Kenya

Nairobi

We landed mid-afternoon to the land nicknamed Nairobbery, and as suggested in the guide book, took a taxi straight to the hostel, not wanting to look new in town. As prices had doubled for a room, we decided we’d get the tent out again, why not! I think I must have been feeling a little upbeat after my complimentary beverage and champagne on top, so camping it was! We spent the rest of the day lounging about and hanging out at the hostel with a nice fire going in the evening.

We woke up early the next morning with a mission to feed some giraffes. After navigating our way through town, we managed to work out the bus system as best we could. We got to the giraffe centre after a 2 hour bus journey, mostly stuck in traffic, and getting a numb bum from sitting on the axle. But there we are, with 5 giraffes right ahead, looking amazingly majestic.

There was a feeding platform in the centre, and we were immediately handed food pellets…one at a time with your thumb and forefinger, and covered in saliva! Their tongues average about 45cm, and rolled out each time to grab a pellet. There’s a clear warning at the entrance too- don’t stand to the side of them as they like to head-butt – ouch!




Feeding giraffes in Nairobi

Apparently they live an extra 10 years in captivity, up to an average of 25. One of the keepers was pulling off large blood sucking ticks from their coats, saying they were like mozzie bites to them- I felt Stacey’s (the giraffe) pain as I had 2 mozzie bites on my ankle giving me havoc that day and swollen to the size of a walnut!

I got a big kiss off of Miss Stacey when I fed her a pellet from my mouth…mmm wet!

Nairobi really gets a bad rep, and I’m sure it’s not without cause, but I haven’t felt unsafe in the city at all, and people have been nothing but friendly and polite. That said, even the guys at the hostel said we need to take a taxi as soon as it gets dark as it’s not safe at all. As the guy who gave us our visa said ‘they steal from us and you indiscriminately’.

Nairobi is pretty cool and quite a developed city. Although, behind this façade is a slum that houses around a third of the people from Nairobi called Kibera. With apparently one long drop toilet to every 100 people there, 20% of the residents having HIV/AIDS, and 80% of the inhabitants being unemployed. I realise I’m practically quoting the lonely planet, but I didn’t feel like going to visit so I can’t really share this any other way than talking about it. We passed it on a bus from afar, and it looked built on top of itself, spanning 3sq km it was huge. I don’t really like visiting places where people have to actually live like that, as if it’s a tourist attraction, so didn’t fancy joining the tour.

The next day was baby elephant day! There were orphaned baby elephants in Nairobi, where majority of them were rescued after their mothers were poached for their ivory. A really shocking fact is that if poaching continues the way it’s going, then there will be no African elephants left by 2025! Apparently ivory is worth more than gold, and obviously worth more than a life to some people.

Well after yesterday’s long old bus journey, we left two and a half hours early for the 11am feeding time for these elephants, the only opportunity to see them each day. We were assured that the bus conductor knew what we were talking about (short of using our arms to pretend they were trunks). And nearly an hour later, he ushered us off the bus with only 10 minutes before we had to be there. And where were we? At a museum in the middle of nowhere, now short of a bus. Nooooooo! It turned out to be about half an hour away in a taxi. Too late! So we jumped on a bus into town, and an hour later arrived back where we had started…

We had a quick bite to eat and then went to find the bus to take us to our next stop. Same bus number, we had a laugh at what we would do if we bumped into Mr. No sense of direction bus conductor again. As we boarded, guess who was looking at me with a bit of worry… yes, same guy! I had a feeling he knew he had done wrong, but what can you do… you put your trust in someone a lot when travelling that they know where you want to go, and sometimes it just doesn’t work out- you can’t tackle the language barrier every single time.

Second time lucky, he signalled that we had got to our stop, and he was right this time! Bomas of Kenya was a cultural experience where they put on dances and songs from different tribes across the region. Turned out that they were only really busy over weekends so we practically had the whole production to ourselves (apart from a couple of school trips that rolled in half way through). It was a great production, with tribal wear being different each time, energetic dancing and even Masai dancing as well.

Heading out early morning, we got a local bus into town where we met Margaret, the owner of a school in a village about 30miles out of Nairobi. She told us about her school and her kids and she insisted on paying for our bus fare whilst dishing out apples to us. Such a sweet lady, she gave us her number and told us we could come and stay with her for free anytime and even help out at the school if we wanted to. It was something for us to think about as we were a bit against the clock when it came to Uganda and the rainy season already, but would be a great experience.

