We all woke up early the next morning, to the chatter of Mouse birds and Weavers. Its always funny to arrive at a place at night and discovering what it looks like in the daytime. The campsite we arrived at in the dark was situated in a small clearing on the very top of Emau Hill with amazing views into the canopies along both sides.
Black and White Horned Bills flapped back and forth between the highest surrounding trees, cackling along the way.
The campsite consisted of a large common area under a huge thatched roof, with a dining room and locally made adirondack chairs and cooking area, 5 bamboo & thatched roofs with permanent tents set up underneath, composting toilets and an outdoor bamboo shower. Small paths led to nice, flat spaces for additional campers, like us, but we had the entire place to ourselves, except for Mgumu, the resident blonde Lab mutt!
We met our guide, Hamisi, and went for our first hike into the jungle. All along the way, the path was lined with moss covered trees and logs, colorful fungi, massive ferns and epiphytes. We made our way very slowly, taking tons of pictures, turning over logs looking for bugs and frogs and listening to the birds and insects. We stopped at the Amani Butterfly project and then took a "shortcut" through the jungle up to the Mbomole viewpoint.
After our amazing first day in the jungle, we went back to Emau Hill to cook dinner. Earlier that morning, the caretaker, Mzee Obedi asked us if we had any requests of plans for dinner. We brought enough food to last us the whole trip, but we maybe it would be nice if we could get a chicken and grill it over the fire. Well, when we returned to the campsite, Mzee Obedi presented us with beautiful, fat, LIVE rooster! Feeling very gung-ho and rugged after our adventures, I decided that it was my time to kill my first chicken! I always thought that if you can't kill the animal, you shouldn't eat it. (although that doesn't stop me from eating the occasional burger) I felt like I could justify eating chicken if I killed one even once in my life.. I'll spare the gory details.. it was just as gross as I expected, but I do feel like I appreciate my chicken wings a little more now. ;)
After dinner, we returned to our tents to pass out after a great day of hiking. Just as we were about to get into our beds, we heard one of the staff at Emau come round to say, "Hodi! Kinyonga!" ("Hodi" is what you say when you are entering someone's home, sort of like, "anybody home?" or "May I come in?") I had already told everyone there about my love for kinyonga and that I wanted to go out at night looking for them, I didn't expect one to get delivered to our tent! He handed us a branch with a beautiful 2-horned chameleon on it, left and went to bed himself. We stayed up just a little while longer to play with our new friend before I reluctantly let him go on the tree over our campsite. I ♥ kinyonga.
Black and White Horned Bills flapped back and forth between the highest surrounding trees, cackling along the way. 
The campsite consisted of a large common area under a huge thatched roof, with a dining room and locally made adirondack chairs and cooking area, 5 bamboo & thatched roofs with permanent tents set up underneath, composting toilets and an outdoor bamboo shower. Small paths led to nice, flat spaces for additional campers, like us, but we had the entire place to ourselves, except for Mgumu, the resident blonde Lab mutt! 
We met our guide, Hamisi, and went for our first hike into the jungle. All along the way, the path was lined with moss covered trees and logs, colorful fungi, massive ferns and epiphytes. We made our way very slowly, taking tons of pictures, turning over logs looking for bugs and frogs and listening to the birds and insects. We stopped at the Amani Butterfly project and then took a "shortcut" through the jungle up to the Mbomole viewpoint.
After our amazing first day in the jungle, we went back to Emau Hill to cook dinner. Earlier that morning, the caretaker, Mzee Obedi asked us if we had any requests of plans for dinner. We brought enough food to last us the whole trip, but we maybe it would be nice if we could get a chicken and grill it over the fire. Well, when we returned to the campsite, Mzee Obedi presented us with beautiful, fat, LIVE rooster! Feeling very gung-ho and rugged after our adventures, I decided that it was my time to kill my first chicken! I always thought that if you can't kill the animal, you shouldn't eat it. (although that doesn't stop me from eating the occasional burger) I felt like I could justify eating chicken if I killed one even once in my life.. I'll spare the gory details.. it was just as gross as I expected, but I do feel like I appreciate my chicken wings a little more now. ;)
After dinner, we returned to our tents to pass out after a great day of hiking. Just as we were about to get into our beds, we heard one of the staff at Emau come round to say, "Hodi! Kinyonga!" ("Hodi" is what you say when you are entering someone's home, sort of like, "anybody home?" or "May I come in?") I had already told everyone there about my love for kinyonga and that I wanted to go out at night looking for them, I didn't expect one to get delivered to our tent! He handed us a branch with a beautiful 2-horned chameleon on it, left and went to bed himself. We stayed up just a little while longer to play with our new friend before I reluctantly let him go on the tree over our campsite. I ♥ kinyonga.
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