The Gratuitous Photograph Blog

Okay so there is no way to keep up with the amazing scenery here in Kenya and we have accumulated so many photographs (you all know how trigger-happy I can be with a camera) that I am doing a gratuitous photograph blog.... no substance just photographs and captions! Enjoy! -Jessica

View from the lookout over the Samburu National Park.

King of the Savanna. Male lion awaits dusk in Amboseli Game Reserve.

Sun set over the river in Samburu National Park.

Beast at dusk in the Amboseli Game Reserve.

Walking and talking. Two Maasai men walking in the barren grounds outside Amboseli Game Reserve.

Cat nap. It is good to be king in the Amboseli Game Reserve.

Amboseli National Reserve

August 5-7, 2007.

We spent roughly two and a half days in Amboseli National Reserve in south central Kenya, butting up against the border with Tanzania. Our initial reactions to the area were shock at the shear amount of environmental degradation present in what is considered one of Kenya's best parks. There is a tremendous amount of erosion across the landscape here in Amboseli. Caused by rising salinization (salt accumulation in the soil due to evaporation of water on the surface), damage caused by elephants, and safari vehicles creating their own paths, the resulting area is reminiscent of the American Dust Bowl in the 1930s (except with elephants and wildebeest to name a few).
Dust literally covers most of everything here. In fact, the wildebeest look noticeable older (grayer) here than in "the Mara". Wildlife is not hard to spot moving even hundreds of meters away. All you need to do is follow the smoke trails whisping into the air like far off smoke signals saying, "Over here!". These gray clouds are choking the remaining grasses and it is assumed that their decline will cause most of the ungulates who rely on them to move on (but where?). We even saw an interesting elephant foraging strategy here. A juvenile female would dig the dying grass with the back of her front foot, then proceed to roll it into a ball using its trunk to blow the dust off of it before eventually popping it into its mouth. It was all very well choreographed. And in the afternoon when the winds blow stronger you can see thin twisters of the gray dust shoot into the sky. This situation demands attention, but at least on the surface it appears that attention is not forthcoming. Amboseli is a hard place.

There is a large wetland system (Lake Amboseli & others) throughout the park. It takes up a rather large area during the rainy season and shrinks to a series of small pockets (swamps) during the dry months. Here is the best place to see wildlife galour of all shapes and sizes, colors, and adaptations. Wetlands are highly productive ecosystems capable of supplying sustenance and water to high numbers of resident and nomadic animals (including humans). Hippos graze through the muck, cattle egrets perched on their backs waiting for their free ride to turn something good up. Fish eagles, jacanas, plovers, wildebeest, cape buffaloes, elephants, and hundreds of other species rely on this area. Here, more than the surrounding areas, the web of life is solid and multifaceted, but it is only as resilient as the supply of water. This dwindling arc of life support is the hope of thousands of creatures for survival in this harsh, nebulous environment. In fact, a mountain across the political border with Tanzania largely determines the hydrological upkeep of the wetlands in Amboseli.

The water that supplies the wetlands here is heavily subsidized by snow melt from Mount Kilimanjaro which slowly makes it way through subterranean rivers, trickling out into this oasis. As many of you may already be aware, the amount of snow on Kilimanjaro has been steadily declining for at least the last thirty years. A simple math equation of annual accumulation minus annual melt off shows this trend year after year. There may even be a time when there is no snow garnishing the top of Africa's highest peak.

What is causing this to happen?, you might ask. Popular scientific thought is that the steady rising of earth's annual temperatures, global warming, is the cause. And as an extension of that, we as individuals, groups, companies, and nations are heavily subsidizing this effect. So, in essence, we are all involved (whether we like it or not, we have no choice) in the fate of the hundreds of species of wildlife that call Amboseli National Reserve home. Indeed, the web of life reaches everywhere.

Nevertheless, over 350 bird species and 65 mammal species call Amboseli home. I could easily spend weeks here just looking for birds. My favorite for some reason it the Blacksmith Plover, a medium sized, black and white plover who boastfully walks by themselves or with a mate near the water's edge. We saw our first adult male lion, who at the time was courting a lovely lioness. Cats are cats across the board and do a very good job of laying around for long periods of time. Well, at least you can get great photos of them in action (or rather inaction).

We also were fortunate enough to have witnessed an awesome ceremony performed by male elephants not even ten meters from our vehicle. We saw a large group of elephants headed towards one of the swamps - mothers, infants, toddlers, juveniles, and a couple of larger males. It was clear who was the dominant male in the group. He was huge and he was in must (sexually available). Surely his goal was of a romantic nature as he followed behind the group of females.

