June 25, 2005

We were assigned to a guide named Felix as we divided into two groups. We left Nairobi and headed north to the Sweetwater Camp. Our guide was very knowledgeable about all aspects of the country. We talked about education, government and corruption. Some of the topics of conversation really surprised us. Polygamy is legal and quite common in Kenya. We also learned that several tribes have certain characteristics. In one of the 42 tribes of Kenya a man's bottom six teeth are pulled at the time of his circumcision. Others burn themselves on their arms to make "beauty marks".

We made a stop at Andrew's house so we could see how the African people live. We were introduced to his wife, sister and two daughters. She had prepared sweet potatoes, sandwiches and tea. The house had a small living room, kitchen bathroom and two bedrooms. Beatrice, his wife, presented each of the women with a sarong.

Across the street from his house was Mama Caleb's Vegetable Market.

We made a potty stop at a souvenir shop.

After five hours we finally arrived at or Sweetwater tented camp. I was so excited to see a herd of giraffes drinking at the watering hole.

We were shown to our tents, which were very nice and spacious. We even had a nice bathroom and electricity. It was immediately time for lunch and as we were eating with the giraffes right outside the dining room I could not refrain from jumping up with my camera to take photos of these majestic creatures as they did the splits to drink water.

There was just so much to do today that we decided to skip the trip to see how the rugs were made. Instead we sat on our front porch watching as the warthogs played in the mud and the impalas came fro their drinks.

Using our field guides we identified many unusual looking and beautiful birds including the: Marabou stork, helmeted guinea fowl. Golden pippet, gray-crowned crane and superb starling.

At 5 o'clock we met William our gun-toting guide for a walk into the preserve. He was very knowledgeable and showed us many different tracks and how to differentiate them. We were also shown different dung. One interesting point here is that the black rhino empty their bowels in the same place each day and for that reason they are very easy targets of poachers. Hunters find their spots and just wait for them to return.

While we were walking we saw a jackal and a northern white bird.

This park is currently 22000 acres but is enlarging to 75000 acres. There are 60 fulltime rangers.

We learned that elephants eat medicinal plants and that injured and sick animals used to be put to death but there is now an animal hospital where they are transported and mended.

As we returned to our lodge we took pictures in front of the equator marker.

We tried to get sunset pictures but don't know how well they'll turn out.

While we were waiting for dinner to be served I was talking with Sheldon (the man from Minneapolis) and told him bout our recent trip there. When the part about going to Elko to the flea market came up, I mentioned that I collect old medicinal and remedy bottles. He said he did too and wanted to get rid of his 200+ collection and said that I could have them for the cost of postage. Needless to say I was ecstatic.

We returned to our rooms to prepare for our nighttime game drive. Our beds had been turned down and there was a hot water bottle tucked between the sheets. There were also bougainvillea flowers on our pillows.

The real adventure began as we started our 2-hour night game drive. There were four vehicles with radio communication between them. The first animals we saw were more impalas followed by our first look at zebras. There were gazelles and a huge bull elephant.

The real excitement started when we saw some cape buffalo. These animals can be very dangerous because they will charge. Our driver left the road so we could get a closer look. The other jeep that was following us must have felt that we were going into dangerous territory and it turned around. As we got closer we saw that there was just not a few of these beasts but at least 50 pairs of eyes looking at us.

After this viewing our guide was notified that there had been a lion sighting and off we went! We must have been the last to arrive. The other jeeps left and we were thrilled to find 2 male, 2 female and three lion cubs. They were all loving each other and very content. We were within 15 feet of these creatures. We saw the mother nursing the cubs and the whole thing was amazing. We really spent quite a lot of time here. We were getting ready to leave and saw an old male lion with a dark mane approach. We backed up and followed him as he approached the pride we had just left behind. It started out as a reunion but all of the sudden a ruckus broke out. There was a huge fight with the 5 adult lions all involved. The three babies watched in horror, as did we. Fortunately I caught it all on videotape. All of our guides said they had never seen such a thing happen and everyone requested to see my film.