Archive for February, 2009
Mommy and I
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
elephants in an Amboseli NP swamp
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Battling Gazelles
Monday, February 23rd, 2009
Thompson’s gazelles fighting for the right to procreate
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Amboseli Twisters
Saturday, February 21st, 2009
We thought it was a beginning of a tornado, but then another one appeared, and another. Pillars of copper sand twisted and grew with every spin, rising high into the sky. Some were, in diameter, as big as a decent sized hut, and as one of the twisters approached a village I almost jumped out of the car screaming for the villagers to take cover. But the villagers saw it coming, and as they seemed to be unbothered, I came down too and watched the twisting column sweep by, gaining speed and strength until the sand and wind had no more to give, and then it gradually wilted away – dissolving into the dusty landscape ready to feed the next dust devil.
The dirt twisters didn’t stop even when we reached the swamps of Amboseli with its many hyenas, elephants, wildebeests, and hundreds of different water birds – all with the backdrop of Mt. Kilimanjaro to set the mood. We dined at lodges absorbing the same view from different angles. No, we didn’t decide to splurge and treat ourselves to a meal that would wipe out our daily budget – that was already being done by the gas prices, but we realized that if we show up to review a lodge around noon, when the heat of midday keeps all the interesting wildlife hiding in the shade, a wise lodge manager will graciously invite us to sample the lodge’s buffet lunch and if he is really smart we won’t even have to pay for the drinks (alcoholic or not, drinks are not included in the food and lodging packages of the lodges) saving us another ten bucks for a cup of tea and a tiny bottle of Sprite.
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Sunset over Mt. Kilimanjaro
Friday, February 20th, 2009
only in February does the sun set right between the two peaks of this Africa’s highest mountain
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Mommy and I
Thursday, February 19th, 2009
vervet monkey
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Nairobi
Tuesday, February 17th, 2009
Coming out the gates of Nairobi airport was like coming out to a dying down protest where nobody got what they wanted but still refused to leave until they saw those who they protested for/against come out of the building. Endless banners, held low in hand or propped high on sticks, had people’s names and tour company names on them. Make a mistake of scanning the rows out of interest but not actually looking for your name badly scribbled down a piece of cardboard box and you’ll have a riot on your hands. “Sharon Levi?” – “Janica Kvech?” – “Mahmud Abdaru?” No? Sure you are not this person? Would you like to be? A quick exit is impossible, nor is a quiet moment to contemplate your next step. It doesn’t matter if you are standing there with your guidebook, in deep conversation with your travel mate, or already walking to your next destination – the determined (to get commission) helpers of Nairobi airport will not abandon you in a foreign country, minutes after you’ve landed, to go and fall into the hands of a more determined seller.
Still a bit sluggish from the couch time spent in Cape Town, we spent too long (two and a half days) in Nairobi getting a car and the papers allowing free entry and camping in the insanely expensive national parks of the country. Yeah, yeah, I’ve made the “insanely expensive” statement before when talking about Botswana’s parks, but in hindsight, and in view of the Kenyan tariffs, I must admit I was simply resenting Botswana’s bureaucrats who had to have a Minister’s permission to make a phone call, which they couldn’t get – because to get the permission to make a phone call they would need to make a phone call to the Minister, and to make a phone call… Impenetrable logic. But in any case, Kenya, though managing to stay on my good side with willing to oblige officials, is charging some forty to sixty dollars per day in a national park and that doesn’t include twenty five dollars for camping in a campsite with cold water (if any) and squat-over-a-hole bathrooms. Oh, and plus the car fee. On the bright side, many of the parks open before their visitors either classical African views or otherworldly scenes that are home to many spectacular creatures that most of the world hardly knows exist.
Even in Nairobi itself, there is a vast national park. High-rises loom in the background far beyond its plains, and just beyond its gates the city bustles with black exhaust fumes and electricity lines. Marabou storks, who know no boundaries, find the city billboards to be most suitable for nest building and people watching. They gawk at the pedestrians from above, with their bold heads buried deep into their shoulders of black feathers and a sharp beak protruding above the pink neck waddle.
Guess who am I? without looking at the gallery…
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Gotcha, Bitch!
Monday, February 16th, 2009
We procrastinated and ended up delaying our departure from Cape Town until two days before our flight to Nairobi. Kenya was going to be a whole different ball game, now that we were to wander the African bush without our trusty zoologist, so we decided to do a practice run to revive the old skills, on what grew to be familiar soil.
Madikwe National Reserve wasn’t on our priority list, but it is said to give great Kruger (which we didn’t find exceptionally great) a run for its money, so we gave it a shot. It didn’t disappoint. Elephants red from the soil, suckling wildebeest calves, and horny whydah bird males who demonstrated their ability to fly far and with ease never mind a long, heavy, tail – thus proving themselves as strong candidates for mating. The otherworldly creatures of Africa passed by us and I realized, with a smile, that the old trigger finger, though just a tad rusty, still works, and the trained eye, though spoiled by late mornings and days in front of the computer, is still sharp and misses nothing.
It was going to be just a successful rehashing of the old game drive so essential for our little project, but it became a triumphant last hunting expedition, the kind they always have in Discovery Chanel films where only on the last day they find that which has eluded them for months. In our production it was the evasive wild dog, and we got it! A whole pack of them! Fresh after a kill, they were rowdily and eagerly devouring their catch, though strictly in their pecking order, and then set off again in search of their next target.
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