Our last day took us to Nairobi, the dynamic capital of Kenya and far more developed that anything we had seen in Tanzania. Not to say that Nairobi is free of problems – our guides pointed out a huge slum where corrugated iron shacks are home to over a million people, most of whom work for US$2 a day or less.
Downtown Nairobi is certainly thriving (traffic is terrible), and our tour passed several impressive buildings, from colonial halls and churches to glitzy modern skyscrapers.
Lunch was at the touristy but fun Carnivore Restaurant, where the menu consists almost exclusively of roasted meats (it’s a bit like a Brazilian churrascaria, with huge fire pit and meat on stakes at the front of the restaurant). It used to be famous for game meat, but these days hunting is banned in Kenya, and the only exotic items were farmed ostrich and crocodile meat. The group seemed to like the ribs and chicken livers best!
Our final hours in Kenya were spent – where else – at the shopping mall. Everyone loaded up with Blue Mountain Coffee, Kenyan tea, local nuts and other souvenirs.
Our expert guides studied at Utalii College, a government-owned hotel and tourism training institution in Nairobi.
Sammy Mwagodi Age: 44
Email: samwagodi@yahoo.com
Sammy comes from Kenya’s Coastal Province, and is a member of the Taita tribe. His mother language is Ketaita (or ‘Kidawida’), but he also speaks Swahili and English fluently. He currently lives in Nairobi with his wife, two boys (17 and 10) and daughter (19). Sammy’s expert knowledge (and great sense of humour!) have been honed during his 18 years working as a guide.
David Agisu
Age: 34
Email: davieagisu@yahoo.com
David hails from Nyanza Province near Lake Victoria, which is also the ancestral home of the Obama family (!) He is a member of the Luhya tribe, though his mother comes from the neighbouring Luo, but like Sammy also speaks Swahili and English fluently. David is married with two children; a boy (7) and girl (4). He is an avid football fan and supports Arsenal in England and the AFC Leopards in Kenya (in 2009 the team won the Kenya Cup). David has been a guide for 10 years. He never seemed to stop smiling, no matter what!
Jacob Ojoo
Age: 30
Email: ojooabonyo@gmail.com
Jacob was our WildTrek liason in Nairobi, meeting us on arrival and also spending the last day with us. Like David, Jacob hails from Nyanza Province and lives in Nairobi. He’s not yet married, and has been a hospitality & travel consultant since 2006.
Our final park isn’t known for wildlife, though we still spotted plenty of warthogs and giant marabou storks.
The Mount Kenya National Park covers the slopes of Kenya’s highest mountain, which like Kilimanjaro, is usually topped in a layer of snow. Sadly, we didn’t get to climb it, though we did see it briefly, and Connie seemed keen for a hike (it takes 4 days!).
Instead, we stayed on the western slopes at the super-deluxe Mount Kenya Safari Club, a posh colonial pile that was associated with Hollywood stars in the 1950s and 1960s – William Holden was long-time president of the club.
The rooms in the main block and the larger chalets all overlook the mountain, and are surrounded by lush grounds that attract large stork, ducks and geese.
The restaurant was elegant, the food delicious; it seemed like we were sharing the whole place with just a handful of tourists and there were plenty of activities (including a maze), so no surprise that we decided to spend most of the day right here.
We crossed the equator several times on this trip, and finally made a brief stop to take some pictures and listen to a demonstration on magnetic fields.
Much is made of the Big Five on safari: elephants, buffalo, lions, leopards and rhinos. But these are not literally the biggest animals. In colonial times, they were just the five hardest animals to hunt on foot. The label stuck, even though cameras, and not guns, are brandished at them today!
Unfortunately, the leopard evaded us in Kenya and we saw only four of the big five. According to Stephen's meticulous record keeping, we came across at an impressive 47 different species during our week in Kenya!
At around 11pm, the relative calm around the waterhole outside the Ark (which is floodlit at night), was shattered by a huge herd of elephants charging towards the waterhole – we counted at least 21.
