The next part of our trip took us to a place that's been on the Horn Bucket List for awhile: the Mount Kenya Animal Orphanage! The Webbers were able to join us before heading back to Chogoria, and we were literally the only people there. We enjoyed a private tour courtesy of Covid's effects on tourism.
The animal orphanage is a place where orphaned and injured animals can find a home, and then they serve to educate anyone who comes through! The kids loved getting up close to the wildlife and learning all about them from our guide.
Spending time with animals is always a highlight for our family, but the ultimate reason we've wanted to visit this place for so long is because of the bongos. The Mount Kenya Animal Orphanage is the only place in the country to see these beautiful creatures. They are the second largest antelope in Africa and have a distinctly striped coat and beautiful markings. Bongos are on the brink of extinction (from predation and being hunted for their coats), but a breeding program at the orphanage has been slowly increasing their numbers with plans to return them to the wild in the future. The forests of Mount Kenya are their natural habitat, so we feel a special connection to this animal since they belong in our neighborhood!
This particular bongo is named Elizabeth, and she serves as a mascot for her kind. She was the only bongo we got to see since the others are all allowed to roam in the forest during the day (in a large enclosed area) and only return to their stockades overnight. Elizabeth is so beautiful, isn't she? It was such an incredible highlight to finally meet a bongo!
The entire time was spent interacting with the animals. We pet animals, fed animals, rode animals, and the kids were even allowed into one of the enclosures to get up close and personal with a tortoise. The adults kept saying, "They'd never get to do this in America!"
Here's a highlight reel:
We even got to bring home souvenir porcupine quills! The African crested porcupines were not interested in coming out from their hiding place at the time, but our guide eagerly collected some quills for the kids. We have several of them at our house now.
After we brought a bunch of quills home, Caleb announced one morning that he had something exciting to show me:
He had carved all of our names into a bookshelf using the porcupine quills! Thankfully I was able to see the humor in this (and thankfully that bookshelf is already pretty banged up and a few more scratches won't matter). Caleb just liked the idea of using a real quill to write with. I had to explain the difference between a goose quill and a porcupine quill - the latter is particularly sharp!
At the end of our visit we walked away with lots of good memories and a desire to return someday. That's the best kind of trip there is!
For the past few months I had been planning our annual retreat with WGM colleagues. I was the main person in charge, and it would be an understatement to say that it took a toll on me. The fact that we could have a retreat at all this year was incredible, and I was very happy about that. But the fact that we could have a retreat this year also meant a lot of adjustments needed to be made, and those adjustments required lots of meetings and phone calls and emails...and lots of time and energy spent. So, when our retreat was cancelled because of the current lockdown, I was a hot mess of emotion. I had given a lot of myself to make this happen for so many people who needed rest and refreshment (including myself), and it had all been done for nothing. We wouldn't be going to Retreat and we wouldn't be seeing any of our colleagues who we haven't seen in a very long time. It was a huge loss.
On top of that, two of our children were also a hot mess, one of them shutting himself in the bedroom and sobbing for an interminable amount of time and refusing to be comforted.
There was nothing to be done except to grieve together, to sit in the sadness and feel all the feels. I took a "Day of Mourning" which Kai joined me for, and then I was able to think past the loss and consider what else we could do in place of Retreat. We still had the time off and could still go somewhere even though our options were limited because of the lockdown. Thankfully, our part of the country has some wonderful places to enjoy.
First things first, we talked with our close friends, the Webbers, to see if they wanted to join us on a "reimagined retreat" because not only did we need to get some space from the hospital, but we also needed some sweet fellowship. Plus we'd been talking about the idea of doing a family trip together for a long time but it just hadn't happened yet. Well, suddenly our chance had arrived!
We first went to the Ngare Ndare Forest, which we'd discovered last year, and went on the tree canopy walk again. It was the first time the Webbers had been there and it was so fun to enjoy it together.
We didn't see much wildlife in the forest itself, but we saw a group of reticulated giraffes on the way there. It never ceases to amaze me that we can be driving along the road in this country and just look out the window and see stuff like this!
The canopy walk moves a bit as you walk on it, adding to the adventure. The views are spectacular and at one point it feels like you're walking through Endor.
