Weekend Camping- Baringo

Heading west from Nairobi, we climb in elevation till we hit the rim of the escarpment that drops down to the Rift Valley. Last weekend, we took a break to go camping on Lake Baringo, 4 hours north of Nairobi in the Rift Valley.

We joined two other families, packed into an old safari van and headed out.

Without even leaving my camp chair, I identified so many amazing birds just in the trees around me. It was ridiculous! It was as if we were camping in a bird refuge. Apparently the lake is known to have somewhere around 460 species of birds. If you come, this is a very cool place to visit. Not only the birds, the lovely big trees to keep you shaded, but the other wild life... Since I managed to leave my borrowed bird book in someone else's car, I cannot name these lovely creatures for you.

I do remember this was the African Fish Eagle.

This is some kind of Fisher.

...and this rather odd looker is some brand of stork. He literally was as tall as the 3.5 yr old we were camping with. He walked right into camp and gave us that strange look.

We set up camp, cooked over a fire, read in the shade...

These guys came around some, though we shooed them away.

This croc lived in the canal next to us. Doug said he thought he was about 8 ft.  We heard them at night and also saw their heads popping up in the shallows of the lake's grassy edge. We kept our respectful distance.

The hippos left their three-toed footprints in some mud among the grasses along the edge of the lake.  They come out at night to munch grass. Their skin would burn if they came out in the day so they hang out underwater among the reeds and grasses.

The second morning, they were taking their time getting back out into the deeper water. They kind of just piled up on each other, lounging their huge bodies, propping their huge heads up on each other's backs and rumps. It was quite a beautiful site. There are two stumps that make the picture a little confusing- one in front and one in the back.

Next door to the roughing it camp, where we stayed in our tents, we discovered there was a lodge and this lovely pool where we cooled off for a very reasonable little fee!

On the way home, we passed through a few small towns where honey was the item for sale in lines of little kiosks along the road. We are also considering trying out bees out in Najile. We'll keep you posted on that. We met a guy here in Nairobi who's an expert and would help us get started.

So, that was our weekend break and now we're back to language study this week and part of next.