Lakes Naivasha and Nakuru

We visited two lakes in Kenya in the space of a few days. We would have very much liked more time at both, but that was the case with everywhere we went. The highlights of Lake Naivasha was a boat ride where we could watch hippos swimming and see lots of birds. Lake Nakuru offered flamingos and white rhinos as well as our only striped hyena sighting.

Music: "Crossing the Bridge" by Jerry Goldsmith.

Lake Naivasha had stunning grounds that we were able to explore during the day provided we were alert for any irate Cape Buffalo. After dinner we had a guard escort us all back to our rooms to be sure we weren't attacked by startled grazing hippos; this was our only time in life we have been able to say we tipped our hippo guard. We also had some lovely encounters with grazing giraffes and duelling waterbuck on the grounds.
Our room at Lake Nakuru was perched on a little hill wher we could overlook the area and wander around. There were several bird feeders on the grounds and one of the highlights was the nest of a paradise flycatcher we could see through the branches. There were displays of local dancing in the evening and we enjoyed the pool during the hottest parts of the day.

Whistler/Blackcomb

Redirecting from Africa again briefly, our friends Anne and Yves were in town for the past week and we took a weekend camping trip up through the sunshine coast. We were actually double-booked that weekend and Kathryn was attending a friends wedding in Seattle. Anne had lived in Vancouver years ago so we headed out to Whistler to comment on how much its grown and take in some epic mountains.
Whistler is a very popular spot for all manner of sports both summer and winter. Snowboarding and skiing are the main draw, having been a host site for the Winter Olympics, but BC has a very dedicated downhill mountain biking crowd. These guys were just running a short stunt course but were about 3 meters apart and doing jumps that made me dislocate my hip just thinking about it.
There's also a rather insane gondola running between the peaks of Mt Whistler and Mt Blackcomb that we took a ride on. Below is a panorama (click to enlarge) from the peak of Blackcomb looking down on the town of Whistler and Garibaldi Lake.

Matbronze Gallery

One our last day in Nairobi we took in several tourist sites such as the Giraffe Sanctuary and a number of curio shops. We also had a visit to the Matbronze Gallery which is equal parts coffee shop and art boutique for rich folks. The grounds themselves are very pleasant with lots of sculptures of African wildlife which are free to roam around.
The interior is quite pleasant as well with numerous works of art in all shapes and sizes as well as a window you can look through to see artists creating their next sculptures. While all of it was beautiful, it fell in the unfortunate categories of 1) too expensive to buy and too huge to move OR 2) affordable and so small you'd lose or forget it.
We did make friends with the local cat however and were able to get this picture of him juxtaposed as Kenyas greatest predator.

Ngorongoro Conservation Area

We've touched on the Ngorongoro Crater in the past and although we only had a few hours in it, there was a huge range of wildlife to see in there along with some unforgettable encounters that we've highlighted in particular.

Music: "Crossing the Bridge" by James Newton Howard

The lodge we stayed at Ngorongoro was very nice, but being nestled in the forest and on the edge of a gorge, it was impossible to get good exterior pictures, so you'll all have to make do with a few interiors. The bar area below was host to a group of acrobats and dancers that evening which were quite impressive and the view from the deck out over the crater was a joy.
The rooms were quite nice and cozy. I had my birthday at this particular lodge and it was also the birthday of our friend Roger, so there was a fun evening of drinks and merriment.

Herons

The networks of lakes and rivers that criss-cross east Africa are a bountiful source of food for many animals, and herons are one family of great opportunists for wetlands hunting. This Black-Headed Heron was a common sight throughout our trips and very comparable in size to our Great-Blue Herons here in Canada.
Smaller in stature but every bit as charming, this Squacco Heron (perhaps the most enjoyable heron name ever) was about the size of a bittern and resting in the reeds in Amboseli.
Since Africa gets a giant version of everything, they also have the Goliath Heron, which the photo below doesn't really do justice to since there's very little else in frame for scale. This particular bird can get up to 5ft tall or more and this particular one was very striking as it strode through the Mara River in Kenya.

