Sunday, May 13

Another series of long flights sees me in Kenya again, except this time I am arriving a few days before Jim. The flights were at least interesting, as on the flight from Amsterdam to Nairobi, I sat next to a Dr. Terrant from Michigan State University (E. Lansing) who was traveling to Kenya with a bunch of students who were going to spend 5 weeks studying ecology. We had a rather lengthy series of discussions, and he invited me to talk to his students about my work. As we were flying we saw Mt. Etna, which is pretty darned impressive even from a plane, and another small volcano near Etna that seemed to be erupting as it had a small plume attached to it. We also got some good views of the Sahara, and it makes me very happy I’m working in Kenya... When we started getting over the rift area, it got rather cloudy, so unfortunately I didn’t get ant views of it.. but we did fly around some massive thunderheads, thankfully it was calm between them.

    Visa application forms were passed out on the plane, and I realized when I read the fine print that I was supposed to have 2 small passport photos. Fortunately, I didn’t end up needing any, but it did make me nervous for a few minutes. The passport line was quite slow, but I finally made it out, collected both my bags, and met Billy. He said that the people at Amicabre had informed him that they had picked up Jim earlier that day and he had headed for Kisumu... probably news to Jim who was still back in Houghton!

Monday, May 14

Well, roosters around here aren’t too picky about when they crow... I was awoken by one at 4am when it was still quite dark out. It made me think about Coq-au-vin..

Being the first day in Kenya, I decided today I would take it easy and run errands. Money exchange, e-mail, groceries etc.. I sent Billy home at noon as I was done by then. He told me that today was a day of mourning for the Kenya Airways crash, and that no one had survived the crash. Last I had heard they had located the wreckage but were looking for survivors.

I spent the afternoon transferring geologic boundaries to a Nairobi street map so I can go around with Billy and try and collect Nairobi-area rocks tuesday and wednesday. I think it would have been a good idea to digitize Nairobi streets and then make a hybrid map on the computer, but that will have to wait until I get back. It won’t help me then, but maybe someone else could make use of it. At least the major roads and railroads I already had on my geologic map helped with the transfer. 

Tuesday, May 15

Billy and I took a whirlwind loop tour South of Nairobi. Unfortunately, the entire mapped area of a rock unit does not equate to continuous rock exposure.. that would make life so easy. Anyway, we drove over to Ngong and then cut to the southeast to meet up with the road between Nairobi and Namanga. We ended up 54 km away from Nairobi with this route, but we did meet up with Billy’s brother who had apparently injured his hand when some people he was trying to arrest this morning got feisty. I ended the day with 6 rock samples, however, a few of them I’ll have to wait until Jim gets here to identify as we went off the map I had spent yesterday afternoon decorating with the geology, so I’m not really sure what I was supposed to be sampling..

I was showing Billy my map this morning, and he pointed out that some of the places I wanted to go were in areas that were a little low on the safety scale. Like, one sample I wanted was right in Kibera, the large slum. Fortunately, I remembered from last year that they had been doing road construction on the bit of road that went by there, and there were rock exposures along the main highway. Also, tomorrow might be interesting as the towns north of Nairobi have been experiencing riots etc. because this is an election year, so I may not be able to sample all the rocks I want to. I’ll just say something like “This formation was not sampled due to safety concerns”. That’s a valid excuse I think.

Wednesday, May 16

Today we took the Highway out of town to the North, and headed down B3 that goes across the rift floor between Suswa and Mt. Longonot. On the way down the escarpment I saw a scenic pull out across from a good rock exposure so I had Billy pull over. I took a couple pictures and then ran across the street to get a rock sample. Being a place for tourists there were merchants set up there, and one saw me get the rock sample. He asked if I wanted to look at some more rocks, and I said I was fine with the one I had, but he commenced digging in a shed anyway and brought out 2 stones. One was spherical and the other was flat on one side and curved on the other for grinding corn. I was slightly interested in the spherical one, and he said he would sell it to me for 1000 kenya shillings (~$15)! I thought “but it’s a rock...” (that coming from a geologist!), but merely gave him a look. He asked how much I’d be willing to give him for it, so I said 100 ksh. I eventually got it for 500... So I stopped for a free rock and ended up buying one... Billy thinks it may have been a missile used by the Maasai during clashes with the white settlers as such fights were common around the escarpment. It also looks a lot like pictures of hammerstones I found online. Apparently, that nice round form can be created by simply using a rock as a hammerstone. Whatever it is, it’s made of quartzite. I was thinking it could be quite pretty polished, but I’m unsure of it’s origin...

