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Published: June 19th 2013
Well it has been just over a week since we have had internet access so this could be a long one..buckle in for the ride or jump out now!
As I write this first part of the blog we are on the overland truck heading to a small town called Eldoret in Kenya and aiming for Kampala in Uganda so please forgive me if the spelling is a bit rough as the roads in Africa aren't exactly smooth.
Wow the last week has gone back in a flash. When we last posted a blog we had just arrived into Nairobi and had met up with Anita and Ryan and had checked into a really nice place called Wildebeest Eco Camp on the outskirts of Nairobi. This place was set up with permanent large private tents with en-suite and a very nice place to allow Anita and Ryan to get themselves back into shape after the long flight from NZ. We spent the first day just relaxing before we spent the second day looking at the local sights.
We first headed off to visit the David Sheldrick Elephant orphanage where they take in
small elephants who have been orphaned from their mother due to poaching. The routine is that once everyone arrived we were placed behind a roped off area and then on queue the little elephants arrive running over a small hill into the roped off area to receive their morning milk from oversized bottles. The age of these guys ranged from 3 weeks old to about 2 years and the littlest ones spent most of their time following the keepers as they form a great attachment to them. The keepers spend their whole time with the elephants and even sleep in the stalls with them at night. It was a great opportunity to be extremely close to these little guys and pat them as they drank their milk and then tussled for branches which had green leaves attached.
We then visited The Giraffe Manor where you get up close and personal with giraffes..so much so that when you hand them the little feeding pellets, which are given to you, they take them right from your hand and if you are foolish enough...right from your mouth complete with a big blue tongued kiss!!
We spent one
evening at a local eating place called "Carnivores" as yes you guessed it!! their specialty is meat and in particular game meats. We sampled the usual stuff such as beef, lamb and turkeys before they brought out the Ostrich and Crocodile to taste. This was followed by an object which the waiter would not tell us the name of until we had had a piece each and then explained that it was the part of an Ox which is required for reproduction! Yum! But no seconds on this one.
On the Thursday we headed out of Nairobi to the Masai Mara which is one of the biggest game parks in Kenya and renowned for the big five (Lion, Elephant, Buffalo, Rhino and Leopard) sightings. We had this trip tacked onto the front of our overland truck adventure to give us maximum possible exposure animal sightings.
On this add on there were just us four and an American guy called Charles who is a school principle from Arizona. Poor Charles didn't stand a chance with us and got a very quick intro to not only New Zealanders but Kitto's and associates!! On our first visit
to the park we arrived at the front gate and the driver got out to pay the entry fee leaving us in the van parked on a slight hill with the hand brake on securely?? As he got about 15 metres from the van it started to jolt back on the handbrake and move backwards extremely slowly..Ryan's first thought was to put the vehicle into gear and so leaned over into the front seat and clicked it into gear?? There's your first mistake!! For those of you with any knowledge of physics you will understand that when a vehicle is moving backwards slowly and you take it OUT of gear some strange things start to happen...we are only referring to it now as " the incident". As you can guess the speed at which we approached the ditch behind us could be, for the purpose of this work of fiction, breakneck!! and the vehicle made a sudden stop buried deep into this ditch minus one American who had gallantly dived from the side door of the van having been slightly encouraged by me screaming " get out of the van!!" Well with quarter of an hour and eight happy Kenyan
Wildlife Service guards to spare we managed to manoeuvre the van back out of the ditch and entered the park with an extremely apologetic driver who kept saying sorry over and over...so we did the only decent thing and accepted his heart felt apology and didn't mention anything about Ryan's action as they seemed inconsequential?? Amazingly the van and the flying Charles miraculously survived "the incident" "unscathed but I can't say the same for the poor spikey acacia bush that Charles landed in.
The rest of the day went really well with Anita seeing one of her favourite animals, Hyena, straight away followed by her other favourite the Zebra straight afterwards. We spent the whole day being spoilt with close up views of Cheetah, Lion, Hippos, Giraffes and copious other antelope varieties before arriving at the border of Tanzania and Kenya which is marked by a small block of concrete where we had our photos taken with a foot in each country. We drove around the park, which is huge, looking for anything that we could find and at one point found it quite interesting just viewing the various convoys of vehicles which played "tag" around the
area chasing vanishing lions and other "wanted list" animals. We finished the day without any further "driving incidents" and returned to our camp very happy campers and looking forward to the following days adventure back on The Mara.