Masai Mara

We got a matutu (mini bus) to Narok without much hassle, apart from our driver feeling the need to overtake every vehicle in sight. Once we arrived, we had to catch a bus to Talek gate, one of the entrances to the Masai Mara. Apparently the bus we needed was right in front of us, and the last bus to leave. Great that it was still there, bad that it was jammed to bursting point. People were standing on top of each other, hanging out the door, and somehow people were still squeezing on. It made Wandsworth Town station boarding look spacious on the morning commute! People grabbed our bags and tied it to the top, assuring us we would get a seat…questionable. And after it pulled into the petrol station and the guy claiming that he could find us a seat starting to look doubtful, we got our bags back and trotted back into town.

We managed to find a shared taxi to take us on the 3 hour journey. And with one little boy in the front seat, the driver said he just needed to find one more person and then we could go. Having loaded an extra THREE people in the car (four in the back and four in the front), we were on our way, with the little boy tucked firmly behind the driver.



At the Masai Mara

It was an incredibly bumpy journey, but an interesting one as well. We passed the Masai people, zebras, wildebeests and amazing stretches of green landscape. We arrived at our campsite and clambered out the car, feeling a little like I had been on a power plate for three hours solid.

We set up camp (the only guests apart from a group of Kenyan uni students at the back) and had a wander round the area. Within minutes we spotted two elephants, baboons, warthogs, crocodiles and an eland. The eland had been born at our campsite and was about 8 months old. We ended up calling her News (put it together…, and yes it was Luke who picked it). We took a stroll into town to get some food that evening. There was a sign saying ‘don’t leave the camp after 6pm as there are wild animals out at night’, which I read as ‘don’t go out at night or you might find reasonable prices for food.’ Not willing to spend £15 for some rice and veg, we managed to find a little friendly place in town. However, on our way back, Peter then manager, who was heading into town, circled round and gave us a lift back to the camp saying that there were eight elephants blocking the way so it was dangerous to go out without a car. Note to self… always go for dinner before sunset.


Yawning hippo

We spent the next morning walking round the small town, getting a packed lunch ready for our next day’s safari, and relaxing at the camp whilst trying to fix my inflated mattress… where are you puncture???

Late afternoon, we tool a stroll again down to the river and apart from a couple baboons, didn’t spot anything. After about 10 minutes, we realised that News (the eland), was following us and that every time we turned a corner, she’d come running round to make sure she hadn’t lost us. She really was a baby! We dropped her back off in the campsite before heading into town, but after about 5 minutes of walking realised she had followed us again! Oh dear, now we really felt a bit of responsibility! She tried to follow us into the restaurant so we had to order a takeaway. She got chased by donkeys, and tried to mount Luke to save herself. Lucky he dodged that one- her horns could be quite dangerous. People were asking if they could take a picture with ‘our’ eland as well! She even chased a few chickens and woke up sleeping dogs. But she followed us back home like we were her parents, and boy wasn’t she a liability.


Lion at the Masai

Three American guys rocked up at the campsite that evening and we joined them round their fire for some beers and pretty good whisky. They were working in western Kenya so gave us a good idea of what was to come and what the highlights were.

Four hours later, we woke up at 5.30am to our full day safari…shouldn’t have had that last drink. Our driver was Joseph, and we had a Masai guy as our spotter called Edward (the lion). Within the first hour we spotted zebras, wildebeest, ostrich, a jackal, giraffes and cheetahs. It was incredible! There were a group of five cheetahs- a mother and her four cubs play fighting under the trees which we watched for ages. We found a few more giraffes and buffalo, and a ridiculous amount of hippos lazing in the river (they move so fast it’s unreal, no wonder they’re dangerous). We spotted several lions cooling down under the trees and a hyena as well. 


