Sweetwaters

We were up early today (Monday) for the start of our journey home. After a nine hour drive – on every kind of road surface from lined highways to rocky & dusty dirt roads, we arrived at Sweetwaters, a camp at the foot of Mount Kenya… I am writing tonight from a tent less than 100 feet from a watering hole inside a game preserve. All that separates us from the open preserve is a small trench with a wire fence down inside the gulley, to give us a completely unrestricted view of everything in front of us…. And the sights have been breathtaking! We entered the area about five this evening and were still in sight of the main gate when we spotted our first giraffes! They are probably my favorite of all the wild animals – so stately, so silent. Julius, our driver, circled the van around after one giraffe crossed the road, so we had a perfect view of the giraffe silhouetted against Mount Kenya – what a picture, perfect for a postcard! We saw a number of other giraffes as we drove in, plus gazelles, wart hogs and countless beautiful birds (including Meg’s favorite, the superb starling – shaped like our black starling, but colored a bright, iridescent teal blue with an orange & white underbelly).

We quickly settled into our green canvas tents situated under the acacia trees – the tents have thatched roofs, comfortable furniture and HOT WATER (so we are only marginally “roughing it”). We then went to the lodge for a cup of tea before dinner. While we were having tea by a real fireplace (with the higher altitude, it’s quite chilly here), a staff member suggested we step outside to the watering hole – to see giraffes. And the sight was unbelievable – it was dark, but with the spotlight, it was easy to see twelve giraffes drinking from the watering hole less than 50 feet away. We watched in awe as they bent their long necks to drink. Back inside the lodge (only footsteps from the watering hole) we had a fabulous dinner – Frank even dared the fresh salads.

As the evening has progressed, a steady stream of animals has come to the water hole and then moved on – giraffes, zebras, wart hogs, gazelles… and about 11:30 two rhinos came by…twice one began to charge the other with bellows and pawing front feet. One rhino finally ran off into the dark and shortly thereafter the second walked the length of the tents facing the water hole and then faded into the blackness of night. We are in awe of the beauty and majesty what we have witnessed tonight.