What proceeded was none other than a sizing up of potential suitors. You have to hand it to the smaller male because he had one huge set of proverbial tusks to stand up to the larger one. The encounter was rather gentle really. They would lock trunks slowly, push on each other, and do sort of swaying motions with tusks interlocked. But nothing violent was observed. It almost seemed like a friendly arm wrestling match between friends, although replace trunks and tusks for arms. They eventually sorted things out, the smaller one submitting himself to the larger one by turning around with his rear end exposed, and then continued on their way. Ask Jessica how many photos she took when you get a chance.

We said goodbye to Amboseli and headed back to Nairobi retracing the bumpy roads one by one. Our safari had come to a close and it was amazing. I encourage anyone in need of adventure to come and experience the ride of a lifetime.

There certainly is something magical and inspiring about the landscape in Amboseli. I challenge anyone to look at a sunset here and not claim it in their top five places to see the daily event. It is noticeably so old and weathered here yet so may animals continue to eke out an existence, weaving their way through the ropes in the web, relying on the connections between each other.

It is reassuring that even in the face of hardship life is resilient.

On the Move: On the heels of the Wildebeest in the Maasai Mara

There is not much else more iconic than a trip to the Masai Mara...the migration of tens of thousands of Wildebeest, Zebra, predators in tow and the famed Masai herdsmen, long and thin, draped in red blankets looking after herds of cattle and goats. It would be hard for someone to come away disappointed in this amazing environment with its tumultuous past and rather tentative future. Ben and I were lucky enough to arrive during peak migration of Wildebeest (and tourist alike).

We arrived for an afternoon game drive leading from the front gate to our campsite. The first thing that struck me was the enormity of the area.. it is massive, sprawling, the golden-brown tones of a large grass savanna seemed to spread over the hills for miles and miles. It was the stereotypical African environment: Acacia trees, golden grasses and red hot sunsets. The stuff that inspired Karen von Blixen-Finecke to write "Out of Africa," the amazing and exotic environment that drew the big game hunters "Out of Europe." The only difference I saw after crossing into the Masai Mara Game Reserve from the hours of driving to get here was there were no Masai or their Brahma-style cattle. I also noticed that I did not spot a single animal beast or bird.... strange. Okay maybe not so strange just a bit naive that the whole place would be filled to capacity with National Geographic-like adventure.

Now I called it a "game drive" and that is just what they are. Most East African parks, particularly those in Kenya or the massive Mara-Serengeti savanna ecosystem, are strictly to be explored within the confines of a vehicle. No getting out, no excuses. The immense spaces and not to mention the wildlife (particularly those meat eaters) are not domesticated in any way shape or form. Yes they may watch you carefully and with little interest in those all so common big white safari vans but there are accidents every year and people die... they are trampled, mangled or eaten. I have a healthy respect for the rules, so as much as you want to pull a Julie Andrews and spread you arms and run singing through the rolling hills.. you don't.

So the first sign of wildlife in the Mara was proceeded by the smell. We though yes, I know that smell, musky large, leathery elephant smell. And sure enough there was a small herd of elephants, about 3 adult females, their juveniles and a few rather young, still nursing, calves. They were amazing and our driver put us very close to the action. I often felt a bit too close and intrusive, yet these lumbering giants continued to forage and eat as if several white safari buses were part of the mundane scenery of "Great Migration" of July and August. They were amazing never the less and approached the vehicles in close proximity, to the delight of many tourist albeit two who always remained a bit anxious due to the immense respect we have for the absolute power and wildness of these magnificent creatures. Ben and I often were the ones yelling: "Stop, Stop.. Sawa sawa (okay), that is close enough!" (although sometimes to the bitter disappointment of those traveling with us).

We continued on, although you could watch the elephants for as long as you desired, as they seemed in no hurry to move on to the next group of gawking tourist. We starting seeing evidence of ungulate life in the savanna, a zebra or twenty here, an impala or Thompson's gazelle over there, when we were lucky enough to get an early reminder of why you should remain in the car- a pride of lions sleeping on a large-sun heating rock, waiting for the sun to fall beneath the hills and instigate the night-time hunt. I was very pleased to note that their rock was about 15 meters from the road, giving them a bit of a buffer against the snapping of cameras and pointing of fingers. The pride consisted of about 4 adult females and what appeared to be a rather young male, his mane not quite full and long but more like a motley crew cut with a week of growth. He sat up and looked around a bit, almost off in the distance and when a female stirred awake they looked at each other briefly and she laid back down. Our guide was explaining to us how the female lions have a longer lifespan than the males and he added a comment to the effect of it being due to their indolent behavior. Probably also has to do with the fierce competition between males.... the old man will eventually lose his pride to the younger, stronger and more fit sophomoric one. Could help but wonder if that was the case with our young male here?

