The Aberdares

Life in Kijabe is a cycle of working hard and stepping away on days off to refresh – Arianna had a couple of days off after Christmas, so we went camping in the Aberdare mountains with our friends the Steeres (Peds E.R. doctor + Engineer + kiddos) and Stephanie (Audiologist).  Only about 2 hours away, and 10,000 feet up in the mountains, this is a huge national park, and we only saw 15 or so people in our entire time there.  Kinda like Scotland, Montana, and Mongolia put in a blender – definitely an amazing & beautiful place.

*if you have a fast internet connection and want to view the images larger, double-click a picture below to pull up a full-screen slideshow* View of the valley where we camped.

Riley’s bushbuck – the girls tried to feed the deer, and Riley actually managed to have it lick her hand!  There was a family that would hang around the campsite at night, scavenging for food and even eating the live embers of the fire (how that could taste good or not burn their mouths is beyond me).  We liked the bushbuck because their disappearance would serve as a warning if a large cat or hyena approached.

You can’t see it on the internet, but full-sized you can see the “dinnertime” elephant, as the kids named him, walking on the hillside across from camp.

A beautiful, wet morning after a night of rain.  Thankfully the tent stayed dry and I got some great dew pictures.

Attempting to start the fire on their own!

Happy Campers – the girls decided our splashing through the mud and muck on the road to the great waterfalls was the most fun part of the trip.  We were quite grateful that we never got bogged and had to try out Andy’s winch.

Night-time visitor – he was about 20 feet from our tents, tearing down trees and wandering.  We had a brief scare, put the girls in the car, and Andy and I stood vigil for the next hour-and-a-half, just in case he decided to turn threatening.  The next day, a ranger said this was pretty normal, and they won’t bother people unless they are bothered or feel threatened.  Below is Andy on elephant patrol.  The next morning there were 15+ elephants in view of the campsite!