Up at 5am so we could be into the park by 6 - with the intention of trying to spot predators during the cool morning hours in which they prefer to hunt. No luck today, but we headed to the West side of the park in search of Gerenuk (a curious long-necked antelope that we hadn't seen yet). On approaching the far side of the park, close to the gate leading to Namanga we found a small herd close to the road - they were quite shy so we didn't manage to watch them for long, but at least we found them! At the airstrip we stopped for a coffee break as you're officially allowed out of your vehicle here (saves nipping out or crawling through the hatch!) - a member of staff came over to greet us - he remembered us from January - and even remembered that we carry our rubber snake in the cab as a security deterrent! On the way back towards Kimana Gate we headed down towards the marsh to see if there was anything interesting there - when we stopped the engine to watch a large group of ostrich we realised that there was another sound going on - a noise going up and down that could only be described as being a "rolling", a bit like waves on the shore. After a while we realised that this was insects - probably billions of them, all almost in sync with each other, quite mesmerising.
Back at the campsite we discovered that the ants had reappeared in large numbers, so more Doom was sent into the ceiling cavity....and lots of ants could be seen scarpering. Maybe this will have worked?
I went and had a look at the generator, David had rigged up a solar panel onto the starter battery and it was charging well, the battery seemed to be in reasonable condition, so we had a chat about the best way to keep it all working until they can get the alternator sorted. Later we went for a stroll and got quite close to a group of about a dozen Marabou Stork that were standing around where an animal had died some time earlier. Two tiny little crombec flew to roost in the twigs of a small bush right next to us as we were sitting enjoying the cooler evening - it was quite difficult to get reasonable photos of them due to the light.
Back at the campsite we discovered that the ants had reappeared in large numbers, so more Doom was sent into the ceiling cavity....and lots of ants could be seen scarpering. Maybe this will have worked?
I went and had a look at the generator, David had rigged up a solar panel onto the starter battery and it was charging well, the battery seemed to be in reasonable condition, so we had a chat about the best way to keep it all working until they can get the alternator sorted. Later we went for a stroll and got quite close to a group of about a dozen Marabou Stork that were standing around where an animal had died some time earlier. Two tiny little crombec flew to roost in the twigs of a small bush right next to us as we were sitting enjoying the cooler evening - it was quite difficult to get reasonable photos of them due to the light.