Saturday, December 30, 2006

Photos from Tanzania

We've just returned from Tanzania, and our stay in Marangu was fantastic. The hotel we stayed at (thanks aunt Mary & uncle Duncan!) was in a beautiful location with lush gardens, a great view of Kilimanjaro, and excellent rooms. We even discovered two tortoises in the gardens as we played croquet one afternoon! We hired a guide and traveled the surrounding area by foot, winding our way through banana plantations, up to beautiful waterfalls, and to the local village. Jenn & Jessica bought some local fabrics at the town market, and I even managed to buy a touque for cold winter nights back home (it's a special 'Kilimanjaro' touque).

The drive was excellent, and we marveled at how much better the roads are kept in Tanzania in comparison with Kenya. English was spoken less by the locals than in Kenya, but we found the people to be so friendly that it was hardly ever a problem. We had no trouble bringing our vehicle across the border, and were surprised to discover that the usual vehicle fees were waived for us because our stay was less than a week.

Link to pictures below:

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Off to Tanzania

We're off to Tanzania tomorrow until Dec 29th. We'll be staying at the base of Mt Kilimanjaro at the Marangu Hotel courtesy of my aunt Mary and uncle Duncan.

We will probably be out of internet reach until we return, but we'll have our cell phone with us in case anyone needs to reach us.

Here's a shot from Google Earth (Nairobi is just visible as the yellow tack at the top of the map):


Pictures coming soon!

Monday, December 25, 2006

Merry Christmas! Video from Aberdares

I threw this together quickly so it's a bit rough, but I hope you enjoy it!



Merry Christmas to all our friends and family back home and around the globe, and we look forward to seeing you in the new year!

Saturday, December 23, 2006

We're back!


The internet was down here at ILRI for a good portion of last week and then we were gone to the Aberdares for the past three days. Because of this we've been incommunicado for quite some time.

Jenn & Paul arrived last Sunday, and we've been enjoying lots of festive activities like board games, bocci ball, and drinking. I wrapped up most of my work early last week, so we decided to head off on a short safari before Christmas to the Aberdares. We'll spend Christmas here, and then we're off to Tanzania on the day after Boxing Day.

Above is a shot of Jess & I from this morning. Our quest for elephant was finally successful, and we had much better luck on this trip than on our previous one to the Aberdares! We should have some video up shortly, and in the meantime here is a link to some stills from the trip:

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Weekend Wrap-up

I see that it's been a week since our last post, and thing have indeed been quite busy here in Nairobi. At work I've been heading up an intensive experiment involving hours and hours at the microscope each day. In fact, I haven't really had a day off for quite some time until just recently. Now that the experiment is pretty much finished up I've been enjoying some relaxation around the house doing some reading, fixing up the car, and preparing for the arrival of Jenn & Paul (my sister and her fiancé). Jenn & Paul have been working in Cape Town, South Africa for a few months and have just finished a 3 week safari though Namibia and Botswana. They will be with us for 2 weeks and then heading to the Seychelles, and then to Uganda before they return to Canada.

The rains seem to have finally ceased here in Nairobi, and we have been enjoying the sunshine and 25 C weather that recent days have afforded us. Last Friday was the big ILRI Christmas party which was a great experience. Several tents were set up on one of the main areas here on campus, there was live music, lots of food, drinks, and good fun. Senior management played the women of ILRI in an exhibition game of soccer (with the women winning of course), and there was even a tug of war. Things here on campus now are quite quite as most people have gone on Christmas leave.

Jenn & Paul arrived today, and this week we are planning a return to the Aberdares! We wanted to show them something quite different than what they saw in Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa. We figured the Aberdares would be perfect, and plus now we are experts in the terrain!

We should have some pictures soon from the next couple of days soon. We depart for the Aberdares on Thursday and return on Saturday. Then we will be here for Christmas, and will then depart for Tanzania on the 27th. We will be at the foothills of Kilimanjaro for 2 days, and then will return back to Nairobi for the 29th.

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Blog Update

The blog has a few updates to the way it looks now, including a much-easier-to-navigate archive section for those of you who want to find older posts. There are also 'labels' for each post now which you can use to filter specific posts. For instance, if you just want to see the videos that have been posted on this blog just click "videos" under the "filters" section in the sidebar to the left.

Also, comments are now enabled (there were some issues before!), so posting comments shouldn't be an issue anymore. Comment away!

Work has been quite busy lately, so we have no new adventures to talk about. Jessica did a great job of heading up a sexual health workshop for some grade 8 students here which she's posted about below, and we've been getting into the Christmas spirit by decorating the house and listening to Christmas carols! Here are some shots of our lovely advent calendars, as made by Jessica (click to enlarge):



STD Workshop

Hello Everyone!

Nairobi is still great! Of course, it's not home. I miss everyone so much and, much to my surprise, I miss the cold weather! I look outside everyday expecting to find cloudy skies, drizzle, and biting winds but only see the odd white cloud amidst blue sky and no breeze. Really, I'm not trying to rub it in or anything but I really do miss the cold!

Anyways, like I may have told some of you, I was invited to do a sexual health workshop for grade 8's this passed Saturday. The kids came from a slum here in Nairobi called Mathare. There is an association here called the Spanish Speaking Women's Association and they help out at the slum by pretty much providing the whole school! The teachers, the building...everything! They're even sending some of the kids who are graduating from the primary school (1-8) to secondary school. Unlike how it is back home, parents have to pay for their kids to go to high school. It's really sad because most parents don't have the capital to do so and even if they do, they prioritize their kids and usually send the boys.

