Four out of five ain’t bad!

The first night of our Kenyan experience was spent in Nairobi, with 14 Chicago-based participants flying various routes round the world to get here, including me. Having not been in London or Europe in a long while, it was fun hearing British accents again when I stopped into Heathrow for three hours. A few people had problems with their flights, and visas, but by the third day everyone was fine and had arrived.

The following day, Sunday, we drove four hours north, to just above the equator - to the Mount Kenya National Park. We settled into our tents at the Sweetwaters Tented Camp; and then, following a huge rainstorm, took a three-hour safari drive around the national park.

Our first sightings were birds including the Marabou Stork, sparrows, all types of Deer, Impalas, Gazelles, Wharthogs and Baboons. Just before heading to the Chimpanzee conservatory, we saw the first of our Big Five animals – the African Elephant. It was a little off in the distance, but I was amazed by this bull – especially because of the size of it!

Next we visit the conservatory. The Chimps here are being protected as their natural habitat up north in the Congo and Rwanda is greatly suffering; and although I wasn’t that impressed by them, it was nice having the encounter.

We then saw hippo footprints by the river; before seeing a giraffe grazing amongst the trees. Great sight once again! And surprisingly, the giraffe is not one of the Big Five.

Further along, we saw lots of Water Buffalo (the next of our Big Five), with birds sitting on their backs and mingling around them.

Next, came a couple of Black Rhinos, one with a baby, walking by.

Then we went to another conservatory (within the private Sweetwaters property at the Mount Kenya National Park) with a white rhino in protection due to its blindness. The Rhinoceros is also one of the Big Five.

Finally, just as dusk was hitting, I spotted a male lion lying under a tree, enjoying the beautiful blue sky and late afternoon sunshine, with Mount Kenya spectacularly appearing out from behind the clouds in the distance.

Little did we realise up ahead, that three lionesses (the last of the Big Five for the day) were eagerly watching two wharthogs about 50 metres away – with us thinking that was going to be their ‘kill’ for the night. They looked eager to pounce – so we waited around to watch; but after about 45 minutes, nothing had happened except for them gaining more distance, so we turned back to the camp, arriving in the dark.

Note: The Leopard is the only other animal we didn’t get to see, making up the fifth of the Big Five.

Following a day of animal discovery and many ‘firsts’; the group returned to the Camp for dinner and a good night’s sleep.