The 2022 Africa Journals, Chapter 35: Six Wives Africa

 Chapter 35:

Six Wives Africa

Polygamy:   Am endeavor to get more out of life than there is.

--Elbert Hubbard

A few days ago, Shelly suggested that we have a Facebook group page where we can share photos taken on this trip for the enjoyment of our travel group.   Later, she announced the name of the Facebook Group.  I burst out laughing and exclaimed the brilliance of  her chosen title:   Six Wives Africa 2022!

The joke goes back to our arrival in Nairobi at the trip's beginning.  Somehow, the staff at the Tamarind Tree Hotel thought Randy, the only male in this seven-person group, and I were married and assigned us to the same room.   I was not privy to the conversation that corrected this, but suddenly I was known as Randy's wife and it became a running joke.   We each had our own rooms.

 In 2014, Kenya legalized the traditional custom of polygamy and did not limit the number of wives a man could acquire, that is, if a man could afford to pay  dowry of livestock to the bride's family.    The Maasai value their cattle, so the dowry is not inexpensive.

Marg checking her messages on our last day at Great Plains Expedition camp.

We began asking our driver/guides if they had more than one wife.   Many did, and no, the  wives do not live in the same house or hut, but in separate dwellings.  Smart men.

So, keeping the culture of Kenya and the Maasai in mind, it was not long before we six woman were jokingly calling ourselves  "Randy's wives."   I often wonder what the villagers thought when we visited.   Did they look upon Randy as an enormously rich man for having six wives? 

Having six wives can spell trouble for any man as shown in the photo below when Randy tries to get all his wives heading in the same direction.

Slowly, at their own pace, and showing no sense of urgency, they begin to wander in the correct direction.

Waiting for us in the acacia grove are staff and a potted tree.   Great Plains endeavors to plant a number of trees every year and guests are invited to help.   I'm all in favor of giving the bushbabies more room to leap from tree to tree.

Randy jumps in to help put the tree in the ground.

And then each of his wives takes a shovelful of dirt and spills it in the hole.

Marg

Virginia

Cory

Sylvia, also known as Slyvia or Slyv for short,  due to a typo in those same hotel reservations that created Six Wives.

Staff takes over to finish the job.

Our finished tree.

One of the staff stops to show us the hole of a baboon spider.   He uses a piece of grass to entice it to show itself, but apparently the spider is camera shy.

The baboon spider, so-called because the coloring on its legs resembles baboon fingers, can have a leg span of three to four inches.   They are related to tarantulas.

The public restroom at GP

If you want privacy, you lean the spear across the opening in the tent.

There's no game drive this morning as we have to be at an airtstrip to catch the plane back to Nairobi.   It's also the day we part company with Marg and Virginia, who are going to Naboisho Conservancy.  They original air reservations for the trip home were changed by the airlines and that gave them more days in Africa.

For the five of us remaining, it's off to Nairobi and a very special afternoon.

A topi with her calf and a wildebeest.

Hamerkop in a puddle.   

Yes, this is the track to the airstrip and it's a good example of the tracks through the Mara and the conservancies.

Hyena in a puddle.

Impala stag and a gazelle stag (L) at sunrise.

And here's our airplane.   Larger than many we fly.   We were treated to the high-pitched screams of a very excited young girl for most of the trip.  There was a basket of hard mints upon boarding and she couldn't believe she could have as many as she wanted.

 I removed my hearing aids and inserted ear plugs.

By the time we reached Nairobi, we were all hungry so our driver took us to a food court at a mall.   We had a hard time deciding where to eat, and wound up at Subway where our vegan and dairy-allergic friends could be accommodated.

The Kenyan shilling roughly translates to the USD by adding decimal points, i.e., the turkey breast sandwich at 525 shillings if $5.25 USD.

Then, we were off to the Palacina Hotel to check in and get ready for this afternoon's adventure.

As you can see, this whole trip is based in southern Kenya.   There's Tsavo on the lower right, Amboselli moving left, and the Maasai Mara Reserve where Enkewa camp is.   Also in the area was Great Plains Expedition, our last camp.   Now, we go back to Nairobi.

The adventure isn’t over yet!

The 2022 Africa Journals, Chapter 34: The Trip to the Musiara Swamp, Part Two

 Chapter 34:

The Trip to the Musiara Swamp

Part Two

Anyone who isn't confused really doesn't understand the situation.--Edward R.  Murrow

I'm confused.   We were supposed to go the Musiara Swamp but I don't recognize anything.   I remember a windmill where villagers can get potable water, but after that it's all unfamiliar to me.   And the windmill was right next to the swamp that teemed with birds and wildlife.

The famed BBC series called Big Cat Diary was filmed mostly in the Swamp and followed the Musiara lion pride.   

"When do we reach the swamp?" I ask Marg.

"We're here.   This is it," she says.

I look out across a shallow basin filled with dry yellow grass and try to fit  that with my memories of lush green vegetation and lots of water.   Then, it hits home.   The terrible drought that has ravaged much of Kenya has done its damage here, too.

