Africa - Day#7 (Encounters-6-9-17)

Early Morning Lioness

Friday, June 9^th, 2017

A.M.

            From where I sit, in this safari van, as the sun rises, I can see 50 or 60 elephants both near and far.  In the foreground is a small flock of guinea hens.  I am in awe and I am humbled.  I can hardly wait to tell me parents and sisters that I’ve seen the birds we used to have on our farm growing up; now here in their natural element.  The guinea is a unique bird, with a face that looks like it is covered in white, garish makeup.  With a call that sounds like “buck wheat,” these birds used to wake us early in the morning as they repeated this sound over and over.

Grey Crowned Crane

Guineas

Video:

Mirror Image

Black Bellied Bustard

Yellow Billed Egret

Grey Heron

Glossy Ibis

A Hippo In Hiding

            Hippos emerge from the grassy marsh.  The marsh is filled from water seeping up out of the ground; spring fed as runoff from Mount Kilimanjaro on the horizon to the west.  Gazelles, zebras, and wildebeest gnus are scattered everywhere throughout the alkaline soiled grassland.  In the thicker grasses, a pride of lions rest.  Their only movement is when they get up to find another place to go lay down and try to get comfortable.  Even as they disappear, they still see you through the grasses; the cubs, the lionesses, and especially the male just off to the side.  Todd keeps saying “Clever Girl” aloud; a quote from Jurassic Park that makes us laugh.  The lions are massive cats, with sinewy muscles that ripple when they walk. 

A Lioness Moving To A New Resting Spot

Clever Girl

A Massively Impressive Male

A Place To Hide

Soaking In The Warming Sun

African Jacana-The "Jesus Bird" Because It "Walks" On Water

Cattle Egret

            Our guide and driver, Peter and Sylvester, are patient and very knowledgeable.  They take their time driving, and stop often to explain what’s around us.  We see so much more than the other safari companies whose trucks and vehicles drive quickly from place to place only looking and searching for the next big thing.  We on the other hand (from Moriah African Tours), are slow and steady.  As my Dad back home often said to me as a child, “Patience before you become one.”  Think about it, as it’s a funny play on words.  Due to the fact that our drivers have kept it “status quo” while driving, they have been able to show us so much more.  They’ve explained the life here in minute detail; both the small and often over looked, as well as the big and shockingly magnificent.  To date, we have seen close to 25 different species of birds, and almost 20 species of mammals; all unique and many in great numbers.

Impala

Yellow Baboon

Black Faced Vervet

Brunch After The Morning Safari

The Rooms At Serena Amboseli Resort

The Dining Room

Agama Lizard

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P.M.
            With strong arms, Sylvester grips the steering wheel of our safari van.  He has to with the rutted, bumpy, gravel road.  This road is smooth compared to what we came in on yesterday.  Then, Sylvester had to maintain an iron grip with hand and arm muscles tense to keep us on the road.  As we boarded today, he commented that we will, “Look for an encounter.”  Indeed!

African Cape Buffalo

Fish Eagle

            This afternoon we are seeing many species of animals; most up close and personal.  Among those is the fish eagle not unlike our bald eagle in the United States, except the white extends down onto the shoulder.  It was eating a fish while standing on a rock.

Observation Hill In The Distance

Greater Flamingos

Reed Buck

            As we make our way along the edge of the Enkongu Narok Swamp, extending toward Observation Hill, we see many hippos; grazing and out of the water, basking in the sun.  They are huge with their massive heads and bodies of bulk.  Their coloring is dark, but with a tint of reddish orange under their bellies.  The way they plow into the mud to reenter the water is indeed impressive.  If I tried that in waders, I would be stuck there forever with nothing left but my bleached out bones.  They are able to do what they do, stepping and surfing into the muck, at 3,000 plus pounds.  As we drive around the waterway, we look forward to climbing the hill overlooking the vastness.  It’s the one place you can park and get out of the vans here in Amboseli. 

