The Girls' had been back for almost three weeks and we pretty much hadn't done anything outside the house, let alone outside the compound (outside of Kerry and mine's 2nd Anniversary dinner, which was fantastic); everyone was finally on a (semi) normal schedule and Grandma was in town for another couple days, so we decided to take a little trip. Given that we are now traveling with a small baby, now, we had to find some place that was within a reasonable driving distance, could affordably house the four of us, and was somewhat baby friendly.
For sometime I've been harboring a desire to go to a place in the central highlands known as the Aberdares Forest. The Aberdares area--approximately two hours North of Nairobi and close to Mt. Kenya--is known for a couple of things, most notably coffee production and being the final resting place of the founder of the Boy Scouts, Lord Baden Powell.
Being a coffee drinker and an Eagle Scout, and having a desire to travel in the mountains, I felt the Aberdares fit the bill.
I did some asking around and heard about the Aberdares Country Club, an old colonial-era farm that had been converted into a small resort. The website looked promising and the kicker was they rented two bedroom cottages with fireplaces, which in winter in the mountains comes in handy (it gets down to a nippy mid-50s at night).
We got kind of a late start on Saturday, having to go back to the house for a forgotten bag then backtracking a second time because of a traffic jam that occurred right before getting on the highway. Those minor bumps aside, we had a smooth drive through the countryside; Kerry snapped a couple of typical scenes one encounters on the rural highway, though we missed the guys selling strings of fish to people in the public taxis (Matatus) at the rest stop (can you imagine riding in Kenyan public taxi with a bunch of dead fish?? Yeah, so can I).
We arrived at the lodge and it was everything the website and TripAdvisor made it out to be. We checked in to our cottage and were greeted by a couple neighborhood animals.
We had ambitious plans at the start of our journey to do a game drive or a walking safari, but really all we wanted to do was hangout, enjoy the view, and catch up on sleep.
Kerry and I left Aliza with grandma that night and enjoyed a nice dinner in the old dinning room and sat outside with some drinks and enjoyed the night air. We got back to the room, made a fire, and passed out.
The next morning, I went in search of early morning coffee and was able to get a nice silhouette of Mt. Kenya. By the time we all went for breakfast, however, clouds had consumed the mountain and no one believed me when I said it was where I said it was. Following breakfast, we decided that we would skip our previously planned walking safari for additional lounge time. We packed up just before lunch and headed back to Nairobi.
So while we didn't actual get to see the Aberdares forest--or the grave of Lord Baddon Powell--the Aberdares and the Aberdares Country Club remain on our list of places to travel back to.
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