Swan Lake: A Fascinating Performance at Lake Oloiden

Above: Great white pelicans herding fish for breakfast. Copyright Rupi Mangat

Replace the swan with pelicans because in Africa we have pelicans and not swans. We’re sailing on Lake Oloiden that’s changes dramatically every so often that it keeps everyone guessing – what next? Salty or fresh?

 

We’ve woken up to a spectacular performance by the pelicans – that is the Great white pelicans – performing a ballet that’s captivating. On a blue lake, flotillas of the great white birds synchronize their dive in the water, upturning their white butts like a ballerina’s tutu while their enormous yellow bills vanish in the water to swallow the fish they have herded below. It’s spectacular.

Continue reading “Swan Lake: A Fascinating Performance at Lake Oloiden”

Uhuru in June

Published: Saturday Nation newspaper magazine 28 June 2018

It was the coldest of days in Nairobi. A June Sunday with a sky pasted in white cloud dropping a fine drizzle on the earthlings. But being the third Sunday of the month it could not be wasted because that’s the day when we, the Nature Kenya members, set out to discover all the intrigues of nature in and around Nairobi. For me personally, it’s also a work-out in the wild, fresh air.

Uhuru Gardens monument copyright rupi mangat (800x450)
Uhuru Monument at Uhuru Gardens – Copyright Rupi Mangat

So in the drizzle we stood brainstorming where to go, donned in layers of sweaters and jackets.

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Time travelling through Olorgesailie

The fascinating metropolis of ancient ancestors

Above: Mt Olorgesailie decked in cloud and wild flowers – copyright Rupi Mangat 5 May 2018

Published: Saturday magazine Nation newspaper 5 May 2018

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Dry weather in November 2017 – Mt Esakut from Olorgesailie – copyright Rupi Mangat 5 May 2018

I’m alone walking between two ancient volcanoes on sands that have weathered the times and bleached white by the relentless sun with volcanic rubble strewn around. Tiny white flowers and petals of yellow on skeletal green stalks that otherwise are so brittle during the dry season carpet the ground.

I’m at Olorgesailie, home of our ancestors, the upright human or Homo erectus who walked out of Africa and into the bigger world a million years ago.

In my aloneness my mind begins to wander. Continue reading “Time travelling through Olorgesailie”