This weekend the excursion was to visit a local troop of wild baboons in the hills about an hour south of Riyadh. I'd heard other guys had gone and enjoyed it so it was definitely something I wanted to do before I came home for Christmas. I'm glad we went because it was a great experience and gave me a chance to dust the camera off and get some shots.
A fellow MHI coworker, John Leech, had been before and was willing to lead the expedition so we rounded up a couple of SUV's and a tow rope because the location is in a remote and fairly rough environment. You wouldn't want to be out there on your own and run into any trouble, which we did but I'll get into that later. With MHI's move to another compound we're somewhat split up so we agreed to meet up at the Granada Mall Tim Horton's before heading out. Interestingly, as we pulled into the parking lot I noticed there seemed to be a Corvette club meeting. There were only 3 'Vettes but one was a '60 so that was pretty cool! If I owned that car you sure wouldn't see me driving it in this traffic but Friday mornings are like Sunday at home and pretty quiet so I guess that explains it.
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| What a baboon's back yard looks like! |
Anyway, before heading out we stopped in at the Carrefour supermarket to get some fruit to feed the baboons. I got a big watermelon and some bananas. The other guys got apples, oranges, etc. The other thing I needed before heading out was some gas! The guy that loaned me his SUV didn't mention it was low on gas and with Friday being the big religious day it was tough finding a gas station that wasn't closed until after the noon prayer time! We finally found one though and $12.02 cents later I had a full tank of gas (I love mentioning that). We set the GPS for "Baboons" and headed out!
We went to where John thought he had been before and whistled, called and honked the horn to draw out the baboons but there was nothing but crickets. Sometimes the baboons just aren't there and in fact they migrate to cooler climes in the summer so perhaps they just hadn't come back yet. We were disappointed of course. (Who's gonna eat all the fruit? I'm on a strict pizza and KFC diet!) When I started my truck to head back I noticed that we weren't exactly at the destination flag on the GPS. We weren't far from it, just not right at it. The problem is there are no roads there so I just had to point the vehicle in the direction of the destination flag and try not to run off a cliff or get stuck in a gully. I was following what almost looked like a narrow goat track or something up this very steep hill. So steep in fact I was beginning to wonder if I was exceeding my driving capabilities! How do you explain you rolled the corporate SUV down a mountain side? We crested the hill and fortunately found more road instead of a precipitous decline! Once on a gentler decline I looked around and happened to notice some moving dots in the distance. Baboons!! We had found them! Or, more accurately the GPS did!
We pulled up and the baboons were immediately both curious and cautious. Curious because people often feed them but cautious too because humans are a predator to the baboon. They obviously had overestimated me, I wasn't kicking anybody's ass there! We started throwing out the food (you don't want to hand it to them) and they hungrily went after it. Apparently they're a little more aggressive in the fall when food is scarce and they certainly demonstrated it. They weren't threatening to us but you could certainly see the social dominances being exhibited. The big males took several pieces of fruit at once and fiercely chased anyone who challenged their right to do so. It seems mean to be like that but those big males are also the protectors of the troop so if they're not strong and healthy the whole troop could be in danger.
Judging by the number and size of the babies I'd guess birthing season is usually late summer but that's just my guess. I tried to throw my fruit to the mothers with babies but it didn't always work out. Sometimes the mothers were chased off by other baboons but sometimes they just didn't seem confident going for the food. I did what I could though. After the initial frenzy died down I did notice a few babies getting something to eat so maybe there's a plan and it all works out in the end.
I noticed that the babies often cling so close to their mothers that you don't notice there's two of them. Sometimes they ride on their mother's backs and sometimes they cling to the underbelly. They must have a heck of a grip because despite the flurry of activity I never saw a baby fall off! I also noticed injuries on some of the baboons, likely as a result of internal disputes within the troop that are not unusual as males try to recruit females for their harems or simply just battle for social status.
One thing that's hard to miss is their big red butts! It's a pretty rocky terrain that would seem uncomfortable to sit on. That's where the big red butts come in though because they're actually large, nerveless, and hairless calluses designed to provide sitting comfort for the baboon. Another thing you notice is the big white manes of the larger males. They're pretty impressive and look like they get regular grooming. In fact they look so good they rival my wife's 80's hair for style points! I'm sure she'll agree... well I hope she does!
The final thing I noticed, and the reason I think they overestimated me as a threat, was their large, sharp canine teeth! I just have a bunch of dull, mostly broken ones thanks to a little tussle my face had with a sledge hammer a few years back. To intimidate foes baboons will quickly flash their eyelids (hmmm, seems that just might make the opponent horny but what do I know) and yawn, showing their teeth. They're pretty quick and agile so I'd imagine those teeth could do a lot of damage in a pretty short period of time!
It didn't take long to rid ourselves of the fruit and we were happy to have helped the troop with some food. With no more food forthcoming and most of them having had at least something to eat they started to wander off, either somewhere else or just to eat their food in peace on the cliffs. By this time it was getting later in the day so we decided to leave them be and get some grub ourselves! However, our adventure wasn't done yet as on the way back to the road one of our SUV's got a flat tire! John must've hit a sharp rock or something because it went very flat, very fast! Fortunately there was a spare so we set about changing it after setting the parking brake and blocking the wheels, safety first! As we were starting to change the tire another vehicle came along. It was a little Toyota pickup truck with what appeared to be about a 12 yr old boy driving! He was on his own and might have been older than 12 but at about 80 lbs I doubt he was much older. Either that or somebody forgot to feed him these last few years! Anyway, we were obviously able to change the tire without too much trouble and get on our way again. We fought the typical Riyadh traffic, avoided collisions and met up at a TGI Friday's for a late lunch. We got in just before afternoon prayer started which was a bonus, I was starving!
It was a good end to a great day and I'm thankful to John for organizing the outing. I got some great pictures, some of which you see here. I've put the rest up on a separate website because there's just too many to put in this post.
It's officially now just 7 days until I'm home again! I'd like to say I'm excited to see family and friends (and it would be true) but I'm really looking forward to seeing my wife! It's been a very busy 7 weeks and I will very much enjoy having my partner by my side again, as we've happily been for the last 24 years. :-)
Oh, BTW, I guess that title was a little unfair, I have great in-laws and they're not at all like a troop of baboons now that I've seen one! ;-)
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