Last night Anton was quite sick (today was not a good day for him), so he did not join Poly and Frances for breakfast. Even though this lodge is very cold and damp and what can only be described as "rustic", they have great food, and really cater well to individual requests.
After breakfast we had to drive through Nanyuki to get to Ol Pajeta. Even though it was only about 30 km total, it took over an hour because the roads were so rough. Even the paved roads were awful, more holes than pavement. Ol Pajeta is a relatively new conservation ranch, 90000 acres large. The name Ol Pajeta comes from a Masai word meaning "large burned out area" but this was savanna and bushland. We were only able to cover about a fifth of the ranch today.
We went straight away to Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary. This is a place for rescued or orphaned chimps, there are currently 42. It takes 250 acres of Ol Pajeta. They are given a natural area in which to live out their days. Chimps are not native to Kenya, but there was political unrest in the country that it was supposed to be in. Sweetwaters works closely with the Jane Goodall Institute. Probably the saddest story was that of the chimp named Coco, who was hung in a cage in a petrol station for 8 years, with hardly enough room to move. The sparks from the welding have damaged his eyes, which he kept shaded the whole time we saw him. Five of the chimps were confiscated at the Nairobi airport by people trying to smuggle them out. Our guide took us on a walk through some bush and along a river until we saw a whole pack of chimps, at least a dozen. Our guide knows each chimp by sight and by sound. The babies were adorable, hanging from their mothers or riding their backs. Sometimes the chimps got very excited and put on great shows of bravado, calling out in loud shreaks and scampering. Then came the best moment of the day for Frances. Several of the chimps were going straight up to the fence in order to check out the humans. One chimp named Alley squatted right in front of Frances, picked up a long stick, and reached under the fence to poke Frances' boot with the stick. They played back and forth like this for several minutes. Our guide told us that Frances does not belong in the human world, she belongs in the monkey world. Alley was raised as a pet and is gentle tempered, but picked up a few bad habits from her owners. She claps when she wants something and spits when she doesn't get it.
After the chimps, Poly just drove through the game park looking for animals. At points he was just following tracks in mud. Our first animal sighting was 4 warthogs that ran in front of our car. By the end of the day we had seen so many warthogs that they didn't excite us anymore. One interesting fact we learned was that warthogs are the only mammal who kneel to eat. If you ever look at a warthog, you know that God has a sense of humour.
We had brought lunch and we stopped to eat in the midst of 3 grevy's zebra, some warthogs, thompson's gazelle, impala, and oryx. They just went about their business and ignored us. The one who was put out, however, was the cheetah who had been sitting there eyeing all these animals. After awhile of us being there, he shot us a look and skulked off through the grass.
After lunch we continued driving and saw more animals, including a family of white rhinos. At first they were sleeping, but the parents eventually got up when they saw us. It was very exciting and not a little frightening to be less than 100 feet away from completely wild rhinos! We watched them for a long time, a little nervously!
More safely, we made our way to the Morani Rhino Centre. Here they have an enclosure for one lone black rhino, Baraka (which means blessing), who is completely blind. He lost one eye in a fight and the other from a cataract. The guide called him by name, and Baraka followed him to the stand where we were. The guide gave us a piece of sugar cane, we called his name and banged the sugar cane against the stand, and each got a turn to feed him. At the Morani Centre they also had an information centre where our guide taught us a lot about different animals. It's really worthwhile to get a guide. He taught us several differences between white rhinos and black rhinos. It has nothing to do with the colour of their skin! Black rhinos have a concave back and a narrower mouth.
More driving through the ranch, and some of the other animals we saw included a herd of buffalo, waterbuck, and zebra. Grevy's zebra are different than regular zebra because they have white noses and regular zebras have black noses.
After a really good day of safari, we made our way back to Timau to our lodge. It had been bright and sunny and beautiful all day, and honest to goodness it started raining the second we got to the Timau signpost! So this place is still cold and damp. Poly and Anton went for a nap before supper, while Frances decided to explore by taking a walk. She found a very promising well-used path leading away from camp, that led right to.... the garbage pile. Then she ran into the owner sitting at his cabin who told her to go the other way. She found a beautiful bar and sitting area overlooking a waterfall. Right now it was closed and the river and waterfall were brown. She walked a ways beside the river, the whole time accompanied by one of the lodge dogs who seems to have adoped her. She called him Chico but the owner calls him a swahili word that means "pig". This would be a nice place if it was the right time of the year.
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