Lake Baringo and Baseball!

Due to the 50th anniversary of Kenya's independence the whole family had a surprise four day weekend. The actual anniversary was last Thursday (Dec 12th) but then the government at the last minute decided to make Friday a holiday too -- so walla -- four days in a row off!

Since we had the time we decided to head out to Lake Baringo -- it was at least a four hour drive north-west of Nairobi. I was up there last year on my way to Mt Tiati and had heard about this camp on an island in the middle of the lake.

When making the reservations we thought we'd have a new car in time for this weekend's excursion, but due to circumstances beyond our control we still don't have the car. Thus we had to take our jalopy of a rental car up there. Most of the road up there is quite smooth but about 15 miles from the destination the road degrades into potholes, gravel, and paths through riverbeds. It was a little hairy but since I was up there last year I at least knew what to expect. Luckily our trusty Probox powered through. As a side note these Proboxes are used often in rural Kenya as shared taxi's -- so when people saw us driving by they were frantically waving hoping to get rides. I'm sure they were quite surprised to see an American family out for a vacation using one...

our "tent"

view from the tent

In order to get to Island Camp you park at the lake shore and take a boat across the lake to an island which is where the accommodations are. It was quite luxurious. We had a nice safari tent with a beautiful view overlooking the lake and near-by islands. A short walk away was a pool, restaurant and bar.

swimming pool high about the lake

fish eagle

At one point during our stay we enjoyed a boat ride on the lake and got up close to lots of birds and crocs. The weekend there was a great way to get out of the hustle and bustle of the city and enjoy a really peaceful and serene part of Kenya.

But we couldn't spend the whole weekend frolicking in paradise -- Sunday was the World Series! Matthew has been playing baseball that's organized by some folks affiliated with the Embassy and this past Sunday was the championship of the season. Matthew and all the kids had a great time and even the Ambassador stopped by to provide his support.