Location: Ewaso Nyiro River Camp, Mpala Wildlife Conservancy, Laikipia Valley
We went on a game drive this morning. Someone had heard that there were lions and wild dogs on the north side of Mpala so we decided to go check it out. We found way more animals than we even saw on the sundowner. We saw plains zebras, impalas, and then came across the wild dogs. It was a pack of around 15-20 dogs.
The ascari tracked the wild dogs and then the cars followed them--they brought us so close! We spent a lot of time circling them and chasing them through the bush.
On the way from there to the borehole, we saw baboons, more impala, plains zebras, hartebeast, Grevy's zebra, and buffalo (spotted by Apollo from almost a mile away!). We were briefly stopped by a large herd of elephants. We were so close to the bull and near the babies I was sure he was going to charge!
The borehole was very cool--the pump drills into an aquifer that provides all the water to the ranch house and MRC (but they have to filter the water because it contains high levels of flouride). The trick with an aquifer is to keep the amount of water being taken from the aquifer at a sustainable rate so that it can be replenished by rainwater--this is exactly what the MRC master's students are here to help with. There's a whole group of Masai that live at the pump house up on the plateau and get paid to turn the pump machine on and off by Mpala. It's very interesting.
W leaves on Tuesday--I have to remember to ask him about my dog project idea--he's spent so much time interviewing people here at Mpala and at the group ranch he will probably have some good ideas about how it would be received and what sorts of challenges might arise.
After the game drive this morning, I'm covered in dust! There's literally a layer on all of my clothing and backpack. I can feel it coating every strand of my hair; it's even in my ears, eyes and nose! I need to clean my camera--there's a layer of it on the lens even!
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