It is sunrise.  I’m overlooking a waterhole at the Ark Conservancy in the Aberdares.  A Cape Buffalo is drinking water as a half dozen little birds hang from him picking off ticks and other parasites from head and back.  Three crowned cranes majestically strut around greeting the morning.  Mt Kenya again greets me, this time from further away, rising out of pink clouds.  Wow, the sun is coming up a fushia ball emerging from clouds.  Amazing sight.  Egyptian ducks float on the water with families of duckling paddling behind.  Some more buffalo are coming to the salt lick along the edge of the waterhole as the first group wander off to start grazing.  Yesterday, Naiboku and I arrived in the afternoon to this idyllic place.  We spent the afternoon watching herds of elephant and buffalo move in and out of the waterhole area.  At points around the lodge we saw many birds, genet cats, bush baby and mongoose.  Bush buck and the Giant Forest Hog were also frequent visitors.  Even a large number of hyena made appearances now and then, passing by with an ominous presence.  A couple of times I saw either a buffalo or an elephant stand off with a lone hyena trying to pass too close and be sent running the other way.  Once a big male buffalo followed a hyena all the way to the other side of the waterhole and watched it as it disappeared into the trees.  Like a bouncer kicking an unwanted person out of a party. 

This is the second morning of our wildlife adventure.  Yesterday morning we woke up in Elsamere, a conservancy center on the shores of Lake Naivasha.  After breakfast we got into a boat and went cruising among the hippos and birds.  Very fun.  It is amazing to think how many hippos are just hanging out under the water unseen from above.  We were going along enjoying the water beauty and our boat man pointed out a bird that he said was standing on top of hippos.  All we could see was a lot of water hyacinth.  He banged the bottom of the boat and bit and suddenly a bunch of heads emerged out of the weeds!  Huge heads!  There were at least 7 or 8 hippos just lounging about in the water.  Hard to know exact number as they would take turns taking a look at us and then submerge again.  Naiboku had never really seen hippos in the wild, especially up so close.  We found several groups as we moved along the bank of the lakes.  Also the fish eagles are cool.  They would swoop down near the boat to pick up treats thrown out for them. 

Sun well up now.  Time for breakfast and heading onto our next destination.