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Published: January 16th 2007
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Sheldricks Elephant orphanage, KenyaEarly Tuesday morning I met the group for my seventy one day tour going from Nairobi, Kenya to Cape Town, South Africa. Had a late start as some people needed to do banking in order to change travellers cheques into US dollars for kitty payment. Once on the road, our first stop was a visit to Sheldricks Elephant orphanage. The organization is on a large area of land & they rehabilitate orphaned elephants & rhinos before releasing them into the wild. Their costs are funded through donors & you can sponsor your own elephant for around US$50- per year. The little ellies were fun to watch as the keepers fed them & they played soccer together & frolicked in the mud.
Made a short stop overlooking the Rift Valley, which goes for thousands of kilometres. Onto Naivasha & then to Elsamere, the home of Joy Adamson of Born Free fame. We watched a documentary video of her life, which showed her relationship with Elsa the lioness & her array of other aquired 'wild' pets. She certainly had an interesting life, but apparently wasn't a very nice person, especially to her staff, who ended up murdering her!
First night of
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Sheldricks Elephant orphanage, Kenya the trip was spent at Crayfish Campsite. Had soup & hot chips for dinner, paid kitty money & got a rundown on the trip from our tour leader Romy. She is Italian, has been working for Absolute Africa for a couple of years, our driver is a local Kenyan man called Robert & our big, yellow truck is called Makako.
Went to a game park on Wednesday morning & saw my first giraffe up close & personal. Actually saw lots of giraffes on our walk through the park, then continued onto Crater Lake to check out the wildlife there. Saw a few monkey & LOTS of flamingos, both alive & dead. Seems the Crater Lake water is very high in sulphur & is toxic, so no fish live there. The flamingos however have no such problems, but they do seem to die alot around the waters edge & stink the place up something fierce.
Returned to campsite for lunch at the restaurant & sipped on hot chocolate whilst waiting for the rain to subside before heading down to the lake to see the hippos. Saw a couple frolicking in the distance, but thankfully none were too close
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Rift Valley, Kenya for comfort & we left well before dusk when they come ashore to feed on the grass. It was our first group cooked dinner & my group Acacia was on duty. Romy already had the ingredients on hand & we made Beef Stroganoff for the meat eaters & stuffed Butternut Pumpkin for the vegetarians. Both dishes were well received, but I thought the beef was quite tough, even though we cooked it for ages. Apparently tough meat is common in Africa as the slaughtering methods are different from back home. It seems the beasts are well aware they are about to die & tense up. Here though, they don't hang the carcass, it's butchered straight away, so the muscle stays taught - hence the toughness.
Spent most of Thursday on the road, except for a stop in Nakuru for lunch & shopping. We camped at Kembo Farm in Njoro & my group was on truck cleaning, which was actually pretty quick. I had a few drinks in the afternoon & opted for an early night.
Headed back to Nakuru on Friday morning for some more food shopping. I had to stay on the truck as security
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Rift Valley, Kenya & made friends with some of the local stall holders from the market we were parked next to. Headed into Nakuru National Park for our first game drive in the truck & saw a family of white rhinos. Went up to the lookout for great views of the lake & looked keenly for leopards on the way to our campsite. Set up tents next to Makaria Falls & were warned by Romy not to venture away from camp after dark under any circumstances, due to the high number of wild animals around. We're not even allowed to go to the long drop toilet fifty metres away, instead having to pee next to our tents!
We had some scary baboons harassing the campsite whilst unpacking & during dinner setup, with one even managing to steal our washing detergent. It was kind of funny, yet very scary too because he jumped up onto the table, beared his teeth at Romy, which is a sign of agression. She screamed & ran away, he grabbed the bottle & took off, followed closely by some of the guys hurling rocks. He dropped the bottle & returned to his family on the hill, overlooking the
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Crayfish campsite, Naivasha, Kenya campsite. Apparently baboons aren't afraid of females, so everytime the male came down to ambush us, all the boys had to chase him off. This game went on until sundown, when the baboons retreated into the tree tops, safely out of reach of predators. Dinner was rained out vegetable pasta, followed by an early night.
Up before dawn on Saturday for an early morning game drive. Spotted a lion just off the track & watched a pack of giraffes chase him away. We followed & saw him chase a leopard from his territory. We weren't very close, but it was still cool seeing a leopard as they are the most reclusive of the big five. It had rained heavily overnight & the truck became bogged, so Romy & Robert spent about half an hour digging us out. We weren't allowed out of the truck because we were still in a National Park & the risk of attack from wild animals was too high.
Ate lunch just outside the National Park, then headed back to Nakuru for even more food shopping; it's beginning to feel like groundhog day, as we keep coming back to Nakuru. We arrived at
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Lost toenail-Everest war wound, Kenya Raj's Overland campsite around four in the afternoon & had a fantastic hot shower, the first in a couple of days. Heard about their fantastic bar & went to check it out before dinner. The fun route from the tents takes you downwards through an underground tunnel filled with plants. You then come out at the back of this cavernous room containing a pool table, open fire, ample seating & a huge bar at the top. Part of the ceiling was glass, however it was after dark & the room felt like a big cave, minus the bats. Had a drink before heading back to camp for an awesome Shepherds Pie dinner, then returned to the bar for another beer & excellent atmosphere.
Crossed into Uganda on Sunday & drove to Jinja where we are due to stay at the NRE campsite for a few nights. There's only cold shwers, which are a bit of a hike from camp, so I decided to wait until warmer weather tomorrow to get clean. Our tent was saturated from last nights rain, so Rachel (my NZ tent buddy) & I dragged it from the truck & put it straight up in
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Giraffes near Crater Lake, Kenya the hope it will dry a little before bedtime. I was on cook group again & we made a lovely creamy lamb curry, which I think is the best meal to far this trip.
Monday morning started out wet & I'm not very hopeful about getting my washing dried before we leave Jinja. Spent the day white water rafting, which was an amazing experience. The river we went on had mainly grade four & five's & I found the whole experience simultaneously exhillarating & petrifying. We rode a few rapids then floated along whilst having lunch, before finishing off with a few more rapids & the grand finale, which was in a two in one grade five! We flipped on the first part & fortunately I managed to surface & find the boat before being tumble dried on the second rapid. I was really scared prior to starting it, partly because we were the first group to go, but also because I'd gone under for a long time on our second flip earlier in the day & the feeling of being powerless underwater was terryfying, & a first for me. I managed to relax underwater on the last
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Giraffes near Crater Lake, Kenya rapid & came up ok. We had a well earned drink beofre heading back to camp.
Dinner was included in the cost of whitewater rafting & was waiting when we arrived home. Was starving & tired after such a long day so had dinner & managed to stay up long enough to watch the video they'd made of the day's whitewater action. Our secong flip, which resulted in my near death drowning experience was clearly the best ride of the day & was greeted with much applause. We actually went into a part of the river called the 'G Spot', did a 180 degree turn, then flipped in spectacular style (people & paddles everywhere) & surfaced down river. They did a professional job of the vedeo, but at USD$40-, I decided it was a bit pricey & not something I'd probably watch enough to get my moneys worth from. A few others did purchase the DVD & said they'd post copies if it was possible to burn copies for the group. An excellent day all tolled, but I'm sure I'll be very sore tomorrow.
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