arrived at Ol Pej

No new photos to put up yet... this is just a quick post to say that we were without internet for the past 2 days at Lake Nakuru and the Aberdares, but we have now arrived at Ol Pejeta (my research site). We left our safari drive, Nicholas, at noon when he dropped us off at Mpala. There I picked up my car and drove us the hour and a half over to Ol Pej. Mom and dad will be here with me for 3 days. I dropped them off at their campsite and will pick them up after breakfast. Will try to update the post sometime tomorrow. For now... bedtime.

Lake Naivasha

We arrived at Lake Naivasha yesterday for lunch, and then went out on a boatride of the lake. Apparently there is more water in the lake right now than people remember seeing in 20 years. The shoreline has come in 2 kilometers! (yes, you read that right). Boat pictures are on a different camera, so I will try to post those in the future, but here is a view of some of the flooded land.

The Lake Naivasha country club where we are staying is very nice and the waterbuck come right up to the buildings. Also, a vervet monkey came into my room and stole my banana today! I had the door open and was napping in my bed, when I heard a rustling and looked up. The vervet on my dresser looked at me knowing he had been caught red-handed, grabbed my banana and scooted out the door.

The highlight of this stop so far, though, has been the horseback riding. Mom and I (sans Dad) went for a 2 hour ride on sanctuary farm. You can get super close to the wildlife when on a horse, because the animals do not view them as a threat and don't notice the person on their back.

 The view from my horse, Dancer. Some unconcerned wildebeest

 Mom on a horse!

 Hanging out with a giraffe

Me and mom

Proof I didn't copy these photos from the internet

And just to prove we were really there, here are some with people. Dad and his hat = crocodile dundee on the savannah

 In front of a giraffe

Me and dad above the Mara river

Masaai Mara

We didn’t have internet access in Masaai Mara for the past 2 days, so I am now writing to you from our second location, Lake Naivasha.  We’ll get to the lake in the next post, but first let’s catch up on the Mara.

We arrived at the Mara Sopa lodge on Tuesday in time for lunch and some lounging by the pool before an afternoon game drive before dinner. Then yesterday we went on an all day game drive covering a chunk of this immense reserve, having lunch down by the Mara river. It was a pretty successful day.

Wildlife sightings included several lions—males, females, and later a group of 6+ younger ones napping--, lots of elephant, giraffe, 2 male cheetah, and all of the other common game including wildebeest, zebra, Grant’s and Thomson’s gazelle, impala, topi, hartebeest, and cape buffalo. Here are some photos:

 Male lion napping in the grass. He was completey hidden until our driver found him

 Group of younger lions

 Cheetah with a VERY full belly (look how big that thing is right now)

 Baboon piggy back ride

 Wildebeest grazing

zebra friends

Pretty successful outing, despite it being the low season. The migration does not start for another month and a half, so the 1 million wildebeest and 200,000 zebra that fill the park from Aug-Oct. are still south in Tanzania. The park looked pretty empty as a result. After passing the animals that hung out near our lodge, we drove many kilometers without seeing much until we reached the Mara river where we saw numerous crocs and hippos hanging out in the water. Come July, those crocs will be lying in wait to snatch wildebeest crossing the river at the narrow crossing sites. I’ll have to go back during the migration some day, but the park was much less crowded now, which made for a nice introduction for mom and dad.

Nairobi

We landed in Nairobi at 7 am yesterday (Sunday) and went first to our hotel-- the Mennonite Guest House-- to leave our bags, then headed straight to the David Sheldrick elephant orphanage. They currently have 23 baby orphaned elephants between the ages of 2 months and 3 years old. They all come running for bottles of milk at 11 am and we get to watch and sometimes pet them.

 Dad and I at the Mennonite Guest house

 2 month old baby elephant

 15 month old ele

Then for dinner, we went to the Carnivore-- a famous restaurant in Nairobi where they bring to your table many differnt types of animal to eat and carve off pieces onto your plate. The list included: pig, chicken, turkey, cow, crocodile, lamb... and the surprising favorite: ostrich (which is much more like beef than chicken). Here is a photo of all the meat roasting

Today, we went for a little shopping and are now relaxing. Tomorrow morning we head out on our safari, starting first at Masaai Mara!

Amsterdam

13 hour layover in Amsterdam. We just finished walking around the city for about 6 of them. Here are some photos at the "I amsterdam" sign by the Rijksmuseum. We did not indulge in any "coffee houses", but did walk through the red light district.

Back to Kenya!

Last summer seems like forever ago and just the other day at the same time. I am getting on a plane tomorrow to head back to Kenya for another 3 months!

This time though, mom and dad are coming! We are going on safari together to see some of the places I have yet to visit in Kenya and then we will end up at Ol Pejeta so they can see where I work and meet all my friends there.

We leave Newark tomorrow afternoon and have a 13 hour layover in Amsterdam... on my birthday! So we will get to tour the whole city and take in the sites. Mom and dad have never been there. Then we arrive in Nairobi on June 2nd and spend 2 nights before heading out on safari. We will visit Masaai Mara, Lake Naivasha, Lake Nakuru, the Aberdares mountains, and finally Mpala (to pick up my car) and Ol Pejeta. It should be quite a trip for them. I have already told mom she needs to relax and accept that things will go wrong and not be on schedule. It is called "Africa Time" for a reason, so her penchant for scheduling things down to the minute will have to relax a little.

Mom and dad will head home on June 13, I will pick up 2 undergrads working with me this summer, and begin my research again. I will be there til Sept. 4. 
So follow this blog for cool animal photos and stories of my mishaps (because there will be some...). I don't know who else will be at the research center this summer, so hopefully I get to meet some awesome new people as well. Until then, here are a few photos from last year to tide you over