Mount Kenya National Park - Kenya

Our second day in Africa, in May 2014, we left Nairobi in safari vehicles and drove 97 miles north to the Serena Mountain Lodge in Mount Kenya National Park. I was still just fathoming the unfathomable realization that I was in Africa and that I was going to  the famous hotel that was next to a water hole. This was going to be my first chance to see large African animals in the wild.  

The water hole in daylight. 

Area around the water hole at night, bathed in light.

Mount Kenya NP is 276 square miles and is surrounded by a forest reserve that is another 272 square miles. Together they are a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

Mt. Kenya, seen from the road on the way to Buffalo Spring. 

Several of us took a guided nature walk after we arrived and the rest of the evening, that night, and the next morning, we could gawk out at the water hole.

On our nature walk.

A cape buffalo skull.

One of our guides up against a tree.

Mount Kenya Guereza, also known as the eastern black and white colobus. 

This is some of the other wildlife that we saw:

Kolb's monkey, a subspecies of the blue monkey. 

Bushbuck

Genet out on the feeding platform at night.

Cape buffalo

African bush elephants near the water hole at night. 

Eastern warthog

Egyptian goose