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Published: December 24th 2005
"
I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills...
The geographical position and the height of the land combined to create a landscape that had not its like in all the world. There was no fat on it and no luxuriance anywhere; it was Africa distilled up through six thousand feet, like the strong and refined essence of a continent. The colours were burnt and dry, like colours in pottery...
The chief feature of the landscape, and of your life in it, was the air. Looking back on a sojourn in the African highlands, you are struck by a feeling of having lived for a time up in the air. The sky was rarely more than pale blue or violet, with a profusion of mighty, weightless, ever changing clouds towering up and sailing on it, but it has a blue vigour in it, and at a short distance it painted the ranges of hills and the woods a fresh deep blue.
"
Isak Dineson (Karen Blixen), Out of Africa. Karen Blixen's descriptions of the Kenyan highlands are much better than anything I could manage. That is despite the fact that she was a white settler, and I have a jaundiced view of the white settlers in Kenya at the turn of the 20th century. But the book does evoke the landscapes of East Africa. Not only that, the Hollywood film based on her book does a very good job; it's well worth seeing.
I spent just a couple of weeks in Kenya. It was the end of my year's visit to the African continent. I arrived in Morocco on the 6th of December 2004, and left Nairobi on the 14th December 2005. In that time I've visited 25 countries, with hundreds of languages, huge variations in culture and landscapes. There are places I didn't get to, such as Ethiopia, which I would like to have visited, but I had already booked a tour to the Antarctic. I simply didn't have enough time left to complete the journey north. I've seen a lot of Africa, but there's still a lot left. Maybe, one day I'll return.
At the end
of the last blog, I had just arrived in
Eldoret in Kenya. I had decided to stay the night in Eldoret because I didn't want to continue on to Nairobi. I wanted to be sure that I arrived in Nairobi in daylight. Nairobi is often called Nai-robbery, for good reason! It has an very bad reputation.
THURSDAY 1st DECEMBER
I left the hotel at 8.30am, walking to the Matutus (minibuses) in the city centre. The Matutu I caught claimed to be a luxury shuttle to Nairobi. It was in fact very comfortable for Africa; they only put 3 people across on the rows in the bus. It was a long journey on some very bad roads. The roads were particularly bad between the towns of Nakuru and Naivasha. I finally arrived in
Nairobi city centre at 3.30pm, getting out of the bus in the city centre opposite the Hilton Hotel and straight into a taxi. It's not really a good idea to wander around the centre of Nairobi with a backpack - it's asking to be robbed. The taxi took me to the Impala Hotel, which is in the suburb of Parklands, near Westlands. Westlands is an
upmarket suburb where most of the expats and aid workers choose to live. It's full of shopping malls and is considered a lot safer than the city centre. The Impala is a cheap hotel used by Kenyan businessmen - I was the only Mazungu (European) in the place. It cost me 1500 Kenyan shillings per night for a basic room with en suite bathroom. It's a good deal, and because it's not used by tourists, there are no touts hanging around the place.
Once I had booked in, I walked to the Sarit Centre shopping mall, where I managed to get the photos of the last blog on-line.
FRIDAY 2nd
I spent the whole day working on the last blog in the Sarit Centre. In the evening I watched a film in the shopping malls multi-screen cinema.
SATURDAY 3rd
First thing in the morning I caught a Matutu into the city centre. It only cost 10 shillings. I wandered around the city centre looking for Safari companies. Eventually I found Planet Safari Adventures - I paid them for a four day budget camping Safari. After Charles Kimanthi drove me to a cheap
travel agents ( Flightcentres). I needed to find flights out of Kenya. The idea was to fly to London before Christmas, from where I could get a flight to Argentina. I asked the woman in the travel agents' to look for the cheapest flight between 14th and 23rd of December. I ended up with a flight on the 14th - the closer it got to Christmas the higher the price. I then had a few days to spare after coming back from the safari before flying out, but I didn't have that much time left, so I decided to book a package tour to the island of Lamu - 2 nights with the flights included for $US250.
It was lunchtime by the time I had sorted out everything. I relaxed for the rest of the day.
SUNDAY 4th DECEMBER
I was picked up from the hotel at 8.45am and taken to Planet's office in the city centre. We hung around till 11am before finally leaving on the Safari. The minibus stopped a number of times - it was overheating. One of the passengers a South African was getting rather agitated. Personally I didn't see it as
a problem - it was a cheap tour, you get what you pay for! After, a few stops though the driver solved the problem, he put some eggs in the radiator, which sealed it. We didn't have any more problems with the bus on the tour. We stopped for lunch at 2.30pm and finally arrived in the Masai Mara at 4.30pm. We dropped our bags and went for our first game drive in the park. It was amusing to see as many as 20 Safari vans around a sleeping lion.
