April 12: Sleep in, drive to Castle Forest Lodge (Mt. Kenya)
It was a late night after hockey so we slept in a bit. We had a lot of grocery shopping and organizing the car and drying our soaked tent before our "Northern Leg". Finally we set off next epic birding site: Castle Forest Lodge.
It was already early evening by the time we got there, so we started birding straight away. We got onto a mixed flock full of goodies: Fine-banded Woodpeckers, Black-fronted Bush-shrike, Purple-throated Cuckoo-shrikes joined the flock. We'd only just rolled up an were already cookin' on three burners.
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| Fine-banded Woodpeckers joined the mixed flock |
Castle Lodge is one of my favourite places. It is an old-timey lodge with rustic log cabins and a kitchen that cooks up some nice chakula. The rooms are somewhat expensive for birding bums such as ourselves, but luckily for us they also have a campground that is smack dab in the middle of the best birding area. That evening we waited for the evening flight of the Olive Ibis, an elusive, nocturnal ibis that inhabits mature rainforest in Africa. In Kenya, it is confined to the Aberdare and Mt. Kenya ranges in high altitude forest. The ibises never materialized, but Scarce Swifts flew over, which was actually a lifer. At dinner, there were some affable and raucous American birders living the dream on a grand tour of Kenya kind of like ours. One very jolly gentleman was a rail researcher in the States. He was extremely passionate about rails and gave us a lifetime's worth of information about Soras over dinner.
Next Day: birding castle forest and transit to the north Aberdares.
The next morning, we woke up to the sound of Scaly Francolins calling when it was still dark. We managed to flush them and catch a glimpse. Then the Olive Ibises came. They announced their arrival with raucous calls, then landed on some snags above the canopy. We got incredible scope views in the morning light. There was another impressive mixed flock, this time with Black-throated Apalis and a beautiful Emerald Cuckoo.
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| Olive Ibis |
We linked up with Joseph the resident guide, and assigned him the tall order of finding us a Doherty's Bush-shrike. We managed to hear one quite well but it never materialized and eventually lost interest. We did get an Abyssinian Ground-thrush singing up there. With limited time at hand, we took a quick dip at the waterfall (freezing!) and hiked down past the lodge to the lower slope to try for Orange Ground-thrush.
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| Abyssinian Ground-thrush |
The Rockjumper birding tour was down there and they had actually seen the Doherty's that morning. We birded with them for just a few minutes because we heard a Bar-tailed Trogon and then saw it. We split off from their group and hiked slowly back up the slope.
I was pretty impressed with myself for detecting the song of an Orange Ground-thrush a good distance from the road, when it eluded the attuned ears of Joseph. We bush-wacked carefully so as not to spook it. It was singing from a stationary position so it was quite hard to spot but we did get a view, before it flew off. It was quite shy.
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| Orange Ground-thrush |
Without the Doherty's or the Abbott's Starling it was time to leave because we had to make it to the North Aberdares before dark. On the way, Dom wasn't feeling so well so we tried our luck at a pharmacy in Nyeri. Luckily the pharmacist was able to prescribe him some antibiotics without a doctor consultation and we were in an out of there in no time. They antibiotics worked.
With limited daylight left we had to camp at the ranger station so the birding was done for the day.
April 14: Hike to Dragon's Teeth, Aberdares, hotel in Nanyuki
This was another one of those visits where we tried to pack too much into one morning. We intended to look for Elgon Francolins and hike to and climb the dragon's teeth with trad gear. The hike in was nice, we flushed a Common Quail and got Dom his lifer Aberdare Cisticola.
The climb was tricky, because I did not remember the way exactly. I had free-climbed this before but it was like a year ago. There was alot of messing around with rope and gear. A tiny bit of rain was starting to percolate and we heard some calls that sounded like they might be Elgon Francolin, so we decided to abort the climb (both to look for the Francolin, and because the rock was getting slippery). I put the rope around a rock spire and we rappelled down, but while retrieving the rope it got stuck, so I had to free climb back up to get it which was a bit sketchy.
