kenya: journal

moyale to marsabit - 5th october

this was it - the stretch of road that we'd heard so much about; the books had warned of the possibility of bandit attacks and if that wasn't enough, the road is severely corrugated for its entire length. at the border we registered with the police and we were advised that the road was now safe to travel and no armed escort would be required. we set off, excited to be in a new country but somewhat nervy of the continous whine coming from the engine that we hadn't been able to diagnose. the road was bad, really bad - a combination of bone shattering corrugations and sharp stones. this was one place we didn't want a puncture. the whirling whine audible from the engine changed to a repetitive tapping but we knew the land rover wouldn't let us down. though when smoke started to fill the cab we had to stop and investigate; exhaust fumes were coming in through the front vents. the only option was to keep driving. the road passed through arid shrubland, becoming dustier and drier as we drove closer to marsabit, where to our surprise, a hill oasis town rose from the flat dustlands.

 
paradise lake, marsabit national park

in marsabit the problem was diagnosed (a blown exhaust gasket) but as the part wasn't available and a local mechanic was offering to do a bodge-job at an exorbitant rate we decided to abandon our plans to drive through the chalbi desert to lake turkana and to get to the next big town to get the job done properly. it would be a similar, hard drive to isiolo so we broke the journey by visiting marsabit national park with its extinct volcanic landscape and crater lakes. waiting patiently at the lakes we saw buffalo and elephant emerge from the forested slopes.

 
sipping a sundowner, marsabit national park

marsabit to the masai mara via nanyuki and nairobi - 7th october

the drive down to isiolo took us through the kaisut desert, archers post and the dry, thorny shrublands of the sambura and shaba national reserves. corrugations still shook the land rover and us; the dust made it impossible to see to overtake any vehicles that caused us to slow down from our optimum speed. finally at isiolo we hit tarmac, it was potholed and the edges were worn away, but none the less tarmac. the landscape changed dramatically as we circled mount kenya, the mountain enveloped in thick cloud concealing its summit. the cultivated fields were lush and green. a thunderstorm erupted, heavy rainfall fell, the windscreen wipers couldn't cope. with the rainfall and sudden elevation it was chilly - how could it be so different from 100kms up the road?

what can i say about nairobi - well, we walked around and didn't get robbed, it was quite pleasant as african cities go and they have a wimpey (that serves beer!). but we didn't hang around longer than we needed to - we were off to watch game in the masai mara.

masai mara national reserve - 12th october

 
ornamented masai woman, the masai mara

once again, the road to the reserve was atrocious. we arrived as dusk was falling and camped outside sekenani gate. the mara is described as 'one of the great wildernesses of the world' and it didn't disappoint. we managed to avoid the minivan circus and for five hours we saw no tourists, just wildlife. elephants were everywhere, not bothered by our prying eyes.

 
tembo, the masai mara

 
stripes, maasai mara

that night, there was further excitement in the campsite; as edward was to exclaim afterwards 'too many animals'. whilst finishing our meal we were startled by a loud animal noise. loud and close enough to make me (claire) jump in the front of the land rover and for andy to grab the torch and flash it across the river. reflecting back at us were two pairs of amber eyes. we weren't too concerned but it was a close encounter with what we thought to be two hyenas. we decided to play it safe and retreat to the roof-top tent for the night. edward then reappeared and asked for andy to come down with his torch as there was something in the river. this turned out to be a wilderbeast, which had been scared by a predator, and was cowering in the water. andy, keen to get back to the tent, was on his way when there was an even greater roar and edward shouted 'run for the car'. andy leapt up the ladder, edward jumped into the shower cubicle banging his sticks together and making a strange, animal type noise. two male lions were right by the land rover, scared off not by the sticks but by the lights of a vehicle pulling into the campsite.

 
zebra watching, loita plains

tiwi beach - 18th october

we spent three weeks on tiwi beach, recuperating from the frantic pace of the last four and a bit months. life was good on tiwi beach and required very little effort. we camped beneath the palms and baobab trees fringing the beach, buying fresh seafood from the fishermen, and fruit and veg from 'mango man', who passed by every morning on his bike. we lazed on the beach during the day, and cooked on fires at night. 'kenya cane' became our drink of choice, a refined cane spirit that we mixed with sugar and lime. drinking around the fire beside the beach, we were kept company by a young irish couple who were in even less of a hurry to leave than us. they were a bit partial to the 'kenya cane' too and it was the consumption of this spirit on full moon that led the five of us - the english, the irish and chris the australian who cooks a mean crab - to jump into the rolling waves, at midnight, under a brightly lit sky.

