Lake Chala Camping II

We went camping to Lake Chala, which I've already written extensively about in our previous two trips. It's turning out to be the perfect weekend getaway as it's affordable and close (1 1/2 hours) while still providing the wide open feeling of nature.

Hiking in the savanna is pretty awesome because you can easily blaze your own trail between high grasses and acacia trees. The only unfortunate part is the high grasses usually brush off small thorns and acacia trees can give a serious prick. Shrikes even use the thorns of an acacia to impale and tear their prey apart (lizards, birds, mice). However, the off-trail nature can lead to some nice wildlife sightings as we came face to face with a lesser kudu during one of our hikes. We were in some tall grasses with much thicker vegetation than the rest of the area and we were no less than 10 ft from the solitary by nature lesser kudu.

I did NOT take this picture but you can see it's easy to ID a kudu from other ungulates. 

The rest of the trip was spectacular as usual. The weather was perfect; overcast so it wasn't too sunny and no rain. This being the second time we've camped we also packed with a bit more wisdom and experience and didn't bring anything we didn't need. 

The last time we came we were worried about baboons taking our food. This time the baboon troop was roaming around the campsites and when we came back from a hike there were more than 20 baboons scampering around our site! They had dug up the fire-pit while excavating the bag that our greasy samosas were in. They were easily scared off though they lingered on the periphery of camp which was somewhat unsettling. I know monkeys are exotic and fun, but when it comes to chimps and baboons, they kinda sketch me out. The last thing I want is a desperate and hungry troop of baboons pursuing the instant noodles in my backpack!!!

Good 'ol campsite number four, furthest away from main camp. 

Me, looking like a super tourist. We were headed down to the lake for a swim and as ridiculous as the hat looks, it totally saves you in the relentless Chala sun. Some tourist guide at the bar tried to sell me a safari and a hike up Kilimanjaro and I was annoyed till I realized how much I looked like the classic tourist. 

Dried out river bed. 

Mini-gorge. 

One of the luxury huts and the huge landscape. 

Lake Chala. 

View from the luxury hut porch. Most of them are usually unoccupied so we occupy the porch for the sunset. 

If you look carefully, you can see a baboon on the roof of the last hut. 

The motorcycle all geared up. It's a bit tight but still pretty comfortable. The bungees we used are cut up inner tubes spliced together. Needless to say, I'm always very fastidious when tying the stuff down!