Among them were babies (several still suckling), all carefully protected within the centre of the herd. The elephants seemed on edge – at night they can’t see well, so they need to be on guard for predators looking to grab one of the babies!
We spotted at least seven hyenas on the edge of the clearing, but one elephant would occasionally storm off to chase them away. The herd is usually led by females, but the largest elephant by far was a giant male with huge tusks – one was broken. The guides told us that he was originally part of another group, but had been accepted by this family on account of his size!
The elephants seemed to charge away anything that got close; fairly dopey buffalo were chased off, and even the mild-mannered geese pottering around the mud seemed to spook the elephants. Our whole group was mesmerized by the sight.
It was hard to take photos at night, but check out the video:
Staying in the Ark in Aberdare National Park is an adventure in itself, and the only way to really appreciate the wildlife inside the reserve.
Special buses trundle between the Aberdare Country Club and the specially designed lodge (which is 90% wood), perched on the edge of a waterhole and muddy salt-lick – it does look a bit like the Noah’s Ark of popular imagination, with a boat-shaped bow, long body and flat ‘stern’.
Rooms are compact but cosy, and the four levels all have views of the waterhole – and heaps of animals that root around in the mud looking for salt.
When we arrived there were five long-tusked elephants, a herd of buffalo and a handful of warthogs and bush bucks, while a sleek-looking mongoose ran through the rocks.
At 5pm we strolled out to the wooden catwalk while the staff piled bread and fruit onto two hanging bird tables; because of the cooler, misty weather, only a few species turned up to the feast, while three tiny Suni – Africa’s smallest antelope – played on the forested ground beneath us.
Our feathered visitors included the yellow breasted common bulbul, the long, willowy tailed speckled mousebird, and the tiny streaky seed-eater.
Most of the action happens at night here; the hotel uses a buzzer system to wake up guests when animals approach:
One ring = elephants
Two rings = rhinos
Three rings = leopards
Four is for any other ‘unusual’ animals
We only got to see elephants, but that was a truly magical experience.
Driving into the Aberdare National Park, we passed a herd of giraffe. The pattern on these bizarre, long-necked animals was obviously different to the Masai giraffes we’d seen before (more like pentagons than spots), and our driver David told us these were Rothschild Giraffes. On the way out, however, our local Aberdare guide Charles confidently labeled them Reticulated Giraffes.
These are the Masai giraffe:
And these are the Reticulated/Rothschild giraffes at Aberdare. Can you tell the difference?
Our third national park encompasses the Aberdare Mountains, home to the Kikuyu tribe and named in 1884 by explorer Joseph Thomson in honour of the president of the Royal Geographical Society.
It was made into a park in 1950, and Elizabeth II famously became Queen here in 1952 (her father died while she was staying at Treetops Hotel). In the 1960s many Mau Mau rebels had hideouts here, but today the only danger is posed by the odd leopard (sadly, we didn’t see one!).
On the way to the park, we stopped at Thomson Falls near Nyahururu, a famous training hub for Kenya's champion long-distance runners. Samuel Wanjirŭ, the first Kenyan to win the marathon at the Olympics, calls Nyahururu home. Along the way, we saw a few atheletes training along the road.
The Aberdare National Park is home to 250 types of bird and 44 different mammals, from elephants to striped mice, but lions are no longer among them – they were relocated after concerns they were killing too many animals, especially the rare Bongo antelope.
Black rhinos are also endangered here; thanks to illegal poaching - their numbers have declined from 450 in the 1970s to just 20 today (we didn’t see one of those either). The park is now surrounded by a 400km high-voltage fence to keep out the poachers.
Access to the park is strictly controlled via just two unique lodges, Treetops and our hotel, the Ark. To get to the Ark you start at the Aberdare Country Club, an English-style stone complex built in the 1920s, where we had lunch.
