Zannerpalooza: Carnivores and Herbivores

Not too far from Lake Naivasha Lodge in the Northern Frontier District of Kenya is Elsamere. Elsamere is a museum and conservation center that originally was the home of Joy and George Adamson and their lion, Elsa. Elsa is the famous lion from the movie Born Free; the story of Joy Adamson and her close relationship with the lion cub she raised to adulthood. The lake-front home and lands are now used for the conservation of wildlife and education programs.

Home of Joy and George Adamson, and Elsa the Lioness.

Gorgeous views of Lake Naivasha.

Elsamere canoes and pier.

Joy Adamson was a naturalist, painter, sketcher, pianist, author and lion tamer - that's quite a resume. She used her time in Kenya to learn about the local tribes and local flora. She painted tribesmen in traditional costume and captured local flowers and plants that many had never been seen before.

Beautiful flowers are everywhere on Elsamere land.

The story of this woman blew me away. She married young and along with her husband moved to Africa during World War II. According to the museum, she met a man on the trip from Austria to Africa, and this man in turn became her second husband (Peter Bally). Then, while living in Africa she went on safari and fell in love with her third husband - George Adamson. Joy was killed in 1980 by what was originally thought to be a lion attack. It turns out that her injuries were not caused by an animal, but a human. A young worker from Elsamere was charged with her murder. The museum believes that Joy, age 70, was having an affair with this underage boy. I thought she was all about lions, not cougars!

The museum had an interesting new artifact. Python snakes are common in the area, much to my dislike. Did you know that if you are being strangled by a python, the only way to survive is to bite off the head of the beastly snake. Yah right, like I would be willing to do that. The museum found a python carcass that had been completely eaten by ants. Who would have thought that a powerful snake 6-meters long could succumb to some little bugs. The destructive forces of the ant army left nothing but bones.

Python skeleton.

This is how I prefer to see a python up close.

After Elsamere, we headed to Crater Lake so we could stretch our legs and hike among herbivores. Hooray - finally some exercise and a walk without worrying about being eaten alive. Our tour guide at Crater Lake was Elijah, and he started the tour by explaining how humans are stinky and if the animals smell us they may run away. He offered us two options: we could use a plant to disguise our scent, or we could pour animal blood over us. Gross! We all opted to rub leaves on our skin rather than the bloodbath.

Emily, Karen and Elijah hiking up the crater.

From the top of the crater we could see the lake surrounded by flat plains.

At the top of the crater overlooking the lake.

We hiked down to the plains and saw obsidian rock which is solidified lava that shimmers like shiny black glass. We also saw dung beetles building balls of poop (usually elephant) that they roll back to their mates. Now that's a romantic gift!

What's brown and sounds like a bell?
DUNG!

The female dung beetle lays her eggs in the dung ball so that the babies have an immediate food source. Elijah taught us about Pirate Dung Beetles that steal the balls after the dung beetle has worked so hard to push 8 times his weight in poop all the way home to his wife. Nature is so cruel it's almost comical.

The plains of the crater provided an amazing chance to get up close to many animals: giraffe, zebra, elan, impala and colobus monkeys.