Reimagined Retreat (Part 2)

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!