After paying for the rock and while heading across the rift floor I got samples of Longonot scoria and ash and a vesicular sample that I think is from Suswa. During the drive we saw zebra, gazelle and 2 giraffes- giraffes always get me, they are so strange and there is nothing of a similar form in the americas that’s it’s just like a mental “wow” when I see them in the wild.

On the way back towards Nairobi, we sidetracked towards Limuru and Tigoni as I wanted to try and sample 3 lava flows that exist between there and Nairobi. Unfortunately, most of the area is covered by a thick red soil, and thus no rocks were visible...Dang sneaky rocks... And the first nice outcrop I saw, Billy wouldn’t let me sample at it because there were some idle men lounging on it and Billy thought they might belong to that gang of thugs he was telling me about. Thwarted from rock collecting by thugs! Fortunately, on the other side of that village there was a small quarry with lots of loose rock rubble, so Billy drove up and I just had to open the door and reach down to get one. He chatted with the quarry workers a bit, and apparently the inquired if I was interested in the type of rock women are known to eat ... I like to get my minerals through a balanced diet thank-you very much. Hopefully I got enough of a sample to age date, and hopefully it is the rock I think it is and not a different unit. Billy essentially talked me out of trying to get at the Kisumu trachyte, as Kisumu has been the hub of trouble lately, and I trust Billy’s evaluation. If a local doesn’t want to drive you there, don’t force it.

We got done pretty early considering that Jim wasn’t going to arrive until 7pm, so Billy and I hung out at the apartment until it was time to fetch him from the airport. We ended up watching “The Parole Officer”, which was an amusing brit-comedy and then part of “Iron Jawed Angels” before it was time to go. We had to wait for about an hour until Jim finally came out with his luggage, and then we all got to head back to the Woodmere. While waiting though I learned that the Air Emerites stewardesses had neat uniforms.

Thursday, May 17

Five hundred dollars of my funds went away today to pay for the Woodmere and Car usage so far. Since today was Jim’s recovery day we stayed in Nairobi and ran errands, starting with a trip to the ABC place for breakfast. We then went downtown for Jim to get a cell phone (he buys one every year... I think he should try keeping this one for a change..) and then we went to the Yaya. We got some Indian rice to augment what I bought yesterday for dinner, went back to the Woodmere to drop stuff off, and then proceeded to yet another shopping plaza. At the grocery store there I found camel milk for sale for a mere 99 ksh. I couldn’t resist, I mean, how often does one get to try camel milk?? It’s actually kinda grassy... not overtly objectionable, but odd. Better than the camel meat I had the first year I was here and went to the Carnivore though...

The current plan is to head to Magadi tomorrow, and then go to Arusha on Saturday. We tried to arrange rooms through one of the travel agents at the Village Market, but he said a double room would be $160! Earlier we had checked the hotel’s webpage and they had the price listed at $90 for a double... and an internet site Jim found said it could book the room for $103.  We then used the euphemism “We’ll think about it” to run away. Billy is going to check with one of his friends who does hotel bookings and safaris. If that doesn’t pan out, I can’t see why we would have a problem just going there as this is definitely not high season and I doubt it is very busy.

Friday, May 18

We made the first trip of the year to Magadi today. The drive was familiar, but due to the rains it was cloudy over the rift valley. We stopped to take pictures at my favorite spot just as you descend into the rift valley and 2 Masaai kids came up to sell us stuff. The little girl said something was 200 ksh, but the boy, who was slightly older, said it was 250. The girls said ‘No!, my mom said this was 200’. It was very cute, and we bought 2 keychains and I got a leather wrist band (that doesn’t snap properly.. oh well). The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. We got to Magadi, and it was actually flooded with water. Apparently Magadi had gotten 3 hours of rain during the night, and Billy said that the 2 rainy seasons have essentially been one this year. Hmm.. that makes me think it would be interesting to try and get ASTER images from this year...

