Call driver at 7a to confirm pickup; automated voice tells me he’s unavailable. Call another contact, and we need to repeat ourselves to decipher accents. They’ll rush to pick me up in time. Very friendly transport to Wilson, arrive with plenty of time to spare. Today is suppose to be first of three days of demonstrations, but the morning rain has kept folks indoors. While sipping luscious airport smoothie, meet up with fellow post-doc. Get on 20-seater plane to Nanyuki. Older British ex-pat pilot turns around to greet us , inform us of emergency exit locations, and passes around in-flight service (=tropical mint candies in battered Tupperware). Take off into clouds, fly over Kenyan farmlands.

Greeted in Nanyuki by field assistant, Simon, and bright green research vehicle, Kermit. Grab a few items in town (mangoes, papayas, cookies, beer)

and drive ~hour to research station. Pass first wildlife (impala) and two camels being walked to town to slaughterhouse.




Get assigned Banda

and enjoy lunch, my first Mpala meal of many to come. Meet a bunch of Mpala folks, get my computer hooked up the network, and promptly blow out my surge protector (says it’s designed for 220v, but apparently not). Go on mini-game drive and stop at the river, and I see my first hippos. There’s a whole crew of them hanging in the water, and at one point congregate and snort at each other. A Vervet monkey was hanging in the tree by the river bank. Pass a mess of gazelles and then spot a Cape buffalo in the distance. Try to get it to come near us, but it’s not interested. Turn around, and there’s a giraffe! And a few minutes later come across some oryx. All old-hat to the other folks in the truck, but mind blowing to this jet-lagged body…