Kayaking the Vic

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In the early morning of last Sunday I headed out through the flowering water hyacinth onto the waters of Lake Victoria. This lake, the largest in Africa is not really a tourist attraction and very few travelers get out on the waters. The problem is at minimum two-fold: Problem 1) the water hyacinth, said to have been imported for colonial gardens, has plagued the lake in general, and specifically Winam Gulf - where Kisumu is located - for many years. The plant filled the entire Gulf a few years back, literally crippled the Kisumu shipping economy. USAID paid about 20 million USD to eradicate it using some boat-thresher thing, to no avail - the company refused to bribe the government for a permit to bury the minced plant matter, so it was dumped back into the lake. The plant was finally reduced when some scientists imported/bred some bug that feeds on the plant (I’m soooo scientific). Problem 2) Bilharzia, or Schistosomiasis plagues many of the Rift Valley lakes, including Victoria. Schisto is a virus that has some crazy life cycle involving snails and pee. Everyone in Public Health knows about Schisto, but very few (including me) can tell you much more than "avoid fresh water and snails." mmmm…..bladder cancer. Anyway, those two factors, plus the pollution and presence of aggressive animals with distinctly large teeth mean that swimming is frowned upon and generally a downright nasty idea.

Regardless, “Lake Schistoiria” is beautiful. We got some Kayaks from the Kisumu Yacht Club, where the last regatta was run in 1987, and paddled around for the better part of the morning. The fog was thick and as the morning progressed amazingly ominous and beautiful storm clouds moved across the sky. Fishermen in their intricately colored boats were either coming back from the night of trawling or they were heading out to the deeper waters further west. We saw some hippos, portaged our kayaks through some malaria/schisto infested swamps, and made it home before the rains. It was one of the highlights of the trip so far.

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Photos

This is as close as I dared to get
Those teeth were made for chompin'

Schis-tasitic
A portage through snail infested waters doesn't usually sound that freaky

Looking north
Another view of KTown

Comments

[shcmee]

geh!
i am bilious with envy. or was that phlegmatic? drat! i can never remember the right humour!