The Aberdares Part I

Are you more of a visual learner? Pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/julia.littell/TheAberdares

The rest of last week went quickly, now that I have a friend to cook and laugh with and a surrogate dog and cat. I also had some interesting reptile encounters. There was the CUTEST baby gecko in the bath tub one night (only about an inch long) that I squealed over for a while. Just ask Andy, he was on the phone. And then on the way back from the lab, Cassandra saw a squashed chameleon in the road. It was perfectly formed, even its curly tongue was sticking out. It was just flat. And dead.

Cassandra, Joerg, and I went out for Ethiopian food on Friday. It was part of this foreigner social club thing, so there were a lot of other people there that we didn't know. We sat on little stools with cushions around small tables that were actually drums with animal skins over them. We saw other people being served meals in huge flat baskets, so when it came time to order we asked for whatever the other table was eating. While we were waiting for our food a smiling young man and woman came out to dance for us. He wore a white silk robe and pants with a green belt, and she had a long cotton dress that she tucked under at her waste to free her feet. The main movement in Ethiopian dancing is in the shoulders. Jerky movements that verge on vibrations at times. It was really impressive and fun to watch.

Then our food came. Goat, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, beans, cabbage, greens, sauces, and spices all served on a huge piece of thin spongy bread. Unfortunately Cassandra mistook a really hot pepper for a green bean and ruined her night. We went to a club after dinner (crazy!) but the room they normally go in was reserved for a party, so after Joerg watched soccer on TV for a while and Cassandra and I watched some ladies dancing, we left and went home. We had to get ready to go camping the next day!

In the morning Cassandra informed us that she had strained her back from breathing weird after eating the hot pepper (?) and she would not be able to come with us. But she was nice enough to still let me use her tent. We loaded the car with camping gear, and went to see a dying bird Joerg had found and moved that morning. It was in the bush where he had left it, but when he went to take a close up picture of it, it flew away. "Duuuuh?" was the hilarious sound that came out of his mouth (which he later denied). Apparently "dying" was actually just stunned after it had ran into a window, but he took credit for saving its life.

Then we were off! Counting crows serenading us down the road. Until Joerg realized that he forgot his cell phone. We went back, got it, and were off again! The drive Northwest to the Aberdares was exciting for me. Joerg let me use his fancy camera to take pictures the whole weekend. Right outside of Nairobi is beautiful countryside with sheep everywhere, donkeys grazing on the side of the road, men selling sheep skins (I really wanted one but wasn't sure about customs), vertically stacked fruit stands, and a suddenly striking view of the rift valley down below. Perhaps this location is famous for other reasons, but we vet students know of it because of the infamous Rift Valley Fever. This pesky phlebovirus virus was one of the thousands drilled into our head during block IV. It causes a considerable amount of anguish here in the rift valley, but we American vets are concerned about it because it is carried by the same kinds of mosquitoes we have in the US of A.

As we climbed in altitude, the clouds rolled in and we were driving through greener and greener pastures now sprinkled with tall pine trees. It felt like medieval Europe, not Africa. The entire park is enclosed with a huge electric fence to keep the elephants from terrorizing the locals and to keep the locals from grazing their cattle in the park. Once through the fence we drove up and up and up, into a bamboo forest, listening to Bob Dylan. Joerg had me on the lookout for wild cats to take pictures of (which he said he could sell), but we didn't see any. Then there was another gate where we had to pay to get into the park. Joerg has a yearly pass but they still tried to charge him to get in. He was used to this happening but we worked it out and $75 (for me) and one fishing license later we were in the park.

We drove alone down a dirt road out of the bamboo and into the moorlands. Rolling hills of low bushes and distant forests representing every shade of green you can imagine. We parked the car and eagle-eye Joerg spotted an elephant almost immediately. He has been there many times but he got really excited because this was the first time he had seen a lone elephant in the moorlands with no bamboo to hide in. It was pretty sweet.

Joerg got his fly fishing rod set up with a "Mrs. Simpson" (for those of you who care), and we headed down towards the waterfalls. We didn't get far before we found a stream that just had to be fished in for a while. I took lots of pictures while he cursed the trees in the way, and just as I stopped paying attention, he got one! Hey hey look! A big trout! Oh no! It got away. With Mrs. Simpson. I took a picture of him standing there, stunned and grinning. We slowly made our way to the falls, fishing, taking pictures, Joerg fell in the mud, I tripped over elephant poo. And there they were. A huge gorge with falls on either side. I'll let you just look at the pictures.

We found Reedbuck Campsite #1, with 3 Americans on it, but #2 was just down the road (and it was nicer!). Everyone had warned me about the weather up there (we were over 3000 meters) and as we set up our tents the sun started to dip, bringing the temperature with it. I put on my PJ pants, tucked them into my wool socks, donned my regular pants, two shirts, a fleece, a raincoat, and a blanket and went to sit by the stove and make tea. After tea we boiled gnocchi and opened the canned tomato sauce with an army can opener. Joerg insisted on moving the opened cans into the fire pit so they wouldn't spill, and promptly spilled one of them.

As we sat eating, reedbuck and bushbuck came from all directions to investigate our tents and the spilled tomato sauce. I wanted to take pictures, but Joerg said I should just enjoy them and not worry about pictures and scaring them with a flash. I think he was right. One female came very close, tasting my shoes at one point, but wouldn't let any of the others near us. She just chased them away. The stars came out, we drank some warm beer (I wished it was hot), and talked and laughed about deep philosophical questions and burping and farting until the late hour of 8:00pm. You landsea-ers will appreciate that I showed Joerg how to garberate the gnocchi and then how to clean his bowl with beer. He liked the first one, but the warm tomato-y beer was too much. I actually quite liked it.

When it was too cold to sit there any more, we went to bed. Joerg instructed me that if I heard a lion or an elephant outside the tent, I was not to come out of it under any circumstances. I noticed his tent was much closer to the car (which he had insisted on locking), and that he had the key. But I was too happy to be scared. I crawled into my heavy sleeping bag with my wool blanket, and only got warm when I curled up and zipped my head under. I fell asleep to the sound of Joerg snoring in the distance and reedbuck walking around and licking my tent.