who would have thought that looking at zebras for 6 hours straight (as we did today) could be so entertaining?

Love to you all,
Jenn