Aberdares

Now that we have two kids in boarding school, we make a lot more trips to Kenya than we ever anticipated.  It's actually a lot of fun to return to a place that we used to live (sort of...haven't been back to Tenwek since 2013) and revel in the "familiar yet different" feeling.  Nairobi has changed in dramatic ways in the past 15 years or so, and yet there are also lots of experiences that remind us that we are still in East Africa.  We've spent time at Kijabe with the kids, and exploring Nairobi, and several times to Naivasha/Crescent Island.  This past weekend, for February midterm, we decided to try out a different part of Kenya, north towards Mount Kenya and the Aberdares.  Aberdares National Park is about three hours north of Nairobi and features a lot of mountains, forest, and beautiful waterfalls.  

One of the most famous sites is the Treetops Lodge, where Princess Elizabeth famously visited in the 1950s, and received the news that her father King George had died.  They like to say that she "arrived a princess and departed a queen."  So we swung by just to see where history was made. ◡̈ 

Most of the day was spent driving through the park on dirt roads, enjoying the scenery and trying to spot animals.  We mostly saw a lot of elephant poop, but did also see a few cape buffalo and a variety of antelope.  On the southern edge of the park, we stopped at Chania Falls for a picnic lunch, which was gorgeous.  Then on to Karuru Falls, the tallest waterfalls in Kenya.  It was epically beautiful, but also really cold, and the viewing platform was rather terrifying as the railing seemed less than sturdy.  

Chania:

Karura and the viewing platform:

For reference, I'll include a stock photo below.  The picture of us above it just the top part of the falls, one of three drops (and not even the longest drop).  It was a huge gorge!

The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing at a cute old colonial Air BNB, complete with relaxing porch and pizza oven!  After many failed attempts at communication with the gardener (wish we could speak Swahili...) we finally got a fire lit in the pizza oven and enjoyed making pizza, just like we do at Kibuye.  It was a great weekend hanging out with the kids and exploring a new part of Kenya.