Anyway, we stopped by to see Louie and we gave him a copy of my map. He seemed to like it, but also mentioned that he would like a copy of just the Magadi area. If I did that I would probably have enough room to do a cross section through the Magadi basin, which I think would be a nice touch.

After that meeting we headed to the Maasai bar, got beers and ate our normal picnic lunches. Although, I only had bananas instead of the normal PB+J sandwich, and found that I rather like bananas and beer for lunch.

On the way out of town I wanted to stop at this place where a river had cut down through what i thought were ashes from Nyokie, but unfortunately the banks we too steep and I couldn’t find a way down to sample. While I was wandering around and examining the situation, some Masaai kids came up to the car and I could hear Billy cracking up. When I got back I asked what had happened, and apparently one of the kids had been petting Jim’s arm and commented that it was soft like a lamb!

We got back to the Woodmere and grilled up some kebobs from the meat place at the Yaya (I still love their marinade..). The charcoal we buy is great once you start it going, and it seems a bit of a waste to only grill one thing, so I think next time I might suggest grilling a 3 course meal including dessert...

Saturday, May 19

Billy’s friend was able to get us a room at the Impala for $90, which was reasonable and the expected price. We went to breakfast this morning, I forked over $700 for the car rental and then we headed on our way out of town. Unfortunately, not too far down Mombasa road, we got caught in a nasty traffic jam caused by an accident. I think that occupied us for nearly 1.5 hours. I was impressed though as the Matatu workers had hopped out to do traffic maintenance, and they were doing a pretty good job. It made good business sense for them, as the faster they could get things moving, the more money they could make, and the police were certainly no where to be seen... and the drivers seemed to need someone to keep them in line as while the line of traffic was definitely not moving, people would pull off to the side/in the other lane to try and get around. Well, if there was something to be gotten around, don’t you think the people ahead in the line would have done that?? The, of course, these people need to get back in the traffic line at some point, and it just makes everything worse.

We eventually got out, and Jim commented that he’d hate to be in a major accident here as it would take so long for the ambulance to get to the scene, that they might as well skip that step and just send a hearse.. Anyway, the rest of the trip went smoothy, if you discount the potholes. The roads in Tanzania are definitely much better. I think in the entire stretch from Namanga to Arusha we had to dodge less than a dozen, and most could be dodged w/o heavy breaking.

I am now laying on my hotel bed, and there is festive music coming from the park across the way. I have no idea what it is for, but it’s not too bad. Billy is getting the car cleaned, Jim is probably taking a nap, and we’ll have dinner at 6:30 at the yummy indian food place within the hotel. We still need to find lodging in Dodoma for tomorrow night, and I can only hope that the geologic survey actually has the maps we want..

Addendum: So, we met with the owner of the travel agency that booked our room at the Impala, and he assured us that the road straight south from Arusha to Dodoma is dirt and in bad shape. Thus he said that to get to Dodoma we would have to drive all the way towards Dar es Salaam and then back west to get to Dodoma.. that would be at least 700 km/an 8 hour drive... Jim wasn’t feeling up to it, so we’ve decided that we’ll stay in Arusha again tomorrow, and then call the Tanzanian Geologic Survey monday morning to see if that 1) have the maps in actuality, and 2) if they could possibly ship them...

Apparently the only reason Dodoma is the capital is because it is centrally located... but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to get to. There aren’t even scheduled flights from Arusha to Dodoma! So anyway... tomorrow we shall explore Arusha, and maybe Mt Meru (I saw a cute volcanic cone on it’s flank that looked interesting..) and perhaps stay at a different hotel for a change of scenery.

We ate at the Indian place for dinner, but they changed! It used to be a nice, outdoors type place with trees and a dirt floor for parts.. now it has a tiled floor, no trees and looks barren to me... I got the Fish Curry, but I wasn’t that impressed with it. The Butter Chicken is tasty, and I always like Naan. Jim and I also got Banana Fritters w/ ice cream for dessert. Those were pretty tasty (and were essentially battered and fried whole bananas), and now I am stuffed.

