Day 3 The Northern Frontier

Today we left Mount Kenya area and drove north and east to Isiolo, the edge of the northern frontier. We stopped along the way to buy phone cards and have the van engine sprayed down to get rid of all the dust. I was waiting in the van and was approached by many people selling things. One man asked if I had a extra pen. I did. He offered to trade any of the wood carvings he held for a pen. That sounded good. After he had the pen and made sure it worked, then he wanted 500 shillings and he would give the pen to his brother. I was suckered. Now I decide I WILL learn how to bargain. I love my giraffe though. We had lunch in Isiolo. This town is on the edge of the northern frontier. I see a mixture of people from the Kikuru tribe that I am familiar with now to the Somali Kenyans to Muslim Kenyans and Samburu Kenyans. I feel an unpleasant discriminatory anxiety grow in me. We are headed to the land of the Samburu tribe. I don't know them. I'd rather stay with the Kikuru tribe. They are very nice and they dress European. Some of the people I see in Isiolo dress like the Africans you see in magazines with many beads around their neck and notched ear lobes. I swallow my anxiety and remember that my travel guides seem totally at ease and if they're not worried, I needn't worry either. We have to sign in at the edge of the frontier. Very aggressive children try to sell us things. Children indicate through sign language that they want candy or pens. I talk to one boy. I don't buy his things but he asks me who I plan to vote for in the election. His preference, he tells me, would be Barack Obama. How is it that this impoverished boy knows about Barack Obama? I know very little about Kenyan politics and he knows so much about American politics. I begin to realize that the USA is studied by other countries much more than I thought. The road from Isiolo to Samburu National Park is long and dusty and terribly bumpy. Many times the ditch next to the road is smoother than the road so we ride in the ditch. The landscape becomes arid. I see camels loping along. I see very few people in this bushy area. The acacia trees are beautiful and graceful. They remind me of elms. Samburu National Park has a slogan - where nature defies itself. A lioness took in an orphaned oryx (kind of antelope) and raised it as her own. Eventually another lion ate it so she took in another orphaned oryx. That one was eaten too so she didn't take in any more orphaned oryx. We get all excited to see an elephant in the distance. Then we see a momma and baby elephant ahead. We stop to watch. Three more elephants stroll into the scene. Behind them are six more. In the next five minutes we are surrounded by 40 freaking elephants! It was incredible. The acacia trees have thorns on them that are 2 inches long and as sharp and strong as a toothpick. The elephants eat these thorns. How can they eat them without tearing up their mouths, throats and intestines? We see oryx, water buck, giraffes, Thompsom gazelles, impalas, and zebras. We arrive at our lodge and are greeted with wet towels. We wipe our faces, necks, and arms and are horrified to see how dirty we were. We are shown to our rooms. Our room is behind a termite hill. There are vervet monkeys all over. I sit on the porch and a vervet monkey comes right up and sits on the ledge of the porch. The monkeys are gray and brown. Some of their hind ends are bright red indicating they are ready for mating. I wonder how human society would be different if we showed so obviously our readiness for mating? Hello! I see your light is on tonight! The male vervet monkeys have bright blue testes that are startling to see. While we unpack and get ready for another game drive, monkeys get into our van and eat our trail mix. Muthoga and Migwe have to holler at them to make them leave. What a mess they leave. On our second game drive we see dikdiks. You'd think they were rabbits at first. Dikdik are antelopes that weight between 8 and 14 pounds and they're so cute. Their eyes look very sad. They live in pairs and mate for life. We see a leopard sleeping in a tree. It's lower legs and tail hang in space while it's front paws rest under it's chin - sound asleep. I understand they bring their kill up into the tree to keep the hyenas from eating it. We see mongoose,zebras, crocodile, elephants, and giraffe. Someone asks our guide how to know if an elephant will charge. Muthoga says it will trumpet first. We hear an elephant make a noise that lasts for a full minute. The noise sounds like something between a deep rumble and a motor running. Muthoga says that was his stomach. Gosh, he could have burped the alphabet. All vans have to be inside the lodge fence by 6:30. It's getting late so we check our leopard again. We see some gazelles nearby. Now the leopard is awake and searching for food, still sitting in the tree. We can see it's watching the gazelles. Part of me wants to see the leopard leap out of that tree but the other part does not want to see the gazelles become dinner. I shower before dinner and go to see the crocodiles eat at 7. A young man in Samburu dress (red skirt, white wraparound sleeveless shirt, several bracelets up his arms, and beaded headband) plays a flute to call the crocs in to eat. The river is low. The rainy season wasn't as rainy as usual this year. No crocs come tonight. We eat at 7:30 in the thatched roofed dining area. The Samburu man guards the dining room with a slingshot to keep the vervet monkeys at bay. He has a good aim and the monkeys know it. We have a 5 course dinner. So much food! The accommodations are luxurious. I must remember not to use tap water to brush my teeth but it's hard when the faucet is so modern. It's been a great day.