We got back to the camp at 6.30 had supper and went to bed early. We were camping, and the campsite was basic - it had no electric.
MONDAY 5th
We spent all day on a game drive in the Masai Mara and the Serengetti. They are the same ecosystem - one is in Kenya, the other in Tanzania. During the day we technically crossed into Tanzania and the Serengetti. I think the photos speak for themselves. At one point we visited a very upmarket lodge for a short break - they apparently charge $US220 a night. They had photos of rich and important people
that had stayed in the lodge in the past on their walls.
We left the park at 5pm, visiting a Masai village just outside the park, after which we returned to our campsite.
TUESDAY 6th
We went for an early morning game drive at 6am. The highlight of the game drive was seeing a lion with its freshly killed Wildebeest. We got back to the camp-site at 8am for breakfast. The rest of the day was spent traveling in the van. The South African and his British friend were panicking. They had booked a flight out of Nairobi to Jo'burg for 8pm. So, they were worried that they weren't going to get to the airport in time. They should really have given themselves more time. Anyway we met a car at about 3.30pm which took the South African, the Brit and a Japanese woman to Nairobi. I and a couple from the Czech republic were continuing for another day.
We finally arrived in the town of Nakuru at 6.30pm. I was pleasantly surprised to see that we were booked into a budget hotel - I had been expecting to camp for 4 days!
It gave me the chance to have a decent shower and shave. I also got to have much more of a chat with the Czech couple.
WEDS 7th DECEMBER
We had breakfast at 7am and then waited for the minibus...the guide had told us that he would pick us up at 7.30am. In fact he didn't turn up till 8am - he had taken the van to be washed.
We then drove into Lake Nakuru Park. It's a small park near the town. It's full of vast numbers of pelicans and flamingos. The flamingos appear to stain the lake pink. There is also a lot of other wildlife in the park. We left the park at 11am and drove into town for lunch. After lunch we drove back to Nairobi. I got back into Nai-robbery at 3.30pm, I booked into the Comfort Hotel in the city centre which cost me 3,600 shillings ($US45). It was a nice room with satellite TV. The hotel is next to a supermarket, restaurants and cheap internet cafes. After booking in, I walked to the Flight Centres to pick up my ticket, where I met the guy who runs the
Planet Safaris. I told him that I enjoyed the safari. I then went back to the hotel for an early night.
THURS 8th DECEMBER
I took a trip out to Karen. Karen is a town 10kms from Nairobi. It's named after Karen Blixen, whose pen name was Isak Dineson. She's probably Danemark's most well known author. She wrote Out of Africa which I quoted from at the start of this blog. The area that Karen Blixen lived in was very much white settler country. It's still a bit like that today. It's now full of wealthy white ex-pats. It's a pretty, wealthy, leafy town. I visited the house that Karen Blixen lived in, when she had her farm in Africa. It's now a museum. After lunch in Karen, I returned to Nairobi and went out to the cinema in the evening.
When I staggered out of the cinema it was dark. So, I got into a taxi. Only to find that the driver had no idea about the whereabouts of the Comfort Hotel. That's not an unusual event in Africa. Lots of the taxi drivers don't seem to know their way around. So, I got
out of the car and walked back to the hotel. It was only a 10 minute walk, but the guide books tell you not to walk anywhere in Nairobi after dark. I was a bit annoyed with the driver, which is why I walked, it may not have been a good idea.
FRIDAY 9th DECEMBER
I had a flight booked for Lamu for Sunday, so I had a couple of days to kill. So, I decided to go to Lake Naivasha. Lake Naivasha is also classic white settler country in Kenya. I had breakfast in a city centre coffee shop then booked out of the hotel. I left most of my main backpack in storage at the Comfort Hotel. I only took a small day pack with me. I got a taxi from outside the hotel to the matutus on River Road. The taxi driver delivered me to the door of the matutu. The River Road area is one of the roughest areas in Nairobi. It's where all the matutus congregate. The guide books now say that staying in any of the cheap hotels in the River Road area is a false economy - you've a
good chance of being robbed. I was in Nairobi in the 1990's, back then I stayed in a cheap hotel near the matutu stops on River Road. This time around I decided that staying on River Road wasn't such a good idea.
The Matutu drove off at 10am. He drove a short distance and straight into Nairobi's central police station. Outside the station a lot of Matutu's were parked. A policewoman walked to our Matutu and asked us to get out. The police then frisked everyone and opened everybody's bags. Then they let us back on the bus, and we continued our journey.