At the end is a platform with these trees (I can't remember what they're called) that have enormous swinging branches. Nature's playground! These monkeys couldn't get enough of it.
The only wildlife we saw was a pair of Hartlaub's turacos. We heard them much better than we saw them. They're rather noisy birds! They were chasing each other through the trees and this was the best picture I could get. Such beautiful creatures.
There's a joke around Chogoria about Eli's selfie skills - namely that he usually cuts off half his face in every attempt to take a group selfie. But I'm not convinced because I've seen the opposite - namely that his long arms make it possible to fit a bunch of people into a selfie, all of his face included! I love this photo of our crew.
After the tree canopy walk, we headed into Nanyuki for lunch and then went to find our Airbnb. (On a side note, we have been delighted with how many Airbnbs there are in Kenya.) We found a big house to accommodate us all that was right next to Ol Pejeta - the property of the housing complex literally shares a fence with the conservancy. It was absolutely perfect! The 11 of us had plenty of space and there was wildlife all around the house! No predators, mind you, but lots of herbivores hanging out like Grevy's zebra, impala, warthog, guinea fowl, and even oryx!
And the view of Mount Kenya couldn't be beat. It was impossible to capture the beauty on camera.
The kids ran around outside as much as possible, chasing animals and pretending to be animals. It was such a delight to watch them in their glory!
And the complex had a pool! And there were animals right next to it! It was such a cool place. The pool itself was freezing, as most pools in Kenya are, but we got in anyway. I even did laps! It was really the only way to stay warm enough to justify staying in. The kids all had blue lips by the end and everyone was shivering, but they really had fun. Getting into a pool is such a treat for these kids.
And because we were next door to Ol Pejeta, I took Caleb for an evening game drive. The rest of the kids chose to stay at the house and build a giant furniture fort, but Caleb will always choose wildlife if wildlife is an option! It was a really sweet time of just the two of us.
I almost drove right by this rhino because I thought it was a rock. In fact, I stopped because I thought it was a rhino, then decided it was just a rock upon closer inspection and was just about to drive off again when the rock moved! It really was a rhino!
The highlight of the drive was this male lion. He was right by the road so we could easily stop and just watch him for awhile. He was sitting entirely alone but majestically. Eventually he got up and walked away. What a stately creature.
We didn't see any elephants this time, but we saw rhinos a few times, plus three different lions. And there were plenty of herd animals around as usual. We drove around until dark when the gates to the park close.
The Webbers had to return to Chogoria after these two days, but it was such a beautiful blessing to spend that time on vacation with them. God fully redeemed our original retreat plans by giving us this time together. The Webbers have become some of our closest friends worldwide and we are so thankful they easily said "yes" to the idea of joining us for a "reimagined retreat" to Nanyuki. It filled our cups to overflowing.
For the past three weeks a large part of Kenya has been under a new lockdown. The "third wave" of Covid that was sweeping across the country was having a serious and concerning impact - enough that President Kenyatta enforced a new lockdown on five counties, including Nairobi.
The day the lockdown began was the day Eli and I were traveling for our belated anniversary getaway. It was belated by three weeks because I had gotten sick when we were originally supposed to go. (On a side note, we have a long history of one or both of us being sick on our anniversary. I guess that's the risk we took when we got married in March!) In the end, we were better off because, as it turned out, the lockdown provided us with a completely private experience - we were literally the only two guests at the resort! Everyone else had to pack up and leave and get into Nairobi before roadblocks would make the city inaccessible. We were the only people who didn't need to pass through the lockdown zone to get home afterwards. (Most of the business for resorts comes from people in Nairobi, or tourists, who are few and far between in these Covid times).
The lockdown was announced while we were at the Aberdare Country Club for lunch. We'd never been there before and it was a beautiful and peaceful environment with excellent food. We're still amazed to find such places in Kenya. It seems so strange that such places exist in Africa, but there are lots of these gems around the country.
This peacock appeared and strutted around our table for a bit. His iridescent colors were so striking. I loved watching him walk about the place with such authority! I especially loved watching him pose on the bench overlooking the valley, as if he owned the entire place.
We used to be so good at taking photos together. Kids have completely ruined that. But our 15th anniversary called for a photo together!
There were several other groups of people at the country club too - until the lockdown announcement, and then those other people were packing up early and getting on the road back to Nairobi. We felt so bad for them but there was nothing to be done. We simply headed on to our next destination: The Ark in Aberdares National Park.