So, this Saturday I gave a half-day presentation on everything I know about reproductive health! It was...interesting! I got a lot of giggles when I pulled out the banana for my condom demo, but other than that the kids were really great. I didn't get a lot of questions but I chalked it up to the kids being shy. Plus, the questions I DID get were really good. There are some really smart kids in the group! I talked to this one boy, I think his name was John, and he said his favourite subject was mathematics. I really liked him. I was also challenged a bit by the teacher. He commented on my HIV/AIDS section on being a little dark, I think. I was trying to explain to the kids that viruses can't be cured and HIV happened to be one of them. So, of course if you contract HIV you can't get rid of it! I think the teacher wanted me to give the kids a little more...hope. Haha, I explained to him that I would try my best but wanted to give them the grim facts and perhaps scare them into using condoms!

Other than that, nothing more to report! I'm still having a good time! Now, I am excitedly anticipating Matt's little sister Jenn and her fiancee Paul to arrive in Nairobi for Christmas! We will be heading down to Tanzania for part of it as Matt and Jenn's Aunt Mary and Uncle Duncan has generously given us a two-night stay at a hotel near Kilimanjaro! I want to take this opportunity and thank them very much!! I'm looking very forward to it and can't wait to write about it next!

See you all soon!

Jess

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Story from the Aberdares!

This is a long one, but it should make some good bedtime reading....


The Aberdares was an adventure unlike any that Jessica & I have been on before. There were highs and there were lows, and in the end we certainly felt strengthened -- and at the same time slightly exhausted -- by the experience. Here is an account of an adventure that we will no doubt recall for years to come, for better or for worse!

DAY 1 - The High Plateau
Aberdare National Park is made up of two distinct sections: moorland, peaks and forest atop a high plateau, and an outcrop of dense rainforest known as the Salient. The park intrigued us for this reason, but also because it would be a good place to find elephants, a species which Jessica still has yet to see in the wild. We decided to approach the park from the Rift Valley to the west, and enter the park via its western entrance. This route would take us straight into the high plateau.

We were to visit the park just at the end of the 'short rain' season here in Kenya. This was a slight concern because several of the roads in the Aberdares shut down when things get really wet due to the muddy conditions and mudslides. As we approached the western entrance there was a slight drizzle, but fortunately it wasn't the torrential downpours that we've been experiencing quite frequently these days. As we departed the Rift Valley we were soon able to make out the tall peaks that make up the Aberdare mountain range; four of the tallest of which range from 3500m to 4000m. Rising from foothills to the park gate we found that the road turned into a beautiful paved mountain pass. With each 100 meters we gained in altitude the temperature seemed to drop a degree or so. Soon we reached the gate to the park, paid our park fees to the warden, and also picked up the recommended park map which is only available at the park entrances.

The temperature was colder than anything we've experienced in Kenya so far, and looking at my altimeter I noticed that we were way up at 3200 meters. I remembered being at this height at the basecamp on Mt. Ranier, and know first hand that it is certainly high enough to start feeling the effects of high altitude. The flora at this height was much different than anything we've previously encountered. We made our way to our camp first since it was around 4pm and we wanted to set things up in order to get a quick game drive in before sundown.

After setting up camp we hit the road and found several buffalo, duikers (a type of antelope), and reedbuck. We decided that we had just enough time to visit the nearby Chania waterfalls. The falls were absolutely gorgeous, and the recent rains meant that they were at full-flow: an incredible sight.

Just outside camp on our way back we stumbled upon another bonus: an encounter with a rare black (melanistic) serval cat. They are essentially like a small black panther, and seldom encountered in Kenya .

The wet conditions meant that making a fire was next to impossible, but nothing that a little gasoline couldn't rectify. We enjoyed shish-kabobs and hotdogs, and dined amongst several "eyes" watching around the campfire. The eyes belonged to buffalo and antelope (they light up with a greenish tint when illuminated with a flashlight), but also what we think were several hyenas (with a nice reddish-tint characteristic of predatory animals). This wasn't too much of a concern as long as the fire was going and we didn't stray to far from camp! That night we heard the barks of wild-dogs far off in the distance, and slept fairly well in our cozy little tent.

DAY 2 - Journey to the salient (or Decent from the Misty Mountains to the Shire)
We awoke to frigid conditions and quickly warmed ourselves with still-steaming coffee from our thermos at around 6:30am. We broke camp quite quickly as we were eager to start the day off and begin our quest for elephant. We returned to Chania falls for a quick breakfast (which was on the way) consisting of fruit salad, and also samosas warmed on the old engine block. Our goal for the day was to travel the 15 km or so it would take to get to the lowland area of the park known as the salient. It was there that we would have our greatest chance of finding elephants, in addition to other animals such as bongo antelope, wild bush pig, and rhinoceros. Our map that we had purchased at the entrance to the park, and which the warden had assured us was the best map available for the park, indicated that there were two roads leading to the salient. The southern route led to a large red mark on the map labeled "blockade" and then led outside of the park. The northern route was a bit longer, but ultimately led into the salient. Judging by the contour lines it appeared to be a beautiful mountain pass. When we got to the fork which separated the two we headed north and looked forward to avoiding having to exit the park and then re-entering it at another entry point, as the southern route would have required.