We were kind of relieved that our ill-fated climbing adventure was over and we could focus on birding. But where was the francolin? It had disappeared and was not responding to playback. We hiked back to the car and drove to Nanyuki. Mid-way, I pulled over on the side of the road for an unannounced pit-stop. Unbeknownst to Dom, this was a spot called Kiawara, one of the only legit spots to get a roosting Cape Eagle Owl. They were more difficult to find than usual, so they required us to hike down onto the farm. A lady who was cultivating at near the roost was happy to show us one of them was sitting one a boulder at the base of the cliff. To access the owl spot, we had to penetrate a fortress of stinging nettles that ravaged our legs. It was a price well worth paying to see this elusive highland owl. We gave the lady a lift to a local market so she could sell her vegetables. That night we picked up Jackson in Naro Moru then continued to Nanyuki where we checked into our hotel.
The next day was the most chaotic day of the trip. The plan was to leave before dawn, drive up the highway to this farm called Marania Farm that is the easiest place in Kenya to see Elgon Francolins. Appollo said you just park along the main farm road, play the call and they pop out onto the road. I had the number of the guy who owns the farm. He wasn't picking up the day before so we figured we'd just show up and try our luck, maybe they could contact him and we could get permission. We weren't really sure what to expect. This was a huge operation with a whole security team. They could not contact the owner so we decided to leave. Then on our way we saw this mzungu lady by the roadside. We pulled over and I walked over and introduced myself and told her about our mission. She was the wife of the guy. I was super friendly and was sure she was going to grant us permission due to my irrefutable charm. She called the husband to get the OK but he was indisposed, he was flying around in a private plane doing some rich landowner stuff or something. So unfortunately it was a NO and that was that. Dang, I even busted out that I was a teacher and everything, which almost always works. She told us to try this moorland up the road but we quickly gave up on that because it proved difficult to access without a long hike and we decided to cut our losses and go.
A francolin called mockingly off in the distance and we made due with a conciliatory Red-throated Wryneck that made our ill-fated detour not totally in vain.
Unfortunately due to this fool's errand we had lost valuable morning time from our main mission: birding the Nyambene National Reserve east of Isiolo. We really should not have been distracted by my francolin obsession because we risked arriving at the desert habitat during the sweltering heat of day.
The 30-something km east of Isiolo was slow going because of the rough road. Eventually by bout 10am we were there. The further we got from Isiolo, the less and less people we saw. If we'd kept going for another few hours, we would have ended up in Somalia. A pair of Bristle-crowned Starlings flew by in the distance (the only ones of the trip). Into the reserve, we saw a young and fit looking man herding a few cows. We didn't think much of it. A couple minutes later, a convoy of conservation officers and army personnel drove by and said some stuff to Jackson in swahili which I mostly got as "we're looking for birds". They didn't really care about what we were doing, actually they seemed in a hurry. These guys were fully geared up with helmets, vests and machine guns. There was an armored vehicle with a heavy machine gun turret on top. These guys looked like they were going to war! One of them said something in Kikuyu about "mzungu pigs" according to Jack.
Since birding did not seem to be a problem, we got out of the car and started our search for the mythical Masked Lark, which had been reported from this particular patch of rocky desert by Apollo some time ago.
We got onto a lark but it flushed, we weren't sure about the species. We had only been birding less than 5 minutes when heavy machine gun fire errupted not very far from our position. It echoed against the mountains, adding to the drama. We could see a little cloud of dust on the slope of the mountainside. We dropped down to the ground. Another burst. What was going on? A fire fight with some cattle rustlers perhaps? My first immediate thought was "Damn! Now we're never gonna see the Masked Lark!!!"
After a few minutes of quiet, we deemed it was time to make our way back to the car and get the hell out of there.
