Location: Ewaso Nyiro River Camp, Mpala Wildlife Conservancy, Laikipia Valley
We went and climbed Mukenya, a mountain within Mpala's borders, today. On the drive there, C was leading, driving, and there was this large run-off bed and the long green Land Cruiser got stuck. The ascari car had no trouble getting through the bed. They got out shovels and started digging the car out--it took about 30 min but they finally got it free. They drove it across and then back to the original side and parked it there. So we walked the rest of the way.
The hike was pretty steep and took us up some pretty slippery rock. We had about 6 ascari with us looking out for animals--all of whom were having no problem climbing in sandals while we were struggling with hiking boots on.
The view from the top of the mountain was incredible--I felt like I could see all of Kenya--it was SO beautiful and clear. After goofing around and taking lots of pictures on the rocks at the top, we lunched under an outcropping. We had cheese, meat, tomato, cucumber or peanut butter sandwiches, mango juice, hard-boiled eggs, passion fruit, and potato chips. The hike back down was probably even steeper than the way up! I was very glad for the traction on the bottom of my hiking boots. A few people slipped, but my only injuries were from the acacia thorns I brushed through.
When we got back to river camp, we had a visit from one of the authors of one of the articles we had to read. Rob Pringle got his PhD from Stanford, his post-doc from Harvard, and just got a million-dollar signing bonus for agreeing to a professorship at Princeton University. "Wow" doesn't begin to describe this guy. His work on acacia tree-ant mutualism is legendary and he's been at Mpala for a very long time. The man himself looks like he could have been a hippie/surfer dude back in California--now, he's all long blond hair and cowboy boots and plaid. His research was definitely still a work in progress and he was very mum about a lot of his current work, but he was able to laugh and joke with us and tell us a lot more about Mpala in general.
Dinner was excellent tonight: green beans, pork, mashed potatoes, custard soup, cabbage, and lentils. I finished feeling perfectly contented. This trip has been awesome so far!!
After dinner, C explained our black cotton soil research project for tomorrow. The acacia drepanolobium trees in the black cotton ecosystem provide the ants with food and shelter in exchange for protection against herbivores, which the ants provide. Our goal is to compare the tree-ant mutualisms to the distances from the glade. I am the team leader for the group in charge of taking the measurements for all the trees we study. There's another team in charge of setting up transect and tagging all our tree subjects. There's a third team in charge of shaking the trees to agitate the ants. C guarantees that we will all get bitten by the ants. A lot. Fun, right? Can't wait.
R's daughter is in the hospital in Nanyuki (the nearest city to Mpala) for the night and we haven't seen R since we got here. The professor J has been very active tho--even tho he and his family are staying at the ranch house--he goes to all our hikes and ecological site explorations and comes to the discussions. On trail and site he's always like, "Oh this flower is in such-and-such family" and "That rock formed because of this pressure." He attempted to catch a lizard today but only got the end of its tail and was excited to show us how the tail flopped about wildly for about two minutes after it fell off. He also identified a type of eggplant that, if eaten, makes a person hallucinate vividly until the toxins in the fruit kills them. Interesting.
We were supposed to go to the research center today so we could check email and charge batteries but because Rob came to river camp, it didn't happen. I'm still hoping to go tomorrow--my video camera juice is at about a quarter. The batteries take some time to charge tho too so I'm hoping C or K get that and we get to do that tomorrow so I can continue taking fantastic pictures and video!
Jody and I turned in early tonight. I feel like we're missing group bonding time at the campfire but then again it seems like drinking by the campfire will be an every night thing and I could really use the sleep . . . zzzzzzzzz . . ..
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