Woohoo! After spending 20 hours on different planes and many more hours at various airports, we finally arrived in Nairobi! We didn't stay long though, since we were just there to spend the night to be able to leave early the next day for the official start of our safari! Apparently, "safari" is a Swahili word that means "journey" in East Africa. Of course, one of the first words we learned to say in Swahili, is, "Jambo" or hello in English!
Here's the view on our way to Mt Kenya! Does it look familiar? A lot of people who grew up from different places mentioned to me that it looks just like home for them! Hee-hee! On the right is our home for the night! The Serena Mountain Lodge. When we got there, we were all excited because we saw a lot of elephant poo on the road to the lodge! =) You know what we are expecting to see there now, right? Tee-hee! We had a very nice welcome at the lodge with hot towels and juice!
This is one of the very first animal encounters we had in Kenya! (Well, we encountered tons, and I mean, tons of I think grasshoppers at the hotel in Nairobi, but I am not counting that as our first animal encounter! Hee-hee!) It's a sykes monkey! They may look very cute, but they're really naughty!
So, there's four of us who went for the trip... Once we got to the Mountain Lodge, 3 of us signed up for a walk on the slopes of Mt Kenya and my other friend decided to chillax at our room. She decided to go out on the balcony to see the animals at the watering hole behind the lodge and as she was standing there enjoying the view, a sykes monkey used her shoulder as a jumping board!!! Another trip mate also had an exciting encounter with the sykes monkey... She was reading a book on the balcony when suddenly, a monkey tried to grab her book! They ended up in a tug of war with the book until the monkey decided it wouldn't be able to get the book! Talk about cute monkeys huh? =D
Here's a couple of photos from the walk we talk on the slopes of Mt Kenya. Of course, we were not climbing to the peak, just walking around to see the flora and fauna... =D
Can you see the tree hangings on the left that looks like it has been chopped? Our guide said that that was done by elephants passing by the forest to get to the watering hole behind the hotel! Guess who got more and more excited by the minute? Hee-hee! It's not like we haven't seen elephants at the zoo, it just felt really exciting for us to see elephants in their natural surroundings... Hee-hee!
Once we got close to the lodge again, we had a really pleasant surprise, they prepared cookies and tea for all of us! Whodduthunk? Me and my friends, drinking tea and eating cookies in the forest, in Mt Kenya! Well, we didn't really drink the tea, because we really had to go to the bathroom (After just around an hour of walking around)! Hehehe! We did eat a lot of the cookies though!
The trees and plants there is beautiful! We did see some animals, but most of them were far off (a rock hirax and a black and white colobus monkey way up on the trees) or just bones... Hyuk-hyuk! Our guide showed us a few cape buffalo and elephant skulls/bones that they collected and put in the forest as part of the lecture on the walk. Did you know that elephants have six sets of teeth? Our guide said that the teeth falls off after ten years and gets replaced. We asked what happens when their last set of teeth falls off? Our guide said that by that time, the elephant would be eating only soft grasses instead of the thorny acacias. There are actually places there that they call an "elephant grave" simply because a lot of old elephants go to that area because of the soft grasses and die there(so there's a lot of elephant bones in those areas, hence, elephant graves). Our guide was great! We learned a lot of things about animals and trees and plants in Kenya that I wouldn't have known or tried to learn by myself, if I hadn't been there. Hee-hee!
There was also a lecture that night at the lodge about animals found in Kenya. It was very informative and nicely presented, except, I think we were still getting adjusted to the time zone, and I found myself dozing off more than a few times!!! I was still able to remember a few of the things mentioned at the lecture... except for the parts when I started dozing off... =D
After the walk, we started really looking at the animals at the watering hole behind the lodge... This is one of the animals lounging there, a cape buffalo! Doesn't he look like he's looking at me too? =) Look at the ears! It's really hairy! Hee-hee!
Caught in the act!!! A sykes monkey trying to enter our room!!!
Look, a cute kitty! Hee-hee! Well, it looks like a cat with a really, really long tail! It's a genet! The people at the lodge puts out some food at the ledge and I guess the genets just come there! We saw 2 of them! Cuties!
Oh yeah, the lodge has this really interesting sign-up to be woken up in the middle of the night if an animal of your choice is spotted at the watering hole! Of course we signed up to be woken up for any and all animals that goes to the watering hole! Well, except the cape buffaloes since we already saw a ton that afternoon... Hee-hee! So, it was probably 1 or 2 in the morning, when there was a knock on our door telling us there's hyenas outside! It was hilarious! My friend and I were like drunks getting out of bed... My friend got to the balcony door first, went out, then came back, telling me we need our binoculars, and of course, I went to the bathroom first before I went out... Hehehe! During the commotion of us trying to get our binos, we hear a bark! By the time we got out, we can only make out the antelopes who seem to be frozen, staring at one direction... We followed the direction they were looking at, and we saw a hyena!!! We can see our neighbors from the balcony and asked them what they saw, we missed seeing the family of hyenas at the edge of the watering hole! We stayed out for a while and saw the hyena try to get at one of the antelopes... I guess the antelopes knew they were safe because there was only one hyena there, and they didn't really care about the hyena! Now, you wouldn't see that type of behavior at the zoo! Exciting isn't it?
Another exciting day is awaiting us! When we woke up, there was a bunch of defassa waterbucks behind the lodge and a few of them were in the water!!! Can you see the white rump of the waterbuck? =) (I think that is a waterbuck... Hee-hee! I'm a little fuzzy now on animal names...) We were a little disappointed that we didn't see any elephants at the lodge the day before, but then again, we thought we have seen plenty and it's a new day with lots more different animals to see!!
We are now on our way to the Samburu Game reserve and we were lucky to get a glimpse of the peak of Mt Kenya! Our guide told us that even though Mt Kenya is not as high as Mt Kilimanjaro, the climb up to the peak of Mt Kenya is harder because it's a little bit technical. Isn't the peak beautiful?
Here's a few more sights along the way to Samburu... I love the flat-top acacia trees there in Kenya! It looks like they have gigantic gardeners there to trim the tops but we were told that it is natural! Hee-hee!
Our guide joked with us about the flea market on the right, that if we have donated some clothes for Africa, we may find it there... Har-har! Notice that they drive on the left there! I guess they got that from the British... I learned something new that day, Kenya got their independence from the British around the 60's.
I didn't know they have camels there in Kenya!!! Although, I think the camels there are smaller than the camels from Egypt... What do you think? =)
So, you're probably wondering what I meant by us on our way to see the big five. The big five, are the five game animals that are hard to hunt! We said we wanted to see the big five, the elephant, the lion, the cape buffalo, the rhino, the leopard! At this point, we have seen one of the big five, the cape buffalo! Don't forget we also saw elephant poop! We're getting closer to seeing an elephant! Hee-hee!=)
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