 
mango man, tiwi beach

one morning we were approached by a lady who offered us work as extras in a feature film being shot near by. it sounded quite interesting and gave us an excuse to stay longer at the beach, to which we agreed.

the film was being made by a german company who'd apparantly won an oscar for their last film. the current project, "the white masai" was based on a book of the same name, which is evidently very popular in germany. it is more or less the true story of a german lady who had holidayed in kenya with her boyfriend and ended up running off with, and marrying, a masai whom she happened to meet - seemingly very briefly.

our part in all this was the rather unchallenging task of being tourists in the background. although that was really just a very small part of the main challenge - waiting around. even for travellers accustomed to hanging around, the tedium was really quite staggering. however, it seems that's show-business. and for us, having never seen a film made before, it did have its interesting moments.

 
claire feeding the flames, tiwi beach camp fire

the money came in handy too, though we had hoped to spend it on something more exciting that land rover repairs. after all those bad roads though, these things do need to be done, so it was a new set of suspension bushes all round. we also took the opportunity to have the newspaper and body filler, that the land rover dealership in the uk had repaired our bulkhead with, replaced with steel plate. when the bill came, it was a sad reminder of the poverty in which many kenyans live; eight tennis ball sized pieces of rubber from england (the bushes), cost ten times the price of two days mechanics labour.

malindi - 8th november

eventually we worked up the motivation to leave tiwi and drove north along the coast towards malindi. once we were moving it was exciting to be on the road again. we hadn't seen much of kenya, despite having been there for about a month already - very unlike us - and now we were looking forward to more national parks, mountains and jungles. first though, we wanted to visit the islamic ruins of gede.

 
baobab tree, gede ruins

after the rush of mombassa's reckless matutus (minibus collective taxis) thinned out, we were able to enjoy the drive through, arguably, some of the most unusual scenery we've seen. between the simple villages and patches of tropical woodland stretch vast acres of pineapple plantations. the low spikey bushes, in unnaturally regular rows, stripe the landscape like a too-bold suit, stretching to the horizon over the undulating hills. punctuating the impossibly long rows and multitude of spikey leaves rise the mighty baobabs. these collosal trees would dwarf the largest oak, their silvery limbs twisted into fairytail proportions.

lake navaisha - 11th november

lake navaisha is part of a chain of rift valley lakes running in a north-south line through kenya and tanzania. among travellers it's famous for its resident population of hippos that wander through the lakeshore campsite at night. we parked close to the waters edge and went to bed expectantly, trying not to doze off. around midnight we woke to the sound of munching and tearing grass. peering out from the safety of our elevated tent, two large moving shapes were visible in the starlight. grazing hungrily the hippos approached, appearing docile and timid, many people say these three ton vegetarians are africa's most dangerous mammel. with bleary contact lenses and a moonless night it would be an exaggeration to say it was spectacular wildlife viewing, but as they passed below us, about 10 foot from the tent, it was certainly an exciting and unforgettable experience.

 
goliath heron fishing, lake navaisha

hell's gate - 12th november

beside lake navaisha lies the perhaps unappealingly named 'hells gate national park'; so called due to the deep gorge which cuts through the park and the columns of steam which rise from numerous geothermal vents. hells gate is one of only a few national parks (supposedly) through which you can walk or cycle. having become rather attached to our land rover though, we decided to shun the bicycles and drive through, though we did walk the gorge itself.

though not stacked full of the 'big 5' like the masai mara, the park was fun to explore with large herds of buffalo that certainly would have made us peddle faster had we decided to cycle.

 
walking the canyon, hells gate national park

we camped in the park that night. bush camping on our own amongst all that wildlife was exciting, especially after our experience in the masai mara, though we climbed into our tent as soon as our fire died down. in the morning we set out on foot, following some fresh hoof tracks that surrounded the land rover, and ended up startling some giraffe. the night before claire had expressed a wish to see more giraffe and we thought that was a good start. as we left the park there were giraffe everywhere.

 
who's watching who, hells gate national park

later that day we visited a crater lake in a private reserve, after photographing the flamingoes on the lake we found a spot to cook lunch. as we cooked we were surrounded by eighteen giraffe; including a particularly curious one, who came to within a few metres of us, under the very flimsy guise of pretending to eat from the surrounding trees.

