10/19
This week for Sunday Funday we climbed the ridgeline of MuKenya and the 5 summit peaks. It was a lot of fun and nice to get out and do some hiking. There isn't much hiking you can do around here b/c of the wild animals. The peaks of MuKenya give some great views around Mpala and one of the highlights was watching a bunch of elephants bathe below us.
10/26
This weekend, my last full weekend in Kenya, I decided I wanted to go camping. So we (only Sally, Julia, and Ann could go) organized a trip to Ngare Ndare forest on the slopes of Mount Kenya. It's a beautiful forest conservancy adjacent to Lewa Conservancy so it has lots of wild animals, including the Big 5. Because of this, the camping fee comes with a guide and an armed guard complete with an automatic weapon.
After arriving on Saturday afternoon, we set up our camp and then tossed the frisbee around. As sunset approached, we walked to the canopy walk, which is a cool multi suspension structure built in the tree canopies. It's 500m long and places you at the height of the forest canopy so that you are face to face with birds and can look down at animals drinking in the streams and marsh below. It was really cool, and we were very impressed by it! It ended on a viewing platform that had cool jungle vine swings.
In the evening we built a bonfire and had a weenie roast and then stayed up late drinking wine and talking around the fire.
The next day we hiked to several waterfalls. The first waterfall that we visited was actually formed from a spring coming right out of the water. The spring is crystal clear and drinkable (amazing after swimming in all the muddy rivers around Mpala). Unfortunately as the rains have begun there was also some muddy runoff coming into the waterfall pool so that the pool wasn't the crystal clear blue color that it often is. But still, it was a cool greenish color, which was very pretty. We spent a lot of time swimming at the waterfall and doing some waterfall jumping. We then hiked to a couple more waterfalls including a large one that we swam in again.
We got back to the camp just in time to duck into the tent for a massive rainstorm. It was nice to just relax in the tent and read as we listened to the raindrops pounding against the tent. We got a call from Ann's husband, Collin, that our ride would not be coming to pick us up b/c the road was too bad after the rain. We were kind of excited for this adventure, and we still had plenty of ramen left, so we knew we'd be okay. But after some other calls, we found out that the van was near, it just hadn't been able to ford the river near us nor go on the rough road that had turned really muddy. Thus, we just had to ford the river ourself and hike up the muddy road to the van.
It was a very fun trip and nice to get into some forest, do some hiking, and swim in some clear and fresh water!
This week for Sunday Funday we climbed the ridgeline of MuKenya and the 5 summit peaks. It was a lot of fun and nice to get out and do some hiking. There isn't much hiking you can do around here b/c of the wild animals. The peaks of MuKenya give some great views around Mpala and one of the highlights was watching a bunch of elephants bathe below us.
10/26
This weekend, my last full weekend in Kenya, I decided I wanted to go camping. So we (only Sally, Julia, and Ann could go) organized a trip to Ngare Ndare forest on the slopes of Mount Kenya. It's a beautiful forest conservancy adjacent to Lewa Conservancy so it has lots of wild animals, including the Big 5. Because of this, the camping fee comes with a guide and an armed guard complete with an automatic weapon.
After arriving on Saturday afternoon, we set up our camp and then tossed the frisbee around. As sunset approached, we walked to the canopy walk, which is a cool multi suspension structure built in the tree canopies. It's 500m long and places you at the height of the forest canopy so that you are face to face with birds and can look down at animals drinking in the streams and marsh below. It was really cool, and we were very impressed by it! It ended on a viewing platform that had cool jungle vine swings.
In the evening we built a bonfire and had a weenie roast and then stayed up late drinking wine and talking around the fire.
The next day we hiked to several waterfalls. The first waterfall that we visited was actually formed from a spring coming right out of the water. The spring is crystal clear and drinkable (amazing after swimming in all the muddy rivers around Mpala). Unfortunately as the rains have begun there was also some muddy runoff coming into the waterfall pool so that the pool wasn't the crystal clear blue color that it often is. But still, it was a cool greenish color, which was very pretty. We spent a lot of time swimming at the waterfall and doing some waterfall jumping. We then hiked to a couple more waterfalls including a large one that we swam in again.
We got back to the camp just in time to duck into the tent for a massive rainstorm. It was nice to just relax in the tent and read as we listened to the raindrops pounding against the tent. We got a call from Ann's husband, Collin, that our ride would not be coming to pick us up b/c the road was too bad after the rain. We were kind of excited for this adventure, and we still had plenty of ramen left, so we knew we'd be okay. But after some other calls, we found out that the van was near, it just hadn't been able to ford the river near us nor go on the rough road that had turned really muddy. Thus, we just had to ford the river ourself and hike up the muddy road to the van.
It was a very fun trip and nice to get into some forest, do some hiking, and swim in some clear and fresh water!
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| elephants bathing |
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| L to R: Matt, Julia, Ann, Sally, Stef atop one of the summits of MuKenya |
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| Fresh Snow on Mt. Kenya |
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| waterfall jumping |
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