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| Mount Kenya at Sunset |
We headed off in the morning to Castle Forest Lodge, a three hour drive to an idyllic spot outside of Embu. It’s on a mountain, near a waterfall, at a spot where herds of elephants come by. The rooms are cute little huts with thatched roofs and have fantastic names like ‘purple rain’, ‘jungle’, etc. We got there in time for lunch and found it so odd to switch between community service and being a tourist. I read a book that afternoon while the others went on a hike to the waterfall. We watched the sunset that evening and saw the red and purple rays bouncing off of Mount Kenya, the second highest peak in Kenya, which is not always visible. It was a beautiful peaceful evening for Kathy, Ed, Jack, Cheri, Shawna, and I, while Ted kept going down to Nairobi to welcome the team.
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| Sunrise over Castle Forest Lodge |
Thursday morning, I woke up early enough to see the sunrise. I quietly snuck out to our porch, and laid under a thick blanket. Believe it or not, it is very cold there at night, probably getting down to 5 degrees C. The sunrise was gorgeous! A soft wakening to the day. Jack and Ed saw an elephant come into the open clearing that the restaurant overlooks. We were told that when one comes, it means many will follow. Sadly this was not the case as when the rest of us got to breakfast, the clearing was empty. We then went on a nice 5 hour hike. We had a guide that was knowledgeable about the local area, route, vegetation, and animals. There were two guards that are part of the parks service that were dressed in camo and carried rifles. This was quite intimidating, especially when they turned and aimed at the sweet giant dogs that were walking along with us (it turns out though that one of the sweet dogs bits the solder on the back of his leg….but no shots were fired so it was okay). We found out the rifles only have blanks, but the guards had to come along to protect us from elephants. Apparently a woman was trampled a few years ago while on a hike. The hike was gorgeous! We walked through an area where people were using chainsaws to harvest eucalyptus trees. These trees were introduced to Kenya by the Australians because they’re fast growing, but they have since learned that they the trees take a huge amount of water that is drawing on local water resources. As a result they’re cutting the eucalyptus trees down. We then walked through a green jungle on a winding path, over a few streams, up and down some hills, with not another soul around for miles. Along the way, we passed huge amounts of elephant dung. We then passed a brand new steaming pile of dung, and our guards went on alert. The elephant was close. The guide and one guard would walk ahead and check the area, then the other guard and us would come join them. It continued like this for about 10 minutes when they located the elephant. It was about 100ft away behind a bunch of trees. It was all alone, and apparently that’s the most dangerous elephant to come across because it’s already nervous. The guards picked up their guns and started firing the blanks. The elephant was on the move and luckily in the opposite direction. Our hearts were thumping and our ears were ringing!
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| At an oasis waterfall |
We then came to a cliff and hiked along the switchbacks to get down, trying to avoid the tree roots, and occasionally jumping a few feet. We were starting to wonder when one point the path was 9 inches wide with a huge drop below, and while clinging onto the dirt wall, we suddenly opened up to a waterfall, just like you’d see in the movies. There was a circular clearing with a waterfall that was at least 10 stories high. It was so gorgeous. We took a million pictures and couldn’t believe how beautiful this was, as we thought we were just going for a nice exercise and were able to see both an elephant and a waterfall! The walk back was much less eventful and we managed to go so quickly that we were back within 4 hours! What an amazing afternoon!
Summary: It was a totally relaxing day getting ready for our team to arrive and hiking to a waterfall, trying not to get trampled.
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