Kakamega

A few weekends ago, Mike and I, along with two of our IU House buddies, went to Kakamega Rainforest. Many of you will remember Kakamega as one of my favorite trips from Kenya v. 1, and I was excited to go again, as well as to have Mike with me this time. Also exciting was that we got to spend the weekend at Rondo House, which is the best place to stay in Kakamega (Rondo was booked when I went the first time, so we ended up camping instead). It’s actually an old compound of manor houses dating back to the British Colonial times, now converted into a very nice, if a bit quirky, hotel. We stayed in the main house, which has a full wrap-around patio with excellent views of the rainforest.

We left Eldoret Saturday morning, and in a quick ninety minutes on surprisingly good roads, we were at Rondo. We spend the rest of the morning reading & relaxing, then left after lunch for our afternoon hike. We hiked for about three hours until we reached the Yala River, which, according to our guide, flows directly into Lake Victoria. The views of the forest on the way to the river were as stunning as I remember, with countless birds, flowers, trees, insects, and monkeys to keep us (and our cameras) occupied along the way. After reaching the Yala, which was a sight to see in and of itself after all of the recent rain, we hiked another two hours through the forest, through a large guava orchard, and then finally along the road back to Rondo. We were lucky in the weather department, we got rained on only once and for not that long. As soon as we got back to Rondo; however, the skies let loose an impressive deluge that we rather enjoyed from the porch. Being in it probably would not have been nearly as much fun.

After an early dinner and a quick game of Catan (which I won, by the way, DESPITE the fact that Mike was also playing), it was an early bedtime for everyone. At 5AM on Sunday morning, we awoke for our sunrise hike. We hiked about an hour in the dark, up some very steep and muddy trails, but the view at the top was so worth it. We saw a beautiful sunrise over the rainforest canopy, took tons of pictures, then hiked back down for breakfast. Afterwards, we spent the morning reading and relaxing. I found a reading spot further out on the grounds, right next to the forest, and proceeded to fall asleep almost immediately. I awoke to the sounds of a church service occurring in the compound’s tiny chapel right next to me, including familiar hymn tunes with Swahili words. Interesting. After lunch we checked out, made the quick trip back to Eldoret, and got ready for another week. On the way home, Mike was able to get some great shots of the various things you see along the road in Africa: the bustling Sunday markets, families walking home in their Church Best, donkeys and goats mingling with shopkeepers and matatu stands… it’s easy to describe the individual components, but the collective image of everything is difficult to convey completely. As our new buddy Danielle says (one of the IU House crew this time around): “TIA!” Which simply means: This is Africa.