Sweetwaters

This is our last video post from Africa so for those of you reliving your trip from home, thanks for being there and making the tour everything it was. The DVDs will hopefully be done by early to mid September and mailed out shortly thereafter. If you have already sent me your address then kick back and relax, if you have not gotten around to sending me a mailing address, please do so in the next week or so.

Sweetwaters was the last stop in our tour for many of our group, so I figured it was a good choice to end our recapped journey with as well. It was a very nice mellow place where there were almost as many animals coming to the waterhole infront of our tents as there were to be seen on game drives.

Music: "Now We Are Free" by Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard

Speaking of tents, the picture below shows the safari version of 'roughing it' with Kathryn tucked infront of our tent. The waterhole is directly infront of our tent and was almost constantly packed with giraffes, waterhogs, impala and lots of storks and ibises as well as night visits from buffalo and rhinos.
This is the interior of our tent, complete with separate bathroom with toilet and shower to further illustrate that a 'tent' can mean very different things in different places. We slept very peacefully here except on a few points in one or two nights when the shrieks of tree hyraxes jolted us awake, they have a very weird call that we were totally unprepared for.

Chimpanzees

Sweetwaters was not only a game park where we could see Kenyan wildlife in the open, it was also an animal sanctuary. We mentioned earlier their blind rhino but they were also host to a troop of chimpanzees whose homes in west africa were so unstable that they have been rescued and are attempting to rehabilitate them.
Kathryn and I have very different feelings about most primates. I have read very little about them or early peoples and therefore find them fascinating because they are so like us, while Kathryn has read extensively about them and finds them enough like people to be a little off-putting. But there was something about this confused, tired, bald old ape that I could relate too ;)
The troop consisted of perhaps a dozen individuals and while birth control is being added to their food (which has to be provided since their natural diet is not found in the indigenous plants of Kenya) they had managed to have a baby as well, which while an additional strain on the park has apparently been very good for the chimps morale and behavior.
While it is noble that they are being conserved in Kenya it is sad that their natural habitat is so broken and anyone looking to lose a little more hope in mankind should read about the Democratic Republic of Congo and the hell that people and apes alike are going through in that particular corner of the world.

Lake Manyara

Note: I have a busy weekend coming up so I'm posting sooner than later as last time I was a few hours late I came under intense fire for being lazy ;)

Lake Manyara was a very peaceful place in general. Our lodge was at the top of a ridge overlooking the park and we could see the jungle and a nearby town from the pool. The park itself was a nice assortment of grazers and the absence of large predators made it all the more serene.

Music: "Under the Stars" by Hans Zimmer

Our lodge had a very pleasing design with the rooms being arranged in little clusters of double deckers with two sets of rooms on each floor. Like many of the lodges they used concrete in a very pleasing way to avoid many hard angles and kept everything very smooth and organic looking.
The pool was a delight and after a long drive in the hot sun we were always keen to have a flop by it and a swim. It was quite cold so while it was incredibly refreshing it was also tricky to stay in too long without going numb; such are the hardships of roughing it in Tanzania ;)

Ndutu

Ndutu was our first major stop on the trip and made a huge impression on Kathryn in particular. The wildebeest migration was in full swing and the first few babies were just starting to be born. Top that off with huge herds of zebras and gazelles with hyenas and lions chasing everything and you have a pretty potent situation. Music: "Death is the Road to Awe" by Clint Mansell

This is our little cabin at the lodge which was quite different from other lodges in that there was no perimeter fence or ditch or anything keeping other animals out. Earlier in the year this cabin and several others before it were out of use while a pride of lions took a fancy to using our porch for shade for several days. Our tour operator Bob said that he's seen elephants sticking their heads into the dining area and there were zebras, cape buffalo and giraffes wandering around nearby.
At the end of every day we'd relax by the fire, watch the passing animals and feed popcorn to fiscals and weavers. There are several slow-motion shots of this in the video above but I thought this picture also nicely captures the feeling of the campfire area and also shows the longer row of cabins in the background helping give a better idea how the whole spot fits together.

Vancouver Pride

Last weekend was also the annual Vancouver Pride Parade when everyone that is or strongly supports being fabulous gets all decked out and marches through downtown Vancouver. Its apparently the largest (or 2nd largest) pride parade in Canada and with all the floats, banners and starts and stops it can be a bit of an endurance contest in the summer heat.
You have officially been living in Vancouver long enough when things like this strike you as awesome rather than odd.
One thing I did find weird about this year which I have not reflected very well in the pictures (having avoided those floats) is that there was a lot more corporate and political floats this year and less naked weirdos. This gave it more of a feeling of "Your corporate masters have realized that this is a lucrative niche market to exploit and would like you to know that Safeway and the Conservative Party think its great that you're gay, and if you'd like to buy our cakes or vote for us, that'd be swell too" than I was used to. I am unsure if having your celebrations sold back to you and commercialized is the truest form of acceptance in western culture or not... it certainly worked for Jesus.

Samburu

Samburu was wonderfully unlike many of the other places we went as it was nearly all desert with a thin river running through in. There were a great deal of unique animals here such as painted dogs, beisa oryx, gerenuk, grevy's zebras and many more. We also had an unforgettable encounter with a family of elephants crossing the river; although there are crocodiles in the water, they have nothing to fear from them.

Music: "Discworld Theme" by Keith Hopwood & Phil Bush

The lodgings at Samburu were very nice little cabins. You can see me resting on the front porch of ours below and during the day young vervet monkeys would delight in climbing the spindly tree on the rigth and then either dropping down to the ground or running around on our roof.

This panorama (click it to enlarge) is the front view off of our patio. It both contrasts the dryness of the mountains beyond with the greenery flourishing along its banks. These picture should also help illustrate the incredible flooding that can happen in this area; a few weeks after we had left the river flooded so badly that people were having to take shelter on the roofs of the cabins to avoid the rising water and crocodiles. The lodge itself apparently sustained quite a bit of damage which is certainly a shame as it was a lovely place and everyone working there was so friendly.

Celebration of Kathryn

Kathryn's official birthday is today, but since she is in the field at the moment we had to have some celebrations in advanc. Carrying on our "never a dull moment when she's in town" mentality we had a bunch of things lined up for the weekend. Pride parade, Lion King musical, party, fireworks, beach...the list goes on :) Here she is looking every bit as lovely as the first second I ever laid eyes on her.
On the Friday evening we had a bunch of friends over for drinks, cupcakes, and footage from Africa. Had a nice turnout of good people that went well into the early hours of the morning.
Saturday was the last night of the annual fireworks festival and China celebrated Kathryn in their own special way by setting the sky on fire.
Happy birthday my little darling, I love you with all my heart.

Nairn Falls

We just had a very busy weekend and with a few camping pictures to share from the weekend before there'll be a bit of a local backlog before we get back to Africa. While in the interior we camped at a site called Nairn Falls which had a very nice campground and a pleasant but short hike. The trail lead up to Nairn Falls themselves which were a series of whitewater falls as you can see below.
There were also spots closer to the river further from the falls where you could dip your toes in the glacial melt and enjoy the sun; but even on a hot day I would be hard pressed to want to get too far in the water. People had entertained themselves in other ways by making little inukshuks out of stray river stones.
The view just from our campsite was quite striking with a lovely view up into the mountains. There were jet boat tours running through the rapids and up to the falls but we didn't find the time to take one in. You can click on the panorama below to enlarge it.