Serengeti and beyond

---

Thanks to all our friends reading our wadda wadda and specially to our German friends who take great effort to follow our saga in a second language. We do get all your comments and mails, but it is impossible to answer with slow e-mail connections and little time we spend in towns.
It has been some time since our last blog, but there are not too many internet cafees in the Serengeti ;o)

but here the update since northern Kenya:

08-07-07

At 6:30 this morning we had a game drive with the head ranger Kioko ( [e-mail] or [e-mail] ). He not only showed us rhino and lions and various bucks, but also grèvy zebra (these have many very narrow black stripes, a white belly and bushy furry ears). Kioko explained us the markings of rhinos, their distribution and protection. The numbers have decreased from 650 000 animals at the turn of the century to a mere 2460 in 1970. Today the numbers have recovered a bit, only with the enormous effort of conservationist and large amount of investment. 24 rangers protect and survey 25 black and 2 white rhinos in this 90 km2 electrical fenced sanctuary. Head counts almost daily and a national database filled meticulously are the key to a recover this magnificent species from near extinction.


09-07-07
very early we left in convoy to Rumuruti and said good bye to Rosalie and Lionel. Our next destination was Nanyuki a mere 4 hours drive for 200Km through bandit land as we later read in the news paper. We had a fabulous lunch at Carina’s restaurant at the airfield called Barney’s. The restaurant is very well situated and quite busy, but no wonder as the food is delicious and the service attentive and fast. In the afternoon we were invited by her grandmother Jane Tatham Warter to her most beautiful house and garden. Jane warned us of the road to her being terrible. Off main road on our GPS it read lunatic lane (the name of the road has apparently changed recently since). The road surface is riddled with potholes, but with only 2 km to go and driving slowly it wasn’t a problem. But we can imagine living at the end of such a road makes you think twice about any trip to town. But what a wonderful destination we were about to reach. Jane’s garden is the most beautiful oasis after the dusty road and the contrast could not be stronger. We were most grateful for the invitation to stay overnight and join her for dinner together with a very interesting couple from the neighbourhood, but originally from New Zealand and the US. We had a most enjoyable evening and a surprise visitor in the morning, when Amanda (also granddaughter) joined us with her two children for breakfast. What a treat this stay was. Thank you Caroline and Tim for suggesting and introducing us to your mum. It was simply wonderful.


10-07-07

A quick shopping in Nanyuki (great baguette) and off we drove to lake Nakuru national park. We planed to camp just outside the gate at Mwbeha (2 Km from the gate and priced at KS 300 said the guide book) but were caught by surprise when the 2 Km turned out to be 12Km and the price was 3400 KS (about R340). We camped at the parking lot. This ought to be most expensive parking we have done so far in Africa. The drive to the camp turned out to be very challenging as the directions we were given did seem odd and the procedures at the park exit took a bit longer as planned and we ended up driving in the dark on an unknown track in the rain. The car jumped in and out of the track at will and more than once we skidded totally out of control. The Landrover was covered in mud all the way up to the roof, when we finally arrived at the campsite. The staff was friendly though, but asked R3500 for one night stay at the lodge. It was a nice place but nowhere as luxurious as the price would make one believe.

11.07.07

Woken up by the call of the hyena we packed our stuff and went for the second run on the meanwhile even worst track, because it had rained all night long and the mud had become an interconnected array of puddles and mushy surface, which is not always clear as to how deep it is. Well, what can I say, we made it intact and without damage to the car. As we had paid for the park the previous day (African burocracy at its best and too long to write down, but I did have to through a tantrum to get it right) we re-entered the Nakuru National Park and experienced most magnificent sights throughout the morning. Millions of pink flamingos and thousands of pelicans at the water. A lone hyena was chasing the flamingos deep into the water and to our surprise got one of them. We watched the kill and how it took the bird apart watched with great anticipation by some marabou storks who were not shy at all coming as close as a few centimetres. We saw some silly tourist taking photographs only a few meters away from buffalo (the most dangerous animal and unpredictable too). We did not wait for that “kill”. We left at about lunch time heading for Kambu, but before we went for a car wash. It took the guy more than an hour with a high pressure sprayer to clean the car from the bulk of the dirt. A rather short trip to a well equipped nice Kambu camp site, were we stayed the night. In the course of the day I felt more and more a cold coming up and I am treating it with lots of drugs and hot teas. Vanessa is nursing me perfectly.

13.07.07
Although I still feel rotten we decided to carry on and check out the Tea Hotel in Kericho 150 Km further, so maybe we could check in and treat us to some hot bath until I feel better. The tea hotel was disappointingly run down and expensive with muzungu prices twice as much as for locals. We carried on to Kisii instead which is in easy reach of the Tanzanian border. We checked into the best hotel called Mash Park Hotel. Well, a sleep-in-cupboard and a tiny shower bath is all you get. But it is perfectly fine for an overnight stay and makes one appreciate home so much more again. The travel was uneventful and very scenic through the wheat and tea lands and beautiful mountains and picturesque valleys.

