March 10, 2019
Started from Nairobi to Aberdare National Park, a distance of approximately 240 kms. Takes around 3 to 4 hours. We stayed overnight at ‘The Ark’, a beautiful lodge with a viewing deck overlooking a lake and a ‘salt lick’. Like us, animals need salt too and they come to such places to ‘lick’ it out of the soil. Nature is amazing, isn’t it? You wonder how the animals know where to get their salt intake?
The main attraction of the lodge is this viewing deck which is floodlit and the guests can spend the night waiting for animals to appear. If you don’t want to wait the night out, you can request to be woken up in case a particular animal appears. We could only make it till midnight though. Tired from the day’s travelling and the afternoon game ride. Also had to get up early the next morning. However, we still managed to see elephants, cape buffalo, impala, bush buck and hyenas. A pack of hyenas were on a hunt and they appeared and disappeared into the darkness. We could hear them calling out to their pack members. Then a couple re-appeared and disappeared again. It was a thrilling experience. Had an hour-long discussion with Francis, one of the guides, about animals and the overall discipline found in nature. Each animal has a defined role in the eco-system and usually does not deviate from it. There are no incidents of rapes (adults or minors), murders, hoarding or greed. They simply function as they are meant to. Man is the only animal which indulges in all of the above unnatural things and then some :-(
