After being greeted with fresh coffee outside of my tent, I went up to the restaurant for a nice breakfast before heading out on a boat for a trip around the lake to see some local wildlife – mainly comprised of bird watching. We started by circumnavigating the island to spot local birds, hippos, and some bubbling hot springs at the opposite end of the island. While the camp section of the island was full of cool leafy trees, the rest of the island had largely been stripped of all trees for firewood – a major problem throughout Kenya.
Then the boat took us across to a locally run conservatory of animals. We saw lots of birds, including ostriches with eggs and big owls. We also saw a number of giraffes, monkeys, and rock hyrax, a rock dwelling elephant-related mammal (with small tusks). We fed a fish eagle a dead fish by whistling for it and then watching it swoop down to pull the fish out of the water.
We all took a shot at paddling one of the tiny homemade fishing rafts, made entirely of locally sourced balsa wood. The rafts are very light and fragile and held together by nylon string. They are very tippy and will sink and fall apart easily if too much weight is added – which included most of us.
After another hot day in the tropics, we were treated once again to a late afternoon storm blow in an cool the climate down beautifully for the evening.
