Ni Ni, Ltd.

One of the biggest exports in Kenya, next to tea and coffee, is the flower. Flowers are shipped all over Europe, including Amsterdam and London.

This is a huge industry, especially in Lake Naivasha, providing thousands of jobs, bringing in a lot of money, but also having an effect on the Lake...after all, you have to water flowers and where does the water come from and where does the runoff go?
Now, depending on who you talk to and which flower farm you look at, you will find very radical differences. Driving down the main road that goes around the lake, we saw one of the bigger flower farms and we were not impressed. The runoff from watering the flowers (chemicals and all) were flowing back to the street where cattle were drinking from it and we can only assume that it was flowing into the lake as well.

Now do a complete 180 and drive down the road a bit and you will find Sarah and Mike's flower farm called Ni Ni, Ltd. (I think that literally translated means, 'what, what, ltd')

They have 46 greenhouses of roses, one of the smaller flower farms in the area. They have 600 workers who get picked up for work in the morning and dropped off after work, fed meals, get to take home all the treated water they want, and have a health clinic on site that is free for the employees and their families.

Ruth, who runs the place took us around and showed us the different varieties of roses, some really beautiful ones and explained the process from growing to shipping and everything in between, including how they water the roses. They use a computer that tells them when they need watering, use hydroponic watering, recycle the water and use it again, the computer telling them what chemicals to add or take away and then the water is treated to take out the chemicals and finally it goes through a wetland before being released into the lake, it all seems like a very lake friendly way to grow roses.

(The photos above show a variety called VIVA, the employees working and cutting the roses at just the right time, they put them into the buckets to be prepped for shipping)

As a side story: the white rose with the red flakes in it is one of the newest varieties, called Entertain. It went to auction and Ni Ni, Ltd decided to try to do some good by giving a portion of the money from that day to a worthy cause (I can't remember where the money went...an orphanage maybe? Help me out Sarah) and it got the highest price of a new flower at auction, yea!!)

With all the controversy and all the flower farms in the area, it will be interesting to see if any restrictions are enforced in the near future.

(Photos below are of the roses ready to be cut and the pile of roses are the ones that didn't make the cut...will be given away or tossed - I volunteered to take them :), then they are all packaged up and ready to head to the airport, they are in cold storage so they won't open or die)


Another side note: On MY way to the airport to leave Kenya (sad), my flight left around midnight, I passed a big truck that said Ni Ni, Ltd. on the side, it was also on the road to the airport, do you think we were in the same plane??


The photos below are in my favorite room of all, where I offered to work, check it out! They have to make sure that they roses last for a certain number of days and open up in order to guarantee them to the stores, now wouldn't this be THE job?! Its a tough one, but someone's gotta do it!

After talking to people living around the lake, I think that the increase in people coming to the lake to live (the population has expanded dramatically in the last ten years) is having a dramatic affect on the lake, not only the flower farms. You can see people washing their clothes right next to the lake, bathing in the lake, pumping water out of the lake and spraying their cattle near the lake. Not good ways to keep the lake healthy. There are regulations in place to prevent this I think, but there is no enforcement taking place.

Historically, the lake has dried up completely a few times, the level of the water fluctuates quite dramatically, so its tough to determine the future of the lake with all the added stresses (people). If the lake has completely dried up, then you may wonder, where did the fish come from? Yes, fish have been introduced - carp, bass, tilapia as well as crayfish. Without all these introductions, we'd never have all the eagles living here, about 150 of them on the lake as well as over 400 species of birds... so people aren't all bad :)

Lake Naivasha Pictures

Greetings! I thought I would post some pictures of a few of the amazing creatures I was fortunate enough to see at Lake Naivasha, on a daily basis...

Lake Naivasha

My last couple days in Naivasha were great…lots of walks in the riparian and at the lakefront, I saw all the great mammals, including a group of giraffe that had three very small giraffe, they couldn’t have been more than 7 or 8 feet tall, really young and so fun to watch. They could completely disappear behind some of the acacia trees and then reappear moments later to look for leaves on a new tree. They would wonder away from the others and then run to get back to the rest of the crew. And what was even more incredible was how close we all were to each other and they didn’t even seem to notice I was around, have I become just another grazer on the land?

At the lake, I was seeing and hearing many fish eagles and in the morning, I saw four eagles on these large rocks right at the shoreline, they were all in a row, what were they waiting for? Three marabou storks were at the edge of the water as well, then wandered into the grass and sat down right in front of me. Hundreds of cormorants fly overhead each morning and the kingfishers are fishing right in front of me.

My last night involved camping on the other side of the lake so we could go out on the boat to track the eagles that have transmitters on, we found two of the three. The water was really choppy, so taking pictures required some creativity. Believe it or not taking pictures is also key (I know, its awesome, isn’t it?). If we can get a photo of them eagles legs, then we can see if there is a band and what the letters are, making them easy to identify.

That night, I could have sworn the hippos were nearly in our tents…they were on the other side of a short electrical fence (would that really stop a hippo from crossing?) and they were definitely living it up! There was lots of snorting and dining on the lush green grass ALL night long (or it seemed so), it was awesome, but I didn’t dare look out.

