Chasing Waterfalls

For my last weekend in Africa, I went to Sipi Falls in Uganda. It's a series of three waterfalls (100m, 55m, 75m) at the edge of Mt. Elgon on the border of Kenya and Uganda.

Stayed at the idyllic Sipi River Lodge, which is situated by fall #2

This is the view from our cottage -- fall #2

Hiked up to fall #2 -- the vantage point is from a cave behind the waterfall

We had a local boy lead us up to fall #3. There were some crazy rainbows at the falls!

At the top of fall #3

The Bugisu (local tribe) grow some of the best coffee in the world. These are some freshly picked coffee beans.

The Bugisu get together in communal huts in their villages to drink maize beer (fermented maize and yeast). We partook but not with the long straws you see here -- they gave us a cup :)

Glorious sunset from a lookout point

Animal Planet (Part II)

10-14% of Kenya's GDP is from tourism, and the biggest draw by far are the safaris. The most popular destination is Maasai Mara, the Kenya portion of the Serengeti in Tanzania.

I was expecting the animals to be the only highlight of the trip but the Maasai people (the local tribe) are incredibly interesting. The climate is drier and colder than Western Province where I'm based, so the primary economic activity is raising livestock rather than agriculture. Everywhere we went, we saw huge herds of hundreds of livestock being shepherded by young boys. It's tradition to give a boy his first herd at the age of 12. I wish I could post pictures but the Maasai don't like to be photographed. It's unfortunate because I can't adequately describe the bright colors and patterns of their traditional dress (lots of reds and oranges and plaid), the wooden staffs they carry (for herding and self-defense), or the jewelry and adornments they wear (especially large necklaces and earrings). I do have one picture of their residences, which are enclosed by large thorny fences so they can keep their livestock in at night:

Onto the exciting animal pictures!

It's currently the annual Great Wildebeest Migration, where about 1.5M wildebeest travel from the Serengeti in Tanzania to the Maasai Mara in Kenya. The Great Migration is one of the Seven New Wonders of the World.

Wildebeest as far as the eye can see

Hundreds of thousands of zebras also migrate

As well as hundreds of thousands of gazelles. Pictured here are Grant's Gazelles. Also saw tons of Thomson's Gazelles.

Water buffalo

The setting:

The border between Tanzania and Kenya 

Famous African Acacia trees

Crocodile (!) on the banks of the Mara River 

Hippo print

Hippo lazily swimming

Hippos lounging and sunning on the banks

Other awesome animals:

Never realized how HUGE ostriches are! Explains the eggs...

Cheetahs!

Giraffes!

Cobra! Possibly the most dangerous thing we encountered.

Herd of elephants, including baby elephants! 

Hyenas rolling around in the mud 

Rawr 

Nature, in its most primal form:

A fresh antelope kill. Notice the bloated stomach bulging out of the carcass -- this is due to the gases that are expelled from the body after death.

Lion stalking off towards a herd of water buffalo

Badass water buffalo charging and chasing off three lions!

Wildebeest carcass 

Den of lion cubs eating (probably the above wildebeest)

Lions get food coma, too!

Animal Planet (Part I)

Spent an awesome weekend in the Rift Valley with some colleagues and friends! Picture in updates, below ;)

Hiking the Menengai Crater -- a volcanic caldera (what happens when a volcano erupts and implodes). Local legend is that the steam rising from the crater is the souls of Maasai warriors making their way to heaven.

View from the top. Since it's a crater, we first hiked down into the crater and then up/out. 

Lake Nakuru National Park

View of Lake Nakuru from Baboon Cliff

Nakuru Lake is famous for the thousands of flamingos (which you can see in the distance) but there were also tons of pelicans and marabou storks.

On the safari game drives, you can get surprisingly close to the animals!

Lake Nakuru National Park is also famous for its white rhinos but sightings are pretty rare. We saw three!

Lots of baby baboons:

 

They may not look exotic but the water buffalo are pretty badass. They can defend themselves from lions and are incredibly dangerous to humans.

In addition to these Thomson's gazelles, we saw tons of impalas, waterbucks, and other types of gazelles!

Time flies

May and June have come and gone in the blink of an eye.

Some pictures from the past few months:

Camping out at the house that a colleague and his wife built in Jinja, Uganda

The view from their porch -- mere footsteps from the Nile

Field staff meeting. Check out the vintage Korean messenger bag!

 Another comparison photo, this time closer to harvest time: OAF (left) vs. non-OAF (right)

What I thought was a pretty flower is actually striga weed -- the enemy of maize

"Better Harvest"

Farmer leaders' meeting

Training in front of a farmer's shamba (homestead)

Kenyans are obsessed with washing their cars

A teaser for some upcoming photo orgies:

• Lake Nakuru National Park -- rhinos, giraffes, lions, cheetahs, leopards!
• Maasai Mara -- for the annual wildebeest migration from the Serengeti in Tanzania
• Sipi Falls -- beautiful series of 3 waterfalls by Mount Elgon in Eastern Uganda