Monday, May 16, 2011

My pale skin does not get along with the hot Kenyan sun!!


Do you see that giraffe behind me? AWESOME!!


The hippos can actually be pretty dangerous, but they were all sleeping when we drove by.


Beth and Jody at our "rustic" campsite.



Hiking the gorge at Hell's Gate.

I had a very adventurous weekend which including biking, camping, hiking, and boating. We started the weekend biking through Hell's Gate which is a national park with a variety of wildlife. We biked to a gorge and hiked down into the gorge, it was beautiful. We spent the night at a rather "rustic" campsite.


The next day we took a boat trip out on Lake Navasha and saw the hippos and lots of different birds which inhabit the lake. The boat took us out to an island where the movie Out of Africa was filmed. When the movie was made they shipped in all the animals. They shipped out all the dangerous animals after the movie was filmed (for example lions) and now people are allowed to walk around the island and get pretty darn close to the animals. My favorite part was getting about 10 feet from a giraffe enjoying his lunch.

Our final destination of the weekend was Mount Logonot. This mountain was an old volcano that has a large crater in the middle that you can hike around. I found out I am quite out of shape. The top of the moutain was 9,180 ft, my lungs protested the whole way up. It was beautiful but it was HOT!! The combination of hiking up the moutain at the peak heat of the day, my pale white skin, and walking on black lava rocks results in a pretty nasty sunburn despite copious amounts of sunscreen. My skin and the Kenyan sun do not get along well. The humorous part is always to see where you missed putting sunscreen - the back of my hands, my toes, my hair line, and the back of my knees. Lets just say I have some funny sunburn lines!


So the adventure did not end there....On the way home we ran out of gas on the side of the road and had to call for some help. When we arrived home to the IU house they were roasting a goat to celebrate the IU students graduation from medical school.

Overall, a very adventurous weekend. I slept very well last night. My skin and muscles are still recovering from the hike up the mountain. I hope you enjoy the pictures!!

2 comments:

  1. Mackenzie,
    WOW!! What an amazing way to really see the Kenyan countryside. So glad you are taking advantage of these opportunities. Love the pictures...love the blog!!
    Missing you...Mom

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  2. Holy cow - the animals are just incredible! The pics you are sharing are amazing ... so I cannot imagine what it is like to be there in person - and so close! Cool stuff - thanks for sharing so many pics!

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