Friday 12 Aug
Our only activity today was a morning drive. It was even mistier than yesterday and we saw even less stuff, although we did spot our first elephant of the trip. But otherwise, meh.
Later we rocked up at The Ark, the big wooden hotel in the Aberdares that has been here since the 1970s. The rooms are very spartan but serviceable, the food is standard African international tourist buffet, but what I will remember most is how bloody cold it was! Apparently even though its on the equator, Kenya does have a kind of “winter” in July & August, and of course at almost 3,000m we were definitely in mountain altitudes to boot. But yeah, no hint of any heating in the building.
We just put on as many layers as we could find, then camped out in the lounge with the big windows overlooking the waterhole. This waterhole behind The Ark became renowned as one of the only places you could ever see a bongo (a rare antelope), though we weren’t going to be that lucky. Plenty of elephants including a charming one-tusked female who enjoyed splashing about in the water and generally doing her own thing. Also got a good view of a blotched genet and a white-tailed mongoose after dark.
That’s one of the pleasing things about being a practised mammal-watcher. You’ll instantly spot something, like a genet moving around in the rocks, while everyone is still oblivious. They might twig a few moments later when it comes out into the open or you might have to say “look, a genet” but I have to admit its quite ego-stroking to be that much more aware of the wildlife around you than most other tourists.
So at midnight, with nothing new spotted for ages, we retired to our icy room and dived into bed with dressing gowns on, happy enough with the mammal watching but very keen to be somewhere normal in Kenya. You know. Not freezing cold, and not drizzling with rain and foggy.
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