Lewa’s 2012 Safaricom Marathon

As I mentioned in the previous post, Lewa is where Matt and the other Team Nature runners will be participating in the 2012 Safaricom Marathon on June 30. The marathon is a fundraising event that, according to Lewa, has

“since its inception in 2000…has raised (over US$2,000,000) for a range of education, community development, health and wildlife conservation projects across Kenya. A few of the benefits achieved over the last ten years include:

• Supported 10 Primary Schools and 3 Secondary Schools helping over 5,000 children
• Established 4 community forestry programmes
• Supported Meru, Isiolo, Nanyuki and Timau District Hospitals
• Provided free treatment to over 300 people injured by wildlife in the region
• Supported 11 communities of diverse ethnicity across northern Kenya helping over 50,000 people
• Supported game scout operations to protect conservancy’s 100+ rhino, including the tracker dog team
• Purchased vehicle for KWS game scouts”

From TNC: 

Your Support Makes Team Nature Go

Team Nature and more than 1,000 other runners representing some 20 countries will test their mettle under the African sun. The challenging dirt course follows Lewa’s undulating hills at an average altitude of 5,500 feet. Adding to the challenge and thrill is the runners’ awareness that they share the terrain with elephants, antelopes, cheetahs and lions.

You should consider supporting Matt (or one of the other Team Nature Runners) as he runs for this great cause: 

http://www.crowdrise.com/TeamNatureLewa2012/fundraiser/mattbrown1 

 

Best of luck to the Team Nature runners as they train over the next two months.

Back to Kenya and Lewa

Matt had to be up at Kenya for a board meeting and the kids had Thursday off of school for Union Day (when Zanzibar joined Tanganyika), so we decided to join him for the weekend.  We spent a night in Nairobi (i.e. the first world) on our way up and then spent the next two nights at Lewa Wildlife Conservancy.  A fun weekend getaway.

In Nairobi, our first stop (even before heading to our hotel) was a mall for some Planet Yogurt (self-serve yogurt where you can mix flavors and then add toppings of your choice…pay by weight…brilliant).  Bookstore and healthfood store stops were next; we stocked up on some new books and fluoride-free toothpaste (our water in Arusha has extremely high levels of fluoride). 

The next morning we headed further north into Kenya to Lewa Wildlife Conservancy. On the way we stopped at Barney’s for lunch.  Not only is this a fun little food joint, but it’s also at the small regional  airport, so Anderson got to check out the fun aircraft in the hangar.  Made him a very happy little boy.

Lewa is one of TNC’s main partners in Kenya, and a it’s a beautiful place to visit.  This is also where Matt, David, and many others will be running the Safaricom half-marathon or marathon at the end of June.  Lewa is known for its resident population of endangered rhinos and grevy zebras.  Really cool. 

First stop right inside the gate was the education center.  Kids loved trying on the elephant’s foot.

Game drives were fun.  Rhinos were a highlight…as were the grevy zebras…well, we also got a kick out of the nursing elephant mom trumpeting at us. 

While Matt was in the NRT (Northern Rangelands Trust) board meetings on Saturday, I took the kids to go horseback riding at Wilderness Trails and then for a swim (sans bathing suits) at the pool afterwards.  The planned ride was cut short due to some mean ostriches at the top of the hill (we didn’t encounter them, but the manager had gotten chased by some earlier; it was an experience she didn’t want to repeat with kids). They did get to scatter a herd of impala though.

Back at Ngiri House (where we were staying) we entertained ourselves by watching the vervet monkeys from the pool while swimming.  Vervets can be cute from a distance, but really tend to liven up an afternoon when three of them get in to your room, steal some food, and then poop on the floor. 

Ash talking about the vervets sneaking into our room

And, of course, it wouldn’t be a true safari experience without sundowners. 

Family self-portraits on the top of the car

On the way home we also found the new Eastern Bypass north of Nairobi which meant we got to skirt all of the Nairobi traffic.  We made it home from Lewa in 6 1/2 hours (including border crossing)…not too bad considering the first time we went I think it took us 9 hours. 

More wildlife at TGT

Remember the “incident with a wildlife” last month at TGT?  Well, the track finally did re-open a couple of weeks later because the ‘wildlife’ wasn’t spotted again (an askari said he saw a leopard, but no one else saw it).  As you might know, we go to TGT every Friday night that we are in town.  It’s a huge meeting place for expats…the kids play on the playground and eat pizza and the grown-ups enjoy two-for-one drinks for happy hour.  It’s a scene!

