Game Parks and Gorilla's - Days 1-7

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As we mentioned in the last entry after leaving St Jude's we were booked onto an overland trip from Nairobi to the Gorillas in Uganda or Rwanda (depending on permit availability), travelling quite differently in an overland truck with six other people for 14 days.


We left the school early on the Friday morning with Dan (my trusty Accounting buddy - who was also leaving the school on the same day as us) and we headed to Nairobi in his car. We spent the night at his friend's place and then checked into our tour departure hotel the night before heading off (early on the Sunday morning). Kristina lives in a perfect setting right on the edge of the Nairobi National Park. A pretty nice place - whilst having breakfast in the morning we saw 4 white Rhino's walking along the ridge on the other side of the small valley that is the National Park (an exciting way to start the day!). Kristina is an Australian who has moved to Kenya and is in the process (a long and slow one) of setting up an orphanage, her charity is called African Leaf and they have already done a lot of work with some orphans who now attend the local Steiner school. Her plans along with the land they have on the edge of the National Park will create a wonderful environment for these kids.


On Sunday we joined our group to head off on the first leg of the Gorilla trip to visit a few game parks in Kenya before starting the long drive to Uganda. Our group consisted of 8 great people, all older than the "Contiki" types we had previously seen on the overland trucks, which was good. We also had a good mix of nationalities with Aaron from New York, Patrick (Swiss) and Beatrice (Mexican) from Switzerland, Volker - the nuclear power station engineer from Germany, and Max (Aussie) and Deb (Kiwi) from New Zealand. We spent the first few days in Toyota Landcruisers and then on night 3 we met the big overland truck that was our home for 11 days.


Day 1. We travelled from Nairobi to Lake Naivasha (about 3 hours). We took a boat ride across the lake and then did a walking safari through a game park where we walked amongst the animals - one of the few places in Africa you can do this.


Day 2. We travelled to the Masai Mara (about 5 hours) which we were really looking forward to as we had previously seen the Serengeti and and wanted to see how they compared. The road to the Mara was about the worst road we had seen in Africa (and that's saying something) where the tarmac road surface was so bad that most people didn't bother driving on the road and instead drove on the dirt tracks on the edges of the road - they call it an African massage, and we had plenty more of this in store for us over the next couple of weeks.


The Masai Mara is the Kenyan (top) part of the great Serengeti National Park and it is full of animals as you would imagine but the large migration herds that we had seen in the southern Serengeti were still about a month away from arriving in the northern areas. That said we still saw some great animal sights and I personally preferred the Mara to the Serengeti as it was a lot more accessible (with tracks all over it) and still had some of the same awesome characteristics of the Serengeti (although not quite the huge vastness that you get further south). We camped the night just near one of the entrance gates (not that they have boundary fences or anything). The highlight for me was first thing the next morning seeing a huge group of lions feasting on a buffalo that had only been killed in the last hour or so, and the smell made you gag, so god knows what it smelt like after a few days in the sun!! The second highlight was the cheetahs which became particularly exciting when one of the safari trucks got bogged and the driver had to get out of the vehicle!! It caught the attention of the cheetahs and allowed the many spectators to get some great photos!


Day 3. We left left the Mara and travelled back to Lake Nakuru National Park (another 5 hours) where we were meant to do a game drive in the park late afternoon - that is until we got stuck! To save some time the drivers took their regular short cut through the mountains, and the road despite being rough as buggery, was fine until we got to a very large mud hole on the top of a hilly area about 1 hour off the main road (also dirt and rough). After reviewing the 40 metre long muddy hole and discussing with the many locals around, the decision was made to drive through, as to turn around would add about 4 hours to the trip. The first vehicle got about 10 metres in and slid into a big hole and sank hard into the mud. They were well and truly stuck and the big crowd of locals were cheering (and the rest of us in the second truck were also having a big laugh - and I got plenty of photos which added to the locals amusement).


After a failed attempt with a tractor (the cable broke), 2 hours of digging and numerous attempts to drive out, we finally got the 4wd pulled out backwards back onto the dry ground. The funniest thing during all the excitement was an old crappy ute (piled up with food and supplies), that pulled up with its engine coughing and spluttering determined to get across. After giving the engine a quick roadside service they set off using another side of the road and got past the mud hole that our vehicle was stuck in and then proceeded to get well and truly stuck about half way into the mud hole well beyond reach of any ropes, etc. They finally got pulled out after unloading all the stuff out of their truck and walking it up to the end of the hole.


After talking to the locals and seeing a bit of the set up near the mud hole I reckon that the locals use the mud hole as a bit of a money spinner. First the hole is on top of a hill, so why doesn't the water run away instead of pooling and creating the muddy situation. Second, why does someone sell bags of gravel from the massive pile next to the start of the hole (to put under your wheels when you have dug them out), and third, apparently the tractor driver doesn't do anything else other than pull people out of the hole (for a fee of course). Add to this that loads of locals were instantly on hand to act as hired help to dig out the vehicles and you have a sneaking suspicion that the locals have a vested interest in the road being impassable. We reckoned they get out at night and water the road and happily dig it up to keep it in its wet season condition all year round. Good luck to them I think - gave us a laugh and change of pace for the day anyway.


Needless to say that once our first vehicle was out they decided not to try again and so started on the long way back to the road and the long way round. All in all we didn't mind as it was fun having jokes with the locals whilst the rescue effort was on. We arrived at the Lake Nakuru camp well after dark and too late to do any game drives (did at the end of the trip instead).


Day 4. We left Lake Nakuru on the big truck at 5.30am (the first of many early starts) heading for Kampala in Uganda which took us about 16 hours and saw us cross the equator the first of 4 times on this trip.


Day 5 was a day off from travelling and we spent the day wandering around Kampala which is a reasonably upmarket and happening place for an African city. The markets were full of friendly people and colour, and people were happy to stop and talk to find out where we were all from. What was very noticeable is that Kampala has obviously had its fair share of political difficulties in the past which is visible from all the bullet holes on the walls of the national parliament building.


Day 6. We left very early again and headed south towards the Rwandan border and a nice lake side stop at Lake Bunyoni which would have been our Gorilla base for a few days had we been seeing them in Uganda, but we were headed further south to the land of Dian Fossey and the Parc National Des Volcans in Rwanda - the real home of the Gorilla's in the mist.


Day 7. We did the last stint across the Rwandan border and set up ready for our early Sunday morning departure for the Gorillas. Being in Rwanda was a little weird given its recent history of the 1994 genocide, the trials of which we had watched for a while in Arusha. Rwanda obviously was a bit of a no go zone for quite some time but the people are happy to welcome everyone and are keen to let you know that life is good and people are happy being Rwandans now rather than their previous separate warring tribes.


Day 8 was Gorilla day - stay tuned!


DON'T FORGET TO LOOK AT PAGE 2 OF THE PHOTOS.

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