The northern route proved to be gorgeous for the first 7 km. It didn't look like it had been used for a quite some time, but we hadn't seen a single other vehicle since we had entered the park so this did not come as any sort of surprise. We winded up grassy hills, traversed past alpine lakes, and descended through dense bamboo forests. Occasionally the lakes which were flooded would run into the road, but they were easily bypassed and we thought nothing of it. Just before making our decent into the salient, and with only about 5 km to go, the conditions became slightly more muddy. We were in a small valley which acted as a sink, collecting rainwater and turning dirt to thick mud.

"Momentum" I told Jessica "is key in these sorts of conditions!" as we blasted across large mud ponds, and pools of water almost 2 feet deep. Battlecat handled incredibly well, and we took comfort that if we did get stuck our faithful 4x4 was so small that it would only take one of us to push it out. As we rounded a corner I saw a small hill, about 20 metres long, that looked quite slightly more muddy than any we had encountered so far. I stomped the accelerator to the floor and pondered the best path to take up the hill. About half way up the tires started spinning, and our progress came to a stand still. I reversed back down the hill, got a good running start, and floored it once again. We made it about one foot higher than our first attempt. Several more attempts got us to roughly the same spot and we found ourselves having to decide if we should turn around and backtrack to the southern route or jump into the mud and muscle Battlecat up the final 10 meters.

We decided that we had come too far to turn tail and retreat. There were elephants to see, and some muddy hill wasn't going to interfere with our plans! How hard would it be to get up this slope of oozing 6-inch mud? Sure, we'd get a little dirty and sweaty. but surely it wouldn't take too long?

Oh, how wrong we were....

The muddy hill of doom

We started off with simple pushing. Unfortunately Jessica had never driven the 4x4 before (by her own decision!) and wasn't feeling comfortable maneuvering Battlecat out of the dirty mess. Even still we gave it a try with her driving, but the correct combination and timing of the parking break, clutch, and gas pedal wasn't happening. She decided it was best if she pushed. I wasn't comfortable with her doing all the hard work, but we both decided that it wouldn't take too long, and I was better at getting old Battlecat out of the mud. The elephants were waiting.

We quickly realized that we were getting nowhere simply pushing, rocking, and trying to get a bite by rotating the steering wheel to the two extremes. We would need some sort of traction. I abandoned my "tread lightly" mentality, pulled out my leatherman, and quickly proceeded to hack down all the surrounding folliage in order to create a path of traction. It was slow going. We tried using rocks. It was even slower going. We went back to sticks & leaves.

At this point we were committed. There was no way in h
ell we would give up after all this work, and we were going to get up this $%&*#@& hill if it was going to take us till sundown!

And so it went. We placed sticks on all sides of the tires, pushed with all our might, and the car would move another foot or so before getting stuck again. Using this technique we moved at a rate of 2 feet every 10 minutes. The top of the hill got closer and closer, and our resolve became greater and greater. Finally, just as the steep part of the slope started to decrease in grade I could feel the car gain extra horizontal traction, and Jessica's push allowed me to roar to the top of the hill. A scream of joy escaped my lips, and I hopped out at the top to greet Jessica as she made her way to the top of the hill. She was crying with joy, and we promised to ourselves that we would never attempt this part of the Aberdares during the rainy season again. It had taken us 2 1/2 hours to reach the top, and we were ready to continue on.

Back on the road
According to our super-accurate park-purchased map the last 5 km of the northern route we were taking led to the northern border of the park where there is an exit gate and a road that parallels the park border before decending into the salient: our destination for the elephants. After the muddy hill debacle we were feeling pretty good about ourselves, and that we could get out of almost anything mother nature threw at us. Sure the day was pretty much spent (it was almost 4pm), but we had survived a difficult situation and we would have some great stories for years down the road. Our smiles faded as we approached the nothern gate only to discover that the road leading into the salient was closed (and had been for some time) and our only option was to exit the park at the gate, and then drive around to another entrance to the east.

We were not happy.

We drove to the gate to find that the park ranger guarding it was looking at us with quite dumbfounded expression. We stopped to say hi, and looking at our little 4x4 all he could say was "you came though in that?!". There was only one route we could have taken to get there, and we told the ranger that indeed it had been a tricky route, we had got stuck once, but that our little Battlecat was a strong car and we were quite proud of it. The ranger couldn't believe it. "You're the first car I've seen since a big Land Rover made it through about a month ago" he said.

The pride that we felt after finding out that we had just accomplished quite the off-road adventure -- even by Kenyan standards -- was slightly diminished by the fact that the route we'd have to take to get back inside the park was long and bumpy. We seriously contemplated giving up and just heading back to Nairobi, but we soon realized that we couldn't let the Aberdares defeat us! We still hadn't seen an elephant yet, and we refused to go home with our tail between our legs.

By the time we got to the next entrance to the park it was almost 6pm and the sun would soon go down. Our campsite wasn't too far away, and we barreled past huge wild bushpigs and numerous antelope as we raced the suns decent to the horizon. We arrived to find a much nicer campsite than where we had stayed the previous night. It was called 'Bongo Campsite' (after the rare 'Bongo' antelope) and is aptly named, for it is an antelope grazing pasture. It had nice short grass, and antelopes all over. We set up the tent and had a fire going in record time.

There were no red-tinted eyes glowing at us around the campfire that night, just green ones indicating antelope and buffalo. Because of this, and also the nice soft ground, we slept very well.