We were back out on the boat before the sun rose and I’m surprised that we didn’t encounter any hippos on our way to the boat dock, we did make it onto the boat without incident. We saw lots of eagles, a great sunrise and even some other great birds (and hippos on the water). Herons, kingfishers, pelicans, night herons, the highlight was a black egret looking for fish right in front of us!

I spent the afternoon with Munir and Sarah and their lovely boys (who are going to Disney World this week!) before traveling to the airport, such a fun family! Too bad I wasn’t ready to leave Kenya.

Hard Work on Lake Naivasha

Most mornings I wake to the sound of the fish eagles, such a great sound! I walk to the lake among all the animals across the riparian. Each day is different. Some days I walk among the giraffe and zebras, other days waterbuck and impalas are awfully close, but always… the animated wildbeest, running every which way. At the lakeshore, you birders would be in heaven, kingfishers (three different kinds), gulls, stilts, plovers, ibis (2 different kinds), herons, egrets, coots and the fish eagles, all within touching distance (almost). You can usually find me on the lake before 7 doing behavioral observation on a pair of fish eagles until 12 or 1...the things I’ve seen! Fishing, territorial fighting, nest building, mating and helping fisherman make a living. Within binocular vision I have counted nearly 20 eagles at one time, scattered around the lake in trees, on the edge of the water and flying overhead.

For 3,000 schillings (that’s about $40), you can take a one hour boat ride to see the hippos, the birds, walk the riparian area and watch the eagles catch fish. The fisherman whistle and throw fish in front of the boats (these are small fishing boats). If all goes according to plan and the eagles are willing, they fly from their trees where they’ve been perching watching all this, and grab the fish. Sometimes they ignore the whistling and the fish, other times they are flying before the fish has hit the water. I have mixed feelings about it, as I am sure many people do. Lake Boringo estimates that because of the fish eagle fish tossing, they have made $150,000.

I’ve also been helping Tecla with her research, we spent all day Saturday and Sunday on the fishing boat collecting data. We collected water, soil and fish samples from 7 different spots around the lake to be analyzed for heavy metals. We took temperatures and looked at water visibility. Since the eagle is an indicator species, she is trying to determine the effect the lake is having on the eagles. I am very interested to see the data. At the same time, I was locating fish eagles at the sites, using the GPS to note their location and observing behavior over about an hour. In the two days we saw 26 eagles, I had expected to see many, many more. However, they are very territorial, so perhaps we were in specific territories. After the long days, we went to the lab to dissect fish and remove the liver and muscle tissue, this after weighing and measuring the length of each carp (700-900grams). We also took the pH of the water and the conductivity. Last night we left the lab about 11:30pm…after waking up at 6 and working all day. I’m sure I’m forgetting something…oh yeah, we ate the fish afterwards! Yum, good thing I love fish. It was great spending time with Tecla and her cousin, brother and friends. Now if I only knew Swahili… although, it was mentioned a few times that a few times I responded to someone who was speaking Swahili, so maybe I’ve picked up more than I thought.

In the evenings, when I am at the caravan, I walk out to the lake and spend some time with the animals and watching the sun set, it’s a magical time of day…sunrise and sunset are spectacular. In the morning the mist rises over the lake and at night, the sunset is gorgeous, sometimes the colors are incredible, other times, the clouds make it magical.

Lake Naivasha

Lake Naivasha…home to water buffalo, zebra, giraffe, waterbuck, wildebeest, dik dik, impala, gazelle, more than 1,200 hippos, and hundreds of species of birds including crowned cranes, the Goliath heron and over 150 African fish eagles…heaven? I would say so.

The last few weeks here have been very interesting, fish eagles seem to be everywhere, no complaining on my part. My home is a metal caravan with the main room and a sleeping room. If I stretch out my arms, they touch each wall. My kitchen is just a short walk to a building much, much bigger than the caravan with a wood burning stove (Note to self: must work on starting fire). My very own bathrooms are across a field that is for the hippos to graze on at night. It’s worth it…at night I am surrounded by waterbuck and hippos. You can’t miss the hippos, they come to mow the lawn and it is very loud, the way they rip the grass up. I tried to get photos, but you don’t want to get too close to a hippo, they are HUGE and a little intimidating at night :)

The family that is so kind to let me stay in the caravan is Sarah and Mike. Sarah is an animal buff, she has id’d and told me all about each animal and bird I’ve seen here, its awesome. She also rescues all sorts of animals, right now she has all raptors, they help injured animals and she specializes in owls. The barn owls she keeps have released many young into the wild. Right now there are a pair of eagle owls that have two young that are almost ready to fledge (fly the coop, be free). The female was deprived of adequate nutrition when she was young, so her beak grows in crooked and its very, very long. I brought a dremmel and we’ve been working on making it look better, at least now the bottom looks great and the top will once we shorten it more.

Sarah and Mike have been very kind, introducing me to everyone they know and even taking me up in their plane…ok, so it wasn’t specifically for me, it was for a white stork we took to another town to release… I carried it on the plane, he was great and didn’t poop on me once!