The Aberdares are a mountain range within a national park, and it's been on our bucket list for awhile, especially since it's just on the other side of the mountain from us. We didn't get to explore much inside the park since the resort wasn't far in, but it definitely wet our appetite. It's a beautiful place, and quiet. We breathed deeply there.
On the drive in, something big and dark darted off the road and into the bushes. We couldn't tell what it was but we knew we'd never seen something like that before. It kinda looked like a small bear, but of course that couldn't be right. We slowed down as we drew closer and saw it just off the road. What does that look like to you?
Then it turned and looked right at us. We'd definitely never seen this kind of animal before! It had tusks like a warthog, but it was huge and darker and hairier. We later learned it was a giant forest hog. They only live in this part of the country and were almost decimated by the lion population in the park until the Kenya Wildlife Service removed all the lions back in the 90s (moving them to other parks) and then the giant forest hog population was able to rebound. Fascinating, huh? I had to wonder, what would it be like for KWS park rangers to show up to work one day and hear that their job is to track down and dart lions in order to relocate them to another park? So crazy!
As we drove on, a hyena and herd of waterbuck met us on the road too. The hyena promptly wandered into the bushes and curled up for a nap while the waterbuck hung around and gave me some great photo opportunities. I love how much wildlife you can encounter just from driving through a park in this country!
The Ark is a resort that was built to look and feel like Noah's Ark, and is situated right next to a watering hole. The beauty of this idea is that the animals all come to you whenever they wander to the water. All we had to do was hang out and watch. There were four levels of viewing areas, so you could watch wildlife from a balcony, from an indoor sitting room, or even at ground level. It was spectacular. And we literally had the whole place to ourselves!
We saw more giant forest hogs (and piglets!) and tons of elephants (and babies!) when we first arrived. There were also buffalo and hyenas and bushbuck. And lots of birds around the water including Egyptian geese and herons. It was incredible to just sit back and observe the animals.
One of the highlights came at night when we saw a weasel-like creature dart across the rocks right in front of us. We rushed to the ground level viewing area in hopes of seeing whatever it was again, and we were not disappointed. It turned out to be a large-spotted genet! We'd never seen one of these creatures in the wild before! They are nocturnal, which makes them hard to spot, but oh such beautiful creatures. The boys were so excited and jealous when we told them about it.
In the morning we had a spectacular view of the mountain. We live on the forested side of the mountain and can only see the peak from a few areas on a good, cloudless day. The other side of the mountain, like where we were in the Aberdares, has incredible views almost all the time. This photo does not do it justice. We marveled at the sight.
And then we hunkered down to play a game! There was no one else to bother, so we took over an entire sitting area and spread out Dominion. And kept watching the wildlife.
In the middle of our game, a buffalo fight broke out. These two males duked it out for almost 15 minutes! I was glad to snag some photos of it because it was intense. At one point their horns were completely locked together as they stood side by side. They wrestled back and forth, trying to break free from each other, and we weren't sure how they'd ever get apart. But after several minutes they did and kept right on fighting. That's when I finally pulled out my camera. In the end there was a clear winner and the loser high-tailed it out of there, as you can see in the video.
And this lady just cracked me up! She stuck her tongue up her nose more times than I could count :)
And one more photo together, which makes two in a 24-hour period. That might be a record for us these days!
Eventually we had to go. The resort was gracious to let us stay as long as we liked since we were the only guests, and it was particularly gracious since they decided to shut down the resort as a result of the lockdown. All of their other upcoming reservations were cancelled because no one could come from Nairobi, so we literally stayed there during the last night they were open until this lockdown ends. Talk about good timing!
We slowly made our way back home. On the way, we stopped in Nanyuki and splurged on Ben and Jerry's ice cream. We didn't even know it existed in Kenya, and what a treat. It was expensive but it was sooooo good. A perfect way to end our getaway!
None of this would have been possible without our dear friends, the Webbers. They watched our kiddos back in Chogoria which freed us up to do this. And the boys had an amazing time without us! Only once did any of them start to miss us (Asa) and it was only a couple hours before we returned. We are incredibly grateful to Derek and Lauren for giving us the gift of overnight childcare!