DAY 3 - The Quest for Elephant Continues...
We awoke in the morning to find sunny skies and warm conditions: the exact opposite of the previous morning. We reasoned that since the conditions were in our favour, today would certainly be the day that we would find our elephants. To further lift our spirits, a black rhinoceros (rare in these parts compared with the white rhinoceros) trotted out the woods not 30 meters from us, turned the corner, and headed hack into some bushes a little further down the way as we packed the tent up. It was a good sign indeed.

The roads in the salient criss-cross the park in an east-to-west fashion and we decided to make use of this feature by doing a 'sweep' of the park in order to maximize our chance of finding elephant. We would start at the southern end of the park where we were camping and criss-cross our way until we made it to the northern end. In this way we would transect the park about 6 times from east to west.

As mentioned before, the Aberdares is much different than the classical savannah parks of Kenya. It is quite hilly and densely vegetated. The first road we found ourselves on followed a beautiful ridge which paralleled a river. It was absolutely gorgeous and gave us a great vantage point to spot potential elephants. Mt Kenya broke through the clouds for a short period of time. We set off after breakfast feeling rejuvinated, inspired, and ready to spot some elephants.

As we worked our way from south to north we spotted numerous baboons, antelopes, buffalo, and bush pigs. We passed by gorgeous watering holes full of animals that we thought would be perfect drinking spots for elephants. But alas there were none to be seen.

We were also looking for other signs of elephant to assist our search. We had so far come across lots of elephant dropping, but unfortunately none of them were fresh. It wasn't until we reached the northernmost road in the park, the only road we hadn't checked yet, that we found fresh elephant tracks. The forest is dense in this part of the salient, but we followed these tracks with determination. They followed the road for some while, and then trailed into the forest. The forest was so thick we had no chance of spotting them, so we continued down the road in hopes that they might have emerged in order to cross the road again. Sure enough we picked up some more fresh tracks, but again they trailed into the forest, this time on the other side of the road. We cut the engine to attempt to hear any elephant sounds coming from the forest. Nothing.

Unfortunately it was getting to about midday by this point, and about time that we should be leaving in order to reach Nairobi at a good hour. Our quest for elephant was unsuccessful. We checked at the main gate with the rangers to inquire about elephant sightings so far that day. "They've been hiding in the forest recently" they told us. That would explain our difficulty in finding them.

All was not lost however. We had had a great adventure, seen numerous wildlife, and experienced a part of Kenya that is seldomly visited by western tourists. We felt stronger after our bout with the mud hill, and we had learned way more about safari in Africa than we could have ever expected. We accepted that it simply wasn't our time for spotting elephant, departed the gate, and headed south for Nairobi.

Monday, December 04, 2006

Update on our adopted elephant

The latest update on Galdessa from The David Sheldrick website:

"Little Galdessa made the Keepers very happy today, because he has been running to his blanket to take his milk eagerly, previously having been a very reluctant feeder because his face was so sore."

And a recent shot:


It turns out we mis-sexed our baby! She is actually a he, and was named a rather feminine name after the camp at which he was found. On the website there is all sorts of information and pictures about where they found Galdessa, the rescue, and how he is currently doing. Click on the picture of Galdessa being transfered to Nairobi below for a direct link:

Friday, December 01, 2006

Shots from the Aberdares adventure!



Story to come...

Update on Galdessa (our adopted elephant):
Our friend who adopted an elephant for us as a gift visited the rehabilitation center while we were in the Aberdares, and she is happy to report that Galdessa is doing excellent. She is now used to the keepers so she can join the other babies out of the stable. We'll be visiting her soon and getting some photos of her up on the blog.

Sorry so long no post!

Hello Everyone!

I know Matt is doing all the blogging so I thought I'd just write something so you all knew I was still alive! Things are going well here...Matt and I just came back from Aberdares National Park. It was...interesting! Haha, I promised Matt I would let him do the post on our adventures there so you'll have to wait!

Work is going well here though...I'm really busy. I started my own project no too long ago and am going full steam ahead with it. STD research doesn't seem to be happening right now unfortunately but I am still trying. I'll keep you all updated on that. Anyways, I must go now but I promise to get in touch on a more frequent basis from now on!

- Jess

Monday, November 27, 2006

Off to the Aberdares!

I have a busy two weeks coming up at work where it looks like I will have few days off, so we have decided to go on a 2-3 day safari to Aberdare National Park which is in a mountainous region north of Nairobi.

The park is quite different from other parks found in Kenya. It encloses two different environments: moorland, peaks and forest atop a high plateau, and an outcrop of dense rainforest known as the Salient. Because of this the park is in stark contrast to the open savannah of Amboseli, Masai Mara, and previous parks we've been to.

Aberdare National Park was formed in 1950 to protect the forested slopes and moors of the Aberdare Mountains (the 4 main peaks in the park range from 3500m to 4000m). The dominant species are elephant (which we still have yet to see in the wild) and buffalo, but there are also chances of seeing black rhinos, spotted hyenas, bongo antelope, bush pigs, and black leopards! The terrain however is a bit rough, and the roads can get quite muddy when there is a lot of rain. Because of this the park is rarely visited by safari companies, and even less by individual travelers! Of course this is very enticing to us.... (and Battlecat of course).

Here is a shot from Google Earth, with just a bit of the data from Tracks4Africa overlayed. The Rift Valley is to the east, and you can see the park (outlined in green) is all up in the lush vegetation of the hills (click to enlarge).


On top of the mammals I just mentioned there are hundreds of bird species present, and in general the park has varieties of fauna, flora, and scenery not found elsewhere in east Africa. We are especially looking forward to the Gura falls, which drop 300m down into the thick forest.