But before we could relax for the day we visited a traditional Maasai village near to our camp. This visit entailed a formal welcome followed by a dance performed by the men of the village which involved the typical jumping warriors and of course the visiting dignitaries from NZ and America joining in.. much to the laughter of warriors, children and the occasional passing dog. We then spent time wandering around the village looking at the cow dung covered houses and then watching a dance performed by the women of the village. This was followed by the obligatory buying of local necklaces and trinkets and thereby supporting the local economy, and, from the amount of $$ spent at one houses, supporting the purchase of a Porsche or Lamborghini by the slick talking business man who dealt with Anita and Ryan...long story but enough said!! (haggling is an acquired skill)
The following day we had a new driver and
vehicle and not because of crash repairs or stress but simply our first day driver had to return to Nairobi for business. Our new driver, Peter, and associated Land Drover vehicle, seemed to be not so much concerned with taking his time at looking for animals, but with getting telephone animal updates on his cellphone from mates in the park and then rushing at speed to the scene of such sightings. Anita referred to this as "speed Mara" but it seemed to be a successful way of seeing things because in our first hour we saw one cheetah and six lions so all good from our perspective. Once our driver had found us a quota of big animals his driving slowed to a leisurely pace and we had a much more relaxed day. Our lunch time stop was overlooking a grassy area full of zebra, antelope and the occasional small herd of bad tempered buffalo which eventually caused us to get back into the vehicle and head away. We spent the rest of the day enjoying the amazing scenery of The Mara which is mainly grasslands that stretch as far as the eye can see. Our driver did a great
job and managed to get us home safely without any "incidents!!" and extremely satisfied with the days viewing.
For those of you who had the privilege of visiting game parks you will know that it is not a national geographic or David Attenborough situation of just turning up and a vast array of animals pass by your location. You have to really search for animals and count it a real treat when you find them and hence it can be really tiring...yeah I know you're all feeling really sorry for us getting tired....anyway how is the weather in NZ??
That evening the overland truck arrived at our camp with the other 19 people that we will be spending the next wee while with. The system works that on board are some people who have come all the way from Capetown in the deep south and have been joined by more at Zimbabwe and still more in Tanzania. Also at the same time people are getting off and finishing their overlander at these points as well... So the dynamics of the truck is ever changing. It is sort of a big bus trip but with
amazing scenery and sights chucked in for good measure.
The truck itself is just that..a flat deck truck with a large bus like structure on the rear decked out with seats and a table. Underneath is space for the tents, cooking equipment and our gear as well as spare bits and pieces. The routine of the trip is that everyone chips in to do the chores on a roster system and mucks in to get things done so we can all climb aboard and head onto the next destination.
The next day we began our last trip into the Mara aboard the truck which was a very different view point from previous days as we were high off the ground and had all round windows. We again were spoilt with the sights that we saw during the day and had another great picnic lunch on a plateau overlooking the Mara below returning all very tired in the evening ready for an early night ready for our 5am start the following morning to head to Eldorat which is 500 kms away and yet takes about 13 hours to reach due to the "road? conditions" and other factors.
We had our pre-trip meeting on this night and it was disclosed that we may have the chance to take a day trip into Rwanda while we are waiting in Uganda to see the gorillas. Now those of you who are conjuring up horrible thoughts when the name Rwanda is mentioned please be assured that things have changed a lot since the genocide atrocities of the early nineties .. Rwanda is now regarded as the safest and cleanest country in Africa and in fact when you pass through the border you are asked if you are carrying any plastic shopping bags as they have been completely banned in the country to keep up their new image. So all going well later this week we should be able to head to Kigali, the capital, for a day trip and maybe try to understand a little of this countries past problems.
Anyway I digress.....
We headed away on time from our camp in the Mara and are now on the road to Eldoret hopefully arriving sometime late this afternoon. As this blog won't be sent until we reach Kampala I will finish off
tomorrow...mind you tomorrow is the 19th of June which is an auspicious date and my fiftieth birthday so with senior age gaining on me I might forget!!
OK well as luck would have it I remembered so I am now sitting at a camp ground in Kampala, Uganda finishing off this blog.
What a great way to spend a birthday travelling 10 hrs on the truck over roads bumpier that a chokito chocolate bar? we started off the day having spend the night at a camp just outside Eldoret in Kenya and had the first rain in a long time so packed down tents in the rain and hit the road towards Uganda.
The day started well with small cake and candles and a couple of cards and then it was off at 6.30am. we passed through the border into Uganda without incident although it took a long time with half the trucks in Africa trying to accomplish the same but our driver had the knack of overtaking everyone and getting to the front of the line so didn't take too long. The scenery changed almost immediately with the sight of
sugar cane fields followed by tea plantations and banana trees every where. It appears that Uganda has good soil and ideal conditions for this type of produce.
We arrived into Kampala and went to the camp site via a supermarket and then had a minor incident with the military when one of then people on the bus decided to take a photo of a child who was carrying fruit and vegies on his head, in the typical traditional way, but just happened to be outside a military installation!! Opps! however five minutes later and the deletion of photos and all sorted...
So we are at the Red Chilli camp ground in Kampala getting ready to head away early tomorrow morning to head to Lake Bunyoni which is where we await the trek to the gorillas so spirits are high all around the truck.
There apparently is internet access of some sort at Lake Bunyoni so will try to keep this updated from there all fingers crossed. Well that's about all for now so if you got to the bottom of this one sit down have a strong cuppa and a chocky
biscuit you've deserved it....so until next time.....
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sandy
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what about the toilets at the Sheraton in Kampala....they are a must...hope you don't miss them!! Happy Birthday and Wedding Anniversary nice way to celebrate....glad you are all having a great time.