On the way there, while I was reading a book out loud to the boys and not paying attention to our surroundings, Asa suddenly shouted, "Giraffe!" Sure enough, there was a group of 4 giraffes right by the road. Not only that, they were reticulated giraffes, which we'd never seen in the wild! All the giraffes we've seen in Kenya so far have been maasai giraffes, which have a different pattern on their bodies and live in a different part of the country, so this was a rather exciting find. Reticulated giraffe numbers are in serious decline and conservationists aren't sure why, but thankfully studies are now being done to try and understand why and to hopefully stop the decline.
What beautiful creatures? I'm so glad Asa was looking out the window and spotted them!
Soon after, we arrived at the tree canopy walk. It was a hidden gem. Set in a beautiful forested area, it was quiet and peaceful with nothing but the sounds of birds and the occasional baboon around us. We could see for miles and would've seen Mt. Kenya in the distance if the clouds weren't obscuring it. It was such a wild and lovely place.
The structure was sturdier than I expected and was easy to walk along. The boys were comfortable managing on their own although Asa wanted to stick close to Mama the whole time. It was one of those experiences when we realized again how much these boys are growing, in size as well as independence and confidence. It's so fun to be at a stage of life when we can do things like this now!
The canopy walk ended at a deck with these amazing tree branches hanging down. The boys could swing on them and loved pretending to be apes swinging in the trees. Anything that can be climbed on will be climbed on by these three!
On a sidenote, I'm trying to be better at taking pictures of just me and Eli, which I rarely do anymore but which I still want for proof of us making memories together. And I've recently discovered how relatively easy it can be to snap photos with three boys eager to use my camera!
We had the option to walk back with the ranger on the forest floor, but we couldn't resist the opportunity to walk along the canopy again as we headed back to the car. It was just too neat to pass up.
On the way back we noticed something below that we hadn't seen before: an elephant skull! How cool is this? We knew that elephants live in the area and that sometimes people even see elephants at the river below, but this was such an unexpected and neat discovery.
For anyone with enough energy and stamina afterwards (which our boys did not possess), there's also a ranger-guided 3km hike to a waterfall. Someday we'll be able to do that, but the tree canopy walk was about all we could handle for now. We did, however, go a short way down the trail so the ranger could show us this cave. He said that once while he was showing this spot to tourists a hyena came running out of the cave! He also said that leopards will take shelter in there sometimes, all of which was enough to convince me to stay away from caves in Kenya for awhile. The boys, on the other hand, were ready to camp out there with hopes of spotting whatever wildlife might visit. Oh, the young and the brave!
It was a fun day of exploration and discovery. I'm so thankful for an adventurous crew that's willing to go new places and try new things!
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