Game Census!

So this was it the day I extended my stay here for. The game census was quite the experience with it beginning at 5 am in order to catch most of the animals before the hide into the bush. Now the count works like this. The conservancy is divided into 9 blocks and each block gets a vehicle with 3-4 people. Then in the morning till noon you drive around counting every mammal you see. However, with huge herds sometimes you have to approximate. I was put into block 7a with Kirk, Michael (the AV group staff member and a ranger), and June who's a Soysambu resident. We saw lots of impala, zebra, gazelles, and jackals through out our drive with the occasional giraffe, vervet monkey, and warthog. For this count we were not counting birds though because that is a separate census. At the end we added up all the animals and handed in the papers to the main office. Then everyone dispersed and went on with their day. It sounds not too exciting but I thought it was a lot of fun and when I get home in two days I'll be sure to tell more stories that I haven't mentioned yet.

It's All Fun and Games Until Some Slides in Cow Crap

This Friday I donated a few soccer balls to the local Soysambu soccer team. After pumping up the balls for them they invited me to join them that night for a game. I was very excited to play and the rest of the day went very slowly because of it. Later in the after noon before they came to pick me up for the game another volunteer named Kirk from Michigan arrived. He was so overwhelmed by the beauty of Soysambu after we took a walk down to the lake and was really happy to be here. When the soccer players came to pick me up later I invited Kirk to come play as well. He accepted. We originally thought we'd be walking to the field but when two bikers arrived to pick us up I realized we'd be sitting on the back of the bicycle for this muddy and intimidating ride. It wasn't too bad though we ended up walking a third of the distance due to mud anyway. Once the four of us arrived at the field we started to warm up with the other players. Of course I am not the best soccer player but they said I was good so that boosted my confidence. Once the game started I was having so much fun in the rain but because of the high altitude I was panting like a dog. Boy was sprinting for two hours difficult at this high of a point but at least I scored a goal. By the end of the game (by the way my team lost but I scored once) we were all wet, both by rain and sweat and then walked back to the RC. Once we arrived there the power was out but luckily dinner was ready and after dinner Kirk and I were ready to go to bed.

BUGGY RACE IN SOYSAMBU

A Day With Kat

Yesterday Kat Combes the CEO of the Conservancy took a friend of hers and I on a tour of Soysambu for some fun. It turned out to be the whole day though, which is fine because plans change constantly here so I went in with no expectations except for some hopes to see the shy Colobus Monkey. We drove to the headquarters for lunch but we took the long way in order to see more game and we DID. We saw a troop of 8 Colobus Monkeys when we passed through the Acacia forest. I was so happy. Then we drove around and saw the regular wildlife that I have already seen plenty of. After lunch at Kat's place we drove to her close friend Juliette's house where we chatted, had tea, and went for a nice walk. Luckily we missed the rain. Then we drove a bit and visited Gram and Yoyo's house another group of friends at Soysambu. There we ate a little bit and then talked about the conservancy. After this we drove back through the dark to the research center at night. O and I forgot to tell you earlier in this blog that we found a dead impala by the research center (unsure what the cause of death was) and we had to carry its gross dead body to the truck then we had to carry it again to a pit where dead animals go. Otherwise things are great here and my time here is unfortunately winding down so that is a bit disappointing.

Another Crazy Weekend!

Phew! This weekend like most of our weekends so far was quite hectic. If you read one of my earlier posts there was a dirt bike race in Soysambu in order to raise some money. Well this weekend there was another race but instead of dirt bikes they were some kind of buggy like vehicle. It all started on Saturday where we had to spend 4 hours registering the racers that were entering the conservancy. After that Kerry, Jackie (who is a volunteer in Nakuru visiting for the weekend), I decided to ask Duncan if we could go for a walk to the lake. He made some calls and after the three of us took a half an hour nap at the research center, our guide arrived. Our guide Laoso, was very nice although he didn't have much protection with him aside from a wooden pole which didn't seem very promising incase we had to face a buffalo. We luckily didn't get rained on during our hike to the lake and it wasn't too hot. Later after the hike we played some cards the three of us and then made eggs for dinner out of laziness and went to bed.

Sunday was a much more exciting and fun day. We were originally planned to sleep in till 9am but Kat offered to take us on a morning game drive through Soysambu so we decided to wake up early for that instead. This was an amazing game drive because the view of the lake and pelicans was so clear and not too hot and we saw over 20 Rothschild Giraffes as well. After the game drive Kat dropped us off at the rally/race where all the buggies were. There we were going to meet Duncan but he didn't arrive for about an hour so we killed the time by talking and going on a small stroll with Lord Delamere. Boy did he have a lot of stories about his history and the conservancy but he was also quite funny and a character for sure. We had some local hamburgers for lunch at the race, which were extremely delicious and talked to a bunch of the racers, but of course there were only six so it wasn't too much of a crowd. After the race we all cleaned up the trash there and Duncan and I found a warthog and zebra skull but we didn't carry them to the research center due to the fact that they were covered in safari ants which bite you badly. We all met together at the monkey bridge campsite for some food and drinks and then returned to the research center where we met Zoe who is a very well known giraffe researcher from the UK and her assistant Les from New Zealand. For the rest of the day I did some school work and played cards, made dinner, and went to bed in hope that I wouldn't wake up to the buffalo again.

Damn Buffalo!

Over the past few nights I have been woken up at 2am in the morning because a whole bunch of water buffalo keep grazing on the grass directly outside my room. It is cool but pretty loud and hard to sleep with. Oh well, nothing I can do about it.

This is what a water buffalo looks like and they are extremely dangerous due to their aggression.