KAKAMEGA

Let the pictures speak for themselves.




Colobus Monkeys


Nandi Forest: Although this is a grim sight, its an important thing to remember...





Equatorial Akalat:


Double-toothed Barbet: NIMEMBAO!!


Some local roots to assist with health and wellness:

Gatamayu Forest: quest for the Bar-tailed Trogon

These Kenyans know how to bird cheap. Kelvin, Liz, Tabitha, Jackson and I took matatus all the way to the Gatamayu forest in the Aberderes, to camp at the Nature Kenya office located there. All in all a ballin good weekend. Even saw my 1000th world bird, the Yellow-fronted Canary.

I spotted this young Crowned Eagle, its bill smeared with blood, just after it had finished feasting on a Seike's Monkey. These eagles specialize in hunting such forest monkeys.

All that remains of the monkey prey.


Jackson takes a moment to reflect.




We ended the first day with a cracking hunt of a Bar-tailed Trogon, a super elusive montane species that Kelvin coaxed in with his sweet whistle.


On the last day, we defeated the African Cuckoo-hawk and the Black-fronted Bush-shrike (both spotted by Liz). Doesn't get much better than this!

SAFARI

There is no such thing as a misadventure. Last week my lovely friends Tammy from Canada and Craig from Mexico/LA/Scotland/Canada wanted to go on an economical safari, so I hired a car and take them to nearby Nairobi National Park. Even before the anticipated day, my adventures had already begun. Finding a small SUV in Nairobi sounds not that difficult, but in Kenya everything that's supposed to be simple is always difficult. Eventually it was the end of the day after hours of searching and out of desperation I took a used corrola that was a little worse for wear...

After picking up Maria to come with us, we stopped for petrol and surprise! the car wouldn't start. For about 12 bucks the mechanic boosted it for us and added some engine oil (the oil was empty - as was the battery). The tires were also low, and the shocks, well...

Our hope renewed, we strove on even though it was too late to make the sunrise. Upon arrival I once again noted the rude service of Kenya Wildlife Service, and for what we paid they should at least give us a map and stock their washroom with soap. Proud to be Ontario Parks!

Once in the park though, we were ballin. All of us with a positive attitude for the day, ready to see some epic wildlife. Craig needed to see a rhino to complete his big five, and Tammy wanted to see a lion. As for Maria, I don't think she wanted to see a lion this close...


There was a male and a female, and we even saw them try to catch a zebra (but they were lazy lions and gave up in about 5 seconds).


We raged on, in search of the elusive rhino. This one tried to hide behind a tree but it was no match for our eagle vision. It was a white rhino, judging from its blunt lips. Nice one!


Tammy and Craig also tried their hand at driving, turning into a bit of a competition of who is the worst driver (based on the number of times the bottom scraped the road). More could be said about all of our driving, but Craig took the trophy when as we were all falling into a dose, smashed a huge rock. "I didn't even see it there"...

As we were trying to navigate our way out of the park by afternoon, and as we were SO close to the gate, the car just suddenly gave up on life. Almost out of the woods, but not quite. As I walked down the road, hoping to not be eaten by a lion, as fortune would have it we were broken down 200 meters from the park's workshop. I found a couple staff you boosted us, but sadly the car was more damaged than a simple boost could fix. There was some problem with a gasket thingy or something, and the battery was toast. It kept stalling after driving about 200 meters. They figured they would just keep boosting us all the way to the gate (eventually they FINALLY realized it would be easier just to tow us to the gate), and never realizing that a real problem was the radiator was low on water (God I wish I was a mechanic - but these guys should have figured that out). So we gave them some money and then called the owner to come pick up his car. He partially compensated us for our expenses, but really he was pretty pissed that his car was messed. It was messed before we even got it.

The fun was over

All the while, these setbacks did not stop Maria from having a laugh...

ummmm soo, I have some bad news, your corolla is fucked...

We were out of the park, and never had to see the owner of that car again, and that was a relief. But we weren't home yet. It was getting dark and traffic was intense, all the busses coming from town were full full full. Just as we were considering getting a cab, a nice white kenyan guy picked us up in his pickup and took us to our bus stage. Thank God for nice people!

The Safari was a roaring success!