20
Jun
Just to let you all know, I’ve found a great internet cafe (in Zambia now!) and managed to upload all remaining Egypt photos on the last entry so check them out!!
And now for KENYA!!!! Considering all 23 countries that I’m visiting on this trip, I’ve been most excited about Kenya and East Africa in general. Whether it’s the lure of wild animals, the confirmed sunshine, the tribal traditions or even the touch of family history-I knew a good time would be had. And a good time it certainly was!!!
I was scheduled to arrive in Nairobi in the very early morning hours, so was rather relieved to see my name held up by the Guerba tour group driver. “Jambo” I exclaimed! The attempted kiswahili that I had always dreamed of being fluent at was appreciated, and then my pronunciation was soon corrected. During the drive to the hotel my eyes caught sight of a gazelle within the grass-could it be true? This close to the airport the wildlife begins? It was too late to look back and confirm. I might be thought of as a loony if I asked if there might be any lions on the way to the hotel, so decided to keep my mouth shut. I did still see the most gigantic birds flying above me though. Once at the hotel, I very quickly flaked out on the big bed. The sounds of pro poker players competing against the celebrities mesmerized me enough to catch a few hours of sleep. Jumped in the pool for a moment of excercise and then cautiously entered the conference room to meet my tour buddies for the next week.
Wasn’t too sure of how enjoyable the next week would be when I was the only one to meet the guide! Luckily, the others arrived before I jumped back on a plane with a complaint letter in hand. I would be joining travel agent Ian, newlyweds Geoff and Kate, and another travel agent Paul. We confirmed the arrangements for the following day, and then went off to enjoy our first (of many) Tusker beers!
Setting off early in the morning to avoid too much traffic seemed quite a contradiction. The streets were filled with the same number of people as pub release time in the UK. They walked the dusty road edges whilst wearing full suits and sandals. We passed an artistic hollow metal globe en route, only to see more closely that it had half been filled with rubbish. Fittingly, they were mostly ocean blue coloured bags, although still garbage. We then had a chance to visit a supermarket to stock up on groceries. Over the last few years I have come to most enjoy supermarket visits where ever I am in the world, and I know my friend Alison will support me on this! It helps us weary travelers to calculate what expense a country offers by price comparisons to home. And simply adjusting to a new currency. So I toured the aisles and found my goods. I felt a bit like a naughty highschooler when I approached the checkout with more beer than I had drunk in the last year. (Mom and dad, I meant to compare it to just after high school really, when I was legally allowed to drink!)
Our next stop was an ‘African Curio Shop’. I was in heaven, a shoppers dream. Problem is, I didn’t come to Africa to shop!! And little did I realize at the time, that this was the first of many African Curio shops! So I decided to take photos of all the stock instead. It really was a warehouse size with huge quantities of ebony carvings and colourful batiks. Strange that I recognized so many items from my own living room. I listened in on a few others approaches to the bargaining procedures. Suckers paid nearly asking price. It was then time to jump back in the van and continue the 6 hour drive to the Samburu Game Park.
It’s amazing how even if you feel awake at the start of a bumpy road drive, you eventually succumb to sleep. Well, for me at least. Every time I woke up I had to pinch myself to keep seeing the sights go by. The number of kiosks branded with a red and white picket fence, selling coke did make me think we might be going in circles. Does coke actually sponsor all of Kenya? All of the kiosks were rather entertaining. Just reading the business name or counting the number of slumbering shopkeepers outside was a challenge. The shops often seemed to be a combination of 2 shops in 1. And shops that might scare off the average westerner, such as “Hotel and Butchery”. Hhmmmmm, perhaps not my first choice!! Whilst driving outside of the towns on a long long stretch of pretty much nothing, I caught glimpse of a solo Kenyan runner. His strides towards being another marathon champion were well respected, though not enough to join him. Soon enough, the sights were of herders identified by their long sticks and red blankets draped over their shoulders. Fending off lions takes concentration, although this could always be broken in order to stop in their tracks and stare at us driving by. They must catch sight of so many safari vans, yet the intrigue we witnessed always seemed as though we were the first white people in the area!
