Kakamega for a day

A few weeks ago, yes its taken me this long to get around to blogging about it, we headed up to Kakamega Forest for a day trip.  It was kind of a last minute thing but what's nice about the forest is its near enough that it can be a last minute type of thing.  This is especially true as they have finally fixed the road between here and there so what was a long 2.5 hour bumpy ride now is a 1.5 hour smooth trip. 

Some of the beautiful roses in the gardens of Rondo Retreat

We got to Rondo Retreat, a Christian hotel in the forest, at about noon and decided to get a bite to eat before hitting the trails.  They didn't have much selection (cough cough we didn't get to choose our lunch) and it was a bit over priced but nice.  The retreat has its own set of maintained trails which are very nice compared to Kenya Forestry Service's trails.  They are much wider and don't have as many tripping hazards.  We chose the 4 hour path and decided to see where it took us.

The trail

Walking in Kakamega is like walking back in time.  It makes you wonder what it was like back when all of Kenya looked like this.  It even takes you further back and makes you think this has to be close to what Adam and Eve experienced in Eden.  Your senses are just overwhelmed with the sounds of the forests from the insects to the birds to the occasional monkey swinging through the trees.  Its just breathtaking. 

We didn't see too many animals but probably saw about 100 horn bills.  The horn bill is this huge bird with a really deep beak.  Its really neat to see them soaring across the sky.  A few monkeys swung their way across our path and we, maybe not so gladly, saw a few insects as well. 

A slug on branch

Overall it was a great day.  We got back to the retreat after a few hours and spent some time in the gardens testing out a new set of Frisbee golf disks.  It was definitely worth the drive and better then just being lazy around home!