Thieves in the Camp

Monkeys are probably the most adaptable of animals, they actually welcome us visitors to their country as they find many ways of expoiting and benefiting from us. While taking other peoples things without asking is actually a crime, for monkeys it's more an opportunity. It's not always an easy task to protect your belongings especially if it's edible!

We camped for two nights at a site just next to lake bogoria, a lovely campsite with a resident troupe of vervet monkeys and a plague of mosquitos. The monkeys hang around the camp full time in the hope of getting left overs and anything else they can get their hands on. They go to the bins each morning and evening to see what has been thrown away. They inspect everything and will eat almost anything they can digest. In the photo above they are tucking into the remains of our spagetti bolognaise and thoroughly enjoying it.

We arrived at the campsite late afternoon and settled in while Charles, our chef, cooked dinner. He managed to cook a three course meal on a one ring camping gas stove, which was pretty impressive in itself, not only that but the food was lovely. Tomorrow we were heading off for a full day at the lake, so after breakfast Charles made up a packed lunch and put the rest of the food in his tent, securing the zips with a padlock to keep it safe and out of the hands of the monkeys, or so he thought. We hadn't realised how determined and persistent they could be. Because they couldn't get in via the zip they picked at different parts of the tent until a small hole appeared, then they continued to pick at this until the hole got bigger and bigger until finally it was large enough for them to squeeze into and steal the food stored within.

We returned late afternoon to find a selection of partly eaten vegetables scattered around the tents. One of the monkeys was actually sitting on the branch of a tree just above the tent, crunching away on a carrot, watching us as we inspected the damage. They had taken most of our food for that evening; fortunately we had just enough to get by until we could stock up again the next day. There was a German family also staying at the campsite who were present when this took place. When they realised what was happening they had tried to chase the monkeys away but to no avail, there were just too many of them and they were very well organised.

This is just one of the hazards of camping, sometimes no matter how careful you try to be, the wildlife are usually one step ahead, they have learned how to take advantage of every opportunity that presents itself.

Tree Top House

I'd like to tell you about one of the places we stayed on our recent trip. We spent two nights in a small nature reserve called Saiwa Swamp, which as the name suggests is a swamp which is surrounded by woods. This is the only place in Kenya that the very shy Sitatunga antelope can be found.

We arrived at the reserve late afternoon and drove to a clearing in the woods to find a lovely well kept camping area with space for tents, a brick shower unit and a tiolet. In the centre of the camp was a rather large round open building with a camp fire in the middle that acted as a kitchen. We were not camping however, we took our rucksacks out of the jeep and were led to a small winding path that disappeared into the woods. At the entrance to the path was a signpost saying 'Tree Top House' Now in Kenya they tend to be quite literal, especially with their signs so we were left in no doubt as to what type of accommodation we were staying in. Sure enough about 50m in was a large tree with a house at the top of it. We climed the steps that led to a platform and entered. It was quite nice, it had a small entrance with the bedroom on one side and the toilet/shower room on the other side with a small balcony at the back overlooking the swamp. The balcony had a small sink just outside the shower room, to be fair there wasn't enough space inside to put the sink. The bedroom had two single beds and had just enough space at the bottom to put the rucksacks. The beds had mosquito nets even if they were torn in places with holes big enough to let mosquito's in but I wasn't going to let a minor detail like that bother me. after settling in we went back to the kitchen for our dinner and didn't return until after dark.

The first problem manifested itself when I entered the toilet to find really big bluebottle flies lying dead on the floor and a whole heap of wasps, very much alive, in one of the top corners. Needless to say I didn't hang around, I got out of there as quickly as I could. I shut the door on the whole thing and went into the bedroom. Ken decided that the tree outside might be a better option. We had electricity in our tree house so I put the light on while we got ready for bed, that turned out to be a big mistake. I had only just got under the mosquito net when I heard a loud buzzing sound, one of the bluebottles had got in, probably attracted by the light, then another one appeared, then another, they were coming in through a big gap at the bottom of the door! We jumped out of the beds, grabbed a towel each and tried to either get the flies out or kill them. I immediately switched off the light while Ken stuffed one of the towels along the bottom of the door to keep them out. It was like something out of a horror movie, we were completely on our own, in a swamp, with a swarm of flies and wasps outside our bedroom door and with the wind getting up our little house had started to sway a little. We did the only thing we could do in the circumstances, we went to sleep. I hoped that firstly we wouldn't end up in the swamp and secondly that I didn't need to go to the toilet in the night as I had drank a couple of beers.

Morning arrived to my great relief which was only marred by the thought that I would have to go through the whole thing again tonight. On a positive note the days were lovely, it was very relaxing and we did get to see and photograph the elusive sitatunga.

Lioness & Buffalo Calf

Well, I'm back, had a fantastic time with lots more stories. The first one I would like to share with you is about this lioness and buffalo calf. This photograph was taken in Nakuru wildlife reserve and we were the only vehicle around to witness the unfortunate demise of this baby buffalo calf.

We had arrived at the reserve the previous evening and were getting an early start for our first game drive as I wanted to photograph the sunrise over lake Nakuru. On the way to the view point Ken noticed a hyena in the weak twilight of dawn. We didn't want to stop in case we missed the crucial moment when the sun first appears on the horizon and we still had to get into position and set up the tripod. So we made a note of where the hyena was and aimed to go back later. It was around 7am by the time we had finished so we packed up and set out to find the hyena. We returned to the same spot and found not one but five hyenas on the road, straight away we knew that something was happening. As we slowly drove closer to them we also noticed two lionesses and three jackals not far away. All these predators and scavengers in one area could only mean one thing, they were after something!

They were all looking in the direction of a mother and baby buffalo a little way down the road so we drove away from the predators towards the buffalo. As we got closer it was clear that the baby was sick. The rest of the buffalo herd were making their way to the lake but the baby couldn't walk far and kept collapsing on the ground. The mother was trying to encourage the baby to get up and follow her, she would move off then return when the baby called out for her. The hyenas took this opportunity to creep closer, when they got too close the mother would turn on them and chase them away. This went on for around forty minutes, all the time the lionesses kept their distance and stayed in the background, they were very patient.

The mother stayed and protected her baby as long as she could, but she instinctively knew that there was nothing more she could do and she had to follow the rest of the herd to the lake, she got further and further away from the calf, finally deciding not to return despite the cries. The hyenas we in like a flash, one, two, then three of them snapping at the calf's legs. The calf was bravely trying to defend itself, to little effect. In less than a minute one of the lionesses, who had been waiting in the background ran in and pounced on the calf. The hyenas scattered, there was nothing they could do against two powerful female lions. Once one lioness had pinned down the calf the other lioness came in and smothered it before they began their meal. The hyenas vocalised their protests, but wouldn't approach too closely, they had to wait for scraps along with the jackals.

For around an hour the whole scene played out right in front of us and not a single vehicle joined us. It was a privilege to watch the behaviour all these animals in their natural habitat and one that will stay with me for a long time to come.