16FEB2007 “Arabuko Sokoke P1 - Treehouse Camping”

Friday we slipped away from work a little early, threw our camping gear into the car and headed up to Arabuko Sokoke Forest the largest stretch of forest remaining in Kenya and the only place that Sokoke Skops Owls and Golden-Rumped Elephant Shrews call home. We stopped for a quick beer at a cool little makuti pub called Hiden Pub in Gede, then arrived at the visitor center of the forest. Matthew, our appointed community guide, escorted us to the two tree platforms in the forest so we could choose where we wanted to spend the night. We chose the second, about 4 km further into the forest from the first, and in prime elephant territory. We had to pass through the electric elephant/buffalo fence to get to the treehouse, which consisted of a gap in the strung-wire fence with wires hanging down like a denuded beaded curtain. We drove through it and the wires trailed over the car. Matthew assured us that it was also safe to cross on foot, as long as you were wearing shoes. The tree house was in a 700 year-old baobab tree. There were two platforms connected by steep stairs. The first platform was about 10 meters off the ground and the second was another 10 meters. Our lookout from 20 meters up gave us a spectacular view of the swamp on the edge of the forest.


We decided to forgo the tent and just put our sleeping mats right on the platform under the stars. We feasted on cold pizza and wine straight from the bottle. As the sun went down, the frogs in the swamp started a steady crescendo that culminated in a roar. We had to shout to make ourselves heard. “The starts are really beautiful.” “WHAT?” “I SAID THE STARS ARE REALLY BEAUTIFUL”. “Oh, uh-huh. THIS IS REALLY ROMANTIC, ISN’T IT?” They kept it up all night long and we eventually gave up straining our ears to hear the elephants below.