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On our "day-off" we visited the KWS and the director talked to us about the elephant dilemma in Kenya and showed us thousands of elephant skulls. We visited the nearby town of Voi, where Lisa and I wisely abandoned our plans to catch a bus to Arusha after learning how truly unsafe it would be to travel loaded down with packs on a mini bus packed full of locals driving us to the 4 km section of no mans land between Kenya and Tanzania at midnight on these incredibly poorly maintained road. Sometimes it can be difficult to understand where adventure stops and stupidity begins. On the way back to camp that night, Paul was speeding along the dirt tracks of the bush making up for some lost time earlier in the day. A quick stop at the mechanic at Taita Discovery Center to examine the squeaking breaks would only take a minute, swerving around every muddy pothole we encountered. I was exhausted and I watched out the front wind screen in a fatigued gaze when all of a sudden the entire wind screen was filled with long spotted legs. A giraffe was running across the road and had misjudged our speed. Paul swerved off to the side as I braced for impact and gasped in fear. It was a near miss. I could only imagine the damage that the 2 tons of falling giraffe carcass would do to our Land Rover. After our stop at TDC, Paul raced home and again we startled a young male elephant who ran out of the bushes and along side our car. Instead of using the brakes (if we really had any left) Paul punched it and out ran the elephant. All Lisa remembers was looking out the window which was filled with a great big gray ass. A twitch to the right and the elephant could have easily sent a tusk through our window. We won that race.

We took a short trip to a group of remote local villages at Kasigau in a very remote area to visit the medical clinic to donate first aid supplies and to visit a few schools where Lisa impressed the young kids with her gymnastic abilities doing cart wheels and walk-overs. The kids were so friendly if not a bit intimidated by our presence. We left with a warm feeling of having made some new friends and I left the village with the gift of fleas.

During week one we would gather at 4:00 PM for a 4 hour game drive, return for dinner and then resume our drive at 10:00 PM until about 1:00 or 2:00 AM. The second week we changed the schedule a bit and awoke at 3:30 AM for a four hour game drive returned for breakfast and a nap and went out again at 4:00 PM until 8:00 PM. It was a grinding schedule and the heat of the day didn't make it too easy to nap. On the second week because we had seen only four lions (or the same two lions twice) the research staff decided to pull out the secret weapon. So there we were at 4:00 AM or so motoring along in Southeast Kenya playing recorded sounds over a loud speaker system of a young wounded buffalo alternated with the sounds of lions roaring at a kill. The lions would respond by roaring back and we would try to drive in their direction playing the sound of wounded buffalo. I don't suppose they got confused that a wounded buffalo was traveling at 25 kph. Our naturalist guide, Alex, who worked the tracking antennae to locate the one lion that had been collared, explained that the lions had, in the past, chased the Land Rover, believing that the wounded buffalo was inside.

Ultimately, the lions did prove elusive. We didn't get as close and personal as we had hoped. Partly a case of bad timing. The November warm rains had dispersed the animals away from the water holes, and the timing of our research team was premature for the "big action" of darting and collaring 4 or 5 more female lions the week after we departed. Our principal Investigator Dr. Kasiki had to rush off to America to make a last ditched effort to plead to the world not to allow the resumption of the ivory trade (The Committee on Trade of Endangered Species, heavily influenced by ivory stock piles and large elephant populations in South Africa, Botswana and Namibia approved the regulated trade of ivory on Nov 12) Nonetheless, we had a great time, met some great people, were entertained by the near psychotic delusions of a fellow team member who opted for the anti-malarial Larium, learned a great deal about animals and their behavior and didn't get wounded, trampled or bitten. A success in its own right. If wisdom is built from a lifetime of memories this has been a great victory in our lives.

We've worked some time into our trip schedule to visit the petting zoo in Pretoria, South Africa to help Lisa work through her newly acquired fear of charging elephants.

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