The lions witnessed the accident and the baboons stole the garbage

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I'm in Africa for research for five weeks. I was only supposed to be in Nairobi for two days before heading up to the Baringo area, but the research I was going to join there finished early, so I waited in the city waiting for everyone else to get back so we can regroup before heading up to Turkana for phase II of the research. I'll be writing about some of the work we're doing on my rock blog: tannislikesrocks.blogspot.com.

Today we've had a break from wrapping up the Baringo data and prepping for Turkana, so five of us hired a driver and headed to Nairobi National Park for a day-trip safari. As we waited for our driver outside our apartment at 5:30am, one of the other women declared that we were going to have an adventure that day. Her words proved to be prophetic, and we had several adventures.

My adventures began when I was washing dishes before we even left, and a glass exploded in the sink, slicing open two of my fingers. Fortunately, the bleeding stopped enough for me to put on a couple of band-aids and other than not having time to eat a proper breakfast, it didn't effect my safari-day.

Our driver stopped for petrol before we headed to the Park. While we were stopped, a group of women who were just leaving the nearby nightclub stopped at our windows to profess their love for one of the guys in the vehicle. One of them shoved a partially eaten sausage through the window, asking if we wanted a bite. They all wanted us to drive them home, and as we pulled away, in a last desperate attempt for a ride or some attention, one of the women yelled, "I'm a lesbian, I'm a lesbian!." I had no idea we'd be seeing cougars before we even entered the National Park...

The next adventure happened when we got to Lion Valley. Two male lions were sitting in the grass watching. We were the second vehicle there, and as our driver was backing in to get us a good vantage point, a little blue car dashed in behind us, trying to beat us to the good vantage point. Then they stopped and there was a crunch when we hit them. Since there were two male lions there, there was nothing we could do. The couple in the car tried phoning the traffic police, but they can't enter the national park, so they called their insurance company and the Kenyan Wildlife Service. We had to wait for the lions to leave before our driver could even get out of the Land Cruiser to talk to the couple, and even after the lions left, we had to wait for KWS to show up to 'write an accident report'.

When they arrived, there was lots of laughter, because there were no lions and no other vehicles, just our Land Cruiser and the little car stuck together. The couple tried to use their diplomatic documents and their baby to get things to go their way. The story they told about how the accident happened changed a few times, and they declared they had lots of witnesses, but so did we. The couple wanted us to agree to meet them at the gate of the park in an hour for reasons I still don't understand. The KWS guys laughed when we said "sure, we'll be there at 10am, Kenyan time." Eventually, the awesome KWS guys convinced the couple to call their insurance company back and forget about the claim, because our driver's company would get their car fixed and pay for it without involving insurance, and we were on our way with the accident behind us. We lost nearly two hours of morning safari time there, but fortunately we had some libations with us to keep us happy.

When we arrived at Mokoiyet Viewpoint and picnic spot, there was a sign to "Be Aware of Baboons." We looked around, but didn't see any. While we were watching some hyraxes on the cliffs below us, the driver and passengers of another vehicle shouted to us that a baboon was in our vehicle. It was scared off, but not before it grabbed our bag of rubbish. More baboons began appearing, and trying to get into all the vehicles, which left everyone scrambling to close all the windows and the pop-tops. If I'd had a sharpie with me, I would have changed the sign to say "Seal up your vehicle to prevent baboons getting in."

We finished the morning at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. We were late getting there, and missed the arrival of the orphaned elephants, but we still got to spend some time watching them. One of the women in our group tried to play soccer with one of the elephants, but all she got for her efforts was a smack to the leg with a trunk.

It was a quiet drive back to the apartment after all that - I think most of us napped in the Nairobi traffic, but it was a great day with lots of wildlife and lots of adventures.

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