Elephants

I've been watching a lot of TV and DVD's whilst I've been recovering from pneumonia over Christmas, so was delighted to find this programme about one of the first elephants to be brought to Britain.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b09jcxrj/attenborough-and-the-giant-elephant

It reminded me that I used to be taken to London zoo as a child, and once had a ride on an elephant there !   I assume it would have been an Indian elephant, although 'Jumbo' in this Attenborough film was an African elephant, trained to carry children on its back. Maybe that's what started my life-long passion for these animals.   

Isn't this one fantastic ?   The red colour comes from the red soil of Tsavo in the south east of Kenya.   

And elephants about to cross the Ewaso Nyiro river in Samburu in northern Kenya ... different coloured soil = different coloured elephants !

I took my mother on a trip to The Ark in the Aberdares when she visited us .... there is a sort of underground bunker below the hotel, where visitors can get up close and personal to the elephants .... there is a dimly lit water hole/wallow by the bunker, and at night the elephants come and drink, presumably well aware of the tourists just a few feet away from them.   An occasional trunk will sniff at the opening in the bunker wall !  It is wonderful to be so safely close to them, where one can hear their rumbles, smell them and almost touch them.

Lemurs and especially the aye-aye

I've always wanted to go to Madagascar to see the lemurs, and possibly the rare aye-aye.  Well I have seen lemurs .... in Jersey zoo (used to be called 'Durrell').  I've spend over an hour searching through old photos to try and find my pictures of the ring tailed lemurs they have there ... to no avail.   I've got some somewhere .... (heavy sigh).

But the aye aye is another matter altogether.   Its a nocturnal and very strange lemur.  I think Yoda of Star Wars fame must have been based on the aye-aye.   They both live in the twilight zone !

(from StarWars.com)

  

(from National Geographic)

The aye-aye has a strange elongated middle finger, and inhabitants of Madagascar believe that if it points its finger at you, you are doomed !   But this strange lemur has a method of feeding called percussive foraging; it taps branches and listens with its huge, bat-like ears to detect any insect or grub moving within the branch.   If it hears anything, then it quickly gnaws a hole in the wood, and uses the middle finger to pick out the grub.    The aye-aye fills the niche that woodpeckers normally fill, for they employ the same tap and listen technique.  Luckily, there are no woodpeckers on Madagascar !

I've been lucky enough to see aye-ayes in Jersey zoo ... they live in virtual darkness so when you enter their domain, you can't see a thing, until your eyes get used to the lack of light.   A faint red light barely illuminates their house, but after a while, you can see them running along branches, like a scruffy animated old thread-bare rug.   I have to say .... they also smell pretty bad too !  

Gedi

My friends on the cruise have got as far as Mombasa, and they have booked a quick trip along the northern coast, to Gedi.   

Its probably almost 50 years since I was last there, and according to various internet sites, it now seems to have become a national park with the inevitable museum !   It was just a ruined city in the Arabuko-Sokoke Forest when we were there, and I seem to remember we either camped in the ruins or nearby.  It was a medieval/Arab town, near where I mentioned the elephant shrew in  http://luolaughter.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/only-in-africa-3.html   

Gedi Palace entrance

Main gate to Gedi Palace

These photos almost 50 years old .   But they convey the sense of mystery these ruins had, hidden away, getting overgrown and reclaimed by the forest.

I'm hoping my friends will have lots of new pictures; it'll be interesting to see if more ruins have been reclaimed.   

An hexagonal pillar tomb ...

... and the Mihrab of the Great Mosque (not sure what that is).

Sailing by .....

Friends of mine are just leaving the Seychelles today to go on a wonderful cruise .... Mombasa, Madagascar, Mozambique, South Africa and various other stopping points.   I am positively  GREEN with envy !

I hope they send me photos ...... watch this space !

I'm still here !

Goodness, but its three weeks since I posted.   

*   Kenya seems to be calming down, even with a very minority elected president.

*   Zimbabwe has said goodbye to President Mugabe.

AND .... Archbishop John Sentamu of York, has replaced his dog collar !   He took it off and cut it up just about ten years ago to the day, as a protest against the rule of ex-president Mugabe, whom he said had "taken people's identity and cut it to pieces", prompting him to do the same with his dog collar.  

I have heard from my friends Fathers Hans and Gerry, from Kisumu, but now both retired and living in Holland.   I sent them both Duchy organic Christmas puddings, which arrived safely !

Hands Around the World has been busy with local Christmas fairs, at which we have had sales tables.   I get the impression that there is less spare money about this year; church Christmas fetes aren't taking so much money, and a friend who helps with the Poppy appeal has said they haven't taken as much as usual.   Is this the Brexit Effect, I wonder ?  

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When we lived for a couple of years in sight of Lake Nakuru, we used to get what we called 'Pelican Days'.  Great strings of literally hundreds of the birds flying in classic V-formation over our house; we assumed moving from the lake to another lake fifty miles north in the Rift Valley.   An unforgetable and amazing sight and sound.