Spring Tide! - Malindi

Soo now I am on the coast of Kenya in an area called Malindi. It is just north of Mombasa, also on the coast. It took us TWO FULL DAYS by truck to drive there from the Laikipa area (that I epically failed to blog about.) The coles notes version of my 5 days in Laikipia is as follows: In Laikipia, I got the yummy-est food I have had while in Africa (im talking squash soup and real lettuce) and spent my time measuring acacia trees and identifying the ants that lived on them.

We lived in a research facility called Mpala and there were two sites. There was a riverside camp where most of the group stayed in luxury tents (and they saw elephants every day by their campsite!) and there was the main research facility where a group of eight of us (including myself) stayed in cabin type structures with a group from Princeton that has their semester at this Research Facility.

Anyways, these acacia trees that I am talking about, these are the trees that I decided that I HATED from day ONE of seeing them at Lake Naivasha. It must be karma because I had to spend the next TWO full days with the horrible things taking measurements of their height and identify the animals that graze on them (like elephants and giraffes). Dear universe, I promise that I love them now, please never let me deal with them hands-on again.

My research subjects (click for enlarged view)

Ok so now, I’m in the REAL holiday spot (no more fake beach house nabugabo style). I'm camping on a private beach, right on the Indian ocean. This is WHAT WE HAVE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR! A body of water that we can actually swim in that doesn’t have shitosomyasis!! It was actually like we were on some sort of educational holiday…

We woke up every morning, put on our swim suits for the whole day – we went to class in our swimsuits because today my class consisted of wading out into the tide pools at low tide to catch some of the creatures that chill there. We caught: Fish, crab, sea urchins, starfish, sea cucumbers, sea sponges, crayfish and ALLLL sorts of other things. Everything I have ever learned about in my evolution and phylogeny classes (hello BIOL 111) all came together today in this course, in REAL LIFE.

During the hottest part of the day we have free time to swim in the WARMMMM water of the Indian ocean and we can walk out really far since it is quite shallow. But when the high tide comes in, then we get the waves and spend hours being thrown back and forth by the ocean, as well as do a little bit of body surfing. 

Our tents...right on the beach

enjoying the ocean

Class presentations on the beach

Today, I was especially lucky to be on the coast of Kenya right at the equator right on the beach. As many people know, tides are controlled by the gravitational pull of the moon. We were so lucky because today was SUPER moon, aka the closest the moon has been to the earth in the last eighteen years. And when the tide came in today, it was HUGE and deep! The waves crept all the way up the beach to where some of our tents were pitched and had to be moved! The Usually high tide happens every twenty eight days and is called the “spring tide”. Shelby pointed out to be that it was pretty amazing that we got to experience the “super moon” in a place that is soooo affected by the placement and cycles of the moon, and see the many hidden effects of our position in our solar system. Plus, the moon glowed a beautiful orange in the sky as it rose, in all its glory over the Indian ocean.

Super moon!