However, just as we got back to the car, the convoy came back and we were able to talk to them. Apparently that man we'd seen earlier had some stolen cattle and these soldiers were hunting him down. When they caught up to him, he bolted, and the soldiers recovered the cattle, which they were presently walking back to the main road. The rustler was unarmed; those had been warning shots to scare him off and perhaps teach him a lesson. After a thorough conversation they reassured us it was totally cool if we kept on birding. Soldiers gone, carry on! Let's get some MASKED LARKS!!!!
Despite that it was already mid-day, the birding was POPPIN'. We found the lark from earlier and it turned out to be a Red-winged Lark, which we should have known because it was huge. We then flushed a sandgrouse but had inconclusive photos on whether it was Liechtenstein's or Four-banded. The was some movement way up ahead on the track. In the ruts of the track were little puddles of water from some rain earlier. Drinking from these puddles were none other than the legendary...Masked Larks! In total, we estimated there we saw about 15 different individuals. Satisfied, we wandered further beyond the track and found 2 William's Larks, a lifer for Dom. I got a rare photo of one perching on a stick. We had reached the pinnacle of birding glory. If a stray bullet from the machine gun had pierced my chest and took me out right then and there, I would have died with a smile on my face.
We did a big loop back to the road, and found these little abandoned goat pens made out of thorns. It was here that we got conclusive views of a pair of Lichtenstein's Sandgrouse. There were also Capped Wheatears and a Great Spotted Cuckoo, among a plethora of other desert birds. Even though we didn't arrive until late morning, the birding was outstanding. I would rate it as one of my best days of birding in my life and the Masked Lark has to be in my top 10 Kenyan birds of all time.
Before we knew it it was 4:30 pm and time for us to reluctantly leave this desert paradise behind. We knew that to behold this desert spectacle during record rains was probably a once-in-a-lifetime experience for us.
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| Nyambene Reserve in its full rain-season glory |
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| Foxy Lark, but it looks a bit like a Gillett's Lark, doesn't it? |
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| the mythical Masked Lark |
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| William's Lark |
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| Capped Wheatear |
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| Lichtenstein's Sandgrouse |
We gassed up in Isiolo and made our way to our hotel in Archer's Post for the night.
April 16: Buffalo Springs National Reserve/Shaba National Reserve, camp in Samburu
While waiting for our breakfast at the hotel, we noticed some interesting house sparrows in the parking lot that were 'not quite right'. We concluded they must be Somali Sparrow/Indian House Sparrow hybrids since the head was mostly chestnut but gray in the middle. Huh!
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| Somali/House Sparrow Hybrid |
In Buffalo Springs, our first order of business was to search far and wide for two targets: the Somali Long-billed Crombec and the Somali Courser.
Dom was pretty impressed with his first Oryx. A very long and meandering game drive with constant scanning of the plains rewarded us with a pair of sublime sentinels known as Somali Coursers. We got epic views like 3m from the car.
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| Somali Courser |
It was hot as hell by mid-day so we went to the natural spring that gives this reserve it's name to cool off and have lunch. The natural spring is something everyone in Kenya has to visit once in their life. It's basically a swimming pool in the middle of the desert that's naturally fed by crystal clear, cool water from underground...it so amazing. In the parking lot, a Magpie Starling vied for scraps of bread against a swarm of Superb Starlings. Every time it tried to get the bread it was bullied by the Superbs and chased away. There were many species on this trip that were one-sight wonders and this was yet another one.
The Rockjumper birders from castle lodge rolled up and we told them about the Somali Coursers. They were keen as they had looked all morning without any luck. "We'll take you to the spot" I said. They weren't there but my friend Charles Mwangi who was guiding them texted me later and said they got 'em.
