The Milgis Trust

Category: Milgis lugga | Date: Nov 17 2008 | By: milgistrust

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Category: Milgis lugga, Northern Frontier District, Samburu | Date: Nov 08 2008 | By: milgistrust

When these big luggas come down in flood, the only way to describe it, is its like a Tsunami, ‘a wall of water’ but at least its got a river bed to follow… BUT it is very exciting to watch…In places these luggas are almost a kilometer wide, imagine the amount of water coming down… The roar is deafening, and quite frightening actually!! What does lugga mean…Its a seasonal river… Actually these big ones never dry up as there is always water flowing under the sand, all you need to do is dig a hole… sometimes quite deep, but then you have as much water as you like… which is why they are vital to the survival of this area… The SEIYA Lugga came down in full flood this morning… It was about 7 am, and I heard a sound like wind…, but the trees weren’t moving! I went out to inspect, and realised it was the lugga coming down… It was about 7 kms away!.. The Seiya is quite famous in Northern Kenya… Its described as the most dangerous lugga in Kenya… The Samburu say that its ‘ eaten ‘ many vehicles, people, livestock… elephants and lions… Vehicles.. because the drivers don’t realise how ‘mean’ it is, especially in the rainy season… they try and cross when the water is low, sink up to their axils in the soft sand, and the next flood takes them away… People… because the Samburu can’t swim, and they try and cross it when its too high! Animals have been known to be taken by surprise, or they too have sunk in the sand like the camel on the 29th oct., in the parsaloi lugga…Thats why I chose to live on a 600 feet hill, when I hear that roar, I’m ok now!!… But…many years ago we used to have our camp in the beautiful acacia tortilis, on the banks of the Seiya, at Sware… We asked the oldest man there if the lugga had ever been that high… not in his life time, he said!.. There was no driftwood signs, so it seemed correct… In 1997, during the el nino rains we joined the people who got ‘ eaten ‘ by that famous lugga…

Funnily enough the meaning of Seiya is so gentle… Its a kind of papyrus, and is very important to the Samburu.. They take the bulbous roots, Seiyai, and make a nice necklace out of them, or include just one in their beads.. and its a permenant perfume… When it heats up it smells of an earthy eucalyptus… It is vitally important to their circumcision ceremonies, and when you are going on a journey you shave a little off your necklace and blow them into the air… Then your safari should go well!!

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Category: Livestock, Milgis lugga, elephants | Date: Oct 30 2008 | By: milgistrust

This morning I could see Mount Kenya from the Milgis, Crystal clear,110 nautical miles away!!. What a pleasure..Its a good sign, it means the rains are still around even though there is a lull at the moment… Quite lucky for me as yesterday one of my camels sunk into the sand in the Parsaloi Lugga, up to his neck!!…Lucky it was a camel!,[not an elephant] and luckily theres a scouts meeting this weekend, so we had plenty of people to help…!!..It took a team of 19 men about 4 hours of hard digging to get him out… What happens is when the Luggas, come down in full flood, after a few days, the surface water is no more but you have water, flowing under the sand..Then you have areas where water is stagnant in pools, that when you had the flood, the water had been swirling, some how you get pockets of air trapped under the sand, and when some unsuspecting animal comes down to drink, it sinks straight in up to his neck, the air bubbles out and the sand ‘grabs’ round the animals legs and it can’t move…When you try to dig them out, the water makes it all most impossible to dig the 5/6 feet so that the camel can move… Its an unbelievable situation…A camel is so tall, and at the end of those long legs is a big foot, so adding to the problem… What amazes me, is that elephants, do not seem to get them selves into these situations… Can they feel that there is a problem ahead… Probably!!.. Many years ago on Manda Island an Elephant had managed to get him self on the wrong side of an underground water tank, something panicked it, and he wanted to run across the tank to get away, luckily he felt it was there, slammed on the brakes just before, [ it left good skid marks] and went back the way he had come from, which was quite complicated, as he had been browsing, not really concentrating in amongst the houses, and now he was in a hurry!!..

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Category: Milgis lugga | Date: Oct 23 2008 | By: milgistrust

At long last the news we have been waiting for, for too long… Thunder, lightning, driving rain, AND luggas in full flood.!!!.. Milgis Lugga when its dry…Flat, wide,windy, sandy highway

Milgis in Full Flood.. Raging torrent of muddy water.. impossible to cross!!

