Weekend at the Lake, Kenya

Janet and I celebrated our birthdays this weekend. Our birthdays are just days apart - so it was very fun to get together. A friend of ours invited us to their lake house for a few days.

We drove up through the tea fields, then across the escarpment of the Great Rift Valley. Beautiful doesn't even begin to describe the scenery in this part of Africa. The bright colors of the roadside stands stand out against the different shades of green and brown. Bicyclists grab onto the back of trucks trudging up the steep slopes.

When we turned off the main road, the path became two tire tracks going through a pasture. We bounced our way across the field when we had to stop to allow some zebra to cross our path. On our left, some giraffe stopped chewing on leaves long enough to look at us.

Out at the lake house, we enjoyed tea time with our friends and some great meals. At night, hippos come up from the lake to eat the grass. The yard has a big ditch around it to keep the hippos from getting too close to the house and people. Every night I fell asleep to sounds of nature.

We took walks through the fields. Often troops of baboons ran in front of us – just far enough that we were safe from them. On the left of us, Thompson’s Gazelle and zebra grazed. We walked to a scenic overlook. We could see the lake below and the beautiful layers of mountains and hills. One afternoon we visited Crater Lake. This small lake is at the bottom of a crater. It is supposed to have special healing powers for skin problems.

It was a great way to spend time with my friends and celebrating two birthdays! Africa is at its best when you are out of the city and close to the animals. It’s the romantic Africa described in books and depicted in movies!