The next day we spent the entire day on game drive, only stopping once to view the Mara River, a hippopotamus laden, crocodile sprinkled, muddy waterway, that if you are very lucky you will see the crossing of the Wildebeest. There was also a troop of Black-faced vervet monkeys that hang around tourist areas hoping to steal a bit of food. Hippos lounged on the opposite mud-bank of the Mara although occasionally a bit of a tiff would break out and demonstrate that indeed these animals could efficiently move their bulk. The armed guard, which you tip and was the source of a debate in the vehicle (need them or not), took us to the vantage point where you could look at the Wildebeest that had yet to cross the Mara River. The guard told us that at various times they will cross for about 2-3 hours straight and then stop for an unspecified amount of time until they resume again. Not all Wildebeest migrate, in fact there are even some within the Mara Reserve that are year long residents. The same can be said to be true on the other side of the border, where the Tanzania's Serengeti National Park joins the Mara.

The environment, despite straddling two national borders and three different management regimes, forms a rather continuous piece of conservation area with animals (hypothetically?) being able to migrate between three different reserves: The Masai Mara Reserve (Kenya), Serengeti National Park (Tanzania) and Ngorongoro Conservation Area (Tanzania). Three different management models, similar and yet differing histories, all within the Masai traditional boundaries and all very interesting from both an anthropological and natural resource perspectives. In short the "Mara" is not managed by the Kenyan Wildlife Service but instead is managed by a Community -Based Organization (CBO) on behalf of the Masai themselves. It was extremely hard to find more information on the history of this area, the structure and politics of profit sharing and/ or how the management plan incorporates the larger Masai community....all things to be explored later? I am on vacation after all! (This is however a field of inquiry that I will hopefully be exploring in graduate school- human ecology and conservation areas management).

And of the Masai themselves? Well, I did go visit one of the tourist "villages" paying a bit more than 10USD for unlimited photographic opportunities, got to see "customary dances," go into a Masai house and try some of the sausage-tree home brew. A cultural sell-out? Cultural tourism? Cultural preservation and profit? I really don't know how I felt about what I saw and I would encourage others to reserve harsh or quick and easy judgements as well. One fact is true: for many a decades in Kenya and Tanzania the image of the Masai was used to sell the country, becoming the picture of tribal East Africa, and the Masai themselves didn't benefit at all. Could you really blame them now for being aggressively adamant to receive a few shillings to take their picture? Can you imagine what it was like to see your image in magazines, pamphlets and books to advertise tourism for which you not only didn't profit but actually lost land and resource access to create?

At least in these "villages" the Masai have some command and control over their image, their culture and profits. They also are able to minimize the effect of tourist on other villages or homesteads by herding the mzungu (along with their cattle and goats) into one concentrated area. I heard many a complaint by tourist about the authenticity or wanting access to a "real village." All these complaints seem a bit ego-centric to me (particularly considering most of these people would role their eyes and yet go inside and take photographs.. all the while feeling sorry and embarrassed for the villagers...hmm). Cultural tourism is tricky, the effects can be complicated and represent a matrix of beneficial and disadvantageous effects and may preserve or distort the culture participating. I believe that people should avoid quick and rash judgments on such matters (or if they disagree...stick to your guns and don't go or support the venture!). Anyone who has ever gone to a Hawaiian luau, an Amish village or Native American Reservation probably has had a few of these conflicting thoughts in the back of their minds. Are we celebrating the cultural diversity or destroying it with our capitalistic purchase of its performance?

