Amboseli National Park

Somethings change in Africa, but one of the things that doesn't (at least not for me) is procrastination. We have two observation write-ups due tomorrow and while I have made more progress on them than I would have had I been at school, I probably shouldn't be updating the blog right now.

I promised a week or so ago that I would devote an entire blog to Amboseli National Park. We went back yesterday, so I have even more to write about now. Amboseli National Park was established as a national park in 1974. It's most famous for its concentration of elephants and it's not very big, so they're pretty easy to spot. The first time we went to Amboseli, we were officially on a "game drive." Officially, we're there as students of wildlife management so we try to spot and observe as many species as possible. I managed to write down all kinds of observations, but I can't say the notebooks made our vehicle full of white kids look any less like a bunch of tourists on safari. We did, however, have very good luck as far as species spotted goes. Maasai giraffe, hippos, Maasai ostriches, African elephants, blue wildebeest, Grant's gazelle, Thomson's gazelle, impala, oryx, olive baboons, vervet monkeys, reedbuck, common zebra, water buffalo, and most notably THREE prides of lion.

The second time we went in an even more official capacity. We divided the park up into sections and each car was assigned a section to divide into transects and count the animals. Oh yes, all of the animals. I was the secretary, so I fielded the counting and we had a lot of fun. We also added spotted hyena, waterbuck, and black-backed jackal to our list of species spotted. Sipiya (our driver) and I even saw two lions mating. Sipiya thought the male was eating something at first and then the other lion stood up and we both went, "Oh." The rest of the car was very jealous. We waited around to see if anything exciting was going to happen again, but they just fell asleep. Cats.

I would say, however, that the most exciting portion of the day was going to Ol Tukai lodge. Not because it had a pool. Not because they had a green lawn and exotic garden. Not because they had fancy bathrooms and grand entryways. Not because we saw a tiny nursing baby vervet monkey. And certainly not because they served french fries and soft drinks. No. It was because I had my orange peel stolen by a GIANT male olive baboon. The definition of amusing is watching thirty-four college students squeal, stand up, argue about whether to stand our ground and then reflexively retreat from an advancing sixty pound baboon. I was about five feet away from him trying to decide what he was going to do when he rushed in and grabbed my orange peel away from the step next to my foot. Better the orange peel than me I say. The noise we made (there was a lot of squealing and not an insignificant amount of swearing) attracted a couple of askari (guards) from the hotel who came over and chatted with us while throwing rocks at and threatening the baboon with spears.

Speaking of Maasai spears, my sword and spear arrived this week. I am never making it through customs again. These are not fake, decorative tourist spears. These are I'm-going-to-hunt-a-water-buffalo-for-dinner spears. Apparently, we are going to have our throwing lessons using very old, very dull spears. Until then, we were instructed to put them as far under our beds as we were willing to reach (there could be poisonous things under there). SFS truly has our well-being at heart.