Most of the park is over 7000 feet up, and when we visited it was chilly, misty and damp – but very atmospheric!
Our two Wild Trek Safaris tour vehicles might look like normal minibuses, but they seem to be able to withstand an incredible amount of punishment every day; pot-holes, rutted mud tracks and off-road game drives must take a huge toll on those tires and suspension!
Each bus can take seven passengers comfortably, and each had a retractable roof for game drives.
Most Kenyans involved in tourism speak English, but their national language is Swahili (also spoken in Tanzania). Here are the (pitifully few) words we learned:
hakuna matata - no problem
jambo - hello
asante (sana) - thank you (very much)
polo polo - literally “slow slow”, meaning take it easy
sawa sawa - OK
simama - stop (the bus!)
We came across this group of three inside the forest that borders the lake. According to our guides, the lions do this to escape the notorious mosquitoes around here!
My digital camera can't get close enough, so I borrow Dr. Li's camera with the powerful zoom lens:
Nakuru offers the chance to get a close (and rare) look at rhinos – these Jurassic-like beauties have huge one-ton bodies, large heads and two horns.
White rhinos aren’t actually white – they range from yellowish brown to slate grey – and the name is said to have evolved from the Dutch word for wide (wijd).
From the distance, they seem like a pinkish blur on the edge of Lake Nakuru, speckled with dashes of white. The lake is famous for its Lesser and Greater Flamingos, and some four million gather here in August when it actually becomes hard to see the water in between the birds.
We arrived just as the birds were beginning to fly to the lake (they breed elsewhere), feeding on the algae that blossoms in the droppings-rich waters.
The mass of pink makes an alluring sight, but get close and things become a little less romantic; the shore is smothered in washed-up feathers and bone, and the birds certainly don’t smell as sweet as they look!
On the third day of your Kenya tour, we went to Lake Nakuru, a saltwater lake that is only four feet deep.
Nothing lives or grows in the water here, but the national park is most famous for two creatures: flamingos and the rhinos that graze in the marshy land nearby.
The forest and grassy scrub that surround the lake also harbour all sorts of birds and one very unwelcome creature – huge and voracious mosquitoes that were specially bred to eat the smaller malaria-carrying mozzis!
(Connie can finally put to good use the mosquito net her friend gave her!)
The grazing animals here seemed less skittish than in the Masai Mara, so we were able to get quite close; plenty of cape buffalo, zebra, impala, and baboons.
We also came across five small fox cubs, that scampered away when they saw us (we couldn’t see their mum).
It used to be famous for game meat, but these days hunting is banned in Kenya, and the only exotic items were farmed ostrich and crocodile meat. The group seemed to like the ribs and chicken livers best! 
Instead, we stayed on the western slopes at the super-deluxe Mount Kenya Safari Club, a posh colonial pile that was associated with Hollywood stars in the 1950s and 1960s – William Holden was long-time president of the club.
Rooms are compact but cosy, and the four levels all have views of the waterhole – and heaps of animals that root around in the mud looking for salt.
At 5pm we strolled out to the wooden catwalk while the staff piled bread and fruit onto two hanging bird tables; because of the cooler, misty weather, only a few species turned up to the feast, while three tiny Suni – Africa’s smallest antelope – played on the forested ground beneath us.
On the way to the park, we stopped at Thomson Falls near Nyahururu, a famous training hub for Kenya's champion long-distance runners. Samuel Wanjirŭ, the first Kenyan to win the marathon at the Olympics, calls Nyahururu home. Along the way, we saw a few atheletes training along the road.
The Aberdare National Park is home to 250 types of bird and 44 different mammals, from elephants to striped mice, but lions are no longer among them – they were relocated after concerns they were killing too many animals, especially the rare Bongo antelope. 
Lions that climb trees?
Nothing lives or grows in the water here, but the national park is most famous for two creatures: flamingos and the rhinos that graze in the marshy land nearby. 