Sunday, May 20

Well, both Jim and I were afflicted with different ailments last night that made sleep difficult. Billy however slept like a log.. I think it was a good thing we decided to stay in Arusha, as we weren’t able to get to a pharmacy until 10am, which would have been rather late for starting a journey to Dodoma via Dar es Salaam. We took the morning pretty easy, and Billy and I went out at around 1:30pm to visit a promising looking outcrop we saw on the way into Arusha. Unfortunately it was almost 40 km away rather than the 24 km I thought it was... It was also past a police check point.. oops.

    Anyway, it was a very neat outcrop, and was essentially a cut away view of a volcanic hill. It was mostly pumice chunks, and occasionally you could see the lobes where magma had once been oozing. Very neat! I got some good samples, and collected a few specifically for aesthetic value. At the top of the mostly black outcrop, there was a yelloow-brown layer that I wanted to get to as I suspected it was ash. I almost didn’t make it up the slope, which was mostly small, loose pieces of pumice; but a few determined charges saw me to a stable place at the top where I could reach the stuff I was interested in. Once there, I was digging near a bunch of holes which I was seriously hoping didn’t have any active inhabitants.. I lucked out and if they were active holes, no one was home to mind my chipping away of their entry ways.

    We were supposed to try and meet Jim back at the Impala around 3pm, but we were about an hour late. At least I got to sample a cool outcrop. Now I’m back the the Impala, a bit less dusty and wind swept than I was upon immediate arrival, but still needing a serious bath. Billy is taking a stroll (I don’t think he’s used to being idle) and I don’t know where Jim is..probably taking a nap...he seems to be good at that.

    Oh, on the way home I learned something interesting. I had noticed before that often trucks would have only one turn signal on, but it didn’t seem like they were intending to turn anywhere. I finally asked Billy, and he said that truck drivers do that to indicate if it’s safe to pass them or not. If the right blinker is on, that means there is oncoming traffic, and if the left blinker is on it means it is clear to pass them. I think that is an interesting system and seems to have widespread use here.

Monday, May 21

    We failed in our map collecting endeavor. Jim woke up and still wasn’t feeling well so we decided to head out of town first thing in the morning. It seems Jim is allergic to Arusha this year. Anyway, we stopped at a supermarket on the way out of town so I could look for Dodoma wine, and the rare spherical Trix (like I found during my first year here). I found neither, which means that Dodoma wine isn’t worth sending to even towns within the country..

    Our drive home was uneventful but long, which makes me glad we didn’t try pushing towards Dodoma by car. Fortunately there weren’t any traffic jams on the way back to Nairobi. We dropped off Jim and the stuff, and I then Billy and I went to the Yaya. Billy went lunch-hunting while I hunted for dinner supplies.

Tuesday, May 22

Jim stayed at the apartment today to recover from his ailment, and I went out to Nyokie to try and get that ash. I got samples of the Mbagathi Trachyte, Ngong and Esayeti volcanics, and some more desert varnish samples. We headed out towards Nyokie town, and, I have to say, that was one of the strangest landscapes I’ve seen so far in Kenya... There were that ashes, and then there were lavas with crossing lineations that seemed to be composed of several different things, layers that formed round concretions, and black pillars or fibrous black ash.. I learned that the weird solid color area on one of the hills that can be seen from a couple spots of the main road is a concrete pad with a water collector at the base. During the rainy season the water will just run off the surface so more can be collected for the village.

    Oh right, I also forgot my camera today, so I need to go back with Jim and my camera. And, because I forgot my camera, we saw ostriches on the way to Magadi, and the flamingos  near the Magadi guard shack were pretty close to the road for once... and I saw a pretty chicken with cute chicks when we were back in Nairobi and I was waiting for Billy to buy more cell phone minutes.. darn not bringing my camera...

    Anyway, it was hot in the rift and even though I was only making short forays from the car for rocks, I was pretty beat by the end of the day. When we got back to Nairobi, we picked up Jim and headed to the Yaya so we could pick up more kebabs for dinner. I also tried to make the grilled fruit pouch recipe as seen on Good Eats but I think I needed less lime, more sugar, and ice cream. Oh well, I can try those again since I’m sure we’d be grilling again before I leave.

