May 292010
A characteristic ingrained in a majority of the human race is appreciation for a good view. After the excursion my classmates and I embarked on today, I don’t think another view will ever compare.
We began traveling at 9 a.m. to our first destination, Kruger Farm. I’ve become accustom to deep potholes and bumpy roads, but the morning drive was… well, I was wide-awake once we arrived.
Kruger Farm is home to a family of Dutch Afrikaners that settled in Kenya after leaving South Africa. They run a large farming operation, complete with John Deere equipment, and offer tourist adventurers to see the wild animals that live around their property. Unbeknown to most of the group, we opted for the “climb-up-and-down-the-incredibly-tall-mountain-to-see-the-giraffes” package that took us straight up to the top of Sergoi Hill.
Que amazing view number one. The peak was littered with large rock formations which we made into lounge chairs while observing the landscape below. Farm lands stretched for miles broken only by small huts and dirt roads. The air at the top of already-7,000-feet-above-sea-level-land was thin, but the cool breeze calmed our sore bodies before we had to travel back down.
At the bottom, we encountered a small herd of antelope and a one-month-old giraffe. I tried to imagine what it would be like for a common, backyard animal to be a tower of giraffes rather than a dray of squirrels.
Fast-forward through the hike back to our vehicles and drive to the next destination and we arrived at Kerio View Restaurant, a breathtaking establishment with floor-to-ceiling windows that look out over the entire Kerio Valley: amazing view two. Neither words nor photography can describe the vastness of what laid below. Luckily, after a lunch of traditional Kenya food, including ugali, the group traversed, in vans, down the valley, stopping at various lookouts until we reached the Kerio River at the bottom.
From the river, we felt the drastic change in temperature: while the top featured a breeze cool enough for a sweater, the bottom induced enough sweat for my van to joke with our driver about going faster to increase the air coming in from our windows. And from the bottom we could look up to the top–a heaven’s length away from the Kerio River.
Once we arrived back at the restuarant for dinner, the once-scenic valley was bathed in darkness. From our table, only one source of light could be seen: a small, cooking fire on the opposite mountain. Flying over western landscapes, the view is covered in bright dots from lights that emit from urban and rural settings, but I imagine an airline view above the Kerio Valley would be completely black.
We began traveling at 9 a.m. to our first destination, Kruger Farm. I’ve become accustom to deep potholes and bumpy roads, but the morning drive was… well, I was wide-awake once we arrived.
Kruger Farm is home to a family of Dutch Afrikaners that settled in Kenya after leaving South Africa. They run a large farming operation, complete with John Deere equipment, and offer tourist adventurers to see the wild animals that live around their property. Unbeknown to most of the group, we opted for the “climb-up-and-down-the-incredibly-tall-mountain-to-see-the-giraffes” package that took us straight up to the top of Sergoi Hill.
Que amazing view number one. The peak was littered with large rock formations which we made into lounge chairs while observing the landscape below. Farm lands stretched for miles broken only by small huts and dirt roads. The air at the top of already-7,000-feet-above-sea-level-land was thin, but the cool breeze calmed our sore bodies before we had to travel back down.
At the bottom, we encountered a small herd of antelope and a one-month-old giraffe. I tried to imagine what it would be like for a common, backyard animal to be a tower of giraffes rather than a dray of squirrels.
Fast-forward through the hike back to our vehicles and drive to the next destination and we arrived at Kerio View Restaurant, a breathtaking establishment with floor-to-ceiling windows that look out over the entire Kerio Valley: amazing view two. Neither words nor photography can describe the vastness of what laid below. Luckily, after a lunch of traditional Kenya food, including ugali, the group traversed, in vans, down the valley, stopping at various lookouts until we reached the Kerio River at the bottom.
From the river, we felt the drastic change in temperature: while the top featured a breeze cool enough for a sweater, the bottom induced enough sweat for my van to joke with our driver about going faster to increase the air coming in from our windows. And from the bottom we could look up to the top–a heaven’s length away from the Kerio River.
Once we arrived back at the restuarant for dinner, the once-scenic valley was bathed in darkness. From our table, only one source of light could be seen: a small, cooking fire on the opposite mountain. Flying over western landscapes, the view is covered in bright dots from lights that emit from urban and rural settings, but I imagine an airline view above the Kerio Valley would be completely black.