The Ark

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This past weekend, my friend Tullio and I decided to use our time off to visit "The Ark" in Aberdare National Park! 

The Ark, which is named after Noah's Ark (and abstractly shaped like one), is in the heart of the park. The building is comprised of three different decks and a ground level bunker that all overlook a floodlit waterhole and salt lick. The experience is centered around the wildlife 24/7, and in this specific case, that is not an exaggeration. There is even a buzzer system installed in all of the rooms that will wake you up in the middle of the night to see the wildlife that visits The Ark. If you choose to turn your buzzer on, then the staff will buzz your room in the middle of the night if a special animal visits the waterhole. Each "level of rarity" has a unique number of buzzes associated with it, so although you might not get out of bed for a single buzz, four buzzes will have you running out to the deck barefoot and in your pajamas. 

The combination of the waterhole and the salt lick lead to so many different special animals visiting The Ark, and that is the exact reason Tullio and I were so eager to visit. So even though the food, accommodations, and experience as a whole was amazing, I think the most appropriate way for me to detail our time at The Ark is through a series of photographs I took of what we saw - enjoy!

The Ark

The buzzer in our room for the staff to alert us about animals at the waterhole (turned to "ON" of course)

Our first view at The Ark - a group of elephants

The boardwalk on the other side of The Ark

Male bushbuck

Female bushbuck

Elephant photographed from the first deck

Elephant on its way to join others at the waterhole

Young elephant in the floodlit clearing

Elephant at the waterhole about to drink from its trunk

Large bull coming to join the group

The view from the hide

Tullio taking photographs of the elephants at the hide

Two buffalo drinking with oxpeckers on their backs

A grazing buffalo in the clearing outside the hide 

A freshly (mud) bathed buffalo noticing us in the hide

Giant forest hog: the only member of its genus and nearly impossible to see in the wild. The Ark is the best place in the world to get to see them. 

Three giant forest hogs

Giant forest hog that came close to The Ark at night

African striped skink

Black-headed heron

Golden-winged sunbird

Masked weaver

Hartlaub's turaco

Genet

The view from the middle deck

One of the indoor decks

Tullio and me on the top outdoor deck (and the least interesting species by far)












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