We'll be back on Thursday!

Sunday, November 26, 2006

Another Video! Trip to Lake Magadi

Two videos in one day! This is just a short one from a day trip last weekend southwest of Nairobi...

Video: Trip to Kapiti Ranch

For some reason I was able to upload today from our internet connection here at the house. I actually haven't tried an upload since we've moved into the new place, so perhaps the connection is slightly more reliable? Either way, here is the clip!

Saturday, November 25, 2006

New photos

Here are some random shots from the past couple of weeks. I have videos completed for our Kapiti trip and for our Lake Magadi trip but unfortunately the only computer I can upload them from isn't available till Wednesday. They should be up by Thursday!

Navigation here just got a whole lot easier!

Navigation here in East Africa just got a whole lot easier because Google has just released a new overlay in Google Earth called Tracks4Africa. I was so excited I had to blog about it! Apparently the data layer comes from 6 years of work from the fine people at Tracks4Africa, a non-profit organization dedicated to the accurate mapping of off the road tracks and destination in Africa.

Here is an example of what I've been using to plot out routes on our GPS (here, our recent trip to Hells Gate National Park, click to enlarge):


And now adding the Tracks4Africa overlay in Google earth, you get the following (click to enlarge):


It's not just the main roads that lead to the park which are overlaid, but even the secondary, off-road, and hiking tracks! On top of that there are point of interest, national park boundaries, lodges, gas stations..... it's incredible. In the picture above, Hells Gate is at the bottom left, Lake Nakuru is on the top left, and our next destination, Aberdares National Park, is just barely visible on the right.

More on Google earth here.
And more on Tracks4Africa here.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

We are proud new parents!

We are happy to announce that we are the proud new parents of a beautiful baby girl! She has a nose like her father, and the appetite of her mother.... and we couldn't be more happy. Here is a copy of the "birth certificate":


And here is a shot of our new bundle of joy:



Our good friend Emma, who is from Ireland and doing some post-doc work here at ILRI, adopted an orphaned elephant at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust here in Nairobi. It's a center where they rehabilitate baby elephants that have been orphaned in the wild. Anyhow, she invited us to visit her elephant tonight (foster parents get to come in at a special time and get to see the elephants up close and personal). As a gift she ended up adopting one for us too, and we now find ourselves parents of a baby elephant!

Her name is Galdessa, and actually the shot above isn't her, but it is one in an adjacent pen which is about 15months old or so. Ours is only 3 months so it is much smaller! It was airlifted just today from Tsavo National Park where it was found in a generator shed by one of the park staff. Since it has only arrived we didn't spend too much time with it because it is still a little spooked from the trauma of the past 24 hours. We'll have some shots of her when we go back to check on her progress in about a week or so.

As her "foster parents" we get continuous email updates about her progress. Also we get the special privilege of coming in after viewing hours and actually being able to pet her and generally spend some time getting to know her (something which you can't do during regular hours!). Anyhow, we look forward to blogging about her progress. As I mentioned, she seems to have suffered some trauma over the past while, so we hope that she settles into her new surroundings.

The link below is for the project's website, and it has some great information:

Farewell Dr Lee PhD!!


A good colleague of ours is departing back to South Korea today after a 3 month stay here at ILRI. We have enjoyed lots of good times with Lee, and just last night the three of us even survived an encounter with a corrupt Kenyan policeman that wanted to take us the courthouse on bogus charges!!! (more on that later!). Lee and I shared an office together, and he will definitely be missed! Best of luck Lee, and we'll see you at the sauna in Korea!

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Off to Africa Night!

It's been a busy week. Tonight is "Africa Night" here at ILRI, and as you can see there is a strict dress code in place!

More pictures to come...

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Back from Kapiti


We stayed at an ILRI-owned ranch for the weekend called 'Kapiti'. It's a fantastic old colonial house with several wings, and secret tunnels connecting them.


The area surrounding has some great wildlife, and we should have some video up soon. We had a whole lot of rain during the night, so this mornings game drive was a muddy one and Battlecat is filthy!


The drive yesterday was gorgeous. We ascended a small peak on a nice little dirt road in order to spot game down below. We headed down towards where it looked like the most animals were, and ended up having tea amongst a group of 38 giraffes! We also saw lots of zebra, gazelle, hartebeest, jackal, wildebeest, and warthog. It was a great trip, and we look forward to returning since ILRI staff get to stay there at a very reasonable rate.

We should hopefully have some video posted early this week...

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Two adventures for the weekend!

We have two one grand adventures planned for the weekend. First, a day trip where we return to the Rift Valley once again to the southern-most lake in the valley called Lake Magadi (something came up at work today, so we're going to save Lake Magadi for next week!). Second, a two day trip to the ILRI-owned ranch in Kapiti. Here is a shot from Google earth that shows lake Magadi to the left, and Kapiti to the right (click to enlarge):


Lake Magadi:
During the dry season, Lake Magadi is 80% covered by soda and is well known for its wading birds, including flamingos. It is a saline, alkaline lake, approximately 100 square kilometers in size, which is made up of a dense sodium carbonate brine. In places, the salt is up to 40 m thick. The lake is recharged mainly by saline hot springs (up to about 80°C), and there is a single species of fish, a cichlid called Alcolapia grahami, that inhabits the hot, highly alkaline waters of this lake basin. The lake is featured in the film The Constant Gardener, although in the film the shots are supposed to be at Lake Turkana.

