ol donyo wuas

After a long and emotional work week for both of us, we decided to take a weekend to ourselves in southeast Kenya, the Chyulu Hills. The journey to the gorgeous rolling, green hills overlooking Mt. Kilimanjaro was an adventure, to say the least. As we sat in the twenty-person airport, we joked about the tiny yellow, four-seater plane at the end of the lineup on the runway. As it turns out, that was exactly the plane we took for our one-hour trip to the hills. Erik, being the polite gentleman he is, decided to sit in the very back of the plane. It wasn't 15 minutes into the flight when his entire back was drenched in sweat, his hands were clammy and numb, and his vision started closing in. Had the flight been any longer, he certainly would've passed out in the back of the plane. The hotel was absolutely stunning. Our personal villa was completely open to the elements - only a heavy drape separated us from the monkeys and eagles right outside at night. The outdoor stone shower overlooked a popular waterhole, where elephants frequently came to rehydrate after a day on the prairie. We could've spent the entire weekend, glass of wine in hand, looking out over beautiful hills (and we almost did). On Saturday, we forced ourselves to be adventurous and decided to experience the game reserve via horse. Keep in mind, neither of us has ridden a horse in about 20 years, so we were quite the sight to be seen. Erik, ironically, got the lazy horse who consistently took shortcuts through the thorny brush and snacked on grass at every stop. Lindsay had the fear of death in her eyes the entire time and today is unable to sit on hard surfaces. We did, however, get to photograph animals from amazingly short distances. The highlight of the day was a glass of wine (again) with salted cashews as we overlooked the sun setting behind the volcanic mountains and wispy clouds. We certainly felt as though we deserved it after that terrifying, uneasy walk through the bush. Our trip went without a hitch until this morning's encounter with an angry elephant. On the drive to the dirt-strip airport, we spotted an elephant casually eating in the trees. We turned off the engine of the 4x4 to observe, and before we knew it, the curious elephant approached our vehicle. Straight-backed and holding our breaths, we watched as he slowly came from behind the trees and stopped 5 feet dead-square in front of the car. He stomped his huge feet and flapped his ears, staring us directly in the eyes. After a minute of utter-silence, he finally retreated and walked the opposite direction into the woods. Whew.