Lake Baringo: Camping with the hippos...

For two nights over the Easter weekend we camped on the shores of Lake Baringo at Robert's Camp. We dug out our trusty Eureka and Kelty tents (that have served us so well since Cora was born) and pitched them close to the shore of the lake. We had heard hippos graze around your tents at night, and indeed signs indicated as much; we weren't really prepared for how close the grazing would get, though! The first night we were awake much of the night as hippos grunted, jostled each other and grazed right outside the tent. The ground vibrated when they ran and we could hear them crashing into the water just several metres away. The second night we got up at 4 a.m. to discover a pair of huge hippos just behind our tent, only about 1 metre away. Wow! A close encounter, indeed! Jackson's hornbills were plentiful at the camp, as well, and even came to visit while we had snacks at the Thirsty Goat restaurant, hoping for a bite of something tasty. On a nature walk we also encountered black and brown scorpions, we sampled cactus fruits and we learned a lot about termite hills and termite colonies. The water levels at Lake Baringo are much higher than normal, and for almost two years the lake has covered 40 extra kilometres. That means several properties have been flooded and destroyed, including a posh hotel close to Robert's Camp.