Crescent Island

The crescent view of Crescent Island

Well it was a rougher week than usual--our house was struck by a plague of GI illnesses, with me being the most unlucky resident as I was the first to get it, and the last to get it. I got it twice!! So after many days of puking and eating nothing but bread, crackers, and ramen (Kenyans like ramen! Thank goodness for ramen for my poor sad belly!) and only making it to the hospital for 1.5 days, I was ready to get OUT OF THE HOUSE and do something this past Saturday.

Impalas in the mist

Despite the rain, we opted for a 'walking safari' of nearby Crescent Island. Crescent Island is really a peninsula jutting out into Lake Naivasha, but apparently depending on the water level of the lake you lose the ability to drive onto it, so officially it's an island? Apparently one can find more animals per square acre on the island than any national park, and thus many movie scenes were filmed there (including Out of Africa). Today it's a privately owned nature preserve/animal sanctuary, with wild beasties free to roam on and off the property from the surrounding areas. Apparently local giraffes regularly return to give birth here, as it's mostly protected from predators (hyenas often come and go under the cover of darkness, but nothing too scary).

First animal sighting:
SLUG!!!!!!

Second animal sighting: hippo skull!
(this was SO HEAVY. Hippos be strong)

We were free to roam about the island without a guide, as there were no buffalo around (thank goodness! we were still recovering from our scare on Longonot) and all the hippos were back in the swampy lagoon. Additionally, as it was rainy, we were unlike to run into the 30-foot pythons that love to slither around and bask in the sunshine. Being Seattlites and not deterred by the rain, we had the island mostly to ourselves!

Beautiful walk in the rain

There were a million wildebeest out here, which is funny since they were all supposed to be migrating somewhere else this time of year! We wandered into the middle of a giant herd at one point, but they didn't seem to mind too much. They'd move away to graze elsewhere when we got too close. There were a few baby wildebeesties who were adorable, but bad at holding still for photos!

Kill Mufasa, move to a non-extradition island with no lions:
check and check

Wildebeest to the left...

...wildebeest to the right!

I know it seems like I post a lot of giraffe photos, but aren't giraffes the best? These Masai Giraffes, with their crazy squiggly splotches, are even more bizarre and adorable than the more typical, evenly spotted Rothschild or Reticulated Giraffes. Plus these guys did not give a hoot that we were there, and we were able to walk down a small patch among them and the young acacias they were snacking on. Amazing!

Peaceful lunchtime on the Lake

Look at this little guy!

Surprise! Humans!

There were a few other odd animals we found: lots of crayfish/crawfish had washed up from a recent storm, so it looked like tiny lobsters were invading the lowlands of the island!

This one looked pre-cooked!

There were SO MANY birds it was impossible to document them all, but my favorites were the fish eagles, which definitely remind me of smaller bald eagles. There were 6-10 of them zooming in and out from the lake with their snacks all morning, and they were pretty awesome to watch.

And because I can't help myself...one more giraffe!

This guy blocked the road as we were trying to drive away. He was ENORMOUS and had very dark patches and numerous scars--we think he was the old bull grandfather of the herd we wandered through earlier who was taking his sweet time joining the rest of the family. He eventually allowed us to pass by.

Sunday was a quiet day for me to catch up on housework and homework and paperwork for residency...but I spent much of the day at the new coffee shop in town sipping soy milk lattes (GI tract not quite ready for dairy) and some muzungu brunch food. Good weekend overall; 2 more weeks of the hospital to go!

Bonus zebras

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Updated! Now with more faces!

Rainy selfie!

Soaking wet but happy in the middle of the giraffe herd

Hell's Gate National Park

Asante sana squash banana wewe nunu mimi hapana!

Hell's Gate National Park

Guess who watched The Lion King last weekend and then did a biking safari through Hell's Gate National Park, the place where a lot of the movie was based off of? These girls!

We don't look sore at all!

