Kenya day 2 - Finding my feet

Today being Sunday, a group of us went to church in Gede. The service was in English, with songs and readings projected on the wall - seem familiar? The only different thing was the visitors being handed a mike and asked to introduce themselves! I don't know if that would go down too well in the UK! The schools go back tomorrow, so the youngsters were blessed as they head off. Many children board at secondary school here, and college and university students are all away during term time, of course.

When we got back, I went into the Mwamba nature trail again, and this time managed to find a Drongo - a black bird a bit bigger than a blackbird, with a longish forked tail. Then I found out that they are rather common! Ah well, it's new to me anyway!

My first Drongo

We had lunch all together, which is the usual way of things here for lunch and dinner. The food is very good and this veggie is being well looked after.

After lunch we had a heavy shower of rain - the rains are just starting, so its cooler than it has been for some time. It's still warm even in the rain, so when it stopped I decided to explore the beach, so I set off southwards towards Mida creek.

Dragon rocks on the beach

There are some amazing rock formations at the end of the beach, some look ternt like dragons, and the rock is very light and full of holes, so I suspect it's volcanic, though there seem to be layers in it. Further investigation needed! While I was there, the rain came on again so the rocks were good for sheltering. An osprey flew past, and I also saw a ringed plover, some swallows and a large tern.

All over the garden, the nature trail and the beach there are holes a bit bigger than a vole hole. I thought they must belong to small rodents, but actually they are made by ghost crabs! On the beach today lots of them were running into the waves, getting swept about in the water, seeming to feed as the waves went back, then getting covered again with water. They have black eyes that stick up above the water and white claws, and otherwise are pale pink.

At dinner, we were told that a green turtle was nesting on the beach, so we went out to see her. There is an organisation called Turtle Watch that protects the turtles and their eggs, if necessary moving the eggs above the high tide mark into the dunes, and monitors the nests so that they can help the hatchlings get to the sea. The turtle was 1.7 metres long, 1.1 metres wide, and was shifting sand over her nest with her long fore flippers and covering the eggs with her shorter, square back flippers. We had to use red lights to avoid disturbing her, and were not allowed to take photos, so no pictures for this bit! It was a huge privilege to see her, and we hope she will make more nests in the next few weeks. One turtle made 9 nests in one season, each with an average of 120 eggs - that's a huge amount of work for her, but maybe only one or two baby turtles in 1000 make it to maturity.