Christmas at Lake Baringo

I had planned to include pictures with this post, but the internet is being so slow I had to abandon that idea. (Seriously, I clicked upload, went downstairs to play with the cats, grab a snack, and read a magazine article, and when I returned, the computer was still working on uploading my five photos.)

We spent Christmas camping on Lake Baringo in the Great Rift Valley. It was a fun trip, but I barely got any sleep. Lake Baringo is home to crocodiles and hippos, with informational memos posted at the camping site reception desk about how to avoid getting eaten by a croc or crushed by a hippo. Despite these warnings, Jeremy and our camping partners wisely chose a camping site right at the water's edge, and I warily eyed the crocs who were watching us as we pitched our tents. No one else seemed bothered by this, and they all slept peacefully. But I spent the night trying to ignore the sounds of grunting hippos and splashing crocs, and hoping dawn would come quickly!

The daylight hours were much better. We took a boat ride on Christmas morning, seeing lots of birds, more crocs and hippos, and throwing fish to fisheagles who swooped down from the trees and scooped the fish right out of the water with their talons. In the afternoon we took a nature walk, giving wide berth along the way to a male ostrich protectively guarding an egg, a venomous snake, and a beehive. Dangerous animals were clearly the theme of this trip!