Aberdare National Park

Leaving Samburu, we stopped again in Isiolo to refuel. Crystal ran to get more popcorn, and I was accosted by the same men who tried to sell us crap the previous day. I pulled a few postcards (of Arizona) out of my bag and showed them to the men. They all wanted one. I told them it would be 20 shillings. At first, I think they thought I was going to give them a postcard and a 20 shilling donation! No way! I wanted 20 shillings per card. If they really liked the card, then I wanted 30 shillings! I can beat them at their own game. In the end, I ended up accepting a scary rusty metal bracelet in exchange for a stack of postcards. I had a blast and thought it was a fun game to play, but Thomas gave me a disgusted look the entire time. When Crystal got back to the van, he was more than happy to speed off (and give Crystal a lecture how her purchases in local stores rather than tourist traps was harmful to Kenya's economy).

We had a long drive on reasonably good roads to Aberdare National Park. The first stop was lunch at Aberdare Country Club. The food was excellent and the grounds were beautiful. There were lots of flowers, trees, and some wildlife on the grounds.

There were a lot of wart hogs that made themselves at home on the grounds.

After lunch, we went on an optional game drive through the park before heading to our lodge for the night.

Elephants were hidden in the dense forest, poking their heads out from time to time. You often heard their rustling long before you could spot them.

A large colony of black and white colobus monkeys played in the canopy of the forest,
and baboons raised their families on the floor.

I saw a lot of wart hogs, and a few giant forest hogs (although the latter were too quick or too far away to get a good picture).
I also spotted this female bushbuck peeking out of the ground cover.

Cape buffalo were plentiful.
Once we arrived at the Ark (our lodge) we were basically trapped there for the rest of the evening.

The Ark was a dump. Our room had a horrible musty smell and the toilet didn't flush properly. The walls were paper thin and there was no lock on the door when you left the room.

We left the room for a while so it could air out. I entered about an hour later and discovered that the carpeting was wet near the bathroom. Gross! We spoke to the person in charge - at first she seemed hesitant to move us - but after I asked her to put her hand on the floor and feel it (which she didn't) she was quite willing to move us. The new room had a dry floor, was less musty, and had a toilet that flushed properly. The water still ran brown and I wasn't able to get hot water.

There were viewing platforms on multiple levels so you could watch the animals that they baited by tossing salt outside. It mostly attracted resident herds of cape buffalos and elephants. The behavior of the animals was signifcantly altered due to the artificial placing of salt.

Some of the elephants were obsessed with digging for salt.

Others tended to have more sexual obsessions.

Many of the animals were very aggressive with each other. I witnessed several dominance challenges with the buffalos and a couple with the elephants.

They had an elaborate buzzer system set up so to let you know if there was anything exciting to view in the middle of the night. There wasn't - and the buzzers were silent all night.

I was quite happy to leave the next morning.

Maybe the buffalos would get along better if they drank a martini rather than fighting over salt!

We returned to the Country Club and were picked up by Thomas. He asked us if we would like to visit a school in the area. We asked what to expect if we visited a school. He didn't actually tell us what WE should expect to see or do. Instead he informed us that we were expected to bring gifts for the children (school supplies and/or candy) and provide a substantial donation for the school, otherwise WE would disappoint the children since they expect that from white tourists. Lovely. We didn't know what constituted a substantial donation, but didn't think we had the funds to make one, so we passed.

Thanks Thomas and Rhino Tours for making us feel like crap for not being rich enough to be "good tourists" for Kenya. We hadn't realized that there was an income requirement to visit.