Later in the afternoon we entered Shaba National Reserve on the opposite side of the highway. This is traditionally the spot to get William's Lark in a big lava field fairly deep inside the reserve, but since we already had it on our list, our mind was on another desert bird: the Somali Bee-eater. The road was getting worse and worse. I can't say we didn't give it a good try, but our search only revealed more White-throated Bee-eaters, taunting us each time. Eventually we had to call it and turn around, otherwise it would get dark and they wouldn't let us into Samburu.
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| Some Grevy's Zebra in Shaba Reserve |
Entry at the gate was fairly smooth, but finding the public campsite by the river was a bit tricky and took a few attempts at different dirt tracks. We just about got our camp set up before dark.
April 17: Samburu National Reserve - full day
We woke up to an epic sunrise on the bank of the Ewaso Ng'iro River while the sounds of wild birds and beasts stirred in the wild African bush. The resident Vervet Monkeys and Baboons soon set about harassing us. I put my precious morning coffee down on the tailgate of the car for just a second and a monkey just casually went in and knocked it over, spilling it's precious contents on the ground. This little s**t would regret messing with my morning coffee. Jackson and I cornered it under some brambles with our slingshots and absolutely pelted it within an inch of its life. A satisfying revenge! Dom sounded disturbed: "I think you've made your point".
We drove up to Sopa lodge where Wilson told us to look for the mythical Somali Long-billed Crombec. On the way, we picked up Singing Bush-lark and Yellow-vented Eremomela (lifer). The guards were not too pleased about us wandering about 10 or 20 meters outside of the lodge gate, warning us that we were putting ourselves at risk of wild animal attack. Apparently the animals at our wild bush campsite had strict instructions only to attack when we were breaking a rule. Respectful of their directive, we got back in the car and expanded our search beyond the lodge grounds.
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| Pygmy Falcon |
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| Red-and-yellow Barbet |
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| Rosy-patched Bush-shrike |
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| The yellow-vented Eremomela has one of the nicest vents going |
Revitalized from cappuccinos at the bar, we resumed our Crombec search with a vengeance. All three of us were DIALED IN for this crombec. It was the last special Samburu bird I needed for my life list and I was NOT going to leave Samburu without one!!! We drove a couple km's west to where there's a pumphouse near a dried out riverbed, a place where we could walk around free of the prying eyes of the askaris. It was there that Jackson's keen eye detected the one we'd been looking for, flitting around in a bush.
If I had to describe this bird to a non-birder or a blind person, the Somali Long-billed Crombec a class above all other crombecs. Only about 10 cm long, it would evade most casual observers. But to a crombec connoisseur, it is a masterpiece of proportion and minimalist beauty. The Somali Long-billed Crombec is adorned in a sublime symphony of restrained neutrals - each feather transitions seamlessly across a gradient of beiges that seduce the eye. A belly of toasted breadcrumb (Pantone-148) blending into whispered sand (Pantone-7401) and into a white throat that evokes the fluffy foam on a perfect cappuccino. Its eyes are little tangerines set into a face of moon-dust gray (Pantone-649). The Somali Long-billed Crombec has almost no tail - it doesn't need one - any more would be a needless extravagance. And the bill - two centimeters of sophistication - is slightly decurved, just enough to look dignified and perhaps faintly judgmental.
What a bird.
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| Somali Long-billed Crombec |
We headed back to the lodge to celebrate with some beers and a swim because it was sweltering hot. Whilst enjoying our beautiful cold beers, the birding continued - a flock of swifts soared overhead which contained Mottled Swifts and a single Alpine Swift. With a backdrop of Mt. Kenya, it was a magnificent sight!
We went back to camp to make an early dinner so we'd have enough time for an evening game drive. The big cats totally eluded us, but Dom was happy enough seeing Grevy's Zebras, Oryx's, Reticulated Giraffes and long-necked Gerenuk gazelles.
April 18th: Samburu morning then Mt. Ololokwe camping
Our last morning in Samburu. We were awakened by a herd of elephants walking along the far bank of the river and trumpeting loudly as they went. We were glad they were not on our side of the river!