Kapiti:
We don't know too much about Kapiti, other than the fact that it's a ranch that ILRI owns and there's lots of animals there. In fact, some lions apparently got into the sheep pens not too long ago and killed quite a few of them! It's not too far away from Nairobi, and the road is good getting there. We were invited to come by some friends here at ILRI, and we couldn't pass it up!

Pictures/video to come!!!

update: We still managed to have the afternoon off today, so instead of Magadi we got some supplies at the local market. One new piece of kit that we picked up is a spotlight for our 4x4 (which is henceforth named 'Battlecat'). One of the really cool things to do when on safari is not just day trips, but also night trips because it's a whole different game at nighttime. You have to have a spotlight though, cause that's how you find animals and also identify them from afar (ie predators eyes tend to reflect a bit different colour than grazers). Anyway, where we're going tomorrow is apparently very good for night trips, so we're excited to have the new gear. It's also probably our best chance of finding lions since they're often hard to spot during the daytime cause they're hiding out from the heat. Hopefully we'll have some good video ready for posting sometime next week (I've now figured out a way to get footage from our real video camera online instead of our digital camera, so the quality should be much better!).

Our new house:
Also, here are just a few shots of our new place for those interested:

This is the view coming down the stairs into the living room & dining room:


And this looking across the dining room into the kitchen:


And this is looking up the stairs:

I Felt the Rain Down in Africa...

Hello All!

So I thought I was leaving the West Coast and its rain behind...but...I was wrong. Right now Nairobi is getting a taste of the "short rainy season" where there are huge dumps of rain all day in short or long spurts. The positive side is that it's still quite warm except at night when it can get quite cold! I know what you must be thinking, "This doesn't sound like African weather! Kenya is situated on the equator for gosh sakes!" But I assure you it rains every day and gets cold every night! My only consolation is that it will get smoking hot in December/January...temperature should rise up to about 35 degrees!

In other news, Matt and I have been upgraded to a house at ILRI! It's quite a bit larger with two bedrooms, a living room, dining room, and huge kitchen with more cabinet and counter space than I can use! I felt kind of reluctant to move in at first because it's so huge! We can hardly fill it up with our meagre possessions and I'm sure as heck not about to buy a whole bunch of stuff to fill it up with! So Matt and I are having to listen to our echoes every time we talk for the time being.

I'm hoping to visit the Masaii Market soon so we can try and find some cheap decorative things to place about the house...not to mention try and find an Africa get up that I can wear to Africa night! I'm really looking forward to it! It's an annual soiree that they have here at ILRI where everyone dresses up in African clothing and there's a night of dancing, entertainment and games! Excellent! And, even though Matt and I haven't been out safariing for a while, we're definitely still having fun meeting people and going out for meals. In fact, we went out to a restaurant yesterday where I tried Eland for the first time! It was delicious! So as you can see, life continues on in Kenya for us! We really miss everyone, though, and I can't wait to come to Mexico and see some of you! YAY!! Well, will post again soon...I promise!

Monday, November 06, 2006

Moving on up...

Well, we have no adventures to report on from the weekend unfortunately. We're thinking of getting away for a 3 day trip this weekend down towards the Tanzanian border however, so we'll keep you posted!

Saturday was another big day for me at work because I had to "harvest" my remaining tryp-infected mice in my current project which is now almost coming to a close. The project isn't quite complete, but we are at a bit of a roadblock until some additional reagents arrive from the UK at the end of the month. I'm now moving on to two new and very interesting projects. One involves looking at a correlation that has been found between trypanosome-resistant mice and their physical size. The other involves looking at several strains of congenic (mice which genetically only differ at one genetic locus) mice and analyzing their response to trypanosome-infection. Both projects involve gene expression and immunology -- which are my two primary fields of interest -- and so I'm quite excited to get started on them.

In other news, we have been 'upgraded' here at ILRI with regards to our accommodations! We're moving from our hostel room into one of the staff houses tomorrow, and we're looking forward to having lots more space (especially in the kitchen!). We'll still be on campus, and the house is actually only about 200 meters from where we're currently staying. It's a two bedroom house, so that means that anyone coming to visit gets their own room! That means you Jenn & Paul, Chris, and Chelsea (and whoever else might be coming to Nairobi)! There's a garden area in the back, a fireplace, large living room with cathedral ceiling, dining room, and a much more functional kitchen than what we're currently using.

I also spent the weekend getting more familiar with the mechanics of our new 4x4. I have to say that I'm pretty happy with the purchase so far (knock on wood), and I'm excited to get it equipped for our planned longer-term adventures. So far we already have two spare tires, tools, and an extra jack. I have to say that the GPS we brought has already got us out of a few tricky navigational situations, so it too is indispensable. I'm currently sizing up some 20 L jerry cans which will mount on either side of the spare tire on the roof rack, and we will also need a fire extinguisher (not just for fires, but lions too!) and jumper cables. The goal that we still have in mind is to make it to a park in southern Tanzania called 'Ruaha'. It is supposed to be incredible, but quite a bit more remote than some of the parks in the north of Tanzania. Still lots more research to do, but we hope it will be a go.

That's about it for now!

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Video: Trip to Lake Nakuru National Park



(Sorry about the flying snakes in the video.... next time I'll make sure the lens is clean!)

