Day 4 & 5 Arijiju

The evening was spent reminiscing about the day, the helicopter ride, the views, and the elephants were all still on our minds. We enjoyed a late dinner and then off to bed for another early morning.

We woke up and suited up in chaps and helmets. We were heading to the local Borana barn for a horse back ride.

We headed to the barn, and on our way we stopped to check out two more black rhinos. We had searched for hours the day before, today we weren’t looking, and there they were.

Rich, our house host was guiding us on a ride through the Borana conservancy. We were not all experienced riders, so we were given a brief tutorial. We then headed out. We immediately came across three giraffe munching on the Acacia Trees.

We walked through the tall grass praying we did not see a lion or snakes. We road down into an area we had driven by the day before. There was a lake on one side of a land bridge and a green area full of Acacia trees, baboons, zebras and impala on the other side of the bridge.

We saw a Grevy Zebra in the same area. The Grevy Zebra are adorable, they have large floppy round ears. They are described as Micky ears. The Grevy are endangered because they keep cross breeding, and have lowered the numbers of purebreds.

As we road deeper into the area we saw two large owls sitting on a tree branch. As we neared the two owls, one flew off the branch spreading his large wing span. His wing span was close to 5 feet. He flew across the tundra to another tree. Riding through this area seemed a bit surreal. It was quintessential Kenya!

We road for about two hours and came across wildlife at every turn. Fortunately, we never saw a lion or snake. As we were nearing the end of the ride, we came up to the local airstrip. The airstrip was covered with Thompson Gazelle and Zebras. We finished our ride with hungry bellies. We were ready to head back to the house.

We were all pretty exhausted from the previous day’s excitement. It was our last day at Arijiju and we all wanted to stay and enjoy the house.

Our fearless leader and guide, Paulo convinced us we needed to go for one more game drive. We headed out in the early evening. We looked for more animals, again we saw the Rhinos.

They took us up a hill and when we arrived we saw the team from Arijiju. There was a camp fire set up in the rock of the mountain top. They had cushions and blankets to sit on. A hand wash station, a bar, and a table full of snacks were also sitting along side of the fire. Every detail was perfectly thought out.

We again were blown away by the experiences we were having. The people in Kenya are such happy and kind people. They have done everything to make sure we are enjoying ourselves.

We finished the evening with a beautiful dinner in the courtyard at the house. We were not ready to leave this special place, but the time had come.

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Thank you to Della, Amy, Rich and the entire team at Arijiju. None of us want to leave. You have made us feel so welcome, and made our time with you so memorable!

Again, we can’t thank Anastasia Africa enough for these over the top experiences. We are loving Kenya and its people!