After ibuprofen-ing up post-Longonot (and watching The Lion King), we headed out early Sunday morning to Hell's Gate, an amazing national park and animal sanctuary about 1/3 of the way around Lake Naivasha from us. We rented bikes and a guide, and (after many seat adjustments) biked into the park! Here are the highlights:

1) It is totally like Pride Rock, with all sorts of animals grazing and frolicking all mixed together! Except no lions. Which is why there are so many animals (seriously, I think there were THOUSANDS of warthogs alone! So many pumbas! And baby pumbas!! Piglets as far as the eye could see!)

These guys clearly remember how to pose for a picture from all those musical numbers

Mama Pumba warning us away
from her piglets

2) Pride Rock doesn't really look like Pride Rock...but it's still huge and awesome! It's inhabited by rock hyraxes (which I think look like weird muppets) and not lions, which is good news for rock climbers who regularly scale this big ole rock.

I swear this is alive. And apparently not a muppet.

D'you think we can catch a muppet and hold it up like simba??

3) Giraffes! Zebras! Living in Naivasha is awesome!! The week at the hospital may be tough, but it's so great to live in an area where a 20 minute drive gets me to all sorts of fun adventures with my housemates. I've also realized that "Naivasha" and "Nashville" sound really similar...I hope there are this many giraffes in Nashville!

Whoooa zebra this is our road!

Daily question we ask:
Is that a shadow? A tree? No, a giraffe!!

4) After biking 8-10km (however far that is) you find yourself at the gorge (possibly where Mufasa died????And apparently where several movies have been filmed, like Tomb Raider 2?). The gorge is awesome, and trecherous--we did not get trampled by wildebeest but Michelle did sprain her ankle pretty impressively, which made the rest of the day quiet an adventure!

Climbing down, down, down with the dripping water

The gorge is big! Watch out for wildebeests!

 The ground was a mix of smooth rocks carved by millenia of trickling water (flash floods are more common than wildebeest stampedes, apparently), and volcanic ash, pumice, and obsidian (super cool!) that blasted its way down from Longonot long ago.

Michelle is still smiling, because I had ibuprofen!

5) The gorge has all sorts of devilish names--Devil's Shower (lots of geothermic activity in the area, including these HOT springs!) Devil's Bedroom (where baboons sleep at night on rock 'beds' that are heated from the steam of the hot springs), Devil's other things I've forgotten. No wildebeest were seen, though there were a few cows grazing on the steep incline as we climbed out (crazy cows!)

Wandering into some devilish place
--the rocks were so cool!

Devil's bedroom--beware baboons!
And lots of baboon poop!

Devil's shower! Very hot! Very sulfur-y!

It was a pretty fun day---I may do it again with the next group of residents if they go before I leave...as the rains keep falling the landscape is greening up and coming to life, with more and more animals  (and baby animals!) appearing each weekend. Doing non-car safaris is pretty fun, as long as you can steer clear of the buffaloes!

Our journey--minus the devil, thankfully

Mt. Longonot

Mt. Longonot

Well I hiked a mountain on Saturday, and boy am I out of shape! Whether it was the steep incline, the high altitude, or the amazing views, Mt. Longonot sure took my breath away!

This nearby volcano blew off most of its top long ago, scattering pumice and obsidian across our region of the Rift Valley. The mountain dominates many of the views from Naivasha, so it was great to set out early in the morning to hike this beast.

View of Lake Naivasha

Four of us girls made the steep hike up to the rim of the crater, which offers gorgeous views of the forest inside of the crater, as well as the surrounding valley and Lake Naivasha (it's also always fun to hike past zebra, giraffe, and antelope feeding in the early morning).

Inside the crater

I thought the secret, protected forest inside of the crater looked very Land Before Time-y, but no one else got my references to Littefoot or tree stars, sadly! I kept an eye out for dinosaurs but only spotted a few mountain climbing buffaloes.

I climbed that?

We then hiked a full circuit around the rim of the crater, including up to (what remains) of the tippy top. It was VERY steep going at times, and a bit of a climb both up and down. At times I wasn't sure I would make it, but I did!

Elephant Orphanage!!

Guys, did you know there are baby animal orphanages in Nairobi?

Baby elephants!!!

SO ADORABLE!!!!