14.07.07
On a fair road we arrived rather early at the border crossing to Tanzania. The procedure was pleasant, only the Tanzanian customs official tried a fast one on us, demanding an additional 25 US$ to accept our carnet de passage. After some hackeling we let him safe his face and paid 5 US$ as we would otherwise be spending the rest of the day at customs. The border crossing was even this included one of the fastest and efficient of our safari so far. On good roads we arrived at Speke Bay which our guide book described as on the beach of the lake Victoria with gorgeos sun-sets and nice settings. A very unfriendly gate guard did not even let us past the boom not even for an enquiry or drinks at the restaurant. We did not want to stay at an unfriendly place and decided to rather spend our money elsewhere and arrived at a welcoming Serengeti Stop-over campsite only 2Km from the Serengeti entrance.

15.07.07
My cold is not getting any better. We stayed another day at Serengeti Stop-over.

16.07.07

At about 11:00 we entered the most famous Serengeti game Park. From my early childhood this name was imprinted as a synonymous to wild life in Africa. Good old Prof. Grzimeks (director of Frankfurt Zoologische Gesellschaft, which is still very much involved in the Serengeti) television series on then (new) colour TV had a good part of it. A hefty 600 US$ for three days in the park cut quite a hole in our budget. The park is vast and by far not as overrun as we have heard so many times before. We arrived at the right time with millions of wilderbeasts (german: Gnu) and hundred thousands of zebras are migrating for greener pastures. We saw the famous river crossing, the crocodiles waiting for them and experienced huge herds of zebras and saw some topis as well. The plains are awesome and endless in their beauty. Difficult to describe for me in my simple prosa. Lions are best spotted by looking out for a cluster of game viewing vehicles, somewhere in the middle would be the poor lion, bewildered about the attraction he or she created. The Serengeti is a different experience to the other game parks as it is not so much the variety but the sheer numbers of animals to see. About halfway into the park we arrived at the public campsite Seronera, which consists of a number of satellite camps with animal names. The one we stayed at had no facilities and was a bit disappointing for the hefty price one pays.

17.07.07

We took a long game drive through the park and saw more large herds of plains animals. A lion here and there but less wildlife then the day before as the landscape became more hilly and the altitude raised. We arrived at the northern public Lobo campsite (all special campsites were booked out) and had a rather cold night. The wind was hauling and our campfire smoky. So we made it a short evening and went to bed early. Then disaster struck… our air matrace collapsed during the night ( it had been loosing air some nights already, but never much) and besides being cold it was hard lying as well. We are not quite sure, but it appeared as if a pack curious African wild dogs (very endangered and scarce animals) came during the night. The light was too bad and the pack too far to be sure.

18.07.07

In the morning we patched the matrass and meandered down into warmer regions of the park. For lunch we treated ourselves at the fife star Serengeti Sopa lodge. A very nice resident house doctor examined my chest and supplied me free of charge with a cough mixture and an anitibiotic as my cold had turned into a bronchitis. Vanessa unfortunately also got it now and she is on the same treatment. We can cough as a duet and sneeze in unison. The night we spend again at Seronera choosing the better equipped Dik-Dik Campsite, that is having at least a long drop toilet.

19.07.07

We left Serengeti via a very beautiful track parallel to the main drag through my favourite grasslands. What a treat. I can’t get enough of this kind of landscape. We almost got stuck at simba kopje (German: Huegel) trying to find some lions by driving around a rock formation. Leaving the Serengeti towards Ngoron goro crater is virtually the only way to get south again, but it comes with another pricetag of 140 US$, just to drive through. .. And what a drive it was. The road is so corrugated that holding the steering wheel is a physical exercise. Game viewing vehicles shuttling tourists to and from Serengeti passed us at high speed producing huge amount of dust and zero vision. I underestimated the amount of fuel needed so we almost run out of diesel before arriving at the crater. A majestic view into the crater (it costs another 100 US$ per person to actually go drive down into the crater, we were not tempted) rewarded us on arrival. We lunched at the Ngoron Goro Serena Hotel which restaurant is overlooking the crater. Armed with binoculars, knife and fork we had an elaborate lunch buffet. Luckily the next petrol station was only 9 Km away, we just made it on the vapours of our tank.
The rest of the road was fair to excellent to Kudu Campsite. We spend the rest of the day organizing our laundry and clean the car of the Serengeti dust. We met an elderly couple from Natal heading the same direction as us and are planning to team up with them for the Arusha to Dodoma (capital of Tanzania) roads which has a reputation of being very bad to be unpassable.

---

Comments

[Tim and Caroline]

You made Nanyuki
So glad you met the family and they looked after you so well. Karina had her baby boy on the 18th all well and he is Digby Max Simpson - lots of excitement but Caroline was sad not to be there in time. She flies on the 25th so he will already by a week old. Amanda and family are having a wonderful time at Lake Turkana and leave for the long drive back on Monday. If you get this before Arusha don't forget my sister Jo if you need any help. Safe driving and enjoy it all.