Fatty, Fatty, two by four, couldn't get through the kitchen door.

A passage between rocks is wider.

In a small channel of water, invisible to us, a yellow-billed oxpecker sits on the back of a Cape buffalo.

Francis takes us to another spot on the Mara river where we can view hippos.   This place I remember.

There's an African fable that explains why hippos yawn.   The abridged version is that one day a hippo went to the river to cool off.    The crocodiles that lives in the river said, "No.   You will eat all our fish."  The hippo promised not to eat any fish and to yawn once in a while to prove to the crocs that he was keeping his promise.

Nice fable, but the truth is that yawning is a territorial display, a threatening display.   Still, it's cool to see the huge tusks in a hippo's mouth that can slice a crocodile in half.

Here's a site that lots of info on the corpulent river horses.

https://www.wildcard.co.za/10-surprising-hippo-facts/

Back to the water.

So while the hippo returns to the water, so do we--back to the ponds by the airstrip.

This is a black-headed heron.   The light makes its body feathers look blue, but they are actually gray.

And in what is one of my favorite photos of the whole trip, the heron stares at the gray crested crane as if to say, "Dude!   Cool  hairdo!"

And then remembers that staring isn't polite.

In part of the pond there are a number of bird species.

In the first photo below is a sleeping yellow-billed stork.   Look at its legs.   They appear to be white but they are red where they grow from the body.   What's  up with that?

Yellow-billed storks, a black African open-billed stork, and some goofy-looking Egyptian geese.   Again, look at the storks' legs.

Again with some white legs and some red legs.   The reason is that the storks excrete on their legs as a cooling behavior.   Bird urine is white so their legs get coated with urine and dry.  It's called "urohidrosis."   Fascinating, right?    Maybe I'll be an animal behaviorist when I grow up.

By the way, that black bird on the right is an African Open-billed stork, so called because the upper and lower mandibles don't touch in the center.   They feed mostly on snails and mollusks in water.

This is the beautiful saddle-billed stork.   These wading birds can reach five feet in height, though some in captivity were measured at six feet.

This is a male, with dark eyes and yellow wattles.

And this is a female, identified by yellow irises.

Here's another wattled bird, though considerably smaller that the storks.   It's a wattled lapwing.

This monitor lizard was in a dry mud track in the road as we headed back to camp.

The long forked tongue of this reptile acts as a smell sensory device and the fork enables it to smell in "stereo."   Monitors do secrete venom but it is not fatal to humans.   The biggest danger from bites and scratches is infection.

And then we were back cat camp with a staff member greeting us.

I headed off to my tent to download the day's photos onto portable external hard drives, with the help from Marg's Blue Mac.   I"m using her computer because my Lenovo travel computer got fried in Nairobi when I plugged it in.

Notice the white drapes on the wall.   At night, these drapes covered all the walls of the tent.

Out of sight in this photo, and on the desk above, is a device that allows telephone calls between the staff and other tents.   It's the first camp I've stayed in where this is done.   A lot of camps don't even have Wi-Fi available in the tents, but only in a common area.   

Having Wi-Fi in your own tent is a LUXURY!!!    That's my measure for the excellence of a camp.

Dinner this evening was a wonderful assortment of typical African food and I had to try a bite of the many dishes.   The tent was too dark for photos, but I liked everything.   I did not, however, taste the dish with kale.   

 Eating kale is like eating a plastic dish scrubber.

We finished dinner and had a dessert.   While we sat and enjoyed our last evening in camp before heading for home, I heard a familiar sound.    It was men singing!   And I knew right away what was coming.

Sure enough, a group of men danced (African-style) into the dining area and continued singing and dancing and jumping into the air to prove their prowess.

And the camp manager brought out a birthday cake for me!  It was a small "fruit cake," though not what you think.    This cake was made from the same kind of cut fruits we had been enjoying during our stay.

I made an attempt to slice it, but when it  became apparent to me that I was making a mess of it, I asked the manager to do it, and to make sure all the staff enjoyed a slice, too.

Me and my birthday cake.   I'm wearing a blanket across my shoulders because I'm seated near the door and there is a slight breeze blowing across me.   My "hubby" Randy is at my right.   Photo by Virginia Huang

Marg presented my with an African beaded camera strap.

Beautiful, isn't it?

When I got back to my tent, there was a gift from the Great Plains camp.

Look at this fabulous gift wrap!

Ah, my, what a day.

Tonight marks the end of staying in camps, but there is more to come when we return to Nairobi!!!

Also tonight, I take stock of my bites and bruises.   The "black eye" from an insect bite is almost invisible.

The hematoma from a broken vein in my palm is rapidly disappearing.

I still have a plethora of scabs or red spots from a couple dozen insect bites.   They will fade after a few months.

And now, I have a new bite on my ankle.   It's like none other I've ever had.   Marg says it's a spider bite.

Ah, well, you  know the saying, "Everything in Africa bites, scratches, or stings."    Why am I so blessed?