The Ark, a wildlife viewing lodge
Aberdare National Park,
Kenya
Wednesday, December 22, 2004
Aberdare National Park
We left first thing in the morning and took a 4 hour drive west into the countryside to get to Aberdare National Park, where we left some of our bags and headed to the Ark Lodge to stay the night. At the Ark there is a salt lick and watering hole right outside the building and there are viewing windows, balconies, and floodlights at night. On the bottom floor, there is a photo "hide" where you can take pictures at ground level and with no glass between you and the animals! We sat and enjoyed watching elephants, cape buffalo (like water buffalo), a hyena, a rhino, warthogs, and bushbuck (a type of antelope), 3 genets (small cats) come visit the salt lick. The genets were really neat to watch, all of them playing with each other right in front of the window, eating the moths that were attracted by the lights. Each room in the Ark has a buzzer and buzzes a certain number of times (depending on the animal) throughout the night so you can go watch them. The animals were so close, only about 20 feet from us! We were only woken up once during the night, and it was for a rhino. But it was cool to watch the rhino interact with the cape buffalo and show them that she's the boss in those parts. The other animal we saw that day, were the elephants who, again, were right in front of the window, eating the salty mud.
