Return to the Rift
Most of my work trip to Kenya was spent in Nairobi, but before flying out on the afternoon of Sunday, April 12 I had a day and a half to go around outside of the capital. Lankas and I worked out an itinerary that took us to several spots around the Great Rift Valley , including the valley floor and the highlands on its eastern rim, giving me a chance to see a good diversity of Kenyan birds and possibly even an endemic or two. We were unfortunately still stuck with the same dodgy driver who'd almost ruined the previous day's outing to Nairobi National Park, but had no further incidents this time–which was good since as much as I loved Kenya I didn't really feel like missing my flight home or getting stuck in the middle of the countryside. Lankas picked me up at my hotel before sunrise on Saturday morning, and we began the drive north. Nairobi is surprisingly high up–almost 1,800 meters above sea level, higher than Denver or Kathmandu–but we had to go still higher before w...