The Golden RUMP!!! A-S forest.

Originally uploaded by furtwangl

(From Lyanda, who passed me scrawled notes to transcribe in this stuffy internet cafe while she headed for white wine by the pool-ed.)
Takaungu was very good to us, and we were reluctant to leave. While Tom was at his long Swahili lesson (should be “Kiswahili”-ed.), and Claire in school, I spent my last morning there walking the long, (illegible), red-soil path to the next village, Vuma. Second growth forests of palm, mango, and cashew-nut trees were dotted with traditional shambas (or family compounds - 3 or 4 small mud and thatch homes and shared gardens, goats, chickens - I am constantly amazed here by the tidiness of the shambas - the dirt floors are swept, the yards are raked, and it is all orderly).

Outside of Takaungu, where there are now a few pink-skinned volunteers all the time, “muzungu” foreigners like me are fairly rare, and so whole families would stand and stare , then would all smile and wave and say “habari” and invariably an adult would offer “karibu”-welcome.

The palm eventually gave way to maize fields and glistening views of the Indian ocean. I walked for hours, and can’t think of a better way to have ended our visit there.

If we needed cheering after the sadness of leaving Takaungu, the Golden-Rumped Elephant Shrew picked us right up. The Arabuko-Sokoke forest is pretty incredible and its most famous inhabitants the strangest, most wonderful little creature I have ever seen. It sure let us watch it, which is rare, and the more we watched it, the more weirder it was. Digging little holes in the leaf litter with its funny brown front legs, and sniffing around with its long “nose.” And its rump is SO golden!
The many endemics in the forest (shrew, birds, reptiles, and others) are depressingly endangered, depending entirely on this forest remnant. We feel fortunate for our hours of peaceful wandering there, in their presence. Many thanks to the lovely folks at A Rocha Kenya for their great conservation work, serene hospitality, and for the simple, perfect guest house at the edge of the forest and the ocean. XXOO - Ly

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