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Category: Milgis lugga, elephants | Date: Oct 17 2008 | By: milgistrust

Chuck Lathrop, from the U.S. came back to the Milgis in Febuary 07, this time not to hunt, but to go on a camel safari, and to remember those fun days back in the 60s.. He immediately noticed what had changed, and picked up on what The Milgis Trust was trying to do… He was determined that he wanted to see Shikar Safari club International Foundation [ SSCIF] support the trusts work and of course the area… After a great safari walking through his old haunts, he returned home with a mission… The first barrier he came across was that some of the members of SSCIF did not like the idea of supporting a project in a country that did not allow hunting… But Chuck and others persevered, with abit of encouragement from me with a letter in which I said… ‘Considering this area was a favourite hunting ground, and many a hunter had wonderful times here, and went home with very good trophies.. It would be fabulous if the foundation would consider supporting our project.. It would mean alot to me’… And they did….Huge financial support for 3 years.. We are eternally gratefull… First and foremost was to increase our scouts from 14 to 24, so as to beable to cover some of the areas further north, in preparation for the Elephants return.[ explained below] also..Milgis Trust goals… 7/6/08.. Secondly to move the radio room to higher ground, so as to get better coverage… It has helped our work immensely…Having the ten extra scouts gave us a real boost..All the scouts report in to base 3 times a day, with any interesting reports, animals seen, any wounded animals, or problems.. and generally give news of their area, and attend any meetings, to spread the word, go to schools to give talks…Check on fires, catch the perpetrators, bring them to the elders, follow up on trees cut down, teach people how to prune.. and so on.. All this is reported at the base… and recorded..

Why is the return of the Elephant important in the north… First after the complete destruction of the elephant population north of the Milgis see my blog over 100 years… and a short history… We never want that to happen again.. And its wonderful to know that there are still elephants that remember these areas, and want to go back… Our job is to give them safe passage and welcome them home!!… Also pressures from Laikipia area, and south, on the Elephants is growing every day… The human population increasing every day…Fences are being erected through out, and the elephant needs space… Not boundaries… Actually if you think of it theres not many places that can offer what we can offer them… This is why I feel chuck felt very strongly about supporting us!! Thanks once again to Chuck, and all the members of the SSCI…

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Category: Milgis lugga, elephants | Date: Oct 13 2008 | By: milgistrust

Just to let you all know that the elephant that was dragged out of the waterhole [ Blog 6.10.08 ] has been seen twice since by Lesambaua..It is back with his herd and relaxed…

The news this morning is wonderful.. The whole region has had a good dowsing of rain… This is such a relief as the rain on the 5th October did not continue, and this is when we started seeing all these fires… The worst one was in the Ndoto Mountains… Over a hundred acres of bush and forest was burn’t… The biggest worry being that the fire followed up one of the luggas that houses the few De-Brazza monkeys that live in these steep mountains… Seems that the fire was started by a hunter gatherer extracting honey, and he probably left the fire burning… Our scouts are following up on this..

A Grevey Zebra, fell into a water hole in the Guasi Lugga, and sadly before the scouts were able to rescue it, a big flood came down, and it drowned…..There are two reports this morning of grevey Zebras limping, one in the Sulabei area, west of the Suiyan… Two Milgis scouts have gone with two Ambassadors from the Grevey Zebra Trust to see why.. The other in Chagwai… It is in a herd of seven, and is not letting any one near it… At least it can move fast!

News from the lower Milgis [Elgerei] is that four lesser Kudu have been found dead… This is the area that had good rains on the 4th October [ blog 5.10.08].. There has been a virus killing goats in the area, so sadly I think this is hitting the Kudu… What a shame as the beautiful lesser kudu has made an incredible come back in the last few years…

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Category: Milgis lugga, Samburu, elephants | Date: Oct 08 2008 | By: milgistrust

