A couple of nights ago elephants woke me up while camping on the outskirts of Tsavo West NP. We stayed the night of the 21st at our favorite campground near Amboseli National Park for the fourth time in the last week and a half. This campground was inexpensive, had friendly workers, and had an electric fence surrounding it to provide added security from animals.
A herd of elephants somehow breeched the fence. It's really not hard to imagine, they're huge, and smart. They've been known to pick up downed logs with their trunks, lay them on electric fences, then step on the logs to complete the fence destruction. The noise of the crunching, the folks talking at 3:00 a.m., and the vehicle herding the elephants woke up Staci and me.
The elephants were getting drinks of water out of the pool, and grazing.
I paced the distance from my tent to the nearest elephant track, 25 feet. Two nights this week with elephants walking really close to my tent may explain some of the trouble I've had sleeping.
This picture was from earlier this week. We didn't see any lions, but the KWS Rangers pointed out lion tracks along the trail.
The "dung beetle" makes balls of the elephant dung. It's fun to watch them industriously rolling these balls speedily down the trail.
Random wildlife.
It's hard to imagine how common it is to see world class wildlife. For anyone old enough to remember, this was like Mutual of Omaha's-Wild Kingdom. I doubt if anyone under fifty years of age will have any idea what I'm talking about.
Staci and I no longer even point out giraffes, elephants, warthogs, impalas, zebras, or gazelles because we've seen so many of them the last couple of weeks. We've certainly stopped taking yet another picture of them! The first time, or the first ten times, we would see a species and would become overjoyed. Now we yawn.
There are some spectacular lodges set up in, and around, the Kenyan national parks. Unfortunately, because of the domestic turmoil, foreign visitors have been shying away from coming on safaris. This is part of a large lodge complex that is completely shut down. Most lodges are getting very little use.
I'm glad to have experienced the wildlife, some incredible landscapes, and many of the people of Kenya. Also, I'm glad to be in Tanzania.
We drove to the border, where yesterday's hike had ended, and started the process. We arrived at 9:15 am, we were done at 12:45 pm. There were no lines. It was like watching grass grow in Scott Valley in the winter, only slower. The lady writing out the required Tanzania insurance coverage was the most shocking. There was no typewriter or computer. Every letter was block printing. Each letter was very nice. She had to make many letters to produce words. There were many words on pages. There were multiple pages. I almost cried from boredom, amazement, and awe. She did have very nice printing.
We finally escaped the border crossing. For visas into Tanzania it was $12 US dollars for members of the Eastern African Union. It was $50 US dollars for everyone else in the world, except US citizens. For some reason the only lucky country in the world singled out for special treatment was the US. Staci and I got to pay $100 US dollars, each, to get our visas to go from Kenya into Tanzania.
