
4 minute read
Not Wishy Washing With Water
Angelina’s twins were born last year and here they are pushing each other playfully before us. The team from the Amboseli Trust for Elephants, know all the elephants by name and show me how a little ear notch, crooked tusk or hairy tail gives away their identity.
All conversations keep rotating back to water. Amboseli’s rich swamp land is fed by underground rivers where egrets, pelicans, flamingoes and cranes wade amidst smaller lapwings and larks. At the Ramsar site, Dr. Cynthia Moss, is working with the Kenya Wildlife Services to make a wetland eco system area. Wetlands are an important asset in educating people about biodiversity and natural processes. Water management, damning, fishing, farming and deforestation, all contribute to wetland degradation. Wetlands provide water quality preservation and nurseries for fish and other creatures, including those that feed on them. They sequester carbon and so impact storm and drought damage. A global network is now working to preserve and restore wetlands by ensuring sustainable use of their biodiversity and ensuring the livelihoods of those who depend on them.
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Cynthia tells us that we need to understand hydrology more. How water works and are sound and smell linked in anyway. Micro biomes in nature talk to each other. Trees pass messages via fungi under the earth and the overstory of a forest that’s tall trees pick up messages in the air. We discuss how life sciences in schools must teach fencing without obstructing animal corridors, security of protected areas, use of canine units to flush out poaching and zoning where grazing can happen without intense contact with wildlife.
As we wander about the waterways watching the elephants swag about, we learn that only pregnant and nursing ones have breasts and that they’ll nurse pretty much all their lives. Here they are in paradise, little ones, teenagers and grannies. The herd of aunties and sisters remains close by trumpeting now and again at our proximity. Otherwise they seem relaxed, feed constantly and


Elephant family
are barely bothered by us, gazing at them. Non-resident tribes still poach here despite good community relations and networks that make it almost impossible to get away with it. Giraffes are in decline everywhere as well, except here, largely due to the work of the Big Life Foundation.
For now we are sitting in the middle of a beautiful utopia. The Acacias are flowering, expecting rain. My friend mentions that in her area - in the thick foothills of the Ngurumans, there is a tree they call the truth tree and it’s not fooled this year into flowering. The last couple of years have seen above average rainfall with many places devastated by flood waters. Now we are expecting a drought, the rains are late, if they come at all. It’s hard to imagine


CLOCKWISE: Lesser Flamingoes; Saddle billed stork; buffalo; Flying doctors
that with so much water around. When Kilimanjaro finally shows itself to us, it’s cap is snowy. Will our grandchildren look in awe at its majesty as we do today?
Our systems of environmental exploitation are so entrenched that we, a bunch of thinking women in the middle of Amboseli are musing on what solutions the world climate summit will provide. Leaders of rich nations are amongst the ones meeting to discuss what can be done to mitigate the effects of global warming.
Let’s work with the women to educate the comunity, my friend postulates. What changes a world is when women have money. And so, the conversations continue until we are gathered round a fire, listening to bush babies, later that evening.
I’m left with one overarching thought - If you’re thinking about doing your bit, try to save water even if you can afford to waste it.


Sunrise in Zanzibar

Sunset in the Serengeti
ZANZIBAR - ARUSHA - SERENGETI MORNING SCHEDULE

Timings above are estimates and will vary depending on aircraft routing
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