African elephant

And then we were lucky enough to watch a Mara river crossing with about 500 zebras. The first few were trying to find a good spot, away from the 10 or so crocs that had lined their path. A few tried their luck, but after a few steps decided on turning back. All of a sudden, a massive dust cloud appeared as the zebras darted back from the river. I thought it was just one of them getting too close to a croc, but apparently it was a leopard! A rare sighting in the Mara, especially during the heat of the day, we were very lucky. Although we couldn’t see it initially, we pulled up near the river and as the zebras found another spot further down the river, the leopard emerged right by our jeep! Even Edward backed away from the edge of the roof, so I realised how dangerously close we were (on top of being so lucky!). But thankfully it was more interested in its zebra hunt. We saw it stalking the zebras through the bushes and then another dust cloud whilst they all scattered. Joseph moved the jeep further down and we caught the leopard taking one last killer bite of a zebra before dragging it into the bushes to drink its blood. It was so well hidden after that, apart from a trail of blood, you couldn’t see where it was. Apparently it would go down to the river for some water after, and then hide the meat in a tree so that the hyenas and lions can’t get to it- very clever!


Family of cheetahs

That just made our day, we were over the moon and realised that not many people get to see that at the Mara- not usually a leopard, and definitely not a zebra take down!

We headed back into town that night, and News followed us again! It was only after walking 20 minutes that we saw her running towards us catching up. I was adamant that we were going to sit and eat this time and after having to push her out the restaurant and close the door, we finally got a table in the back… but she found us 5 minutes later, right next to the grate behind us outside.

People had told us that she sometimes goes into town, but knows her way back, so I wasn’t so worried that she had gone by the time we had finished dinner. However, Luke was concerned, like a paranoid dad with a teenage daughter!

After another night hanging out with the Americans, News eventually turned up half way through and Luke looked relieved bless him… must be the vegan in him!




Zebras crossing the Mara river around crocs and leopard!

We had been told in town that a bus back to Narok leaves at 3am…WHAT??? It only takes 3 hours, but I guess they’re trying to fit as many journeys in as possible. We managed to find a bus driver who was leaving at 5.30am (the same bus driver from the one that was too packed on the way in), and he assured us he’d pick us up from our camp. I grabbed his number just in case it slipped his mind the next morning.

We packed our tent away in the pitch black and made our way to the gates and waited. And waited. We decided to give him a call and with his little English, I just said our camp name and asked if he was coming, to which I got a ‘yes, coming’ and then he hung up. Another half an hour later, we decided to walk the 20 mins into town now that it was light. Someone told us he had just left! Must have been full again… great.

People kept telling us that there were no buses till the next morning, but we could get a taxi to Narok (bus usually costs £3.50, taxi would cost £80…foreigner price anyway). We eventually got talking to a guy who worked in the Masai who said he was driving from Talek gate to the next gate along where it would be easier for us to catch a bus. So we jumped in his little van, with 4 of us in the front and took the road through the park. 


Leopard using our jeep as cover before his attack!

It was like a second safari for an hour! We saw it pretty much all over again, apart from the leopard and cheetahs. He was a nice guy, and we gave him a bit of cash for the journey even though he said it was fine. We only had to wait 5 minutes before a large jeep came out of the park with a Chinese family. They pulled over and the driver was so lovely, he told us he was driving that way and we could jump in… we even got a full seat each this time! He ended up driving us past Narok, closer to our destination as it was at a cross roads before he headed to Nairobi.

Lake Naivasha



We eventually arrived at our camp by Lake Naivasha in the early afternoon and put up our tent straight away. It was a great little campsite, with an amazing shady ground covered by trees and surrounded with picnic tables, a jetty that went out past the reeds to a great view, and of course the hippos only 20 metres from our tent. Yep, that close! There were also a couple monkeys hanging out in the trees looking for food scraps. The place was full of expats who come here for the weekends from Nairobi. But they all started to pack up as it was a Sunday afternoon, and soon enough, we had the whole campsite to ourselves.

Camping at Lake Naivasha

After a much needed rest day the following day, we hired some bikes to go around Hells Gate National Park, a stone’s throw away, it was one you could cycle or walk around with the animals close by. We were told there were leopards and hyenas but they were rarely seen… fingers crossed they don’t want to make an appearance! We set off and about 3km in I realised how unfit I was, but I pedalled on despite my legs telling me they weren’t made for a bicycle.




just a casual cycle amongst the giraffes

We cycled past zebras, giraffes, buffalo, but to be honest they could have been cats and dogs for all I knew for the first 10kms- I was EXHAUSTED! And falling off several times in deep sand and rocky hills didn’t help. I think I came off my bike at one point and told it to do one, in front of a startled pack of zebras (sorry Mum).