We eventually pulled into the Samburu Game Park, and the true excitement of the journey began. We popped the roof of the van and began searching for anything with more than 2 legs. Looking back at some of the photos was entertaining as the first few shots were of elephants nearly 3 miles away. Not quite worth looking at, but I remember the smiling confirmation of animal spotted. It didn’t take much longer to spot different types of gazelle, much closer, grazing at the side of the road. And then the blue headed grouse type of birds scuttering under the bushes. And then there was Ernie. Ernie the elephant seemed to pop out of nowhere and was so amazingly close to us there I swear to anything and everything, tears filled my eyes. Wow. What an animal, what a moment. His eyes looked at us with curious concern, and no fear. His wrinkled skin showed off the mud bath from earlier in the day. My first photo of Ernie is the first one you see on this sight, wow. It really was the most incredible experience for me. I hope he doesn’t mind I’ve named him Ernie.
We saw many more elephants that first afternoon, but eventually called it a day and headed to our camp. Camping usually involves a bit of hard work setting up and cooking, however, we were simply introduced to the cook John with servers and drivers David and Barbque. (okay, his name isn’t really barbque-I just never really got the pronunciation!!) So basically, camp was lush. Even had a cot in my tent! Dinner was fab, and sleep was quick. The 6am start was a slight adjustment to my system, but as we were lucky enough to see cheetah, a leopard, baboons, vultures, giraffes zebras and many more-I didn’t complain. We stayed at Samburu for two nights before driving north to Lake Nakuru.
The drive to Lake Nakuru had an equal number of amazing sights. Children running and waving to all of us in the van is always a sight to smile at. We stopped off at a coffee and tea plantation, where I found it rather difficult keeping my mouth shut! As our guide spoke to us, 100’s of blue uniformed barefoot school children passed by. Before we knew it, we were surrounded by these eyes of curiosity. The guides’ talk mentioned that she would be a much faster tea picker than myself, so I took it as a challenge mocking the start of a boxing match. The roars of childrens laughter as they saw the whitey dance around was sensational. You can’t help but love a happy audience. The rest of the drive was peaceful, if you really can consider driving on any of the African roads peaceful. Ever heard of the African massage? Up and down in your seat as you hit the roof and the walls, has little similarity to the Swedish version! All stemming from the craters and gashes on the roads. It was often best to drive on the dusty bumpy road shoulders as opposed to the tarmac!
Unfortunately for me, soon after arriving at the Lake Nakuru camp I started to feel slightly ill. I re-decorated the interior of my tent through the night, but trooped on with the day to follow. I was lucky enough that it passsed after 24 hours, but the fear of possibly having malaria was overwhelming.
We then drove to Lake Naivasha and took a boat ride on the lookout for hippos. Saw a couple of ears poking out and heard many ridiculous grunts. Camping was on the grounds of a hotel with…ready for it? HOT SHOWERS! What a simple pleasure! The night was filled with many beers and many newly invented card games. Such a change of scenery when looking back at the campsite at Samburu. Cook John no longer had to chase monkeys or baboons that were trying to steal our food. Although, it was always entertaining to watch John jump up and down with the mannerisms of a two year old, but with machete in hand.
