Mount Kenya Safari Club

A few weekends ago we ventured into town and treated ourselves to the Mount Kenya Safari Club Sunday Brunch. You know its fancy when there's a peacock just struttin' around. The food was incredible, they have 10 tables with food from all over the world, fresh-made naan, all sorts of sauces, meat roasting right in the courtyard, and desserts, oh the desserts. After 3 plates of food, I realized that there is in fact, an entire separate stomach for dessert. The science has been done.

The food was amazing, but that was not the best part of the trip. The club runs an orphanage for animals unable to return to the wild after injury or abandonment. AND YOU CAN PET LITERALLY EVERYTHING! We moseyed on over after brunch to check it out....

There is basically a huge enclosure where all the ungulates, birds, and primates hang out waiting for people to come feed them treats. Here, I am feeding a bongo some delicious grasses. Bongos. Love. Selfies.












So what is a llama doing in Kenya? Apparently a very wealthy businessman from South America visited Safari Club and decided that the climate would be perfect for some llamas, and that Safari Club could benefit from them as well.

We even got to feed Black and White Colobus monkeys that hang out around the club. The most surreal moment for me was when you realize exactly how similar we are to these little guys. (Other than looking like a grumpy old man). When another primate species is holding your hand, with it's uncannily similar hand, and looking into your eyes, with all too familiar eyes, you realize the depth of this animal. That they have complex feelings too, and also love snacks. There's no denying evolution.
























 

I was feeling zen with the crested crowned crane, in crane pose. 

 When I said that you could pet everything, I really did mean literally everything. This is why I love Kenya, because there are no rules. We got to meet this sweet girl, Duma. When I knelt down to pet her, the hair on the back of my neck stood up as she made this grumbling noise, primitive parts of my brain apparently still work. Then I realized that she was PURRING! Cheetah's are the only large cats that can purr. Like a big fluff ball, she wanted her ears scratched and let you know it.

 Naturally, I wanted to take a cheetah selfie, but Duma had another thing in mind...  

She leaned in, right up against me but as you can see, she was not paying any attention to the camera, rather my hair that slipped and brushed her face. In feline fashion, she sniffed it and decided to test this stuff out. She reached up and bit the ends of my hair, giving it a playful tug (Thanks mom for training my scalp with a no-mercy hairbrush policy when I was a kid). Although I didn't capture the hair biting, I did get the interest on her face a few seconds before the incident. After a trial tug, and a good reaction from this hair stuff, she full on went for it, paws and all. Cheetahs are large spotty kittens. With non-retractable claws.