day five and six of camping. no rhinos(kifaru), more lions(simba), and fighting baboons (nyani)

Day 36 (10/10)
Cook crew wake up at 5:15. I made pancakes, and watched the sunrise, it was utterly fantastic. After breakfast we drove to the Rhino Sanctuary (just under 2 hours of driving to get there, but it was still within the Tsavo National Park.) This is a fenced sanctuary which has 65 rhinos, giraffe, zebra, kudu, impala, and warthog. They used to also have elephants and buffalo within the fence but had to relocate them because of the destruction they caused and the competition with the rhino. We saw zero rhinos. After driving around for a little while we met up with the group for another guest lecturer (this time the KWS rangers who manage the Black Rhino Conservation Project talked about what they do and their goals and the project.)

Right as the lecture started, we were within 100 meters of a watering hole and we saw giraffes and zebra drinking! Warthogs also came over to drink and then a buffalo came over (apparently they missed a few in their relocation) and he kicked out the giraffe and zebra who were drinking. The whole thing reminded me of the movie Madagascar 2 with the watering hole and environment. They also pump water to the watering hole if needed because of the drought and feed them when necessary.

After leaving we headed up the mountain to a lodge for another buffet. This one was not as good as the first one but we got to swim again. And it had been overcast and looking like it was going to rain the whole day. Finally, we were in the pool and it was the one day all week that it was not searing hot. I was actually really cold and had to get out. Then all of a sudden it started to drizzle and lightly rain. Which was really cool but it didn’t do too much, it was like a passing shower.

We headed back down and our car stopped because some people had to pee. Then we heard on the radio that there was a simba, which is lion in Swahili. The boys that were out of the car raced back and we went over to the car that was a little bit in front of us and we were watching a lion on the left side of the road, off in the distance.

Then out of nowhere, we looked to the right and this HUGE, MASSIVE, ENORMOUS male lion casually crossed the road. He must have been just about 3 ½ feet tall, which is as big as they get. His head was so wide and his body seemed to go on forever. In Tsavo, male lions don’t have manes and no one knows exactly why but they make up with their lack of mane with their intense size. Just after he crossed the road we heard him calling to the other lion and they were bellowing back and forth. We stayed there for a while, all fascinated with the interaction. We never actually saw them meet because they were far away from each other and then the big male that crossed the road disappeared into the brush.

We all played the game Mafia after dinner which is a great group game that is so much fun around a camp fire because there’s killing and accusing and yelling. We heard lions calling again around 11, and then we went to bed.

Day 37 (10/11)
This morning was another early morning, we all got up at 6, packed our stuff, ate breakfast, took down the tents and loaded stuff into the white rhino. All before 7 AM.

For about 10-15 minutes we watched Baboons go through the trash pit that was right in back of the camp-site. It looked like there were 2 groups, and they were all trying to get to the trash. There was one huge, muscular, scary male that was kicking all the little Baboons out of the pit. The smaller ones chased each other around and tried to steal each other’s trash. And then, all of a sudden a few of the sub-adults ganged up on the big male and he had to run out of the pit but he turned around and started to chase the smaller ones. It was so entertaining, but we had to leave.

We drove back to camp, unpacked and just hung out for the rest of the day. And tomorrow is an all-rest day so there is nothing planned, just catch up on work and laundry and things.