Amboseli Highlights

We spent several days at Amboseli in a forested lodge near the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro. The biggest draw of Amboseli is its resident elephant population which I think the video below showcases nicely. We were able to watch them cross the road infront of and behind us a few times on game drives and the experience is breathtaking. There were several prides of lions there as well and we could see them on the prowl from our lodge one night. Unfortunately the mothers and cubs never came close enough for closeups, but we still got some nice family shots.

Music: "Old Bagdad" by Jerry Goldsmith.

The lodge at Amboseli was very nicely concealed from view (as most of the lodges on our trip were) by being completely surrounded by lush jungle. This also helped keep the sun off during the day and kept the pool nicely shaded for easily-burned people like myself.
The decor at Amboseli was very nice as well as all the bedrooms and dining room had stylized paintings of animals and birds in them. We really lucked out there and wound up with a double suite and patio so what little time we did spend in the room was certainly spent in luxury. We didn't get much mileage out of the patio since although you could see elephants in the distance from it there were also baboons directly outside of it and we didn't feel like trying our luck with them.

Baby Things

Since the last post was a bit grim and red in tooth and claw, I thought I'd lighten the mood with some baby things...
AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!
This little white rhino was carefully following its mother in the forest not far from our lodge at Lake Nakuru.
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!
This lion cub was part of a pride of lions in Ndutu and was thoroughly charming. There were a pair playing together but this particular photo wins for cuteness due to his 'awe shucks' grin.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
We saw this tiny baby elephant (which Kathryn and I dubbed 'The Smallephant') in the Maasai Mara. Our guides told us it was likely only a few months old and is so cute it boggles the mind.

Waste not, want not

With the volume of animal life in the parks of Africa, something is always hungry. This constant appetite creates a theatre for death and the macabre that takes some getting used to, but which is entirely natural once you think past the 'poor sweet animals' kind of thinking. One example of this was a carcass we found early one morning on a drive in Ndutu. A swarm of vultures on the ground lead us to a spot and by the same means drew the attention of a lone hyena.
A female wildebeest had died, our guide said of natural causes, and the vultures were on the carcass hoping to eat as much as they could before other bigger scavengers showed up. This opportunistic hyena slipped in through the crowd and extracted a fetus before scampering off a few dozen feet to try and eat his meal in peace.
Not being keen to share, he quickly chased off any vultures that got too close and was still eating his fill when we moved on. Our guide estimated that the wildebeest had probably only been dead for an hour or two at most and would be stripped to the bones by sunset. Africa is as beautiful as it is unforgiving and lets very little go to waste.

Clash of the Titans

One of the most amazing things I have seen in my life was this battle between two bull cape buffalo at the Ark. The stakes were the leadership of their herd of buffalo and neither male was at all interested in backing down. I do warn all viewers that there is violence throughout this but it was neither staged nor forced. Either animal could have ended the battle at any point if they were willing to back down, so I think it is spectacular and natural rather than being tragic or exploitive.

Music: "Elite Guard Attacks" by Basil Poledouris.

Those of you that recall my post on the structure of The Ark from last week will be able to see how Kathryn and I were able to position ourselves to get different angles and lots of coverage of this event. I switched between the bunker (in red) and the outdoor side deck (purple on the right) while Kathryn filmed the entire thing from the top outdoor deck (purple and higher). This resulted in us both having plenty of footage and coverage for each other when the animals were behind bush or too far for one of us to see.
The full battle itself was 15-20 minutes in length and totally draining just to watch. There were staff at The Ark who said they'd been there for years and never seen anything like it, so we were incredibly lucky to catch it in the 14 hours we were there. There was also divided consensus on which bull actually won the fight. Although the previously dominant male broke a horn and chased the other away, he then stayed away from the herd so there was varying opinion on who won. Several staff said the two had been looking at each other for awhile and that there could well be a follow up battle to decide a victor, but that didn't happen while we were there.