Preparing To Hike Up Observation Hill

Me Looking Over The Lake And Swamp Far Below

Our Guide Peter, Scanning The Horizon

            The hike up to the top of Observation Hill is steep along the staircase, but the view is breathtaking.  Our guide, Peter, encourages us to stay on the stairs specifically, as the soil off to each side is sensitive to erosion with limited plant life.  Once at the top, some of our Team members are taking pictures on top of a rock structured kiosk, while the rest of us are with our guide Peter, looking down on the water at the hippos and flamingos.  After five to eight minutes, Peter tries valiantly to call the Team together for a group picture on the hill’s edge, when suddenly a few of the guys start running around wildly.  Nyles, Gabe, and Noah specifically are flailing their arms.  Someone yells out, “Bees!” and then panic ensues.  You can see bees swarming all around the heads of various Team members now.  Gabe says, rather matter of factly but with a worried look, that he is getting stung.  Peter, realizing what’s going on, yells out, “Run…Run for your life! Run for the vans!”  It is chaos, plain and simple.  We all are running for the staircase now, the opportunity for a group picture forgotten, but at this point ten of us are all trying to get to the one small ribbon of steps leading down.  Most try sticking to the stairs, but it’s hard to jump, and run, and watch where you are stepping.  Some are running off to the side, onto the forbidden ground, but everyone is yelling, and spastically swinging at the air while trying to descend and stay under control.  People are shouting, as the bees sting again and again; they won’t stop and follow in clouds.  Noah finally veers off to the side, kneels down, and covers his head, but only for a second before continuing down.  Todd and I run by him and encourage him to keep going.  I know the right thing would be to stop and help, but we are each surrounded and outnumbered.  Our drivers Sylvester and Nicholas, talking next to the vans down below, have puzzled looks on their faces as they try to formulate what’s going on.  You can see they are fearful we’re being chased by something big and exotic, but upon hearing someone once again yell, “Bees,” they jump into action and open up the van doors, awaiting our arrival.  Many of us are now swinging our hats around trying to ward them off, as Gabe slowly comes to a walk halfway down.  He has been drilled well over twenty times already, and has now gone into “give up mode.”

            Finally we make it to the bottom when it just as suddenly stops.  I am instantly relieved as I really didn’t want to get into a van with the possibility of trapped bees sealed in with us.  Each of us is talking at the same time, trying to assess the damage, while figuring out what has just happened.  It is decided that it is an encounter of random, unusual circumstances.  Paul and Todd each has been stung once under their eye.  Noah and Peter, like Gabe, has received multiple stings to the head and arms.  John Fay has a few as well.  The rest of us, miraculously, have somehow avoided them for unknown reasons; as everyone had them flying around us.  We start pulling out stingers, almost like small thorns.  We also began to check the swelling around each sting to make sure nobody is having an allergic reaction.  Patty Scholz, who had been holding on to several cameras for other Team members when we had been on the top, has a “kattywampus” phone video that captures our helter skelter escape.  This will be funny at a later time and date.

            It was decided that those who were stung multiple times would return to the resort as a precaution.  Kristin, showing those who are going to return how to use her EpiPen in case of a delayed reaction to the stings, accidentally injects herself during the demonstration.  Now she too must join the van of the walking wounded that is returning.  Despite the shock and pain, it was also a comedy of errors of sorts; nobody’s fault, just plain dumb luck.

            As Patty, John and Paul Fay, Todd, and I loaded into Sylvester’s van; John remarks that, “There are not many people that can say they were part of an attack.”  Todd and I simultaneously add, “And survived!”  The animals of note that we see this evening are a warthog and a family of hyenas laying about their den just ten feet from the van.

A Wart Hog Face That Only A Mother Could love  : )

A Laughing Hyena

A Close Up

A Mother Nursing Her Pups At The Den

Two Different Types Of Vultures (One is A White Backed)

Black Winged Stilt

Kilimanjaro-Mowenzi (Left Peak) And Kibo (Right Peak)

Another African Sunset

            Hmmmm.  Is it divine providence or an inkling?  Either way it is a great call Sylvester; you predicted a day of iconic (although unforeseeable) “encounters” on the flip side.

            See you along The Way…