I just saw a gecko in the apartment. Cute little guy, but now he’s hiding amongst the roof beams, so I don’t think I can show him to Jim..

Wednesday, May 23

We went out to breakfast at the ABC place again, and I indulged in the Homefry Heaven (Potatoes, a bit of cheddar, guacamole and salsa). We headed back out towards Longonot and Suswa so I could show Jim what I had looked at before he arrived. I got another sample of the Longonot ash and we stopped to look at the layered ash layers I saw, but didn’t sample, before. It was pretty neat, there was a lower orange layer, then a grey layer with a distinct pumice layer with obsidian shards separating them. Above the grey layer was a tan layer. These three layers are exposed along the road, and then, from the road we saw a great exposure in a cliff that showed many alternating layers. When we were leaving I saw an owl swoop into one of the holes near the top of the exposure. It was pretty neat, and in the middle of the day too.

    Jim was tired so we headed straight home afterwards, and on the way we went past a Japanese restaurant just a few blocks down from the Woodmere! I’m excited about trying it, and apparently Jim’s wife also likes Japanese food and would probably accompany me.

Thursday, May 24

The car needed to be serviced this morning so Jim and I decided to just stay in the Nairobi since we weren’t sure when the car would be ready in the morning. We took a taxi to the Yaya and had breakfast of coffee-products and croissants. We got more kebobs for dinner and then headed back home and spent the afternoon at the apartment.

    Well, Jim left me at the apartment while he went to fetch his wife at the airport, and I was left in charge of starting up the grill and cooking kebobs. I have come to the realization that if I was lost in the woods and had to start a fire with one match, I’d be totally hosed... 30 matches later, I’m not sure if I’ve succeeded to get enough thermal energy into the pieces of charcoal. I will have people know that these are NOT commercial briquettes and I don’t have the aide of liquid fire starter chemicals. I’m using “Masaai-made” charcoal with still has wood-like forms. It’s great once it gets going... but I’m having issues with that.

Friday, May 25

I went out to the northern part of the Yatta plateau with Billy today. We drove to the north through Thika and stopped at 14-Falls on the way. It’s on the way to the Sambuk National Park, and has some very pretty water falls flowing over some rocks that are very similar to the Kapiti Phonolites. It was some nice photo taking, but they charged 400 shillings for admission fees... one fee was for my camera!

It was a pretty nice drive- when we got to Kithimani (Yatta), we headed south and a dirt road towards the other main road to the south that went to Machakos. I got ahold of Dr. Tarrant and on the way back to nairobi we’d be driving right by the entrance to the camp. We got there around 3pm, and I showed them my map, and spoke (rather disjointedly) about the geology and the rift. It was a bit hard as none of them were geology majors and I really wasn’t sure how much info I needed to give them. In any event, several of them seemed pretty interested and they said that it was a nice change from the sociology lectures they’ve been having a lot of lately. Earlier today they had taken a drive to count animals on the Hopcraft Ranch (which is 20,000 acres) and they had counted 100’s of animals (Zebra, Elands, Wildebeast, Orynx, gazelle, giraffe, jackals etc...). I was even informed that the pile of dirt and large hole Billy and I saw in the road was from an aardvark!

After the talk we were invited to go with them to a raptor center that was also on the grounds. They had a number of different eagles, and it seemed that they took in injured animals and bred them with the hopes of releasing the young back into the wild. One pair of eagles were in a very large enclosure, and we could look in through 1-way glass or through a little flap (that we were warned not to get too close to). Apparently the female that was here had been found with parts of a human boy in her nest....which was why she was at the center. Billy and I left before the eagles were flown for the group, but we wanted to get back to Nairobi for dinner. We left around 5pm, and I was rather surprised when we were just outside of Nairobi and Billy said it could take 2 to 2.5 hours to get home! Apparently the traffic is just that bad, and is even worse if there are accidents. While we were stuck in traffic I purchased two large tubes of peanuts from a vendor for 10 shillings each. That was essentially lunch since before that Billy and I had consumed chips from a gas station and coke at Machakos..