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

The Elusive White Rhino Adventure

It was another early morning start for Matt and I this last Saturday. This time we went a little further north to Nakuru, Kenya's 4th largest city. Just south of Nakuru is Lake Nakuru which is home to even more wildlife than Lake Naivasha which Matt and I visited the weekend before. We went in hopes of adding flamingo, waterbuck, and the famous white rhino to our growing list of sighted wildlife.

We arrived in Nakuru bright and early to go get supplies for our weekend trek. Nakuru is a bustling town and is definitely a larger city. It is a popular destination for tourists as the neighbouring lake is such a good spot for wildlife viewing. However, like most things in Kenya, things aren't very well marked and we end up spending a while trying to find the main gate to the park! I have to admit, it is mostly my fault as I am not used to navigating and don't co-operate well when under pressure. But, like good explorers we trudged on and did finally find the park!

Once we arrived at the gate we were greeted by Vervet monkeys. Little things with mostly grey fur except a ring of white surrounding their black faces. They were very curious and we even ended up seeing some climbing on people's cars! Once we got in, we immediately saw a huge waterbuck male! Very much like a larger deer with dark brown fur....and one pair of large horns...hmmm...so not very much like a large deer but I think we have some pictures of some! Matt and I then drove up to the banda which we would be staying in. They're sort of like circular huts with thatched roofs. Very...rustic. At this point I think I ended up taking a nap because I was feeling a bit tired and cranky. I believe it was from the "roads" that led up to Nakuru. Although, I don't think I would call them "roads"...more like bits of cement in an immense field of potholes the size of Lake Nakuru itself. Nonetheless, after the break Matt and I set out and had an awesome wildlife viewing. We saw all the previous animals...zebra, warthog, Thomson and Grant's gazelles and LOADS of baboons! They were everywhere! I have to say I really enjoy watching primates though! They're very uninhibited and remind me of what humans might be like if we weren't restricted by the rules of being in polite society.

After some time, Matt and I wandered around to the South side of the lake where we had a little drink by a flock of flamingoes. The lake edge was like a moonscape because it was all dry and all was left was white. We continued by the water's edge and found our first white rhino! SO BIG!! And skittish! There was a long procession of vehicles though, so after we waited for them to pass, Matt got out of the car to get a shot. The rhino didn't really like this though and charged in the other direction. He then faced Matt as if he was going to charge at us! But, ended up doing nothing. Wuss. Haha, no just kidding. It's actually quite scary being in the presence of wild animals...you never know what they're going to do!

Anyways, we ended the day by crashing into a local swanky lodge located inside the park. While driving there we ended up seeing our first predatory animal: a spotted hyena. He was just walking up the road when we spotten us and continued walking right by us in the car...amazing! Anyhow, when we got to the lodge, we lounged outside their very spacious bar, drinking Tusker and Pina Coladas. The tables and chairs were then cleared for some traditional African dancing. It was quite the treat. Matt and I finished our "African" experience at the lodge in the restaurant at an all-you-can eat buffet. SCRUMPTIOUS! Then, we left the lodge and went back to our meager banda. Haha...it was pretty neat!

Well, I'm sure you've read enough by now so I'll leave you there. I'll keep you posted on our other trips in the future. Right now I am working on getting some STD research work and am making some progress! Keep reading to see what happens....Miss you all and will see you soon!

Jessica

Sunday, October 29, 2006

Photos from Lake Nakuru National Park

We've returned from our maiden voyage in our new 4x4, and the new steed definitely did well. The last 30 km or so of the road getting to Nakuru was bumpy to say the least, and the Suzuki performed great. The park itself was incredible, and there were lots and lots of animals to be seen. Some of the new species that we saw: White Rhino, Waterbuck, Ostrich, Spotted Hyena, and Vervet Monkeys.

Right now I'm pretty tired from the drive back, and just getting caught up on some work but we'll post some stories tomorrow. Video in a few days hopefully!

Click the link below to go directly to the album:


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Also, I put a few links in the side bar on the right (you might need to refresh your browser) for those of you who wanted to know more about the work that we are doing here in Nairobi!

Friday, October 27, 2006

Back on Sunday!

We got our new 4x4 today! We took it for a test drive, and everything seems to be going well with it. So we're off to Lake Nakuru for the weekend, and should be back before 6pm our time on Sunday.

Pictures coming soon!

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Heading back to the Rift Valley in our new 4x4!

We have finally secured ourselves a 4x4, and we're going to be testing it out this weekend (assuming we get our insurance sorted before then) on a trip back up north to the Rift Valley. It's a 1993 Suzuki Sierra, which is similar to the Suzuki SJ's or Samurai's on the North American market. Sort of like a small Jeep. I'll have a some pictures/video of it up soon, but for now here's a shot that I pulled off the internet which is somewhat similar:

The roof on ours is quite a bit taller, with small windows above the rear windows. Also, there is a cargo rack on top for storage and an extra spare tire. It's a small little 4x4, but it's supposed to be great off road, and also very good on gas.

This time we will be going a little bit further than last week to a lake called Lake Nakuru. It's about 150km away from Nairobi, and is just north of Lake Naivasha where we were last weekend. The lake is famous for it's numerous flamingo which come to the lake to feed on the abundant algae which thrive in its warm alkaline waters. There is a larger variety of animals at this park than at Hells Gate (where we were last week), and we're hoping to see Rhino, leopards, lions, waterbuck, and possibly even pythons! Here's a satelite photo of the park, and you can see Lake Naivasha just beyond it (looking south), and Nairobi (where the 4 thumbtacks are) at the top middle of the photo:


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In other news, this Friday is a big day for me as I will be sacrificing half of my 40 lab mice to test their blood for specific type of bacterial toxin. We infected them with the parasite that causes African Sleeping Sickness about a week and a half ago, and the whole experiment is now two weeks in the making. Hopefully the results are good! Since we are testing for bacteria in their blood, the big risk is contamination during the experimental procedure which could lead to false-positive results. That's what we have controls for though, but if contamination does occur then the past two weeks will be lost!


