Those fools… they know not what they do (Photo by Scott Solomon)
Update: it did not go well. The night was an absolute disaster for everyone except Enoch, who had the foresight to set up in a place with at least some cover. The rest of us were treated to either a sleepless (me) or at the very least unrestful night of being sandblasted by high-power winds that were also loud as all hell. Despite leaving the tent twice to re-stake side covers that had come loose, I was unable to reach more than an hour of REM sleep. Understandably, we were all exhausted, grumpy, and unenthusiastic as we absconded to breakfast that morning. Lucky for us, we had only a morning excursion planned for the day, so it would hopefully be our first chance to truly rest since our arrival in Africa.
Our expedition that day was to set up game cameras as part of an observation study for the actual class (no, it’s not all just looking at cool animals, we have to do real work too). We traveled to the Olbalbal Floodplain, where there was a natural lake to set our cameras nearby. The question we posed was whether species would be more abundant/rich in closer proximity to bodies of water, and to test this, we set a series of two cameras at intervals in increasing distance from the water. To my dismay, this involved a larger number of burrs and stickers than I had previously thought possible. Still, I soldiered on, and we were able to finish in time for a late lunch.
Can you spot them? 😉 (Photo by Scott Solomon)
On the way back to camp, we got the surprise of a lifetime: the largest group of giraffes any of us had ever seen! Though counts differed, there were at least 50, with some alleging even more than 60. To make things even better, it just so happened to be International Giraffe Day. Truly, a more perfect act of nature could not have existed. After many, many photos, we retired to the cars and drove back to camp to rest.
In our precious hours of free time, I (and others) chose to move my tent to better spot. This involved a lot of work, and as the wind was still blowing with unusual strength, my compatriots and I almost went paragliding spontaneously on several occasions. With the help of some patrolling Maasai, however, things went smoothly enough that we were done re-pitching in time to quickly visit the Olduvai Museum for their Wi-Fi and snacks. The day ended with a record-breaking four presentations to get through, which gave us all sorts of useful information in preparation for the next day’s trip to the Serengeti National Park. Excited for this amazing highlight of our trip, I went to bed in a (slightly) less dusty tent with hopes for sweet dreams and a hassle-free night.
Out of pictures for this day, so have a look at dinner!