We went for a drive near the base of the huge hill north of the river. It was now or never for the elusive Somali Bee-eater. Amazingly, we picked up a second Somali Crombec. We never did see the blaste Bee-eater, but we turned up something much rarer: the arch-nemesis of the Somali Long-billed Crombec. Nature's ultimate statement of flamboyance: a displaying male Fire-fronted Bishop. It's outrageous "bumble-beeing" flight display with its fiery golden rump ablaze in the morning sun was something glorious to behold. Our eyes twinkled like a Japanese anime character at the sight of this.
We had to drag ourselves away because our itinerary had us camping at Mt. Ololokwe that evening, a distinctive round-topped mountain in the middle of the flat desert. This mountain is well-vegetated and even has forest around its base, in its valleys and on its top. It is known for harboring quite a number of more northerly distributed bird species that are difficult to find elsewhere.
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| Mt. Ololokwe |
From the campsite, we scoped a pair of Verreaux's Eagles soaring along the cliff while setting up our tents. We camped like peasants below a castle, but dined like kings at the Sabache Camp restaurant, a blend of stinginess and luxury. A night walk would be perfect for digesting the feast of chicken and chips. We quickly dispatched African Scops Owl but had to venture further for the Northern White-faced Owl. We walked about a kilometer down the road where we heard one quite a ways off the road from a dried up riverbed. We played its call and with some effort got it perched high up in an acacia. We had to shift our position to get a look through all the branches at this bird but once we had it it gave us a long satisfying look. The only problem was Jack was not there, so Dom had to run up the hill and get him!
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| Northern White-faced Owl |
April 19th: Hike up Mt. Ololokwe
We got up at an audacious 4:30 am to meet our guide Jackson, which is mandatory for this hike. He had a rifle with him that looked more like an antiquity than a weapon. He told us that recently he was with a group that came upon a male lion lying on the path! It ran off when the group arrived, so he did not need to shoot it, fortunately!
On the path, at this very reliable spot, we got Stone Partridges running across the path. Up on top of the mountain we explored the mosaic of mini forests and grassy glades. We found some Common Wood-hoopoes. Dom spotted a Stripe-breasted Seedeater way at the top but I missed it as it darted away. Then another one perched way up on top of the tallest tree, we saw it for like 1 second before it zoomed away in a gust of wind.
We also picked up Little Rock Thrush at the top, and Cinnamon Rock Bunting. We detected a singing Strip-breasted Seedeater on the hike back down, getting a much better view this time round.
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| Stone Partridges |
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| Common Wood-hoopoe |
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| A view from the top of Mt. Ololokwe towards the Mathews Range - future territory hopefully! |
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| Stripe-breasted Seedeater |
We didn't have much time to dilly dally because we had to drive to Meru to pick up Adrian who was gonna meet us on the side of the road somewhere en-route. He took a shuttle all the way from Nairobi just to spend that last 2 nights of the trip with us. He couldn't afford to miss it and he would definitely not regret it!
Before we left camp though, we needed to top up one of the car tires. Dom took on this job while I was in the loo. But the pump could not reach the car, so he had to re-park it. That done, I hopped into the driver's seat and started to carefully reverse us out of there. Then, CRUNCH. What was that? I got out and saw that there had been a small tree in my blind spot about a foot from the car and I had scraped the side of the car against it. "That wasn't there before" I said, referring to the tree that had suddenly sprouted next to my car. I was correct, it wasn't. Unbeknownst to me, Dom had moved the car right next to this little tree and I failed to notice it. I really beat myself up about that!
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| Oops! |
But I could not wallow in my self-pity forever, for I needed to focus on the next part of our mission, set to be the climax of our raging roadtrip - the criminally underrated Meru National Park.
Trying to shorten our route, I take a left in Isiolo with the blind optimism of a man who trusts both Google Maps and asphalt. The first few hundred meters were smooth. Suspiciously smooth. The X-Trail is humming. I think What a gem of a shortcut.