Last night, when we arrived, we were warned by the staff and managers that a hyena had been spotted on the grounds, but this time it was ‘on this side’ and not trapped inside the track. They reassured us that they’d have askaris (guards) posted all around to keep an eye out.  We told the kids to not go wandering out into the coffee and along the far fence lines where it was dark.  Good precautions, but I didn’t really think it would be necessary.  I was wrong.  As soon as the sun went down we all spotted the hyena run along the fence and across the soccer fields into the darkness.  Ash saw it and totally freaked out and bee-lined straight for the car.  Everyone else was slightly freaked out and excited, but we all definitely called the kids back to the seating area.  A gentle reminder about where we are really living.  A good dose of excitement for a regular Friday night.

Dinner plans: Hasenpfeffer

Guess what’s for dinner tonight?  Hasenpfeffer!

This has been the idea for a long time, but a brutal fight between rabbits last night prompted us to implement the plan today (the fight left more of the loser’s stomach on the outside than on the inside, so we needed to put it out of it’s misery. And one didn’t seem like enough, so we went a little further and slaughtered three in total).  Anderson was so excited, but did admit that he was a “little sad” when daddy cut the bunny’s throat.  He watched it all though. 

Rabbit stew, anyone?

Easter Weekend in Nairobi

Matt needed to fly out of Nairobi early Easter Sunday morning, so instead of sending him off alone we decided it might be a fun way to spend the weekend.  We were lucky enough to be joined by Tierney’s friend Udine’s family who then also invited us to stay with them at their friend’s house.  What a treat!  I don’t know what I was expecting when Tine invited us to stay there, but it certainly wasn’t staying in the middle of a game ranch.  We got to watch giraffe graze over our morning coffee.  Perfect blend of city (shopping/eating) and bush (animals) experience. 

Day one we went to Giraffe Manor and the Animal Orphanage.  Giraffe Manor was super fun to be able to feed and touch the giraffes.  Matt even got a head butt that the signs warned us about.  Funny stuff.  I have mixed feelings on the animal orphanage; it was really sad to see the giant animals (lions, cheetah, leopard) in such small enclosures, but we did get to see feeding time, so that was exciting. 

After such a busy morning it was time to head to The Carnivore restaurant for a late lunch.  The Carnivore is an all you can eat meat experience (“Beast of a Feast”).  Anderson was excited about trying crocodile and ostrich.  Even our typically non-meat eating child (Tierney) had a good meal.   The only item that most of the table skipped were the ox balls (Harald was braver). 

The next day Tine and I went into Nairobi for some shopping and sushi.  The kids stayed back with the dads and enjoyed a quiet day on the ranch. I did get a report that they went fishing, but all they caught was a turtle, so we all decided to head back to the water again for sundowners and try to catch some actual fish.  Tine, Erwin (our host), and I decided to walk and it was one of the nicest walks I’ve been on.  In 2 km we saw warthogs, duiker, vervet monkeys, giraffe, wildebeest, zebra, impala, and eland.  It was gorgeous.  We got to the fishing spot in time to see Anderson and Tierney catch small catfish.  Once the sun set we went to one of Erwin’s favorite spots where he often spots porcupine and hyenas after dark.  The sun had just set and we found the dens.  We still don’t know if they are porcupine or hyena dens because we found several quills, but there were also lots of bones around.  We did see bats darting in and out of the holes, so maybe they are now abandoned. 

wildebeest, zebra, and giraffe

Erwin loves birds.  He has a great bird feeder that he generously fills with a special mix of food to attract a wide range of birds.  The problem is that he also seems to have attracted the pesky vervet monkeys.  To try and keep them away from the bird food, he sets a mouse-trap when he sees the monkey approach.  This was our morning entertainment.

(Disclaimer: no monkeys were hurt…it’s just enough to scare ‘em.)

Sometime after Matt’s early morning departure and when the kids woke up on Sunday morning the Easter Bunny came and hid a huge amount of candy.   An unforeseen benefit of traveling with Belgians is that the Belgian Easter Bunny has much better chocolate than the American Easter Bunny. 

The kids and I had a pretty easy trip back by ourselves.  I was nervous about driving and doing the border crossing all by myself, but Easter Sunday was a good time to do it.  Very little traffic and an uneventful border crossing got us home in just over 3 hours.  We got home in time for Easter dinner at the Banks’ with a bunch of friends.  It was fun to catch up with everyone and hear about their travels (families at dinner had been to Oman, England, Thailand, and Cambodia over break) and to play with our real Easter bunnies. 

Happy Easter!!