10. Aberdare Country Club and Park

On Wednesday morning Dani and I left on a trip down to Aberdare National Park and Country Club. This was the only multi-day trip we did, and we were trying to pick a trip that would take us relatively close to Nairobi so that dropping Dani off at the Nairobi airport wouldn't be all that difficult. My friend Izzy had recommended Aberdare Country Club to me. She said it was super-ritzy, but, "heck, you're graduating from med school soon. I just told myself that I deserved it." I took Izzy's advice to heart, and splurged. The trip took us about 6 hours in the car. And along the way, Dani, who is an excellent photographer, took some really nice pics in the villages we passed.

We also stopped at the equator along the way.

0º latitude!

We got lost once, but eventually we made it to the Aberdare Country Club in the early evening. It's a really interesting place. A four-star hotel and resort, yet the road leading to it is not even paved, with the last section being over very uneven pavement and passing several small peasant huts. It definitely felt like we were colonialist mzungus (white people) who were flouting our wealth in the midst of dire poverty.

Inside the gate it was like entering another world. The golf course straddles the road leading up to the country club and warthogs, antelope, and baboons stroll along the greens.

Warthogs along the path

The buildings were surrounded with gardens and the East had a tremendous view of Mt. Kenya.

Sunbirds on the flowers

Main hotel building

Garden view

Laser-eyed deer

View from outside our room

After we settled in, we went down for tea, took a stroll around the grounds until dinner. The food was quite good, though we thought they used the same sauce on both of our main entrees. After dinner we sat and caught up on internet for a bit, then went up to bed since we were planning on waking up for a morning safari in the Aberdare National Park.

Safari and the Ark

The next morning we woke up for breakfast, then went on our Safari to Aberdare. We had the safari truck all to ourselves. Originally we had planned to go for the entire day, but decided as we began to cut it down to a half-day. The reason for this was that the park is unlike some of the other National Parks in Kenya in that it is rather heavily wooded. Therefore, it is rather difficult to site game except at the watering holes. Since these were still relatively dry due to the lack of rain, many of the animals were off in the trees and were not visible. We did see some animals though in the open areas. These photos are mostly with Dani behind the camera.

Waterbuck

Antelope

Dani with a herd of Cape Buffalo in the distance

Elephants in the forest

Cape buffalo

Baboon

Besides animals, we were also visited by a rather sizable number of tsetse flies. These have a painful bite and can carry the disease African sleeping sickness, though incidence is low in Kenya. Our driver broke off some branches of trees for us to use as flyswatters.

Bob, the fly-killer

At one point the guide had us get out of the car at an overlook and it was only after we were strolling around for a bit that we noticed that we had a companion, a large male Cape buffalo was resting under a small tree on one side of the overlook. Our guide had just got through telling us that lone male Cape buffalo were especially dangerous and unpredictable, but when we asked if we should perhaps get back in the car, he said, "No, I think it will be, OK." So (perhaps not exercising the best judgement, we strolled around the overlook, keeping the buffalo at a distance. He didn't seem to mind our intrusion, and continued to lazily rest under the tree.

A dangerous beast

 After seeing some animals (and killing tsetse flies), we rounded out our safari with lunch at the Ark. This is a hotel inside the Aberdare Park with a large viewing area at one end. They have a watering hole and place out salt to attract the animals, so (perhaps not surprisingly) we had some of our best sitings here. We had thought about staying at the Ark, but when we got there, we realized that we'd made the right choice in only staying at the Country Club. The rooms were pretty small and basic. And because it is inside the park, you were basically trapped in the hotel.

This antelope was being sassy

Back at the Country Club, we had a little time to rest but then decided to take a guided walk further out onto the Country Club grounds where they have a herd of giraffes, antelope, and even hyenas and leopards (though these are rarely seen during the day - we didn't luck out). Our guide told a story about the time that a foreigner was killed by one of the giraffes - kicked in the head when he tried to get too close to take a photo, and how at first they thought it might be a murder. It wasn't until the hematoma began to form on his head that they looked and saw that there was a mark that looked like a hoof.

He also told us that they used to have big problems with the locals who would come into the Country Club's land at night to kill bush-meat. The guards would catch some of the trespassers and take them to the police, but the families would bribe the police, and they would get off. It wasn't until the guards were told to break the poachers' bones before turning them over to the police, that the poaching stopped...sooooo complicated....

Little Rock thrush

Giraffes!

Giraffe resting his back foot

We surprised this guy. Woke him up from his nap.

African landscape

The whole herd

We found a chameleon on the road

After we got back from our walk we had dinner, then had a really lovely evening sitting by a fireplace and chatting.

The next day we started out early for Nairobi. Dani's flight wasn't until 4pm and we'd heard that the drive was about 3 hours, but we decided to take no chances and left at around 9am. It was a good thing that we did. Our driver had not approached Nairobi from the North before and was unfamiliar with the exact way to the airport. We ended up getting lost several times, only making to the airport at around 2:30pm. Dani and I had a rather rushed goodbye at the terminal - a police man was trying to get a bribe from our driver because he had unknowingly parked illegally to drop Dani off. Thus, while the ending was rather tense, it was really great to be able to spend time with a dear friend in so many beautiful locations. Thanks for coming, Dani!