We finally reached the gorge and had a nice walk through it for an hour. It was amazing, with the stream through it low, we could only imagine what it looked like in rainy season! But the small trickles into the stream revealed bright green rock underneath and the gorge was incredible, looking up at it being about 30 metres.




Hells Gate Gorge

Luke was insistent on going what he thought would be another 10km, but I knew would be nearer 25km (he has a shocking sense of direction). In the end, I was more insistent that we took the shortest route back!! We struggled through more deep sand but finally made it back after stopping for some cute rock hyraxes. They look quite like beavers and aren’t scared of us at all. They were adorable, and after feeding them some leaves, I thought of popping the baby one in my backpack, but I don’t have any space!




Rock hyrax- so cute!

When we got back, we started up a BBQ and had some grilled veggies- yummy! That evening, a Canadian couple and a British guy turned up at the camp, planning to head to the gorge the next day. We’d chat to them tomorrow- it was bedtime already- 8.30pm, I was shattered and we had another day of cycling tomorrow, oh joy!

We got up early again to get back on the bikes, ouch! We headed in the other direction to yesterday to get to the Crater Lake Sanctuary. Mostly tarmac, I thought it would be easy. It was alright for the first few miles, especially going downhill, but then my legs were giving out. Luckily there was a giraffe crossing the road to make it seem like I had to stop for a picture J. It was incredible how close the wildlife were to the roads- baby warthogs play fighting, giraffes eating on the side of the roads, zebras crossing and deer popping their heads up as you whizz past.

Then the tarmac turned into sand, and five minutes in my gears started crunching. Oops, my chain came off. After facing ‘angry, I told you about this’ Luke, he finally managed to get it back on. Phew, thank god! Although there was a part of me (just a small part) that hoped we didn’t have to go through an hour worth of sand.

We forged on, and about an hour later emerged at the Crater lake with sand filled shoes and dusty arses (well me anyway, after falling off 5 times).




Crater Lake at Naivasha

And we had a two hour walk around the Crater rim to do now. I was just thankful to be off the bike! It was amazing to walk round this extinct volcano though, seeing animals running around the middle and even a lake with a restaurant on it! Two hours later, it was back on the bikes. But this time, it was so much quicker! It might have been the Alfonso mango that gave us a boost before we set off, or the thought of the end in sight, but even Luke was exhausted by the time we got back!

That evening we hung out with the group that turned up yesterday, Brendan and Lauren (the Canadians) had set off from the UK, buying a jeep there and trying to get down to Cape Town. Will was on the same journey but had his car shipped to Sudan. They had pop up tents on their roof, and it was a pretty cool idea to do it that way, but seems quite expensive with all the paperwork, shipping, initial costs and not to mention the fuel and break down issues!

They kindly cooked us some dinner and we soon realised that we’d probably bump into Lauren and Brendan in Uganda later on.

The next day, we just chilled out at the campsite, giving our legs a well-earned rest before setting off the following day for Kericho, home to the best tea plantation in Africa.

Kericho




Tea plantation in Kericho

It was Luke’s birthday, and it looked like all the monkeys had come to say goodbye, including the baby ones. He was a little scared they were so close that he zipped himself back into the tent- such a brave soul! We passed all the tea plantations on the way in and it was beautiful- such bright green fields that just went on and on. We arrived to a busy little town and got ourselves a room, not willing to trek a kilometre for a campsite that cost pretty much the same. Hello mattress old friend! But after about ten power cuts, water that ran out and WiFi that didn’t work, we could understand why it was so cheap. My god is it hard to find some veggie food in this town, apparently everyone has run out of beans, and unless you want veggies for breakfast, they’ll be scarce at lunch and non-existent at dinner. I think I’m fed up of people saying ‘yes we have vegetable curry (making you sit down)...just not now. But we have rice or chips.'
Kisumu

We soon made it on to Kisumu, Kenya’s third largest city (not that you could tell). It was our first sighting of Lake Victoria, a 68,000sqm expanse that we would meet from three different countries! After a beer by the lake and a long awaited thali, we hot hyped up about what Uganda would have to offer. It was just one more day in Kenya and we would soon be off.

As with every country so far, I'm hoping to see the difference as soon as I cross the border, and with Busia (the border town), being split between Kenya and Uganda, it should be interesting to see the change!