At first the potholes appear like little dimples in the tarmac. I lazily steer around them with one hand on the wheel. Then dimples grow into craters. Both hands on the wheel now. The craters become geological features. By the second km, they are a mini topographical survey of the Rift Valley. Now the potholes occupy a solid 40% of the road and are about 4 to 8 inches deep. Left. Right. Hard left. Emergency swerve.
Then - just as I start getting a slalom rhythm going - the edge of the road simply disappears.
A steep cliff had eroded itself half way into the road. HARD RIGHT!
About half way through, the potholes start merging. Entire sections of road collapse into a single crater system leaving tiny islands of surviving tarmac in the middle. I was relying on the X-Trail's 6 inches of clearance and trying to straddle when I could. Then - the mother of all potholes. This one is simply wider than the X-Trail. There is no going left, no going right. There is only going through. The chassis creaks as I edge into the crater, hoping to not bottom out. The suspension murmurs hesitantly. Then - miraculously - we climb up and out the other side. We emerge from that pothole older, and perhaps wiser. We make it to the Hamlet of Muthura where we join back up with the main road - pure relief. Then, the X-trail speaks:
"Your are on the fastest route."
When we picked up the legendary Adrian Hinkle from the side of the road, the vibe turned up immediately, and our stress about smashing the car into a tree, the leaking tire, and the gauntlet of potholes seemed like distant memories. We had to stock up on food for our last 2 days. There wasn't a lot of selection in the tiny supermarket, but the the fruit stand was epic. We loaded up on pineapples, watermelon, bananas, mangos, DRAGON FRUIT! A frenzy of unemployed young men converged upon us in an attempt to help us haul the fruit over to the car for a quick buck. We said we didn't need any help but they carried the fruit anyway. Then they got mad when we drove off having given these good Samaritans only our words as thanks.
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At the gate, while I was arguing with the clerk about dumb hidden fees (like a foreign transaction fee to use my Kenyan bank card - bloody BS!), Adrian was focused on getting Dom a Pearl-spotted Owlet in the parking lot, his only one of the trip it turned out. Adrian was dumbstruck that Dom had seen practically every owl species in Kenya - even Marsh Owl and Cape Eagle Owl - but not the most common and easy to see Pearl-spotted.
I was still arguing with the gate attendant. "Tim, leave the man in peace" said Dom.
Basi, twende.
Upon the group's urging, I took an 'L' and got and us back on the road with one mission: To reach the Rojeweru River bridge before nightfall for Pel's Fishing Owl.
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| Adrian's keen ear picked up a Tiny Cisticola |
A large owl-like form flew away just as we rolled up and we only got a highly obstructed view of one of a Pel's behind lots of branches and at quite a distance before it took off again - an extremely unsatisfying look. There was also African Goshawk and several migrating Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters high in the sky. We waited around for a finfoot but it never materialized. We would need to return tomorrow. An evening cruise back to camp yielded a lifer Donaldson-Smith's Nightjar for Dom.
April 20th - full day in Meru National Park
This was our last full day of the trip and easily ranks in my top 10 most epic birding days of my entire life. In the morning, we drove to the park boundary. South of the main entrance, there's a perimeter road that leads to Riverside Lodge. We were searching for Orange-winged Pytilias that had been reported, along with Broad-tailed Paradise Wydah. We had good success with the pytilias, easily seering several of them pecking seeds on the road, although they were quite skittish. We had no luck with the wydah. The road was absolutely horrific and I'm convinced we did significant damage to the underside of the car on this segment. With 4 men in the car it had some effect on the suspension and clearance, so every time we drove through a dodgy washed out section full of big rocks, 3 of us had to get out of the car and walk then get back in. We eventually gave up on seeing the wydah, and had an idea of following a good quality track into the park to see if we could link up with the main road. The track got worse and worse however, but our curiosity kept us going "just a little further". Just before we were about to turn back, we heard this crazy call and Adrian thought it sounded like a Thick-billed Cuckoo. Crazy enough, there was one perched on a snag. We played its call back to us and it flew over the car. We set up the scope and had great views! This is a migratory bird of the miombo forest that is thought to be confined to the coast within its Kenyan range, so we were pretty surprised to see one this far from the coast! I guess the Tana River provides a corridor that birds can follow inland.
