NOVEMBER 26-Sable Antelope
The morning was taking care of permits, then heading out.
Immediately we came across elephant tracks. Staci's fingers are about at the toes, and it goes back toward her.
These are the two armed guards who accompanied us on the hike through the park. Saleem and Samson were fantastic. To say the least they are fascinated by this whole adventure.
They are Rangers at Shimba Hills National Park. They normally spend their time chasing down timber and elephant poachers. This was a change of pace. Nobody had ever asked to walk through the park! I now had to try not to slow down Staci and these two young Rangers in the heat and humidity. Luckily this day wasn't as long or hard as the first hiking day.
A lot of strange looking and sounding birds were around. I think he called this one an egru. He pointed out a small snake wiggling across the road, it was a cobra. It was way too small to be frightening, it didn't have a big flat head yet. On the PCT sometimes I would just "cowboy camp," throwing my sleeping bag on my air mattress and not bothering with a tent. I guarantee I will not cowboy camp on this trip!
Then the highlight of the day, a herd of Sable antelope. They were great in the binoculars, but you can't see much here. Staci and Saleem did the sneak on the herd, and got much closer. The Papa (dominant male) actually got irritated and ran a few bluff steps toward Staci and Saleem. It was an awesome sight to see.
Sable antelope are very rare, and this is the only place in Kenya with them. Staci has better pictures than I, she got way closer.
Later on the hike we saw a buffalo. Staci and Saleem did the sneak on the buffalo on saw there were actually four, two young and two old. These are smaller than the Montana buffalo I'm used to.
For camp we made it to an outpost within the park. Two other Kenyan Wildlife Service employees were there. They did all the cooking. One highlight was our second evening meal, Ungale, a traditional meal. It was excellent, like eating sticky rice with the dipping sauce being a meat and broth.
We're trying to pick up some Swahili. I may be too old to learn a new language, but it's fun trying. Hakuna Matata isn't just from the movie the Lion King.
NOVEMBER 27-Thanksgiving Day-Seldrick Falls
We started out taking a little side trip to see Seldrick Falls. It was worth the energy.
You can see how small Staci is in relation to the falls. I stood under the falls and their force was almost literally breathtaking.
The kitchen area at the outpost where we stayed.
We stopped back at the camping area after our little morning side trip. Just before we went to bed they had us move our tents as elephants sometimes use that as a pathway. Since we didn't want to be squished by an elephant, we moved up and camped between the huts.
The excitement came today when we came upon this large herd of buffalo. They we interested in the four of us, and Saleem and Samson immediately got serious. In no time Samson had a shell in the chamber. Saleem had us keep walking until we went out of the sight of the buffalo, then we back-tracked a ways, then went off the road to the backside of a ridge away from them. We never saw them again, but it was fascinating for a bit.
Not long after, a lone buffalo came bolting in front of us and got a little adrenaline flowing in all of us again. It's very obvious why we are required to have the armed guards. We found out later that the lone buffalo may have been a scout sent out by the herd to find us.
