Catch-up again!!

Apologies for the long winded update yesterday! Only made it up through Saturday night too!!

Sunday, July 4th- Survived the night! No baboons came near the camp that I was aware of. Only problem any of us had was that the other summer student placed her tent on top of an ant hill and ended up having to sleep in the car.

The morning found us awake well early to pack-up camp and ready to roll as soon as the prohibition on night driving expired at 6:30am. We took off towards an area where we figured that there must be some lions. On the way, I spotted a couple of Hyenas crouched in the grass, so we watched them for a little while and took some pictures then decided to continue on the search for the lions. We made it a couple hundred yards more and saw some Jackals scampering across the road and back towards the area where we saw the Hyenas. From there our search for the lions proceeded. We passed a Land Cruiser with some tourists coming out from the area where the REALLY expensive lodge is located (it has its own air strip in case driving there was not your style). They slowed down and waved and their guide asked us if we had seen anything good (I thought all of it was good but I guess he meant any carnivores) thus far that morning. So we told him about the Hyenas and the Jackals and he mentioned that they had spotted a Lion when they were first starting out near the lodge (which is protected from Lions and Baboons by a tall electric fence). The decision was made to scrap our original plan and to head in the direction of the lodge on the chance that the Lion hadn't moved along before we got there.
It was a pretty quick trip to the lodge but we still managed to see a ton more Buffalo, Baboon and Zebra on the way. When we arrived there was no sign of any Lions so we drove around to the back side of the hill were the lodge was located and found an expansive grassland area with a bordering scrub forest. Just near a track at the edge of that forest, there was a lone Antelope. Unlike most of the Antelope in the park that would turn their heads and prick up their ears when a vehicle came near, this one stood stoic, staring at a section of grass between itself and the forest... Surely, this had to be a sign that SOMETHING must be amiss in this Antelope's world. We parked and shut off the engine in hopes that at any moment we would see the thing that the Antelope was praying that it did not see. I peered out the window and could see in the dust a large paw print... Paws with no claws... A pretty good indication that it was a large cat as they have the ability to retract their claws, where the other carnivores(Hyenas and Jackals) can not and would have left telltale claw marks.
We watched and waited... and waited... but we didn't catch sight of a Lion... Sadly this time of year is right after the end of the rainy season in Western Kenya, so the grass can be rather high... While great for all the herbivores to eat, it makes seeing them very hard, which I guess actually makes it bad for the herbivores (and summer students on safari trying to see a big cat in the wild!!).
After a while we decided to try a couple other trails in that area and to see where they lead us (in Kenya, maps are not necessarily up-to-date and signs are sometimes non-existent). We didn't end up seeing Lions or Leopards, but we were able to get to a stunning viewpoint on the hill next to the Lake. If not for the mosquitoes, I could have spent the rest of the morning there... But considering that we had to be getting on our way back on the ~6 hour journey back to Kisumu and then on back to Busia, we couldn't take any more time for our search. As nice as it would have been to see the big cats, I still managed to have an amazing time and saw things there that a lot of people don't get the chance to see anywhere.
The drive back was smooth and unremarkable, except to note that I was a little more comfortable with the death-defying antics of some drivers here in Kenya... It makes driving in Grenada look like box car derby. Passing 3 oil tankers, uphill, on a blind curve, at 110kph is nothing out of the norm... Some folks lack a sense of self preservation when it comes to driving here... The motorbike drivers are just as bad when you get closer to the towns, granted at lower speeds, but the concept of 'your side of the road' is also missing in some cases.

I have added some of the pictures from the weekend Safari. Trust me, there are a TON more where that came from... I filled one memory card and polished off half of a second one. With the internet being slow here and my netbook not being the ideal platform to edit, I will have to wait til I get home to get everything posted.

Anyways, hope everyone had a great 4th of July! Shoot me a message if you wanna let me know about all the fun you're having without me!!