Pretty cool!
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| Thick-billed Cuckoo |
We went back to camp to relax and enjoy a long dip in Kenya's greatest swimming pool in the middle of Meru National Park and wait out the hottest part of the day.
When it turned to evening, around 4:30, we made our way to the Rojeweru River bridge to look for the legendary Pel's Fishing Owl which we had only glimpsed the day before. Shortly after arriving we saw two of them fly off in opposite directions, one upriver, one down. We followed the one upriver and got some fairly satisfying views of it although it was very shy. Each time we got a view it would fly further down the river. All this creeping around wasn't exactly the safest activity, what with hippos, buffalos, elephants, maybe even lions and hyenas creeping around, who knows. If those askaris from Sopa lodge were here, they would be very uncomfortable with our behaviour! It was just about to get dark when we were about to get back in the car. All of a sudden, I said "DON'T ****ing MOVE. PELS FISHING OWL, TURN AROUND SLOWLY." Nobody spoke a word.
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| Pel's Fishing Owl |
This huge Pel's was somehow perched atop a broken palm tree trunk right smack in the open and I'd only just noticed it. We got the scope out and had ridiculous full scope views and photos for 5 or 10 minutes. This owl was now looking at something below it. We could hear it was an elephant. There was a herd of elephants walking in the river below the owl. We got in the car and then the herd walked across the track we were on. We still had a smidgin of daylight left to wait for a Finfoot. It never came, but a strange bird landed on the riverbank upstream. In the bins we could just about make it out to be a White-backed Night Heron. It was cool to see one hunting in the dark!
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It was now basically dark and we drove back to the campsite, but the epicness was not over. We picked up a Sombre Nightjar and a Verreaux's Eagle Owl in the headlamp. Then, some eyeshine in the ditch. I stopped the car and put up my binoculars. A leopard! it was in a stalking stance - full hunt mode. We got about a 20 second view before it skulked into the thick bush. We got to the campsite absolutely elated. Jackson cooked us up some dengu.
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| Sombre Nightjar |
April 21 - morning departure back to Nairobi
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| Lesser Kudu |
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The drive back to Nairobi was relatively uneventful other than spotting a Lesser Kudu, fulfilling Dom's childhood dream apparently. Since we were driving back via Nanyuki to drop off Jackson, it would have been silly not to stop at Imenti Forest. We picked up Kendrick's Starling, White-eared Barbet and Moustached Green Tinkerbird with ease.
We stopped for some serious steaks at the Entrecote Kisima rest stop, dropped off Jackson in Nyeri, and continued on. By the time we'd reached Sagana, we were out of gas both figuratively and literally. My petrol gauge wasn't working but it was still cocky of me not to fill up in Nanyuki or anywhere else for that matter. Luckily, this is Kenya and we were back on the road within 15 minutes thanks to a passing boda boda driver wanting to make a quick buck.
April 22 - back to work/reality and rest for Dom
Dom had the whole day available but I had to go to work since it was our first day back for meetings and planning at the school. I had envisioned Dom travelling up to Thika to look for the Finfoot at Blue Post, but apparently the river had overflowed it's banks so instead he just stayed in bed all day to recuperate from all the raging. Possible Black-throated Wattle-eye at Karura was not enough to motivate him to go out again so instead he packed his stuff to prepare for his flight.
Here are some pics and videos of the flooding.
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| The school turned into perfect Finfoot habitat while we were away |
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