Monday, October 23, 2006

Video: Trip to Hells Gate National Park

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Note: Sorry about the pixelated-ness of these videos. We are soon going to be experimenting with some new software, which should allow us to use our DVD Handicam instead of our little digital camera for video.

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Hell's Gate

Our first wildlife adventure was one of the best things I've ever experienced! I was so excited I could hardly contain myself! Matt and I went up north of Nairobi to lake Naivasha, which is about an hour's car ride away. Anyhow, there's a wildlife park there called Hell's Gate National Park and is located in Africa's Rift Valley.

After going to the town of Naivasha to stock up on supplies, we showed up at the gate to the park where we found a rather large gathering of cars. I guess Matt and I didn't pick the best time to go as this past Friday was a national holiday (Kenyatta Day). But, I volunteered Matt to go up in line as he was a much more intimidating presence than I was! That didn't stop people from trying to budge in front though! We waited a good hour at the gate I think before we entered the park! It was crazy! Once we did get in though, we were surrounded by steep cliffs on either side of us and what seemed to be endless grasslands dotted with low shrubs and the odd Acacia tree. Our first animal sighting was zebra! It was so exciting to know that the animals were wild and free to roam! Matt and I then turned off the main trail to our camp site which was actually situated midway up the cliffs. On our way up we spotted a small family of warthogs, a mother and 3 of her little children! So cute! They were very skittish though and it was hard to get a good picture of them. After setting up camp, we went back down to finish the circuit of the park. That day we ended up seeing zebra, warthogs, gazelles, hartebeests, and elands. Then towards the end of the day we ended up seeing my first giraffe! So impressive! And so large! I didn't expect them to be so big. It was almost like stumbling upon a brontosaurus or something.

The next day, Matt and I woke up early to get a good sunrise in and to finish the other side of the park. There, we ran into African buffalo, more of everything we saw yesterday and a family of giraffes! We were able to get quite close...it was amazing! Then we took a drive through a shrub/acacia forest. It was beautiful. On our way out we thought the new animal sightings were over, when we looked to our left and saw a whole field of babboons! It was insane! There was even a baby riding on one of the mothers' backs! So funny!

All in all, it was a pretty amazing trip. I can't wait for all our other future trips! I think the next adventure will be at Nakura National Park! I'll keep you all posted! Miss all of you and hope you're all doing well!!

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Off to the Rift Valley!

We decided today that it will be much easier to search for cars if we rent a car for a couple days so that we can go to all the dealerships, bulletin boards, etc. So we phoned up an ILRI-recommended rental place, and we got a great deal on a small sedan. They even came and dropped it off for us here at ILRI. I've never driven a right-wheel car before, so we took a few spins around the campus for practice, and then we were off! It was pretty easy to get used to the left hand shifting, and other idiosyncrasies of a right-wheel drive car. The blinker/wiper discrepancy was a bit weird at first, but then I realized that no one here signals anyway, so I gave up on it all together!

We got a lot accomplished today in the car search, and we've got some very good leads I think. Tomorrow is a holiday, so we've decided to head up north towards Lake Naivasha. We're going to camp just south of the lake at a national park, which is right in the middle of the rift valley (at least it looks like it is on Google Earth):


It's supposed to be an incredible place, so hopefully I've have some shots/video up soon!

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Connor and the quest for a vehicle


We've now been in Nairobi for almost two weeks, and we do not yet have any pictures of wildlife other than cow, goat, mice, or sheep! Our lack of wildlife viewing and adventure is going to have to change very soon or else we're going to get a bit stir-crazy I think. We have had a bit of wildlife viewing in the form of a new roommate named Connor. I saw Connor on the very first night that we got here just by the door of our new residence. He's a local, and likes to eat lots. I didn't see him for about a week and a half, and then only a few days ago he moved into our room. Jessica was a little hesitant -- and even a bit frightened -- at first, but I explained to her that Connor moving in was a good thing because he could help out with the household chores. Namely, getting rid of the mosquitos which never cease in their craving for Jessica's sweet blood.

Speaking of which, here is a shot of Jessica in her mosquito-proof fortress:


And, here is a picture of our new roommate, Connor:


Connor is now a proud member of the family, and he is welcome in our house anytime.

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Anyhow, back to the wildlife sightings. Right now, our wildlife viewing is contingent upon us securing a car. So far we've been focusing on private listings, and notice boards that you find in shopping areas. These avenues have produced a few leads, but nothing too promising. This weekend coming up is a long weekend, and we are dying to get away to one of the nearby lakes, or wildlife areas. This desire has given us the motivation that we really need in order to find ourselves a vehicle, and we are both going to take Thursday off so that we can search some of the dealerships surrounding Nairobi which specializing in importing vehicles from Japan. Toyota, Mitsubishi ... and at relatively cheap prices. So! Hopefully we will soon be planning our first roadtrip!

Some more shots:

Here is another shot from the pastures at the southern end of the campus:


Here are some goats and myself:


The Jacaranda trees here are in full bloom right now: