Lay low, spend most of the day reading outside of my band. Talk more with my folks, write some emails. Don’t have much of appetite, but tummy feeling better.

Wake up a bit sleepy, but see some light through the window and hear someone moving around outside.






Not sure what time it is, but decide to get up. Turns out I’m the first one up besides the caretakers, a rarity for me. Happy to discover that our lodge faces east and catch the sun rising over Mt. Kenya. Enjoy some muesli and mango for breakfast, plus a little cold spaghetti to boot (god I love cold pasta).







Load up and start our drive up in elevation. We stop to check out the bamboo forests and also spot a few Sykes monkeys as well!














Also spot a weird brain looking growth in a bamboo tree. Termites? Fungus?






We knock it down and decide it’s actually more bum-like in shape.









After ripping it open we discover it is in fact a large fungus.

We also see, where the land has eroded, the ole volcanic activity that formed this area – the ground is obviously ash in areas. And apparently the eles like it as well, as they’ve tusked certain parts.

It’s hard to spend the whole time in the truck, so we find an open spot and poke around a bit. I’m baffled by the really tall single flower stalk, and we investigate the large trees and small stream for a bit.

Stop for a little picnic lunch which consists of cheese, crackers, fruit, and the largest avocados I’ve ever seen.The alpine chats are very interested in them as well. Head down to the waterfall and take the requisite tourist photo in front of it. We drive around some more wildlife, including lots of reedbuck.As we drive up a particularly steep rocky section we soon discover we got a puncture. No worries, as we have a full size spare on the back. We have a bit of time left, so we head down a little road which access some caves. As soon as hit the bottom of the road we discover we have another flat. Mothereffer. They’re a couple who just arrived at the caves and we ask them for help and they’re of zero assistance. We decide it’s best if we can get on the main road to increase our chances of running into someone who will help us. We have a bit of air left in the tire and wonder if we should try to make it to a small lodge 3 km away. But suddenly a thunderstorm hits and the roads turn to mush. So we wait it out and discuss our options. Wait for help, drive to lodge, or worst case, we spend the night in Kermit. We have plenty of water, food, and fuel, and we’d be safe inside, so we’re not in a dire situation. While we’re waiting in the rain we pass around a small flask of whiskey, you know, for warmth. I take a small nip and soon regret it. My tummy had been doing much better, but that puts it over the edge. I start to cramp up and need to urgently find the ‘ladies room’ in the bush. I feel better but the nausea and stomach cramps have returned.

After the rain passes we decide to make the trek to the lodge. But first we change one crappy tire for another – our first flat had a huge tear in the tire, so we might as well run that one into the ground and save our ‘good flat’ to be repaired (simple patching of the hole). We eek down the slippery roads and we all get out and walk to reduce the weight over the rocky bits. I’m dragging arse as I walk over the rocks in the cold damp weather. We make it to the turn off for the lodge, but realize that they probably won’t be able to help us (we’re not even sure if our caretaker had a radio or not, and she definitely didn’t have a puncture repair kit). The tire’s completely flat, but hasn’t started to shred, so we decide to try another 5 km to the National Park gate. We make it, but soon discover we’re getting no help at all. The staff doesn’t have their own researcher vehicle, there’s no puncture repair kit, and while they can radio to the main station, it’s not looking like we’re getting any help from them soon. Doesn’t anybody ever need flat tire assistance in this rugged National Park?! It’s around 17.00, and it’s going to be getting dark in the next hour, hour and half, so if we’re going to try and make it to the closest town (~20 km away) we should leave now. So we pile in and start the trek downhill to Nyeri. Not more than 1-2 km later, Kermit’s driving a bit funny. We get out and see that the tire’s not only shredding, but that it’s begun to twist off and start to hit shocks on the vehicle. We need to somehow remove the excess tire, but those damn steel belted tires make it almost impossible. We try to puncture the rubber with a knife and then tear, which produces very hard earned, slow success. We then find that pulling on the tire while someone else ‘saws’ it with knife works fairly well. We finally remove all of the excess tire, and attach our new wheel – rims with a bit of rubber reinforcement. We continue our slow descent into town and as we get closer the dirt road turns to gravel, and our rim is making a helluva racket. Many villagers are out walking the street, and they look intrigued, horrified, and/or amused to see a huge lime green Land Cruiser with 7 mazungas (Swahili for ‘whitey’) inching along, sounding like it’s dragging a robot. I have my cell in my pocket, as we were hoping to call for help in the National Park, but never had a signal. Once we almost hit town and know help is near, I finally get a signal. Just in time for my parents’ to call and tell me the bad news. I love you and miss you, Ike.

Sleep in and feeling better. Enjoy leisurely breakfast and nice conversation with bird song post-doc. As packing feel a bit sick-ish, wonder if should go or not. Pack up stuff and decide to make gametime decision. Of course I decide to go, how can I not go?!

Pack up 7 people and our stuff into one big land cruiser (Kermit) and head out a little after noon. As leaving station see a whole crew of elephants bating in the river, spraying water and flinging mud on themselves. As cruising to Nanyuki driver slams on brakes and shouts something. Turns out we almost ran over a leopard tortoise. After our resettlement effort (putting in on the other side of the road) we’re back on the way. Stop in Nanyuki for provisions (food, wine, matches, money) we head to the Aberdares. Got verbal directions before we left (turn by the dairy?!), but still uncertain about the correct turn-off. Luckily another researcher has gone this way before and we appear to be on the right track. Although the lodge is ridiculously cheap, the entrance fees for non-residents is pretty expensive ($40 US) and plus an overall vehicle fee. With a research permit, though, the fee drops to ~$15 US. About half of us have paid the research permit fee and filled out all the paperwork, but they haven’t been processed yet. As we enter the gate, a few of us hop on the roof, and our annoyance melts away when as soon as we enter the park we’re surrounded by a ton (literally, in the case of the bufs and eles) wildlife. Including...

Waterbuck

Warthog

Silvery-cheeked hornbills

Buffalo

Bushbuck

Though unable to grab a picture, we see a handful of giant forest hogs run across the road! Incredible! As its getting dark we start to head towards our lodge, and go through a bit of soggy area. End up getting stuck in about a foot or two of very wet mud. Luckily we’re able to push ourselves out without too much of a problem. I get a bit of spa treatment on my legs as well.

Impressed by the Tusk lodge, which comes with its own caretaker, as well. She lights the kerosene lamps and actually gets a fire going for us. We make some dinner by lamplight and relax by the fire with our box of wine for the evening.

Make some phone calls about lodging (for eight?!) in the Aberdares. One lodge is full, the other is uber $$$. Track down another lodge that looks promising. Work on progress report but get waves of nausea and stomach cramps throughout morning. Hits every 20 -30 minutes and then passes. Some folks get back from the field and we make the lodge reservation (Tusk Lodge located in the Aberdare National Park), making the trip official! Spend the afternoon doing some lab work. Rumors of wild dogs around the station, and head out with a few folks to see if we can find them. Almost immediately see three spotted hyenas clearly on the trail of something (they’re often found following wild dogs on their hunts). Come across a very strong dead smell, but no dogs. After dinner feel a bit feverish and head to bed early.

Up early to skype, head out to field. A class from Cornell arrived a few days ago, and as driving back to station see them posing for a group picture around the (now very decayed) giraffe carcass. Also spot some female Kudus hanging out by the dry mud hole, probably searching for some water.

As eating lunch see fellowship coordinator arrive. Return my dishes, feel a shot of adrenaline, and belly up to his table. Able to chat with another researcher while Alison chats with coordinator and his wife. Alison leaves and his wife slides down and starts to ask me about my project. We have an intelligent yet conversational discussion about what I’m working on, who I’m working with, and what I plan to do in the future. Able to chat about what I’ve been doing in an easy yet informative conversation with coordinator listening and asking a few questions. Generally just have a pleasant interaction with them both. Alright!

Now all I need to do is submit the official progress report…

Spend the afternoon doing some data entry and a literature search. Grab a shot of Dan, a post-doc studying bird vocalizations. At one point a hornbill lands on the ledge right outside the window while her mate looks on. Go for a run. Some folks are thinking about going to the Aberdares (=national park ~ 3 hrs away) for the weekend…

Collect more nectar, see whole troop of baboons crossing road on way back to the station. Need to figure out how to process such small amounts of nectar, get some good ideas from conversations with another researcher. Send some emails and hopefully the helpful supplies will arrive in a couple weeks. Hear that fellowship coordinator is leaving a day and a half and so write an email setting up a meeting.

Out to field early, feeling tired and worn. Write some emails, do some data entry in the afternoon and talk a nice walk with Talak and his mom. Big Trustee’s dinner at the ranch house tonight. End up hanging more with Kenyan staff than with biggidy wigs. Expecting to chat with my fellowship coordinator, but we never do. Return back to station, feeling odd that we never interacted (should have I interrupted one of his conversations with the other Trustees?!) Check email, and read “As you probably already know by now, happy to inform you that we’re extending your funding.” After all this waiting and anticipating this important interaction is it really actually already decided?!

Up early, but no one on Skype. But successfully figure out how to make an outgoing call on Skype and have a surprise b-day chat with my Dad! Get a really nice card and ele bottle open from Alison. In field all day. Around noon as I’m getting hungry and look to see what time it is, do the math, and realized that I’ve been on the earth for almost exactly 29 years. Sew some more mesh bags. At dinner discover kitchen staff baked a birthday cake, candles and my name in pink frosting included. As I’m sewing more mesh bags afterwards, one researcher catches the bat flying around in his lab and I snap a few pictures of it. Make another surprise birthday call which doesn’t exactly go according to plan.

Sleep in, enjoy some French toast and fresh mangoes for breakfast. Feeling the lazy Sunday and don’t feel like doing work. Start to read the NYT but the first two articles I read are about torture and election violence and it’s just not how I want to start my day. Head gets all wrapped around the big questions, what I want to do, etc. Amplified by the fact that the Trustees are starting to arrive for the big meeting, and the guy who runs my fellowship is here, and I still haven’t heard if my funding is getting extended. Getting wigged out that I have to meet this one guy who’s holding my fate card and not showing it to me, not knowing what to expect and potentially it meaning so much. Write a bit in journal, in lounge-y chair under tree by banda. Get out some thoughts and actually catch two people walking by and chat for awhile which lightens my thoughts. Suddenly it’s time to eat again, lunch. Later as sitting in office see a couple walk by and soon discover that “he’s here.” Chat with Alison about situation and get some good thoughts on how to approach him. Crank out some more mesh bags and go for a good run. Researcher returns from a drive where he saw a fresh jackal kill on a baby impala. Can see the wet hair on the impala’s neck where they strangled it, and it’s so fresh it’s still bleeding.

Out in field for more nectar collection, try adding small drop of water to collect and measure this super viscous stuff. Do some lab work and enter some data. Able to toss a disc a bit and then chat with crew about sampling plan, schedule. At dinner linger over beers, then joined friend on veranda for a nightcap. Hear lions roaring in distance, likely two males letting each know of their presence.

Find out a post-doc on this project flew out of the Denver airport and when airport security screened her checked luggage they freaked out (=gov’t officials in haz mat suits, cops, and TSA officials going through the chemicals in her checked bags). The chemicals were confiscated and are currently being analyzed at the Denver crime lab.

Oh, and one of those chemicals she was bringing as a favor for me.

So I later find out that the station can buy from a distributor (called, in all seriousness “Laborama”) in Nairobi and can easily be shipped up to Nanyuki. Great information to have. Better information to have a week ago.

Now that the mesh bags are working I go into production with some “This American Life” to help grease the needle.

As I Skype in the morning, Alison goes up to check out if anything is on the giraffe carcass, and spots a leopard! Go up to check on the mesh bags, and sweet success – a handful of the trees have droplets of nectar, and even a little honeydew (=waste of insects which feed exclusively on plant sap; ants take care of these insects and feed on their sugary waste). Skype back and forth with the folks and finally figure out how they can call my cell from the U.S. Do some lab work and discover that acacia trees are producing amino acids in the nectar – turns out the tree is providing ants some nitrogen which may play a previously unanticipated role in this project – could be cool, not sure yet. Head out for a game drive and see a marsh mongoose, then we spot a spotted hyena and giraffe bedding down in small glade. As we’re looking for little steenbok we pan across two absolutely monstrous buffaloes! Damn that’s a lot of animal. And later we see the entire herd. Spot a few bush babies bouncing around in the trees and see the usual crew of impalas, gazelles, zebras, and dik diks. As we pull into the station gate the askari yells at us “Elephants very much!” Guess the eles are back in camp. As I walk down to my banda with a friend we hear an angry cacophony of ele trumpeting, decide we might as well run the rest of the way. At breakfast we discover that the eles were on the other side of the station and that one ele stepped in a hole, freaked out, trumpeted and triggered whole crew.

Spend day in office, welcome researcher back from Thailand. Find out that some chemicals I order for a collaborator to bring have not yet arrived in WY. Check out the tracking number and learn that they’ve been stuck in Illinois for three days due to ‘adverse weather conditions’ (due to flooding??). Not sure how I’ll get them, but later learn that she could borrow a bit from another researcher at her university. Great to meet (yet another) collaborator on this termite project who has a great personality. Play around with the settings on my camera and capture a view of the banda in the full moon light.

As drive up to field sites hear a few stories from the previous evening from the field assistants, including dissuading hyenas from stealing chickens in the village (=everyone getting up at midnight and chasing them off) and killing a seven foot cobra in the river camp tents (=finding it in a tent and beating it to death). Spend all morning putting mesh bags on very thorny acacia trees. Not bad at first but once I got hot, bitten by ants and pricked by a thorn for the millionth time I start to lose my patience. Talk with another researcher and he recommends that if I don’t find any this time around it might be best to wait for the rain. In the afternoon we rearrange and organize the office to accommodate incoming collaborators. Chat about some null model analyses with Alison and go for a little run.

Up early for fabulous skype date. In field all day doing transects. Some acacias are flowering right now, so decide to see if there’s a relationship with termite mounds, ant occupant, and nectary production. Spot a few ridiculously huge caterpillars and one is harvested to if it would pupate in the lab. Long day but great to get a lot of work done. Enjoy a hot shower and some stretching before heading to dinner. While working in office at nice watch a few geckos scamper across the wall.

Listened to A Prairie Home Companion as I went to sleep last night, and I felt like Garrison Keillor was telling me a lullaby. Must have worked, too, because I have a great night of sleep and wake up feeling like I’m in my own bed at home. It’s Sunday so we have some breakfast meat choices and the bacon-like meat is pretty good. Order up some french toast and slather it in bananas and honey.

Scope out the scene for a cribbage game and I get two bites. After playing for a bit I make the comment “weird to play cards and not be drinking beer.” Well, we remedy that in hurry. Rationale: it’s midnight on Saturday! (ah, west coast time). After two games we try to think of other three person card games and “asshole” is suggested. Each round the Pres makes a new rule, and by the end of it we can’t say ‘you,’ can’t refer to ourselves in the first person, have to finish sentences with the last word repeated twice, and have to use our newly christened names of ‘hobs,’ ‘oaf,’ and ‘that guy’ (=mine). Unfortunately/fortunately at 13:00 lunch breaks up the revelry.

After lunch hang out in the banda and crank out making mesh bags while listening to “This American Life” and “Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me.” Have a little “Happy Father’s Day!” skype and head off to dinner.

340a wake up with tummy ache. Something is definitely not right here. Luckily I don’t hear any eles outside the banda so I can walk outside to the bathroom. Good thing, as suddenly my body is purging itself of its contents any way it can. After some intense moments I actually feel pretty good. Guess if you’re gonna get sick that’s the way to do it…

Wake up tired and little rundown. Slowly eat some cornflakes for breakfast and it seems to go well. Add some papaya to the mixture which is also a success. Take it easy and update the blog and work in a little skype date too J Email some friends and it’s great to hear back – so nice to feel a little more connected to the outside world.

Wash some delicates and listen to ‘Prairie Home Companian.’ Go out to field with Alison to see if mesh bags are allowing nectar to accumulate. Check out a handful and doesn’t look to be any nectar. Try using blotter paper and don’t get anything. The nectaries look pretty sad, though, like they’re starting to dry up. Gonna check out some different trees on Monday that may be more productive. Drive back and see a bunch of giraffes in the big open plain. Check out dead giraffe, nothing but vultures. Take a loop around the river and got the closest I’ve ever been to an Eland – never fully realized how big they are! A whole mess of elephants crossed us in the road and when we pass the dead giraffe again we see a bunch his comrades mulling around as the vultures wait in the trees.

Sleep in, start off morning playing with researcher’s doggie. Spend the day rocking some EcoSim analyses for a potential collaboration. Alison grabs a great shot of some hyenas on the giraffe. Run a few laps on the ring road, take a shower, and head out to researchers’ house off of Mpala. Enjoy some sundowners by the river and another great homemade Indian dinner! Wonderful!

What a morning! Start it off with a Skype date and then hear news of lions and wild dogs on giraffe at breakfast. Check it out but all the commotion likely scared ‘em off. Did get some crazy views of a partially eaten giraffe and removed stomach.

Also heard of cheetah kill (gazelle) not far from station, on main road to Nanyuki. Head out there and don’t see a cheetah, but get some great views of a Grey crowned Crane, including a little display dance. Also spied some Vervet monkies and Baboons on the drive back.

Spend late morn and early afternoon sewing bags and listening to “This American Life.”

A couple senior field assistants came in, saw my mess of mesh bags and string and gave me some pointers on collecting the nectar.

Head out to field with and put a few mesh bags on acacias trees. First try on a tree with ants that are *very* active, and I have to stop frequently to shake them off me. The next trees I choose are inhabited by a more laid back ant, and it’s much easier. I’ll wait a few days to see if the bags keep the ants off the nectaries, and if so, if there is any nectar to collect.

Drive by giraffe on way home, ton of vultures picking away at the carcass.

After dinner, head out for quick game drive, but the spotlight doesn’t work so don’t see much. As pass dead giraffe see two hyena nervously pacing behind it. As look closer see six hyenas laying down right next to it.