Kari, Aberdare and Lord Baden Powell

Our mutual friend Kari have been visiting us, it was great having her here! She stayed for three weeks and got to see quite a bit of the country. Apart from coming with us to Mount Kenya, we also travelled to Aberdare National Park. We spent a night in the famous Treetops Hotel, a hotel inside the park. Meters away from the hotel is a waterhole where the wild animals come at night to drink. Whether the waterhole was constructed next to the hotel or if it was the other way around I don’t know, probably the first, however, for a touristy thing it’s a great one! A big group of elephants (I counted 15 individuals) showed up around 7 pm and stayed for a few hours, leaving us plenty of time to take pictures while staying on the roof terrace of the hotel. In addition to elephants, a couple of rhinos, some bushbucks, warthogs and buffalos also showed up. Before dinner we had a game drive in the park, and although the scenery was by far the most beautiful I’ve seen in a park in Kenya, not too many animals wanted to show themselves during daytime.

Aberdare National Park is not far from Nyeri, which was the town where the founder of the scout movement Lord Baden Powell lived and worked for major parts of his life. And being once – in fact, for 10 years! - a girl scout myself (yes, I know that it’s supposed to be boy scout or girl guide, but scout sounds much better, so I’ll use that), a moment in silence and remembrance of the great man was needed.

On our way home from Aberdare we stopped in Nyahururu, a small town famous only for its waterfall: Thomson’s Falls. We came, saw, spent a night there and left.