Kakamega Forest Reserve part II

My second day at Kakamega I started walking the trails at 10am. Since I already saw most of the animals I wanted to see and that are possible to see, it's not necessary for me to be on the trail super early. The animals seem active at all hours of the day because it doesn't get super hot here where they need to rest. Today I took the waterfall trail and was a little disappointed at the 'waterfall'. It wasn't even 2m high! After this I followed the river trail for a few hours. The forest around the river is very nice with tall trees and seemingly undisturbed. Lots of the forest in Kakamega is regenerating secondary forest with shorter trees, many guava trees ( not a native species) and dense undergrowth. I don't like secondary forest so much, mature tropical lowland rainforest actually has very little undergrowth and is easy to walk in and good visibility for finding hiding forest inhabitants.
It was almost an hour and a half before I saw anything but then some colobus monkeys made an appearance. They are very skittish though and usually retreat instantly to where they can't see me anymore. I don't make it to the end of the trail but turn around anyway because most of the trails here aren't loops so I know I have to walk back the way I came. I was getting hungry and still had 2 hours to wake back.
I eat my pb sandwiches for lunch back at camp. A Belgian couple had arrived and are camping as well. They go on a hike as I'm resting and I see them later at dinner. As I'm resting in my tent I hear the telltale sign of monkeys crashing through the treetops. A troupe of blue monkeys are in the forest around my tent and I can see them without even getting out of my tent. I love watching wildlife from my tent. It's the ultimate lazy man's safari! Contrary to their name, blue monkeys are not really blue, from what I could see. They are more a greyish blacky silver.
I go back into the forest at 4.30 hoping for some close photo opportunities but no luck. I take a cold shower and wash some clothes. I don't mind the cold shower, it has powerful pressure which always makes for a good shower no matter the temperature.
Jasna and Alex, the Belgians, are in the kitchen when I start to make a fire. We are both trying to start fires. I didn't make a proper teepee for my fire and just used what was there and it was a mistake. It took me a long time to get it going. I should've known better since I've stared plenty of fires in the bush before at home, not for cooking but for light,warmth and something to hangout around. Jasna goes to bed and Alex and I stay up for a while. The sky is clear with no light pollution making for amazing stars.
My third day at Kakamega begins like the rest. Wake up at 8.30am, eat breakfast and get on the trail around 10.30 after talking with Neills for a while. It's sunday, no work for him today. I walk to the viewpoint, about 40 minutes from camp. As I make my last step up to the base of the viewpoint tower, I'm really surprised to see a troupe of colobus monkeys all around the base of the viewing tower. They must have heard me coming but waited till they saw me to flee. They hung around for about 4 seconds deciding what to do. Of course they decided to retreat into the forest before I could get a photo. I hung around the view tower for a while and then wandered another trail before heading back to camp mid afternoon.
I eat lunch and then get firewood for tonight's dinner. I make a proper teepee with super dead and dry kindling. I lit one piece of toilet paper, put it in the base of the teepee and instant fire, no hassle. My noodles are cooked in no time. I hang out with the Germans at their camp after dinner. They have solar panels hooked up to car batteries for powering their Macbooks, phones, headlamps etc. They let me charge my camera batteries, headlamp batteries and Ipod. It's sunday night and they usually have some sort of entertainment. Tonight it's 2 episodes of The Simpsons. The first is in English but the second is in German, but I had already seen both. It was interesting to hear how they dubbed the voices in German. It was so cool and kind of surreal to be watching my favourite show in the middle of the forest in Kenya.
Bushbuck, a medium sized brownish antelope visit the camp every night. We see their eyeshine near the forest edge. It's a late night, 9.30pm and we all go to bed. I have an early start tomorrow morning to see sunrise from the view tower.