Lunch in a treehouse

We (me, Toby, Ella, and my colleagues Fire and Kari) finally drove north to Ol Pejeta Conservancy on Sunday, July 29! I have been doing research at Ol Pejeta since 2002, and Fire and I have been working there together since 2007. Kari is a Finnish ecologist who works with Fire and who we have invited onto our project.

Fire and I have a tradition of stopping for lunch at the Trout Tree Restaurant which is about a 3 hour drive from Nairobi, very close to Nanyuki, the town where the turn off to Ol Pejeta is. The Trout Tree Restaurant is built in an enormous Fig Tree along the Burguret River, below Mount Kenya, and trout is farmed and cooked there. We had a really nice leisurely late lunch (including fresh trout for the non-vegetarians) as it rained a little bit, and then got on our way to Ol Pejeta.

Fire, Toby and me

Toby was totally captivated by the trout ponds

Toby at the entrance to the restaurant

A good view of the tree that the restaurant was built around

Trout farmers

Ella, Toby, and Fire enjoying the enormous slices of chocolate cake we got for dessert

Toby found a playground I didn't even know was there

Toby enjoyed climbing on the playground

There are black and white colobus monkeys that hang around the restaurant

Toby feeding geese at the restaurant