Day 3 was another activity day with a walk in the nearby forest to view waterfalls  and take a walk across the canopy. We were met by one of Lewa’s rangers, Daniel, at the truck as he would be the one to guide us through the forest. 

Our game drive started out with finding a pair of lion tracks (male and female) along the road. Both Mike and Daniel were good at spotting them and had to get out a couple of times to see where they had turned. Although we weren’t successful in finding them, we saw the most elephants that morning of any game drive so far. Several families of 5 with one having almost 12-15 elephants walking around the hillside. And of course some more rhinos (both black and white). One rhino (who was around 3 yo) was off by itself and started crying when he saw our car. We were told that the rhino’s mother just recently left him to go deliver another baby. The mothers leave their child around 3 yo so that they can learn to survive on their own until they find another rhino to pair up with. 

We were surprised with another bush breakfast, but this time it had a whole setup with tables and chairs. We had papaya juice (which has an interesting flavor), oatmeal, eggs, potatoes, and muffins. The amount of food we had eaten throughout the week (though all very good) was starting to upset my stomach so I didn’t eat too much of the breakfast.

After breakfast, it was about a 45 minute drive to the forest where we were met by another ranger who would be joining us on the walk. The first part of the hike wasn’t too bad as we were in the shade. We walked down to catch a glimpse of the first waterfall before heading to the swimming hole. There we were able to jump in if we wanted to. As the water comes off a glacier from Mount Kenya, it was like taking the polar plunge into the swimming hole. Definitely took your breath away! But the second time was better as we were already used to the cold water. Another group came down and one the guys dove off the highest point of the “cliff”. He made it look so graceful while Grant and I just have arms and legs flying in the air. 

After drying off, we grabbed some drinks before hiking the 3.5 km to the canopy walk. The guides were surprised when I said to hike as we had the option to drive up there. We had already been sitting so much during all the game drives that it felt nice to get a hike in. Once to the top,we got to walk across the second largest canopy walk in Africa. It was 450 m long and thankfully had side rails that I could hold on to as we walked across. We were told they’re actually going to add some length to it in the coming year so they can claim it as the longest canopy walk in Africa. Afterwards, Mike had set up a picnic table for our lunch in a nice open area in the forest. Again there was so much food from two salads, pasta, quiche, chicken wings, and brownies! Both Grant and I weren’t too hungry so we finally felt we were able to eat until we were satisfied and not stuff our faces to finish the meal. 

As we were headed out of the forest, we drove through the neighboring community and saw several people walking back home from church. The kids again were all smiling and yelling “How are you?!” just like they did in Uganda. Although I did happen to get flipped off by a teenage boy as we were driving by. It was one of those sly hold up the hand to the face kind of moment where the finger slowly goes up. We all just started laughing as soon as we realized what happened – kids are so similar no matter where they are in the world. We got back to the camp around 4pm and were able to relax by the pool before heading to dinner. Prior to dinner, we hung out in the main area with our cocktails and struck up a conversation with a German couple who was also staying there. She shared where they had traveled in their lives and told us a crazy story about how they were in the US when 9/11 happened. She was visiting San Diego with her family and they were at the hotel preparing to head to the airport when the airplanes struck the tower. A lady at the hotel told them that they wouldn’t be heading there as the country was locking down airports. They were confused and were told to turn on the TV to see what was going on. She said it was a process trying to get back to Frankfurt and were finally able to catch a flight back to London out of San Francisco. 

 As we got to pick our meals, we chose bruschetta thinking it would be a lighter dinner. However, we were shocked when it turned out to be slices of naan bread with large chunks of peppers in between them. This was probably the only meal we weren’t a fan of. We headed back to the room to pack up and head to Masai Mara in the morning for another great adventure!