Photos from the top of Africa!

Photos from Kilimanjaro

I hope you enjoy these photos, just a few of my experience on top of the world, the glaciers are truly incredible, however they are melting quickly.
The select few that made it! We were exhausted and exhilarated all at the same time.

The area that we were walking was completely covered in glaciers 10 years ago according to our guides, now its just scree and hard dirt. In fact, many are guessing that by the year 2015, the glacier will be gone. Not only is that a beautiful image that I'd hate for you to miss seeing for yourselves, but it is terrible for everyone living on, below and near the mountain as the mountain is their water source. What does that mean for them?


Regardless of the future, it was so beautiful to see for miles, what a view! Worth every minute!

Lewa, Il Nygwesi, Somburu...

I've spent the better part of an hour trying to upload pictures of the glaciers on the roof of Africa without any luck, internet isn't the best, so you'll have to wait til next time, but its worth the wait, trust me. I hope everyone is doing great, time is flying here and I am trying to make the most of every moment...they are all amazing thus far. Here's a synopsis of the safari, pictures also to come, but I couldn't wait any longer.

Lewa...

If ever you have a chance to travel to Kenya, even if you’ve already been, you should make it a point to go to Lewa Conservancy. We are talking about a little piece of heaven. Not only did we see more animals than I thought possible, but we were treated like royalty, fed like kings and I was even able to build on the Swahili I had learned on Kili.

Most days started with a morning game drive at 6:30, followed by breakfast in the bush or back at the ranch. Fresh fruit was the order, mango, papaya, pineapple, passion fruit, bananas, watermelon, all fresh and picked at just the right time. Eggs were always made to order along with tomatoes and mushrooms (and beans and bacon for you as well). Lunches were also buffet style with a huge variety of main courses, but always lots of salads as well (yes, still my favorite) and fresh cheeses and fruit. Dinner was sit down and we were given soup, main courses and dessert each night. Drinks were always readily available, I’m pretty sure I’ve gained weight because the food has been so good.

Oops, I didn’t travel all the way to Africa for the food, back to the animals and the people. Our guides were local men who were from different tribes, it was so nice to learn about other cultures, family is incredibly important, most of the people worked and lived at Lewa and then every once in a while had a few days off to go home to their families. They also were very knowledgeable. They all seemed to know the answer to all our questions, no matter how challenging or stupid it was...our guides (and drivers) Joel, Johnson and Michael could spot and animal a mile away.

Ok, so, what we saw...are you ready? Reticulated Giraffe, Elephants (yes Aaron, lots and lots and lots of Elephants…young, old, male, female, even tiny babies), Zebra, both Common and Grevy’s (endangered), Black and White Rhino (also endangered), Waterbuck, Warthogs, Water Buffalo (huge!), Elan, Cheetah (the three brothers) on three separate occasions. Secretary birds, Ostrich, Bustards, Storks, Harriers, Eagles, little tiny birds like bee eaters and starlings and swallows, waterfowl, termite mounds, impala, gaezelle, Crowned cranes, the tip tops of two hippos in the middle of a pond and Lions.

We went on afternoon and night drives as well and saw amazing sights at night…Lions hunting (sort of), Cheetahs feasting on a baby Elan (although we had seen them eating before the sun went down as well), bushbabies, nightjars, thicknees, storks at the tops of trees, crowned cranes as well as all the above animals at night,.

I’ve just barely scraped the surface, the list goes on and on and on. We found pride rock (the movie Lion King).

While watching all those animals and taking a few pictures…just a few J we learned all about Lewa. If you’ve never heard of Lewa, go to www.lewa.org, their mission just to give you a taste of what they are all about…”The Lewa Wildlife Conservancey works as a catalyst for the convservation of wildlife and its habitat. It does this through the protection and management of species, the initiation and support of community conservation and development programmes, and the education of neighboring areas in the value of wildlife.” We visited one of the schools that Lewa supports and the medical clinic at the same location and met the students, many who came even though the teachers were on strike and there was no school. We gave them lots of supplies, games, toys and candy.

One day we went up north to another reserve called Somburu (the movie Born Free?), where we saw Gerenuk, Dik Dik and two Lions hanging out all day long in the same place and more elephants than I’ve ever seen before. It was hot, hot, hot and very dry, the river bed was completely dried out, much of Kenya is in a drought. Hopefully the rainy season will bring a lot of rain this year, they need it.

We also went to the equator and did some shopping. Shopping is a sport in Kenya. Oh my.

After a great 10 days, we were off to Il Nygwesi for three nights, where we were able to see a Boma and spend an evening with the community. Here, we did game drives on foot, hiked a mountain and watched the sunset in the most serene location. The facilities were all open air, the loos with a view, the outdoor showers so you could gaze at the stars while showering, the watering hole where nearly 20 elephants at a time frequented and the heat meant a lot of relaxation near the pool.

I’ve just barely scratched the surface and can’t wait to tell you more, but hopefully that was enough (and hopefully not tooooo much) to get you excited about visiting Kenya. Until next time, lala salama (good night).