The group arrived in the evening of the 3rd all together at Nairobi airport. Unfortunately one of the suitcases was missing. The  completion of all necessary formalities took some hours, and when we finally arrived in our hotel  (hotel Fairview in Nairobi) it was already after midnight.

After breakfast at a quite decent time we went to the Nairobi National Park at only 8 km from our hotel. The park is huge and very soon I realized that my concern to visit  a nature reserve so close to a major city was unfounded. It turned out to be one of the quietest places we would visit during the trip. It is strange to see in the skyline the profile of Nairobi city and at the same time to enjoy a abundant bird and wildlife.  The Nairobi National Park with highland forest, Acacia woodland, rocky escarpments, open grassland, large ponds and small streams is home to a wide variety of birds and mammals
We saw more than 70 different bird species, including White-eyed Slaty Flycatcher,  African White-backed Vulture, Olive Thrush, Baglafecht Weaver, Grey Crowned Crane, Speckled Mousebird, Bronze Mannikin, Pin-tailed Whydah, Martial Eagle, Emerald-spotted Wood Dove, Stout Cisticola,  Saddle-billed Stork, African Quail-Finch, Hartlaub's Bustard, Marabou Stork, Madagascar Scuacco Heron, and we also managed to see many mammals such as  Nyala, Rothschild Giraffe, Chapman's Zebra, Buffalo, Red Hartebeest, Grant's Gazelle, and we also found the Black Rhinoceros.
Coming back to our hotel in Nairobi the missing suitcase had arrived.

Around 7 am we left Nairobi and headed for Mount Kenya. This day we had to travel around 180 km and having the whole day and a packed lunch we felt free to include some very interesting stops. The first stop we made was at Thika, where we had a walk around the local water purification plants. The big water basins and the insects attracted by the dirt water, almost guarantee interesting birds. We had Black-winged Lapwing,  Crowned Plover, Hadada Ibis,  Sacred Ibis, Glossy Ibis, Fawn-coloured Lark, Fisher's Lovebird, D'Arnaud's Barbet, Three-banded Plover, Speke's Weaver (f), White-browed Sparrow Weaver, Spur-winged Plover, Straw-tailed Whydah, Bronze Sunbird (f), When we left this place we also found, in the surrounding bushes, interesting birds such as Purple Grenadier,  Little Bee-eater, African Dusky Flycatcher. Further on we had several stops and always finding interesting species like Red-billed Firefinch,  Montane White-eye and the very elusive Hinde's Babbler. At around 18.00 we arrived at Serena Mountain Lodge. An interesting building, on the outside covered with green painted wooden panels, which  makes this building almost disappear into the forest. The Lodge is located on the lower slopes of Mount Kenya , Africa’s second tallest mountain, and is an excellent place to locate many highland forest species. Looking from the windows down on a big water hole, where all kind of game and bird are coming for a drink. The hotel is applying a wake-up service when the animal of your dreams is showing up. You just need to fill in your special wish list.  Really a great place to stay. We had elephants, buffalo, waterbuck, impala, warthok just observing the waterhole from our window. Unfortunately I did not get my wake-up call because that night the Leopard did not show up.

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