Week 5

There was a big change at our house this week – as of Wednesday I am now living with a senior citizen. However, I have found no senior’s discounts in Kenya so I will have to wait a few months to take advantage of it.

We had a marvelous weekend. We now have a travel group of eleven people and we went on a weekend excursion to Lakes Bogoria and Baringo. The drive was very scenic – through the steep Tugen Hills and escarpments which offered many panoramic views of the dramatic Kerio River valley – often dubbed Kenya’s Grand Canyon, although it is not nearly that dramatic. The picture below shows some of us at the Chelbloch Gorge along the Kerio River.

Bogoria is a salt-water lake that is fed by two rivers and at least 200 hot springs. It cannot support fish, crocodiles or hippos. However, the lake is rich in algae, which are fed upon by large flocks of flamingos. We saw many flamingos and a few impala – a medium sized African antelope.

Rivers and hot springs also feed Lake Baringo, with no surface outlet but it is a fresh water lake. We stayed at a place called Roberts Camp. Their cabins and bandos (African huts that were very nicely done inside) were booked so we stayed in tents. Grace and I got the safari tent shown below – the young people all got domed tents. The website for Roberts Camp warned us that we were not supposed to get too friendly with the hippos that graze on the grounds at night. Actually, there were many rules we had to obey. For any movement outside at night we required to be escorted by night guards. Excellent rule. When we returned to our tents after supper there were two huge hippos grazing right in front of our tent. Are they ever huge – I show just the eyes below. The two Danish gals and the three Swedish gals said they did not sleep much because they were so afraid of the hippos, which they heard grunting and grazing nearby much of the night. I think Grace and I were the only ones who did not hear the hippos at night.

After a very enjoyable ride on lake Baringo seeing many birds and a few hippos but no crocodiles, we visited a snake pit and then 8 of our group went to view and climb the escarpment cliffs near Lake Baringo. It was a hard climb but the view at the top was magnificent. The following pictures show the 600’ cliffs with me at the top. We climbed at a location that was not as imposing as the view shown in the picture.

Monday I have a day back at work - a day in which I have no classes – and then on Tuesday I plan to go on a field trip (Feb 14 - 18) with my introductory class to Mombasa. (Life gets tough sometimes, not? ?)  Mombasa is very warm and humid so Grace is just as happy she cannot go. It will give me opportunity to see a significant chunk of Kenya.