Alluded to in our last posting, those two weeks in late December and early January were hell: a house will limitless problems, including loss of power, loss of water, and a mystery dead animal in our ceiling that we couldn't find and was stinking up the place (turns out it was a dead rat). Added to that was that each family member got some type of illness--possibly rat related--and Aliza had a particularly rough patch with a cold and a fever. Following a particularly soul-crushing night of crying baby and no sleep, we went to the travel agent the next morning and booked the first trip we could find out of Nairobi. Our option, the Mt. Kenya Safari Club.
As you can see in the link, the Mt. Kenya Safari club is located at the foothills of the famous Mt. Kenya and was the business venture of golden era movie star William Holden in the late 1950s and early 1960s, which was Kenya's golden era for rich people going on real safaris (when you could still go on a real safari).
Several people at work had raved about it and said that it also was a great place to take children, so we were eager to check it out.
We packed up the car early Saturday morning and headed north towards Mt. Kenya. The area we were headed, Nanyuki, was very close to where we stayed when we went to the Aberdares Country Club, we knew the road well and enjoyed a fairly leisurely and relaxed drive. Nanyuki is located on the equator and the town has developed a pretty good cottage industry to capitalize on that. Since Kerry and Aliza hadn't been up this route before, we stopped to snap a picture of Aliza on the Earth's waist.
Ten minutes later we were at the lodge. It was fantastic. The main lodge and the rooms have grand views of the mountain and everything had the vibe of a quality-run hotel (which is was). Our room wasn't available right when we arrived, so we took the opportunity to take a relaxing lounge on the well manicured lawn. We are pretty much permanently outfitted to lounge in a yard or in a field these days--two of Aliza and Mosby's favorite activities--and we enjoyed the nice breeze and the smell of fresh, non-polluted, country air.
We finally got into our room, which was great, minus the fact that we were next door to a French family that seemed to have a weekend long game of trying to make as much noise as possible for as long as possible, and our room seemed to be located right next to the empty bottle and firewood collection point. This was our only major complaint the whole weekend, but since we were there to relax, we didn't mention it.
We had a few hours till dinner and after looking at the list of activities, decided that the best activity would be to go to the animal sanctuary located at the property entrance. The sanctuary was a hold over from the Holden legacy and is home to a small variety of animals being rehabilitated for eventual release back into the wild. This was a perfect activity for the three of us and Aliza seemed to get a kick out of seeing all the animals, although when it came time to feeding them, she was actually more interested in the food, despite my creative photography that suggests otherwise.
The sun was starting to go down, so we went back to the room and got changed for dinner. As we learned in Zanzibar, romantic dinners have given way to the speed date; we're in and out in less than thirty minutes. We've taken some perverse pride in the ability to logistically accomplish this, but as a general rule, there is nothing to be smiling about a rushed dinner at nice hotel.
We headed back to the room following the meal and Kerry got Aliza ready for bed. Once the baby was asleep, the two of us sat out on the porch with a couple drinks enjoying the stars and the cold night.
We woke up Sunday morning and decided we wanted to take a walk before we checked out. The only option that really fit our timeline was walking around the entire property. While it was nice to get out and move around, it was basically walking around a golf course and we all decided it was rather lame. So we went back, packed up, and I had the hotel pack us two box lunches for the road.
It was a great weekend get away and totally recharged our batteries from the previous weeks. We already have reservations to go back and are looking forward to taking advantage of a few more of the amenities.