We finally met up with Jim and Pat at Cedars, the Lebanese restaurant down the street from the woodmere, at 7:15pm or so. They were just finishing up dessert, but shared what they had left and Billy and I got coffees. We were in one of the outside areas and we got to watch to super-cute geckos hunt mosquitos. Billy drove us home, and I learned that Jim had broken the apartment key in the lock today, and he couldn’t wake Pat up to let him in so he had to borrow the Maid’s key. I got to reap the rewards of their dinner out as they saved a bunch of leftovers for me. I really do love their hummus..

One downside of the trip to the ranch was that I found a tick on me when I got back to the Woodmere and I saw one on Billy when we got to the restaurant. Blech! I’m guessing there were ticks due to the many animals on th ranch... this was the first time I had seen a tick on my trips here- thankfully Magadi doesn’t seem to have such a problem!

I think we’ve come to the conclusion that the Discovery channel that we had been getting here has been replaced with a sports channel so we can watch soccer...joy... So, there’s not much on. Tomorrow we’ll head out to the Yaya and then Magadi. I need to go to the Yaya to get coffe, cash and aloe vera (I gave myself a nasty sunburn on my left arm today... I was being dumb and didn’t slather myself with SPF 50 before going out today). Oh yeah- I learned the other day that aloe vera (the actual plant) has pretty red flower stalks and grows around here. I hope I can get a picture of one in bloom before I leave. Speaking of aloe, I learned that aloe vera grows wild around here and sends up spikes with pretty red flowers on it. 

Saturday, May 26

Today was my last trip out to Magadi for the field season. We had breakfast at the Nakumatt Junction and I had a chicken pie, which was pretty tasty. At my favorite location before you start heading down into the rift, there were a lot of people and buses etc there, and apparently they were filming a commercial for Safaricom. We had stopped to show Pat the view, and were swamped by a number of women selling things. Normally if you stop there might be a couple kids selling stuff, but I think du to all the extra people hanging out for the commercial shoot we had a larger population of sellers.

    We didn’t get to Magadi until around noon, and we couldn’t get to the hotsprings because it was too muddy in spots.. and we hadn’t devoted the time for me to walk over. So Jim said he would try and come back out after I left to try and get the samples I needed. I picked up some nice chert pieces I’d like to hang on the wall and we headed back to the Masaai bar. You don’t have to be out very long before you start feeling quite tired. I was taking some IR temperature readings, and some ground measurements were 140 degrees F! Hot rocks!

Pat enjoyed the Masaai bar, and we had a round of Tuskers with Billy opting for Mango Juice.

    On the way home we dropped by Olorgesailie and Pat and I took the tour while Billy and Jim waited in the car. It was a neat tour now that I understand more about the area, but some of the things he said seemed wrong to me. For example, there is the pink layer of sediment in the park, and it sits above a sit that has been dated to 780,000 years. The tour guide said that it was a volcanic soil formed from an eruption of Olorgesailie. But, as far as I know, Olorgesailie was last active around 2.7 Ma... and the mountain is so eroded, that I had a hard time believing that it could have been active less than 1 million years ago.. Also, it was mentioned that some of the stone tools were made from obsidian and quartzite, and that the obsidian must have come from around Lake Naivasha and the the quartzite must have come from the Namanga region.. But, Nyokie has obsidian flows and it just down the road and it way closer than Lake Naivasha, and right across the western escarpment are the Loita Hills which are supposed to have a bunch of quartzites in them. Why assume that the building materials came from farther away than the nearest available sources? I tried to question the guy, but either he was just saying what he had memorized about the location or his english wasn’t that great so I didn’t get very far for my efforts.

    Of course, on our way out of the park we bought some stuff from the masaai ladies. I got 6 grass and bead bracelets for 600 KSH, and one wedding collar for 1000. I think I got some great deals, and no haggling was needed. By the time we left the park it was around 5pm, and we got back to the Woodmere at 6:30pm. We dusted off and changed clothes and headed to Misono, the Japanese restaurant I saw the other day. We were seated around one of the large cooking surfaces and got to pick from a set menu. Pat and I got a smaller set so we could order extra sushi. It was still a lot of food coming in a number of courses. First it came with 2 slices of sushi, then we had red snapper, beef with vegetables, fried rice and miso soup and finally fruit for dessert. For the three of us, plus drinks, it came to a little over $100- and Jim paid, how nice!