The final major drive was to Kenya’s most famous reserve, the Masai Mara. We passed the equator (a few times in fact) and had the standard show of water pouring roatation. I then entered the bargaining match at one of the curio shops. I hoped that my welled up eyes of sorrow emphasized my poor traveling self and walked away having paid just under half of the asking price. A good start, but I can feel the bitch in me brewing, ready for a next round in the next shop. As we approached the Park, we had an opportunity to explore a Masai Village. It was a crazy start. The young warriors from the village came out and began a welcome dance. To be honest, I found it rather scary! I thought their groggy chant sounded slightly satanic! The ladies walked out of the village next. It was then another one of those incredibly touching moments as their song reached its’ peak and they walked us into their village. Now this is a culture shock. The 19 huts sat at the edge of the circular fence. The courtyard had just a tree, and some of the ladies sat making their beaded jewellry. The huts themselves were all made by the woman as well (the boys are with the cows and grog!) from dung and a couple of branches. Apparently, the huts last about 10 years, requiring a bit of maintenance after the rains however. The 85 people of this village give the courtyard to their cattle every night, to prevent lions from having a late dinner. Inside their huts were 2 rooms the size of my closet, with a fire burning within it through out the day to cook their food and deter night time mosquitoes. We sat inside the dark smoky room and it was clear to me then. I would never make it as a Masai wife. Partly because they don’t eat vegetables. (not grown)
Once at the campsite I was faced with another contradicting image. A warrior stood outside of my tent guarding with a large spear in hand. Quite different to the machine gun and brute of a man as security in Nairobi hotel!
So, the next two days of driving through the park were still as riveting as the first few days. The diversity within the parks, in addition from park to park is just amazing. Here at the Masai we saw long grasses of golden greens and pale pinks. This did make it slightly difficult to see some of the animals, but of course we managed. Seeing just a couple of ear ear tips was intriguing. And then we were graced with a full sized male lion rather close up. As moving as the first elephant. And this was special as well as we were actually the only van on site. It’s amazing how a sighting of one of the big 5 can immediately draw the other safari vehicles.
On our last afternoon drive we pulled up to a very jovial outing of nearly 100 baboons walking down the road. It seemed like such a family day out as the babes sat on moms’ backs or hit their brothers noses and ran off. We drove through them and not too far off saw 2 lioness’ crawling through the tall grass in the direction of the baboons. In addition to this sighting, there seemed to be a ‘Pride Rock’ ahead as at least 10 lions of different ages watched over the rolling surrounding flatlands. Our guide was excited for us to see the multiple lions-which was nice to see don’t get me wrong, but absolutely every other van was there. We finally made our wishes clear as the blood thirsty tourists we were, “Back to the baboons, let’s see the killing!” The barking of the baboons could be heard from far off. The two trees in the area were clearly overfilled with black bodies crying out danger to their loved ones. And then it was over, lion wins. Everybody missed it as it was in the tall grasses. But I was there. Sorry baboon.
There were a lot of checkmarks on our list of animals seen over the final days of the safari. Having watched Lion King a few times in the past resulted in yelling out ‘Timone’ at the sight of the mongoose family. And who could forget “PPPPummmmbbbbaaaa!” when we saw the first warthog. There are so many varieties of gazelle, onyx, dikdiks, topi and bushbucks that I can’t remember everything I’ve seen, I just remember I’ve seen it.
I spent 2 days in Nairobi (aka Nairobbery) with fellow tourmate Ian. Had a chance to explore the museum, the parliament buildings, presidential quarters and eat a few chicken and chips meals. I was so so so thankful for Ian’s traveling tips as I wasn’t sure of where to go next…Uganda or Tanzania. Tanzania won as the Tazara train sounded like an interesting adventure further south-wait till the next entry though! I thought Nairobi would be worse than it was, but I wasn’t exploring the ‘other side’! We were approached by several random people on the street for a conversation of sorts. Most often they led to a request of some kind. Money for polio, my name and address in England so I could hire him as a private butler (ha ha)
All in all, my time in Kenya is far too short and although I could change my plans on this trip, I’m opting for just coming back. There are so many other additional photos, descriptions and feelings that I could add to justify how special my time here has been, but I think it might be best to move on. Kuki Gallman wrote a book called ‘I Dream of Africa’ that has become a statement that I feel as though I have adopted.
15 hour bus trip down to Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania next. And then a few days to chill out in Zanzibar before catching the Tazara train to Zambia. Hope everybody is super super good, and planning their travel dreams.