We packed our bags and had a tasty cooked breakfast in time to set off at 7am for our hardest day of uphill. We started by retracing our steps from yesterday afternoon up the track, then turned off onto a footpath through the Hygenia forest and then out onto the more open heathland before climbing through the dramatically named 'Vertical Bog' (not that dissimilar from many peatbogs back home. The first half of the day’s walk was the steepest and after lunch it levelled off a bit through more open areas of tree heathers and lobelias (including Lobelia deckenii & L. telekii) fading into grassland in the Teleki Valley. There were lots of vole-runs through the grass – made by mice I was told. We arrived at MacKinders Hut, on an outcrop of moraine ... read more

We headed north out of Nairobi early the next day heading to Ol Pejeta Conservancy, home of the world’s two only surviving northern white rhinos. We had a brief stop to get some water & peanuts and other to go to the loo & look around a souvenir shop we bought a couple of bracelets. During the drive we also got our first sight of Mt Kenya with snow-capped peak & a growing cover of cloud. We checked into our room at The Stables and had a late lunch before heading out on my first safari drive! This also included a visit to Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary and Baraka, the black rhino who being blind was removed from the wild to his own large enclosure and now acts as their rhino ambassador. We also crossed the equator ... read more

I was down to cook lunch on Sunday but there was so much food left over after the Braai I had a very easy job! I did help Remi make veggie tempura for supper which we deep fried once in the afternoon then re-fried after the evening’s survey. As it was Remi’s last night and she wanted to fit in a last bat survey we headed out to the banana plantation and set up some harp traps and mist nets, as well as a light trap to see what insects are flying. We also spent a bit of time investigating banana leaves looking for the banana pipistrelle (Neoromicia nana) but sadly with no success. Just as we’d set everything up there were some flashes of lightning getting closer across a very ominous looking sky ... read more

My third week with African Bat Conservation started pretty sedately with Monday mostly spent updating my blog, sorting photos, identifying butterflies from an ID book discovered in the office & doing a draft of my article for the monthly newsletter. I also spent some time identifying the butterflies I had seen around camp. That evening we returned to one of the private gardens in an attempt to catch more dark-winged lesser house bats (Scotoecus hirundo) to include in Lena’s project. Sadly we didn’t get quite as many as last time with only five being caught in the mist nets, but this was enough for Lena to include. We also caught 3 Epomophorus labiatus fruit bats & a 3 yellow-bellied house bats (Scotophilus dinganii), the latter of which ... read more

My overnight flight out to Nairobi was fairly straighforward, although I was a bit sad it was still dark when we arrived. I then had nearly 8 hours to kill at the airport so I splashed out on entry to the Simba Lounge & nested on a sofa in the corner until it was time to go to my gate. I should have been suspicious that things were going so smoothly. With nerly 3 hours until my flight I glanced at the departures board & say it said “Final call”! Luckily the lady on the lounge desk told me not to worry, the gates wouldn’t even be opening for another 2 hours & my flight was half an hour late anyway. So in good time I headed down to the gate, only to find out from ... read more