Some of the comments we receive when ever we find an elephant in a well gives me a thought that people don’t quite understand what the situation is like…?? Its quite tough, and we are trying, on limited recourses…This area is vast… When it gets very dry the only water available is down below the sand or rocks in the dry river beds… We have come across wells as deep as 30 feet..This is pretty hard work for these nomadic people just to keep them selves and their stock alive… You can imagine how they feel when they find an Elephant has broken their well, or fallen into it after they have spent many hours digging… Our scouts are trying to keep as many of the wells already broken open so that the eleys can get in and out easily and drink.. But you can’t tell the Eleys these are the ones to use!!… At one time we tried to cut thorn branches to protect the good wells, but then you end up cutting all the trees down in the vicinity of the wells… Remember a flood can come down at any time and ruin all the wells and take the thorn branches away.. So then you have to cut more!.. With over grazing becoming more and more of a serious problem, the initial flood waters are very muddy, to a point that it becomes dangerous.. The mud becomes really thick, in fact thats how the little wart hog got stuck…When this muddy water comes down it fills these hundreds of wells, and every one has to start again…These wells are very dangerous at this stage because you can not see that there used to be a well and you can sink into them… What we really need is a huge amount of rain, that will bring good clean water down, wash every thing clean… Then every one will be happy! We had that initial rain but it seems to have disappeared.. What a shame..I hope this makes you realise the luxury of turning on the tap at home… But at least these Samburu don’t have to worry about traffic jams!!!

Below was a note from the David Sheldrick wildlife trust…on the story of the last elephant/well.. Which I felt was quite fitting! Daphne has been sent a beautiful walking stick by Lesanjus rescuer!..When he went to visit Lesanju, he was touched by the care and love that the DSWT give to the Elephants…

Great Story Helen. Well done to all concerned, and it is so heartwarming to
know that so many people care enough to make such an effort for one
elephant - this sort of thing would never have happened in the past so it
just shows how much these grass roots initiatives help for the future of
elephants in Kenya. Daphne will be so chuffed with her walking stick - and
when in Tsavo going on walks up the Galana with rocks and sand she does use
a stick so it will come into good use.

I think I may have made a mistake as I named your little elephant Barseloi
not Parsaloi! Anyway too late now, but the good news is he is doing really
well - loves the others, very vocal and active and is really happy.

Thanks for all the support Helen.

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Category: Milgis lugga, elephants | Date: Oct 06 2008 | By: milgistrust

The story below is just one reason for the absolute relief of the rains coming…On the 30th of September, herders came to the Milgis lugga in preparation to water their cows, but were distressed to find that a 10 year old elephant had fallen into one of their water holes. The water hole was quite narrow and pretty deep.. aprox 10/12 feet. They immediately alerted other herders and they confined on what to do. They all agreed that the best thing is to look for our Milgis scouts in the area to call for help as this was a big elephant which they could not remove from the hole on their own. 2 youths were sent to look for the scouts. One went to kurkum to look for Lesanchu and the other went to Ilakweny to look for Lesampouwa. Lesanchu had gone to the milgis base, having rescued a baby desert warthog that he had found stuck in the mud, ..sadly the little pig died of pneumonia that night… Lesampouwa had gone to the kigwar area on patrol., unfortunately quite a long way… When they finally found him, he immediately alerted the base on his radio.. When he got to the scene he was very distressed, the Elephant was very close to drowning in the mud.. He asked several times for the car to come quick…Every one was nervous..Night fall was catching up…

Seven scouts and the manager immediately gathered spades, ropes and any implements that may help, and left in a big hurry in the Wild Frontiers pickup, down a long slow track and by about 7.30 pm they were there. They found 9 community members and our scout Lesampouwa still waiting for us, their hopes were lifted beyond expectation!! Night had fallen and they had given up hope..Amazingly a bull elephant had visited the site and had tried to kick the sides of the well in…… . The situation on the ground was pitiful… The Elephant was so scared, and was making alot of noise, which of course scared every one… The rescue team called us on the radio at base to say it was impossible… I told them that ‘nothing is impossible for the Milgis scouts when something is in trouble’!! Which fairly gave them the push they needed!! They assessed the situation …The first thing they decided to do was try and get sand in the sides so that the Elephant had more to stand on which seemed to work abit as he was able to bring his mouth up. Then they started digging a trench that the elephant could hopefully use to climb up and out of he hole. The elephant was so wild that at one point it was throwing mud at the guys opening the hole. Having dug the trench right to the hole, they thought that the eley will be able to come out on his own. They all stood back and after 10 minutes of silence he tried to come out but his hind limbs seemed to be trapped, at one point they thought one of the hind limbs was broken. They continued digging until 11pm… they were tired and hungry, of course in the rush had not thought of taking any food with them! They moved away abit out of the lugga and slept, hoping he would make the effort to get out on his own…

