2.7.09--What's the Sound of One Hippo Snoring

Anne & I finished last week with two days on the wards at MTRH. We'll hopefully be settling into a routine starting tomorrow morning. Over the next few weeks, I hope to think far more about people than animals. Nonetheless, this weekend was an animal-centric affair.

We left Eldoret on Friday afternoon for a weekend vacation in and around Lake Naivasha and Hell’s Gate National Park. We stayed in a little hut, or "banda", Anne & I sharing a narrow twin bed with an ill-fitting mosquito net. Below, the view of your porch at first light and the one from our porch a few minutes later with Lake Naivasha in the background..




The trip included some biking, hiking, eating, drinking and ogling wildlife. My personal highlights were giraffe, monkeys & hippos in that order. There were zebras ("punda milia"), warthogs ("pumba"), gazelle, impala ("swala"), elan and various big birds.



To be more specific, the sight & sound of giraffes running was absolutely fascinating. The giraffe were weary to let us get too close, eventually galloping off into cover of nearby trees. They seemed as mystified by the looks of us as we were by them, just enough to let us creep within a good staring distance. “Twiga” is giraffe in Kiswahili.




As for monkeys, the smaller the better… Giraffe just don't look like they were made to run. Monkeys, on the other hand, were clearly designed to chase each other through trees. We saw vervet monkeys, black-and-white colobus monkeys and yellow baboons. Below are the vervet monkeys roaming our camp and the yellow baboons flagging down passing motorists on the highway to beg for scraps...



Now hippos… a fearsome beast per report. Apparently, hippos kill more humans each year than you’d think. Any sound coming from a hippo is therefore a little unnerving. At 4 AM, we were awoken by a deep baritone barreling into our little hut. Hippos mating, fighting or in some kind of pain were all guesses made. I think he was snoring.

(Link to be added once our Tech Dept. can figure it out)

On the boat ride back on Lake Naivasha, our tour guides arranged a small show. He first quite violently stuffed a fruit of some kind down the gullet of a small fish to make it float, then let out a loud, shrill whistle and heaved the fish into the water. Clearly very familiar with the drill, a fish eagle takes flight from the tops of the trees on shore and swoops through to snatch up the fish. Staged, but still quite nice. Tilt your head appropriately to enjoy the visual aid.



We were accompanied on our first day's hike by a boy named Mohamed. He was 11 years-old, a Maasai, spoke excellent English and was a real pleasure to have along. Mohamed encouraged the group to visit his nearby village. A man who appeared to be the village spokesperson assured us that the small entrance fee was to be put toward the children’s education. If Mohamed is an example of how well the kids are being schooled, then it was a few hundred shillings well-spent. There was some question as to the authenticity of the display we were shown as at least one of the Maasai men had on a collar shirt and dress shoes on under his traditional garb. There could be no doubt, however, as to the genuine cow dung used to build the huts in which these people lived. A strange juxtaposition to be sure. Below is Mohamed with his home in the background. We were given a tour of one of the homes as you'll see...




Signed,

Joe