Driving Among Giants

Its not just lions which are generally unphased by passing vehicles. Elephants have very few things to fear in protected parks and generally seem to know that there is nothing to fear from us. The elephant below walked through our convoy in Ngorongoro Crater and didn't even bat at eye at us. We were quite pleased at this as it was the first time we were that close to an elephant and they make a real impression up close. Any moment you are close enough to hear an animal breathing is an incredible time.
This elephant in the Maasai Mara made sure that everyone could get photos of it with other vans in frame for comparison. The roads in the Mara are very simple dirt tracks for the most part but the elephants wander about as they please quite happily.
The "pygmy" elephants of Lake Manyara were equally unconcerned with this one wandering across the road for better foraging on the other side amid quite a pile of vehicles.

Close Encounters of the Furred Kind

Near the end of our morning drive through Ngorongoro Crater the sun was starting to get very high in the sky and very hot. Most game drives were between 6am-11am and 3:30pm-6pm because the mid-day African sun is sweltering. From out in the distance a pair of lions with no available source of shade were wandering towards our line of vans along the roadside.
We felt very lucky and awed that they chose the shade of our particular van to lie down in, allowing for a wonderful photo opp. To be sure you can all tell how close they were, the rail from the side of our van is in the bottom of the shot, and the bump in the right of the shadow is the top of my hat.
We were sure to keep all the windows rolled up and not lean too far out of the van, but I'm sure they were too hot and tired to want to give anyone trouble. We enjoyed their company for quite awhile and then rudely took our shade with us in search of other adventure in the crater... we would have loved to stay longer but visits to the crater are very limited in time and we were almost out of ours.

Smaller Animals of the Ark

We spent a single night at The Ark in the Aberdare Forest but we had some pretty neat encounters there all the same, enough that this video is only part of what we saw there with the other half coming next week. This round focuses on the smaller animals such as bee-eaters, mongeese and suni which we saw and which often don't get the spotlight in these shorts as they can be very elusive and hard to get good footage of. Such was not a problem in the Aberdare.

Music: "Melee Map" by Michael Land.

There's pictures of the Ark in the post above and footage of it in the clip, so I won't bore you with information about the entrance. Below is a stock photo from the internet (and apparently the only one of its kind) which I am forced to use since the back is inaccessible as its typically full of elephants or cape buffalo. The areas marked in yellow are enclosed viewing decks, the areas in magenta are outdoor viewing decks, the cyan box is our approxiamate window position and the red outline is my personal favorite: the bunker which puts you at eye level with the animals and creates an experience I have yet to find anywhere else.

Our room was snug but functional. We had a pretty quiet time for larger animals while we were there and didn't get a terribly good nights sleep since there is a buzzer system in place to alert you if neat animals show up and we were both awake most of the night waiting for it to go off. We also aren't really used to twin beds which would likely account for some rough sleep as well.

Happy Canada Day!

The skies were gloomy and grey and I think the city is missing Kathryn as well (for those not in the know, she's out doing field archeology) but I did my best to get out and enjoy the day despite my lack of good company. The parade was quite enjoyable and summed up Canadas multicultural vibe quite nicely through mounties, bagpipes, korean drummers, brazilian martial arts, local theatre groups and gay rights (with a few weirdos on stilts thrown in for good measure).
Vancouvers soft-drug laws are lightly enforced at the best of times, so the art gallery grounds were taken over entirely by a pro-drug party with all the amusement that comes from hundreds of stoned people hanging out together. I haven't seen pot sales that flagrant and in-your-face since Amsterdam ;)
Canada Place is a large convention centre by the waterfront and the area all around it was transformed into an pedestrian corridor with several stages for music, play areas for the kids and every imaginable kind of pastry or meat on a stick that your arteries could ever fear.

Click the panorama below to enlarge it.