The Aberdares Part II

"Julia, good morning", came a singsong voice in a German accent from across the campsite. "Want to make me a tea?". It was 5:30 am, still dark, and I was freezing. We decided to sleep for 10 more minutes. "Julia, did you brush your teeth last night?". "No". "Me either, I have a bad conscience". We decided to sleep a little longer. By 6:00 am I was too cold to lay down any longer, so I dressed and ran some laps outside. Everything was covered in a thick frost. We decided to wait to eat and just go for an early drive to see wildlife. The car wouldn't start at first because of the cold, but soon we were on our way with the heat blasting.

We started in silence as the sun illuminated the frosty landscape. Reedbuck, waterbuck, and bushbuck grazed in the fields. My pictures do a better job of describing it. Then we made our way down into the Salient where we saw monkeys, buffalo, an elephant, and warthogs. Mt. Kenya startled me as it poked up through clouds and morning haze to obliterate the distant landscape. Those pictures do not do it justice.

As we continued on, we listened to Joni Mitchell and Paul Simon. We decided to take a shortcut home over a mountain range where Joerg had got stuck last time he tried it. We made a wrong turn, found a beautiful lookout of Mt. Kenya, and then saw something really special, even for the Aberdares. A lioness was crossing the road. She moved fast, we didn't get a picture, but there was no doubt about it. They are rare in that park because they are actually baited and killed there. Lions were introduced a while ago, presumably to increase diversity and tourist appeal, but they started killing all the bongos who were not used to lions. This poor species is now nearing extinction, so the Kenyan Wildlife Service sanctioned depopulation of the lions. But some of them are clever and don't fall for the traps, so there are still a few left in the park. And we saw one!

The Aberdares are a favorite spot for the British Royal Family. Queen Elizabeth was actually staying in the park when she assumed the thrown. We turned towards Prince Edward's camp and hung on for dear life as the car climbed up and down washed out red dirt roads, over streams, and through mud pits. We saw a giant forest hog and another elephant, who alerted us to its presence with a shrill trumpet just feet away from the car before it crashed deeper into the bamboo. Moss covered trees filtered the sunlight and I expected to see a leopard lounging around every turn, but there were no more cats that day.

We stopped for breakfast around 11 at a beautiful fishing spot. We only had one spoon so Joerg went fishing while I enjoyed my cereal and bananas. I made fun of him for locking the car again and he said he hoped Andy and I came back to Kenya one day and left our car unlocked and got everything stolen. Teehee. The trout there were small and didn't bite so after hiking around for a while we got back in the car.

Back at the campsite I finally took off my 4 layers and ants tormented us as we packed up the tents. We stopped to fish at two more waterfalls on the way out of the park (no success), and cursed the altitude as we gasped for air hiking back to the car. We had been driving for most of the day but it was exciting and somewhat physically demanding so we were exhausted. Once down the mountain and out of the park, we took the advice of a policeman on the street and took the back road home. The tarmac turned to dirt in about 10 minutes and tired and hungry Joerg grumbled about the lack of road signs in Kenya. But why do you need signs when there are policemen at every junction to give you more bad directions? We kept on, avoiding potholes as much as possible. Joerg asked me what kind of Thai food I could cook, and when I started telling him he yelled at me to stop because it was making him too hungry and he was starting to drool.

We finally made it back to the main road, and paused for some roast maize on the entrance ramp. Not exactly the same as sweet corn, but it boosted our blood sugar and made us less grumpy. Joerg then admitted that the back road had actually saved us time, just like the policeman said it would. Our grand dinner plans turned into grilled cheese and cereal and Basil only got a short walk before I fell into bed. I was wiped out but it had been completely amazing.