On Saturday en route to dropping off residents at the airport, we went to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, which serves as an orphanage and rehabilitation center for rescued elephants and rhinos. There were 33 elephants (29 of whom came out to eat lunch and romp) and 2 ostriches there when we visited. The elephants we met ranged in ages from 3 months to 3 years, and had been rescued after falling down wells or mines, being rejected from their herds, or (most commonly) having their mothers killed by poachers. Have I told you this week how much I hate poachers?

Oh hai elephants!

Yummy!

The elephants stay at this orphanage til they are 3-4 years old, then they are taken out to one of the big national parks where they are slowly rehabbed (learning skillz for the wilderness from older elephants) and introduced into existing herds during days while still spending nights with the rangers. The hardest lesson to me seemed to be teaching the elephants to fear/avoid humans again so they have a better chance of survival--these babies seem SO close with their keepers/rangers, it must be hard to teach them to avoid humans (poachers!) in the future.


The elephants came tumbling and running down the hill to the viewing area in two large groups. Each group was fed from bottles (the little babies had poor trunk control and needed rangers to feed them, but the older guys were much better at feeding themselves), then drank from barrels, splashed around in mud holes, and were led around the edges for close viewing and petting. The youngsters also were not good at splashing themselves with mud/dirt yet for sun protection, so the rangers would shovel dirt all over them which they LOVED.

We like dirt! Shovel more dirt please!

There were two teeeeeny babies who were out of control adorable. The smallest little dude was so snuggly and had the longest eyelashes. The older group of elephants (2-3yrs old) were getting their tusks in and were also so doofy and adorable, tumbling and bumbling all over each other.

I'm scared to cross the bridge! Hold my trunk!

So teeny!! He can fit in my suitcase, right??

By far the best $5 I spent in Africa!!


We spent the rest of the day doing some souvenier shopping with the residents who were leaving (heavy haggling at the Masai Market), eating some amazing Ethiopian food, and then the Ob-Gyn resident and I caught a bus back in the rainstorm back to Naivasha (classic African matatu experience with 15 people in one van and a hole in the floor only covered in carpet we discovered once we drove through the first deep puddle. Lets just say we sat with our feet tucked up in a very uncomfortable position to keep mostly dry for the rest of the 1.5 hour trip home).

This Sunday we were planning to do the biking and hiking safari through Hell's Gate National Park here in Naivasha--the park the set of The Lion King was designed after!! Unfortunately the pouring rain restarted at 4am and continued until noon, then started again at 2pm. We fit in some grocery shopping but no good outside adventures for us. We looked ahead to next week's predictions, so hopefully we can do both Hell's Gate and climb Mt. Longonot (a volcano with most of its top blown off) next weekend once the new residents (2 UW internal medicine residents, 1 Kenyan medicine resident, and 1 Kenyan Ob-Gyn resident) arrive. I still have yet to get a 'boat safari' out on Lake Naivasha, so hopefully that will get tucked into to some afternoon soon! The lake is giant and gorgeous, and I would love to get a good tour and some hippo viewing in. Hopefully it all happens soon!

--M

Safe & Sound

Thanks to everyone who reached out and emailed this week to check in after the horrible events happening at the university in Garissa. I have been very safe and well looked after since then, and we were relatively unaffected here in Naivasha.

Security has been increased everywhere (many more roadblocks/police stops on highways), especially at any places where Westerners may congregate (we get our cars and bags thoroughly searched at any malls, shopping centers, or muzungu restaurants). We traveled to Nairobi yesterday to drop off a group of residents at the airport, and definitely noticed the high security due to the recent attacks plus the long holiday weekend (Easter is a 4 day affair here!)

Random giraffe sighting down by the lake! He certainly feels safe in Naivasha too

The main impact of the attacks for us has been at the hospital, where we have had trouble transferring anyone to Kenyatta and trouble getting any blood products, and many of the country's resources have been allocated to help the victims. Combine that with the four day weekend (few staff, almost zero labs and radiology available) and Friday was a tough day on the wards. I'm guessing tomorrow won't be much better!

Internet has been LOUSY so sorry for slow postings and replies to emails! I will attempt to post more later today!

--M