A L U M N I M A G A Z I N E - Colby-Sawyer College

And another from our expedition in Serengeti:
Oct.13, 2010
Spending five days in Serengeti National Park was
one of the most incredible experiences I have ever had.
“Serengeti” translates as “endless plains” and is sometimes
referred to as the “ocean of grass.” Imagine barreling down
a bumpy road in a 10-passenger Land Cruiser, surrounded
by tall, soft brown grass with patches of green with a few
boulders on the horizon and a landscape dotted with
acacia trees with, if you’re lucky, a sleeping leopard or two
in them. This is the bulk of Serengeti, but the park also
has riverine and woodland/bushland habitats and several
hippo pools. Hippo pools are the worst smelling thing you
will ever encounter—I promise.
Our time in the park was spent doing many game
drives, traveling lectures and several field exercises. My
favorite field exercise was doing an assessment of bird
abundance on a game drive, which helped us learn to
identify the common bird species in the park. The bird life
here is gorgeous, and it felt so good to be with students
who get excited about one little bee-eater and will stop at
nothing to identify the wildlife. We’ve all become attached
to our bird guides; mine is now lovingly covered in mud
and coffee because I bring it everywhere. The bee-eaters
and starlings are my favorites.
Saying S i goodbye db tto Tanzania T i was emotional ti l after ft setting tti
down roots and calling it home for a month and a half, but
Kenya welcomed us with open arms and a very different setting.
Unlike the site in Tanzania, where we were part of the
community life of little Rhotia, Kilimanjaro Bush Camp was in
the middle of nowhere, with a greater chance of an elephant
walking in than a person.
30 COLBY-SAWYER ALUMNI MAGAZINE
Nov. 8, 2010
Kenya is amazing. I enjoyed my time in Tanzania and
was sad to leave, but falling in love with Kenya has turned
out to be much easier than I anticipated.
Our site in Kenya, compared with Tanzania, is much
more…wild. That might be the biggest reason why I fell
in love with it. In Tanzania, we were in the community of
Rhotia, but here we are off the beaten path, our camp
is bigger, and wildlife is more abundant. And by wildlife,
I mean that sometimes elephants accidently break in.
Our bandas are small wooden huts with no electricity or
water. They are just a place to keep all our things and for
mosquito-netted beds.
In Kenya, we visited Amboseli National Park several times
and a had an expedition in Tsavo West National Park. One of
the t major highlights of our expedition was to see a very rare
animal, a the African wild dog.
Nov.15, 2010
The African wild dogs are beautiful and rare, and all
our professors here have told us that little is known about
any healthy populations in the area. During our drive to
the sanctuary we saw not one or two but a family of 30
wild dogs hanging out in the shade, all different ages,
sleeping, relaxing and playing. Time stopped. All of our
cruisers were together and we crept up next to the dogs,
taking turns to get a closer look, and gawked at their
beauty and our amazing luck to witness something so
extraordinary. All our professors, who have studied ecology
and wildlife management in East Africa, said they
had never seen anything like this—at best, they had only
seen a few wild dogs in their entire lives. Everyone was
holding their breath and each other’s hands as we soaked
in the moment.