Monday, February 19 Aberdare, The Ark

 Monday, February 19

After breakfast, we head out of Nairobi. Beautiful sunny day which begins in the 60's but is warm by noon but not uncomfortable. We travel in three vehicles, well used but fairly comfortable.  Our driver/guide is Gordon Onolo who has 16 years experience.  He has two children, boys 17 and 13 and a wife. (Christians have one wife, Muslims are allowed as many as they can afford.  The majority of the country is Christian.) 

Nairobi is a sprawling big city (over 4 million pop) and as we leave the city we pass it's huge slum area, home to over 200,000 people.  Homes are tin, cardboard, tarps and whatever people can cobble together.  Our guide says it is improving with more sanitation and aid, but it seems a horror no less.  Unemployment is rampant and desperation leads to high crime rates.  (These pics were taken later on a cloudy day.)

As we wind our way out of the city, the highway becomes more narrow and there are fewer multi-story buildings.  A myriad of new sights great us.  Much of the signage is in English and we learn that English is taught in their schools. 

Their "hotels" are places to get food, sort of like a limited cafeteria says Adam.

Small businesses are everywhere selling everything imaginable.  Furniture, food, clothes, plants, etc. 

Buses, tuk-tuks, and cars, trucks and many, many motorbikes.  Carts pulled by donkeys and push carts....a huge mish-mash of humanity.  Traffic flows as it will, with motorbikes and tuk-tuks edging to the side to allow others to pass. Vehicles also double as cargo carriers, whether it is water jugs tied to the sides, sacks and other goods tied to the roof, even animals being carried on motorbikes which may also carry several  people.

Very little traffic control like red lights or stop signs.  There are speed limits, but the biggest control is speed bumps.  Near schools there are speed bumps,  busy commerce areas - speed bumps, near an intersection - speed bumps, they are frequent and they DO make you slow down!  Vendors often set up their shops or hawk items by hand at the speed bumps!

 Gordon's boys are in boarding school.  The government provides elementary school and middle school, then a test to advance to high school.  Education is mandatory, but not enforced, he says. University is not free but is subsidized or you can borrow money and pay it back when you get a job.   All children wear uniforms and those who can afford it go to private schools or boarding schools for a better education.  Driving age is 18, so Gordon's oldest son is learning.

As we get into more rural areas there are also herds of goats, cows, sheep along side the roads, usually with one "tender".  This is because there is better grass and grazing along the highways. Occasionally they wander onto the roads.

We stop at African Arts for a bathroom (washroom, here) break.  Most of our stops are at venues that sell goods, as it seems to be a mutual thing that they provide clean washrooms (varying in degree) in exchange for our drivers providing potential customers.  We soon learn to bring tp.  Lots of wood carvings, beads and other offerings.

We soon turn into Aberdare National Park, which features a sign reminding drivers that animals have the right of way!     

These singers greet us at the Aberdare Country Club where we'll have lunch before heading to the Ark. We are leaving large luggage here, taking just an overnight bag for our visit to The Ark hotel, which has small rooms and can't handle too much luggage.

Adam says they have had an unusually wet January and indeed, things look pretty lush here!  Temps have cooled a bit with elevation change - we are at 6800' and near Mt. Kenya. Aberdare is almost park-like and we spot zebras, Bushbuck, impalas and baboons. 

Some nice landscaping as well, which includes poinsettia TREES.

The Ark provides transportation by bus to their facility.  These cape buffalo along the way seem as curious about us as we are about them! They are huge and muscular!

We check in and head to the viewing deck that overlooks a waterhole.  Over the next few hours we watch cape buffalo, elephants, a hyena, wart hogs, impala, gazelles and a few other animals come and go.  Very cool!

These male buffalo were duking it out and the one on the left lost and had to leave the herd.

Pretty Crown Crane

Pumba - the wart hog.

A mongoose cleaning up under the bird feeder.

These bush babies are nocturnal.  Huge eyes built for night vision.

Spotted cat also a nocturnal visitor about the size of a large house cat.

Colorful sunset -  the peak is Mt. Kenya.

Our room had a terrific view.

The soil here is rich in minerals, so it draws animals who eat the soil and drink.    There are many small birds, ox-peckers I think they are called, on the buffalo and we will see many other examples of small birds which eat insects from the animals' hides.

There is a talk about birds and another about the animals of The Ark.  While checking out the birds with a guide named Sam, we also see a dikdik, the smallest of the antelope, mongoose and later, a big-eyed bush baby!

Dinner is always served with beer or wine (or water) and Greg reports that the beer is good.  For a price one can get Coca Cola too, though the waiter seems flummoxed when asked by our Alabama gal whether they had Dr. Pepper!  Tusker seems the preferred brew in this area.  The wines have been pretty good too, with at least some coming from South Africa. 

When we return from dinner, our beds are turned down and there is a hot-water bottle warming things up for us!