Kruger Farms

So last week was a pretty low-key week for me, since I was knocked-down from Wednesday until Saturday with a nasty-bout of gastroenteritis/flu symptoms that I was told is inevitable when coming to Kenya. Thank goodness my turn is over with!

On Saturday, I was feeling MUCH better and decided to re-enter the world with a trip to Kruger farms with my good friends, the Purdue pharmacy bunch and my new medical school peers, Abe, Kaitlin, and Chris. The farm is an 8,000 acre piece of land in the Rift Valley province of Kenya, which is absolutely stunning as we found out! The farm is owned and operated by white Kenyans (which I didn't know existed) - the current owners were 3rd generation farmers of this land. Adopted giraffes have 1,000 of those 8,000 dedicated to them, and they are left free to wander and graze with occasional curious tourists like ourselves visiting for a peek at them :) We also caught some glimpses of a couple oryx's (small antelope/deer-like animals) as they sprinted away from us. Supposedly this farm has the largest single population of oryx's in the world, but I don't know how anyone figured that out since they move so fast and are so frightened by humans getting anywhere in visual range of them.

We first hiked up a very large hill to gain an awesome vantage point over the entire farm and much more! From our eagle-eyed view we could spot the giraffes in a field below grazing next to cows - that's right, regular old dairy cows! Just another realization that though this scene of agriculture could possibly come from somewhere in the Midwest, the addition of a giraffe or two reminds you you're not in Indiana anymore :)

After enjoying the fruit of our labor by cooling off and taking pictures in the breeze at the top of the hill, we began our descent down towards the giraffes. In no time, we were walking up the dirt trail towards these graceful and gentle animals, that simply stared at us as we approached. I really wish I could know what they were thinking as our group of students stood there staring at those giraffes staring right back at us! No sooner had we finished our photos with the group of giraffes we'd spotted from the hill did we spot a few extra giraffes behind us, peeking from between the trees to see who was making all of that noise (can you see the giraffe in this picture?)

After this lovely hike on such a beautiful African day, we began our journey back to the car to Eldoret. This was perfect for me, because in this short afternoon I'd moved more than I had in the last 3 days prior!