6.00 am next morning they are there sadly to find the poor elephant still there.. still alive… He was more distressed and wild than the previous night.They felt awful… Once again they were on the radio… ‘Hes still there and he is so distressed… We don’t know what to do??’… My answer was… ‘The only time the Milgis scout will leave an elephant in a well is if it is dead… Do what ever you can to get him out!!.’. Silence again on the radio as they get back to work.. They had opened all that was possible to open the night before so now it was time to try plan B!! To get a rope around his neck and pull him out with the vehicle.. They made a loop and tried to get it round the ears and below the mouth, but the elephant did not make it easy!, he kept on grabbing the rope with his trunk and throwing it away, or chewing it, but finally it was in place and they tied it to the Landcruiser. 2 people with knives were ready at the back of the vehicle so that the moment he was out of the hole they would cut the rope. Three times the rope broke and the elephant slumped back into the mud, but it looked as if the plan could work! They rolled two ropes together and and made the same loop and this time somehow the eley cooperated and it was easy putting the rope round his ears. This time… out he came, and they dragged him a few feet from the hole, the rope cutters were told to cut the rope and the vehicle moved away. The Elephant lay still for 2 minutes which was very worrying, they thought they had strangled him..There was a deathly silence but suddenly he started moving, stretching his legs a few times before getting up on his feet. Every one scattered in different directions thinking it would go wild but instead it just looked around .. may be saying “thank you guys” and sped off to the bush. Everybody was too relieved, and started cheering and clapping..Which was not quite the way they should have behaved with this distressed Elephant, but no one could control their joy!! .Happy days to the Elephant!!

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Category: Milgis lugga | Date: Oct 05 2008 | By: milgistrust

This morning we have woken up to the sweet site of the luggas in flood… This is indeed good news… Its very hot and humid this morning.. so hopefully we are going to have much more rain today… News on the radio this morning is that the rain to the east was good, too good, many young animals have died in the night… Just too much after the drought to hit them when they are hungry and tired…But at least the strong animals will have a chance to survive.. We have had incredible winds throughout the safari and its got hotter and hotter!!! The signs of the rains coming soon were looking good..All the commifera trees growing leaves, whirl winds all around, and beautiful clear Sky’s… After the new moon showed its self there was so much hope… And today….BINGO!… Every one has a smile on his face today…lots more news to tell you tomorrow…

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Category: Milgis lugga, Samburu, elephants | Date: Sep 23 2008 | By: milgistrust

Finally back from our so called holiday with our Spanish friends!! We’re exhausted!! Masai Mara, Baringo, Bogoria, Solio, Aberdares,and Kiwayu at the coast…It was great to be a tourist in my own country… In fact we didn’t see any others… Except a man who told us he had seen some pandas in the Bamboo in the Aberdares!! I have one very amusing memory in my head of our Samburu warrior arriving at Lake Baringo, by plane from the Mara, and the Njemps [ a small maa speaking tribe] man who looks after the aeroplanes being absolutely amazed to see a warrior, and taking his mobile phone out of his pocket and taking a photo of him… How times have changed in the last twenty years..

On Sunday we called in to David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust to check on ‘Parsaloi’.. The Baby Elephant rescued from a well in the Milgis Lugga, literally hours before the Lugga came down in full flood… He is very big for a month old baby Elephant… I think he is going to turn out to be the size of elephant that people remember in the old days from the Milgis…Lets hope!! He doesn’t stop for a minute, hes very very busy, and always playing… We also saw how big our little matriarch ‘Lesanju’ is now… Below is a picture of her bathing in front of all the guests!! It also shows how much of her ear she lost after the Samburu children had finished, marking their elephant??… Shame.. she’s lost almost half her ear.. and it is so important for their cooling…The story of her rescue is on our Milgis Trust website under 2006 news…

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