Either way the Masai are a dominating force when it comes to the image of East Africa and here is the real kicker... they only make up about 5% of the population of the hundreds of tribes in the area. According to many of the other residence (such as Kikuyu, making up 20% of the ethnic population of Kenya) the Masai are famous because they have refused to let go of their culture, their customs and integrate into the larger monoculture of Kenya, more so than other groups. It not that some of the Masai don't wear modern clothes, shoes or haven't lost many or their customs, because indeed some have, yet many have not and many more live somewhere in the middle. I guess the one instance that demonstrated this more to me than any else was the short road stop we made in the middle of Masai country. Three Masai boys, leaving their livestock for a moment, came running up to the van, amazingly just to peer into the group of strange people inside. Going on the material alone (dangerous but lets go with it) they represented a spectrum of Masai-dom: one was completely traditionally dressed, one had a pair of shorts a t-shirt and then the Masai blanket draped over his shoulders and the eldest was dressed in completely western attire down to his sneakers. All were Masai however. All of them carried implements of a herder, all spoke the same language and all were performing the most important task of a Masai... looking after their cattle.

The Mara was not disappointing in the least, not on a superficial level or an intellectual one. We saw so many animals in this park, lions, cheetahs, a jackal, vultures, zebra, cape buffalo, giraffe, a tone of different antelope and birds. One of the most interesting things to watch was a group of Maribou Storks and various vultures posturing and picking the remains of a dead cape buffalo, which we returned to several times during the day: Nature sure has efficient waste management or more accurately, in this system nothing is wasted. The amazing landscape, animals, people, conflicts and history are shrouded in mystery and myth, compromise and harsh reality. I certainly came away with more questions than answers and a powerful imagery of a place that deserves to be one of the seven natural wonders of the world.

-Jessica

Pretty in Pink: Lake Nakuru National Park

So the blog is a bit out of order, but my fond memories of Lake Nakuru National Park have made me jump a bit in the chronological order of our safari. So Lake Nakuru NP is a soda lake, meaning it has alkaline waters, which nourishes the both blue-green algae and a particular group of crustaceans. Now if you are not impressed yet with the lake's greenish slug the two particular animals after this rather interesting mix is the greater and lesser flamingos. There are not just a few flamingos but rather tens of thousands, at any given time, like lawn ornaments gone hostel guarding the lake. Well, okay they don't guard so well and you can easily set a hundred a flight by approaching to closely.

We only had half a day in this park, which is much smaller than the Maasai Mara but I felt I could have spent days. The park also boast some rather lazy white rhinos, which were reintroduced many years ago, and some rare tree climbing lions. We actually saw the lions, about six, including a cub in the trees sleeping as we left the park. The park also has it share of Africana icons: giraffes (although a different subspecies), warthogs, cape buffalo, baboons, waterbuck, gazelle and the like. We actually saw in great number here one the smallest of the antelope species, Kirk's Dik Dik. Name aside it is a delicate little creature and looks more like something out of fiction book with its funny little nose and unimposing horns. For anyone a fan of miniatures... this is your antelope.

So when we first arrived at the lake we were a bit lucky, only a couple vans with Japanese tourist all of which had cameras and lenses that made me flush green with envy. Ben immediately took up the bird watching campaign as there is more than the hoard of flamingos in the park and I wondered off along the edge of the lake and peered into the sea of pink. My lens-envy aside no digital or analogue apparatus could render this lake as beautiful as it was there in full panorama, surround sound and the pungent smell of bird in the air. Ben and I had to be hauled back in the vehicle for a drive up to the Baboon Cliff lookout. The drive was pleasant because we had beaten the large drove of vehicle that were just now pulling up to spoil all the Japanese photographers. Our lone vehicle pulled up to a spotted hyaena munching down on something a Marabou Stork voraciously looking on for scraps. Was that a pink feather I saw?

The question was quickly answered as we spot another hyaena running confidently but with not too much haste into a crowd of flamingos. Our driver said they often do that and look for the ones unable to take flight. So there we were less than 100 yards from the hunt and we watched how the hyaena turned, reassessed and rather easily came out of the shallows of the lake with a bright pink prey in his mouth. Okay so some of you don't enjoy nature's carnage but these displays are the best in terms of wildlife viewing. That life ya know... birds gotta fly and hyaenas gotta eat. Maybe we could change the phrase from "Like a sitting duck," to "Like an elegantly standing flamingo?" Doesn't have the same ring.

We headed up to Baboon Cliff and kept our eyes unsuccessfully pealed for a leopard. The view from the top was simply amazing. You see the lake below, the flamingos look like a mirage of pink in the distance, with the occasional cape buffalo or rhino dreamily strolling along the waters edge. Ben and I wanted to see a Rock Hyrax, which is a small ungulate (stomach like a cow) that actually looks like an overgrown ginea pig, and we found a small den, the rather pungent evidence of their inhabitation left in neat pellet like piles by their front entrance, but no Hyrax.