I got into the town of Naivasha at midday. I hopped onto a motorbike taxi. Possibly a mistake, as it was a lot further to the lake than I remembered. The road was also terrible - the motorbike had real difficulty keeping upright on the loose grit. I thought we were going to fall over a number of times during the journey. Eventually though the driver delivered me to the Fisherman's Camp. They wanted 800 shillings for a room with no bathroom. I looked at the room and decided I fancied something more comfortable. So,
I walked out of the campsite. On the way into the campsite I had noticed a sign for a place called the Fish Eagle Inn. I walked in there. It was much nicer, and it was still only 2500 shillings ($US33). It was a really smart room with satellite TV.
In the afternoon I took a boat safari out onto Lake Naivasha, there were a lot of hippos in the lake, which sometimes seemed to by far too close to the boat for my liking!
SATURDAY 10th DECEMBER
It was a quiet day. I caught matutus back to Nairobi, arriving back at the Comfort Hotel at 1pm. I took it easy for the rest of the day.
SUNDAY 11th
I checked out of the hotel at 10am and took a taxi straight away to Wilson Airport, which meant that I was very early for the flight to Lamu. So, I sat in the cafe and read a book. The flight finally left at 1.15pm getting into the airstrip at 3.45pm. I was met at the airstrip by a guide who took me to the Island Hotel in the village
of Shella on the island of Lamu itself. I took it easy the rest of the day. I walked some distance along the beach from the village. It's a picture postcard beautiful beach - 13km of white sand and sand dunes, falling into a deep turquoise blue sea. The stretch near the village is full of people, but if you walk 10 minutes along the beach it's empty. Paradise for beach bums.
MONDAY 12th DECEMBER
I did the touristy things. In the morning I took a guided tour of the main town of Lamu with the guide who had met me off the plane the day before. Lamu town is an old Swahili trading town, so many peoples have passed through the place over the centuries. Some of them have married into the local population - so you can see many different faces in the crowd, some of the local people even have blue eyes! The town has very narrow streets, the walls of the old buildings are made of coral. There are bridges across the streets that connect houses. These were built so that the women of the houses could meet each other without
having to interact with any men. It's still a very conservative and traditional society. There are no cars on the island at all. The only form of transport is by donkey or by sailing along the coast in a traditional Swahili Dhow.
At noon I returned to my hotel and took it easy until I went out for a sunset cruise on a Dhow in the evening.
TUESDAY 13th
First thing in the morning I walked into Lamu town to explore the place for myself, returning to the hotel at noon by Dhow. I rested for a couple of hours before I had to leave for the airstrip at 2pm. I flew at 2.45, arriving in Nairobi at 3.45. I had decided to stay right in the city centre. So, I got a taxi to the Hotel Ambassador, which is on Moi Avenue opposite the Hilton Hotel. It cost me $US35 a night, which is a lot cheaper than the $US180 for the Hilton next door! The Ambassador though was shabby. It's the sort of place that used to be grand, but has been allowed to go to seed. It doesn't look as if
it has seen a lick of paint in 30 years and the carpets are old, worn and smelly. But, I got a massive room with air conditioning, a huge bathroom and satellite TV. Also, although I was on the 7th floor I took to climbing the stairs rather than using the lift. I used the lift only twice. The second time I got in the lift the door didn't want to close - it closed half way, and the lift stopped between floors. When the lift stopped I pushed the door shut and it continued going down. But, I didn't dare use the lift again.
I noticed that the Hotel had askaris (security guards) everywhere. Not only on the entrance door, but they also patrolled the corridors of the hotel in pairs on every floor. In the evening I went down to the hotel's bar - there were even askaris patrolling the the bar and the restaurant!
WEDS 14th DECEMBER
It was my last day in Kenya and Africa. My flight wasn't until 11.20pm in the evening, so I had for a half day in the Hotel Ambassador. I took it easy all day,
hanging around the cafes and shops in the city centre, until I finally checked out of the hotel at 7pm. When I got out of the taxi at the airport, I met the Czech couple at the airport check in, who had been on the same Safari as me in the Masai Mara. They were flying in the morning, so they were intending to spend the night in the airport, saving themselves the cost of hotel for the night. They had a very tight budget - they are both students.
Finally at 11.20pm I boarded the flight and left Africa, but maybe I'll be back someday.
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Kimbj
non-member comment
I been watching...
I have been following along with you on your blog through Africa and I am sad to see you leave. You have blessed all of us with taking us along. I was in Africa for a month or so this summer and blogged and I know how much work it is to keep up with it but you do a wonderful job!!! Looking forward to the rest of your journey... this is a book in the making!