Mom’s suitcase arrived late last night – so all is right with our trip now! J We move hotels today, so it is really great that it arrived while we were still in the city. Bonus!
After a nice breakfast we somehow got all organized
into our respective busses (which was seriously much more complicated than it
should have been!) and headed out of the city.
We seemed to leave Nairobi really quickly and almost immediately farm
land took over. In Kenya, the primary
industry is agriculture, followed by tourism.
The road (so far) is pretty good, although the numerous speed bumps are
driving dad a little nuts! J
En route we got to stop and see a memorial for Lord
Baden Powel! It was kind of cool. The area in which the memorial was located
was named Nyeri, which was funny ‘cause that was my district in Calgary growing
up!
We are staying in The Arc. It was previously owned by the Fairmont. It is now owned by an Indian company. It is a really cool hotel where the rooms are
small and overlook the waterhole where there are lots of animas that come to
drink. I really hope that we’ll have the
chance to see some animals here today!
Aberdare National park is located at 7400 feet. It is often rainy and cool because it is
located at such a high altitude. There
are lots of elephants, cape buffalo, hyenas, and bores in this park. The lions have been relocated because they
were killing off the other animals in this park. The park is surrounded by 400km of electric
fence! This separates the humans from
the park and reduces the conflict between the two. The highest waterfall in Kenya is Kalulu
waterfall at 273m! Unfortunately, we
won’t have time to see it this time.
Around the park there are many of the 42 tribes that live in Kenya. I think we’ll be able to see the Massa people
during the trip.
There are 44 different species of animals in the
park. The big five are the leopard,
elephant, cape buffalo, lion, and rhino.
The giraffe and hippo are not part of this list because the big five
started when there were many hunters that came in from Europe – they received a
trophy for the big five animals! In the
park there are four of the five (because there are no lions in this park).
On the way into the park this afternoon we saw a
group of the cape buffalo! We saw three
big ones and one smaller baby. They
stopped right beside the road, so we had a great opportunity for pictures! We also saw a lot of warthogs. It keeps making me want to sing the Lion
King! Lol! We also saw a lot of bunch of birds – that I
am really bad at identifying.
In the park there are approximately 40 black
rhinos. In Kenya there are 2 species of
rhinos (black and white). White rhinos
are grazers. They have a wide mouth for
grazing. Black rhinos eat trees and
leaves. White rhinos are bigger. They have a bigger front horn. Both species are endangered because of
poaching – because of the horn.
Ironically, their horn is made of keratin – the same thing as our nails
are made of. Here, is one of the breeding
regions for the rhinos!
There is a population of approximately 2000 elephants
in the park. Elephants are also
endangered because of their tusks. Last
year, the Kenyan president went to several National parks to ban the
consignment of ivory that was confiscated in order to promote elephants.
The buffalo lives in groups. There are over 6000 in the park. Their status is of the least concern in the
park. In this park, the spotted hyena is
the main predator in the park, even
though in the savannah, they tend to be scavengers. Here, they hunt in groups and are able to
take up to 15kgs of food!
The rarest seen is the leopard. They are located in the park, even though
they do not know the number that there are in the park. They saw one last night!! I don’t think we’ll see one tonight L. There is a species of black leopards in the
park. It is a mutation of those from the
typical leopards.
Queen Elizabeth was in this park in 1952! Her father died while she was in the park, so
she became Queen while she was here.
There is definitely a lot of history here!!
It gets dark so early here…the lodge has lights, but
it is harder to see the animals, for sure!
I really want to see some of the big five! At least I am happy that we’ve had the chance
to see the Cape Buffalo – even if it is of least concern on the endangered
list!
Cheui is the Swahili name for leopards. Pumba means foolish, which is why they called
the warthog Pumba in the warthog! Go
figure!
We had a great happy hour in mom and dad’s room. We played a couple of games and drank some
wine – it was great! Dinner is at 7:30
tonight and then some more time to look for animals! Yeah!
Later,
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