Well the park's history, like many in East Africa is all pink and furry like we would all like to believe. The park covers about 180 square kilometers and since its creation in 1961 has experienced multiple crashes and recoveries in the flamingo population due to the erratic water levels in the lake. The parks 1st birthday was actually sullied by the fact that the lake completely dried up! And heavy rains which diluted the alkalinity also caused another flamingo crash and mass exodus in the 1970s. More recent management woes have been pollution from Nakuru town, pesticide runoff from the matrix of farms in the area and large scale deforestation in the surrounding watershed. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has stepped in with efforts to combat these modern day realities, particularly by the replanting of saplings in the watershed. Like everything though, the wild corners left will depend as much or more on managing people as the wildlife itself.

Ben and I left, our necks straining to get the last looks at the park. Although I have long had an aversion of pink, with all its gender-heavy hues, I must admit Lake Nakuru really makes pink look good.

-Jessica

Nairobi Reformed?

Well having spent more than a couple days of our Kenyan experience in Nairobi it got me thinking: Is "Nairobbery" up to par with its reputation? I believe that the answer is definitely "maybe." The rumor and volunteer mill puts this urban population at around 3.4 million people although we have found downtown Nairobi to be much smaller than would be expected for this populous. Kenyans are adamant that the new government has certainly greatly improved the situation in Nairobi, particularly within the City Center area, and evidence of this is everywhere. Security and police forces are found on every block and are hard to miss nonchalantly carrying Russian assault rifles. I am also told that there are a great deal of police dressed in street clothes. I hardly feel though that the city deserves, what some travelers and guides have given it, the reputation as "the most unsafe city in all of Africa." Don't get me wrong.... the place can feel a bit concerning. Ben and I have been careful of our belongings and haven't ventured out after dark. Would "street-smart" be a necessary thing to pack when coming to Kenya? Yes.
Well what is Nairobi like then?..... It has the hues and feel of architecture from the 1970's. Unlike many large cities I would say that, barring the natural diversity of the tribal Kenyans themselves, the city is very African... not many wazungu (white people) and just a dash of Indian-ex-pats. Vendors here are aggressive, the bartering is harsh and there are just about two menus or prices for anything that doesn't have a bar-code. (Mzungu prices can be 2-5 times that of a local...a bit frustrating.) Thing to know... nothing here in Kenya is free. Nothing. An example is a local shop keeper that tried to sell Ben and I an old-beaten up cardboard box for 400 Kenyan shillings (nearly $6). We walked away and got another young man to give us one for the price of a soda (50 Ksh). The city does have its charm and so do the Kenyans. They are very political and away of global events and you can have some very friendly debates without risking the loss of a friendly handshake at the end. You can't really blame the people here for having an angle or for competing aggressively for business... life is hard and there is a lot of competition.
Here is a small bit of Nairobi history: almost everything here is less than 100 years old and prior to 1890 was little more than a swamp land with a stream known by the Maasai as "waso nairobi" (cold water). With railways coming onto the African seen the East African railway's company Uganda Railway further developed the area by putting an administrative center here. Nairobi's fate was sealed when the British Protectorate moved their capital from Mombasa to Nairobi in 1901. Even as "permanent structures" went up the town had a different kind of wildlife, as compared to the contemporary night scene, with a lot of wild animals roaming the streets and avenues. Then comes the Hemingway age... the hotels that the British built in the early 1900's catered to the big game hunters that would eventually lead to the crash of the mighty iconic wildlife of the area. The building you see today, like I said think 1970, were build over the demolished colonial ones after independence in 1963. They are mostly bland and boxish.
Moving away from the City Center of Nairobi and common to many other towns in Kenya are rather unfortunate in terms of sanitation and infrastructure. However all are bustling with activity and there are a myriad of bicycles, donkeys and carts, cattle, goats, herders, pedestrians and street vendors to liven the scene up. Some of the architecture found in the outer villages and towns are really quite beautiful. Many homes and building are made with stone bricks that are cut by hand. The shops and street malls created out of these stones will be about two stories and four stores long, all brightly painted with advertisements like NesCafe, Safaris.com or Selcom (cellular phones). It is actually visually more pleasing than the alternative of having roads lined with billboards.
Well I will let you go from there so I can get to the good stuff... the safari, the history, the scenery and the adventure that is Africa!
-Jessica