Aberdares Tree Top Resort



Samburu - Elephants Crosing the River

 

Samburu - Elephants Crossing River

Another early morning departure for our small crew of 4.  Today we are heading to Aberdares park and the tree tops resort.  From what we had read, this place is top notch and we are both really looking forward to having hotel style accomodations for once.  On our way out of Samburu this morning, we exercised the African tradition of pole pole (slowly slowly) and watched the large herd of elephants we've grown accustom to seeing.  Today they were making their way across the river, this was an incredibly stunning sight to see the way they crossed the water in single file, baby in the middle holding on the momma's tail with her trunk.  It was at this point that I really began to get a feel for the natural beauty of Africa, to really appreciate how remarkable this place really is.  The elephants marched on through the river and actually came up the river bank directly beside our van, such beautiful creatures!  We continued making our way out of the park and made it about half way when our driver's eyes light up as he looks at our cook.  He slams the breaks and says "we have to go back, you guys forgot something".  Immediately I checked for my wallet and passport as I have a tendency to forget these all important items (I didn't leave it once on THIS trip!).  He started driving irradictly and we knew we were chasing an animal and not an item we had apparently left.  Eventually after weaving our way around dried up watering holes and bushes we come to a clearing with a large tree in it.  And what lies in the tree? None other then our very first Leopard!! This is what we had forgotten, we had forgetten to complete our big 5 viewing before leaving Samburu.  This was an incredible sight as we watched the leopard stretch out and get comfortable atop his tree limb...ah nature!





Samburu - Sleeping Leopard



 At last we make our way out of the park and head towards Aberdares and what we thought was going to be luxury.  The drive took us from Kenya's dry, remote north, back into the semi-tropical highlands in the centre of Kenya.  It is actually surprising how chilli it is here even during the day as I notice many locals in parkas and tuques!  It is their winter after all. 






Samburu - Yawning Leopard





We are dropped off at an affiliate restaurant which has a buffet lunch on offer. The food is pretty good, but the COLD beer is even better!  Eventually we are instructed to jump on the shuttle which will take us to the tree tops.  This is about a 30 minute drive and upon arriving we immediately think, yes this is a gorgous setting way up on top of a hill, but this hotel is not what we were expecting.  It looks like something that was built in the early 50s and had never been updated.  When we arrive we are given a 30-45 minute prep talk about how things operate here, we aren't really interested in a game drive so we make our way into the hotel for a nice hot shower.  Again, its not what we expected in that we thought we would have our own toilet and shower. Wrong! It was shared with our floor, but luckily everyone else was on safari so it was like we had the place to ourselves for the first couple of hours.  The tree tops hotel original concept is a brilliant one, originally it operated similar to a giant tree house which had a few bedrooms in it and you could watch the animals down below from the safety of the tree.  This newer version has two very large watering holes on either side of the hotel.  The hotel has a rooftop and a very large viewing area from which to view the animals, if there were any of interest.  They do have very large spot lights which allow you to see animals at night and some people spend the entire night on duty watching to see if anything comes around.  Again a neat idea, however it isn't like this is a zoo, the animals are free to roam anywhere within the park boundaries, so seeing animals is rare...we checked the log book and they had seen 2 cats the entire year.  It's like letting the animals come to you rather then going out to find the animals.  At this point for us, watching gazelle and buffalo is nothing novel and we're not very impressed...though I must admit when the hyena came at night, that was kind of cool! 



Tree Tops Resort

 It is world cup time and Spain is playing tonight, it just so happens there are several dozen Spaniards staying in the hotel tonight, so of course they are all very interested in watching the game.  The hotel set up an old TV with antenna in an empty conference style room for everyone to watch.  We thought it was a little rediculous that these people came all this way and they decide that watching the futball match is much more important then anything else.  People actually staked out their seats hours in advance of the game.  We watched the first half, then did some animal watching via spotlight, and then retired to our rooms to read and write.





Samburu - Leopard in Tree