In my room...

The traditional "this is my room" photo

... and the "this is the view out my window" snap...

I finally know where I am when I wake up yet I will be leaving in a few weeks...

Mombasa

I had a little business trip to Mombasa and stayed for the weekend.

Mombasa has the regions only natural deep sea ports.

The famous Mombasa tusks (don't worry, they are fake, those would be awfully large elephants!)

Street-side sellers. Bought some yummy casava chips seasoned with chili and fresh lime.

Nakumatt is the local Target/Walmart like shopping center chain throughout Kenya. I am very happy to see a locally owned chain, unlike other countries which have either the American Walmart or the French Carrefour. I took this shot, because I enjoyed the minimalistic advertizing. Nakumatt = Variety. Enough said :)

Took this one for Dad. Masses of electric and telephone wires are not unusual in African cities.

Mombasa apartment living.

You can't just take pictures of the pretty stuff... this stuff is just as common.

Local adverts.

This is the "new" name of the main drag in Mombasa.

African ingenuity.

Travel by ferry anyone?

FORT JESUS

Fort Jesus is so named because the layout of the fort is literally in the shape of Jesus.

Portuguese soldiers made these wall paintings no doubt while Fort Jesus was under seige (for nearly 3 years). Not surprisingly the focus of their wall painting was ships at sea and men with puffy pants (Portuguese) fighting with Arabs.

Tiger Woods

Matatus are minivans that are used like buses and are the primary form of public transportation. They drive fast and crazy, are crammed full of people and are usually named (as are some tuk tuks, buses, and taxis). On a recent road trip I wrote down the names of all the matatus we passed... just for fun... it's a great Africa road trip game :) These are the names I wrote down:
- Dear Mama
- Magic Storm
- Pirates
- NICE
- Mum Special
- Sound Design
- Twisted
- Redeemer
- Missed Call
- Hot Dollar "In God We Trust"
- Glory to God
- Good Hope
- LandLine
- X-large XXL
- Promise II
- Gods Will
- God is Real
- Reliable
- More Fire
- Papa Nasty

Also, along the way I saw a giant advert that said "Tuskers makes us equal". Tuskers is the local beer and it is an interesting statement considering the tribalism that plagues Kenya... the idea that somehow alcohol could solve issues of real and perceived inequality... sad.

Weekend with Maneaters

Many years ago I was a fan of the movie Ghost and the Darkness a true story about two maneating lions that killed more than 150 people in Tsavo, Kenya in 1898 during the construction of the Uganda-Mombasa Railway.
Lt. Colonel Patterson (played by Val Kilmer and probably a good part of the reason I was attracted to the film at the time) eventually hunted and killed the lions and wrote a book which 100 years later was turned into a movie. He made rugs out of those lions but after his death the rugs were turned back into lions and are now housed in the Chicago field museum where I have visited them several times. The other part of the attraction to the movie was my fascination with Africa coupled with animal behavior. Now, more than 15 years later, I find myself in Tsavo... hunting maneaters. These are my photos.
Camping on lake Jupe in the southern part of Tsavo near the border with Tanzania. So near that my phone lost charge by bouncing back and forth, "Welcome to Tanzania", "Welcome to Kenya", "Welcome to Tanzania"...
This was the bull elephant that hung out near our campsite. This is the view from my tent.
Why did the elephants cross the road?
Hitchin' a ride.
Tsavo landscapes.
At the watering hole.


The animals in Tsavo were very lazy, we saw countless giraffes and a whole herd of elephants lying down. Lying down is rare for animals of this size as their hearts can't handle too much down time....besides, weren't they worried about the maneaters?
The famous Kingfisher.

Click on this one to see up close. It is gorgeous.
Usually what I look forward to most about camping is falling asleep to the sounds of crickets and waking to the sounds of birds. In Tsavo, these were the creatures I fell asleep to sounds of, and woke up to at 2am and 3am and 4am and 5am. Totally worth it though, it is a rare thing to be sung to by a choir of belching, bleating hippos!
The stealthy hippo.


Crocs!

The circle of life.
One car brokedown, and this was the local (not so local really, it took 5 hours for them to arrive) AAA that came to either fix or tow. 5 hours later they fixed it but we ended up leaving one car and half the group behind.

There were countless other animals, but honestly, I got tired of editing my photos so I will leave it at this... the only thing though...
after all that... no maneaters.

Next time.