Kakamega Forest Reserve part III

Dec. 1
It's 5.30am, still dark and chilly as I get up. My goal is to see sunrise from the view tower. I dress quickly and get on the trail. It's still very dark in the depths of the forest but by the time I reach the open hill on the which the viewing tower is located it's quite bright. I arrived at the tower at 6. I could hear the forest waking up all around me. The birds and monkeys getting their day started. There was some movement behind me in the trees but I didn't see who was making it. I was at the viewpoint a little early since the sun didn't rise till 6.35am. It was an amazing sight to see the suns rays illuminate through the fog of the forest. I hung out for an 30 minutes taking photos and then went back to camp. I ate breakfast at the German camp. They were just getting ready to go to work. I rest in my tent after breakfast and then walk the main entrance road to some trails I hadn't walked yet. I take the appropriately named colobus trail because I see plenty of colobus monkeys on it. I finally got a good look at one of them, though from a distance. The colobus is fast becoming my favourite monkey. They have a black body, white face and black tail with a bushy white tip but the most curious thing about their appearance is an O ring loop along the edges of their back of long white hair. I get some ok photos just to show what they look like.
Back in camp I finish lunch and a troupe of red tailed monkeys comes through camp. These monkeys, smallest of the 3 arboreal monkeys here, have a white belly and cheeks and nose, grey limbs and face, orangish brown back and contrary to their name, the tail is more of an orangy brown than red. Even colobus monkeys come to camp. I don't even have to leave camp to see animals here, I really like that.
I prepare my teepee for my cooking fire. The Belgians left yesterday and nobody new has arrived. I have the whole campsite to myself. Fireflies fill the air after sunset. I hangout with the Germans for a while and then look at the day's photos in my tent before crashing.
My forth day at Kakamega begins with breakfast around 9. I decide just to chill at camp for a while. I read and write my journal till 11 when a troupe of red tailed monkeys passes through camp. The debris from their tree crashing falls onto my tent.I get out onto the trail at 12. I take the colobus trail again and spook a red flanked duiker, a small brownish forest antelope rarely seen. It sees me and turns around and runs. I walk the trial through an arboretum where trees are labelled. The trail doesn't take the 2 hours the sign indicated so I take the long way back to camp. A heavenly fragrance of strong perfumey soap permeates the air. It smells so good! The source is a small white flower, like miniature jasmine blooms. Clouds have gathered and there is a lot of thunder but the rain only sprinkles for a few minutes. I eat my last pb sandwich and put peanut butter on my Borio cookies, because I'm leaving tomorrow and don't need lunch. It's sad to see my foodbag so empty. I really enjoyed my time here and think 5 days was a good amount of time to spend here. As I signed the guestbook, I noticed that most visitors only stay 1 or 2 days. The guys at the German research camp really noticed I was a different kind of traveller, serious about my forest for staying for 5 days. I made another perfect teepee for my fire but the German's invited me to dinner and I never refuse free food, not to mention they are good company anyway. They have their own cook. Tonight he prepared veggie lasagna (Yvonne, the only female researcher, was vegetarian) french fries and squash.It was all very tasty. We drank a bit of rum and hung out till the late bedtime of 9pm!