Zion: the Promised Land

Zion Campsite in the village of Olasiti was our home for four weeks while we were in the field. We had a tent village of our own, and a mess hall where we played a lot of euchre and other card games to pass the time. Anthropology students usually went to interview every day for a couple of hours. Biology students could only visit the park every other day because we had to share a car, so we had a lot of down time. We spent a good portion of our free time hanging in the Olasiti Transit Bar, which made a small fortune on the volume of sodas we bought. When I was stuck at camp I was usually pretty bummed about not being in the park, but the days when I could go were so extraordinary!
I completely changed my research project idea once I got to the park, to better accommodate working with the rest of the group and the limited access we had. I studied elephant herbivory of baobab trees near the river and far from the river. Basically I was measuring how fat each baobab tree was and then counting up the damage from elephants. The biggest tree I measured was 20m! Several times elephants interrupted our data collection and we had to hurry back to the safety of the land rover. We became each other’s “research assistants”. I feel so lucky to have been able to experience Tarangire by exploring on foot and spending many days there to the point where I didn’t need a map to orient myself.
Some of the cooler experiences from Tarangire were seeing a group of cheetahs kill an impala, having our vehicle rammed by a buffalo, finding hippos in the river, the staggering amount of elephants, and a BIG elephant skeleton.

Into the Wild

The roads were mostly pitted dirt from here on out. But in contrast the camping was the most luxurious I have ever encountered. The Nyayo staff were such great people too – they enjoyed chatting with us and were very helpful. It was fun getting to know them really well throughout the six weeks of travel and research. They cooked great meals too!
Lake Manyara and Serengeti were the parks we traveled to before our stay at Tarangire. Manyara was stunning with the huge, mirror-like expanse of the alkaline lake as backdrop to our first giraffes, zebras, wildebeest, etc. I remember how overwhelming those first encounters were – little did we know, there was so much more to come! Animals give no regard to the presence of vehicles. Often during safari elephants would brush by close enough to reach out and touch! Serengeti exceeded all the hype and expectations I had. Plains as far as you can see with no fences, people, cows . . . and unbroken herds of zebra, gazelles, wildebeest, etc. We had many exciting close encounters with lions, and even saw several lion cubs. At night we camped in the heart of the park with no fence between us and the hyenas that stalked the camp at night. The night animal sounds were simultaneously hauntingly beautiful and absolutely terrifying. Hyenas calling, constantly, and you hope that you never hear them laugh because that means they are closing in on a kill. A pride of lions roared every night and I remember hearing lots of zebras too (probably being hunted). This may be a little melodramatic, but I was always relieved when the sun rose again, affirming that I had survived another night to drink chai while watching giraffes walk by our camp.