 
sonachi crater, west of lake navaisha

lake nakuru - 14th november

after another night of hippo watching at lake navaisha, we set off for lake nakuru. having dropped lake nakuru from our itinerary - on cost grounds - it was reinstated at the last minute following a conversation over breakfast with a south african sometime safari guide. at the gate we faltered again due to the unnecessary triple queueing system and the extent to which the pricing is geared against private vehicles. once inside the park, however, we were relieved we'd paid up - the wildlife was stunning. herds of mud encrusted buffalo lazed in the marshes, indifferent to the white egrets perched delicately on their bulky backs. pelicans and giant marabou stalks filled the trees and lined the streams and an uncountable multitude of flamingoes formed a feathery streak of pink which reflected up from the flat salty lake. white rhinos grazed beneath the yellow bark of the acacia 'fever trees'.

 
flamingos feeding on the soda lake, lake nakuru

we planned to camp at a site on the far side of the park. it would have been a convenient spot as the previous four hours roaming across the park had taken us in that direction. whilst crossing the last stretch of plains the rain came down, making the mud roads fairly slippery. in fact we encountered a family in their small japanese saloon, well and truely bogged down. a fleet of safari vans surrounded them, whilst soaked and mud splattered tourists pushed and pulled at the stricken vehicle. we christened the winch and popped the car out of the mud without too much trouble. no word of thanks when we were done though - except from the other tourists.

 
dazed and confused - white rhino, lake nakuru

unfortunately, playing in the mud meant that we didn't make the campsite before dark. there was so much wildlife about we felt uneasy about camping without a fire or hunting around in the dark for wet firewood and there was no-one else at the site. beside that, a few metres from the designated camp site was a picnic area. the sign there said "beware of dangerous animals" - we weren't sure that the animals could distinguish between the camp site and the picnic area.

 
the lake shore, lake nakuru

our other option was the camp site at the main gate where we knew there would be other campers and a ranger. this entailed a long drive on narrow tracks, back across the length of the park in the dark. usually though, you have to pay extra for night drives, so off we went. driving probably too fast we followed the vague snaking tracks, bumping over grassland and twisting through the woods. at junctions we guessed the way then confirmed the direction with the gps - which we were really glad of. now and then we stopped for startled, but obstinant, buffalo before the headlight beam caught the tail and spotted flanks of a leopard. it disappeared quickly into the bush, then reappeared behind us, and as it trotted down the road we were treated to a rare glimpse of this most elusive of predators.

 
lounging leopard, lake nakuru

leaving lake nakuru, we witnessed one of the more unpleasant side effects of kenya's unbalanced wealth distribution. it started with someone pointing wildly at the front tyre of the land rover and shouting for us to stop. after ethiopia though, we are well accustomed to causing this type of excessive reaction and barely registered it. however, after the third person pointed to the same place, but now about a mile further down the road, i was interested enough to stop. from the extremity of people's reactions, i half expected to see a small antelope wedged under the front bumper. all looked fine though, but they told me the front wheel had been wobbling. unlikely, but i turned the steering wheel to check. from this new angle of the wheel a fluid leakage was visible and pointed out to me. nothing appeared to be leaking, brake lines and swivels looked fine, but the fluid was there. what's more, claire had noted some liquid in that area two days ago, and we said we'd keep an eye on it. i thought they could have sprayed it there, but it was hard to believe, i couldn't see anything in their hands. nevertheless, they wanted to take us to a garage to 'help' us, and it all seemed a bit fishy, so we quickly left. travelling several miles before pulling into a filling station to check it out.

we couldn't see any wobble. we couldn't see a leak point. the break fluid level hadn't gone down. but the breaks were pulling sharply to the left, and we had been worried about a leak there two days ago. the leak pattern on the inside of the wheel did look as though it had run straight down, not sprayed around like you would expect if it was moving. we decided to keep going.

we were pretty sure it was a nasty scam, but still a little concerned. it was still pulling to the left after all, though less so now. thankfully it was before the front wheel started smoking that we figured it out, of course if they sprayed oil on the left brake, it wouldn't bite, causing it to pull left. it didn't happen before i stopped. when the brake finally bit enough to heat up, the oil burnt off and smoked. what a low, sneaky trick. i shudder to think what could happen if they got your car into their garage.

kakamega forest - 16th november

we broke up the journey from nakuru with an overnight stay amongst the tea plantations of kericho. from high on those neatly trimmed, tea plant covered hills, we decended to the shores of lake victoria at kisimu. we couldn't really see the lake from there, but marvelled instead at the queues of bicycles, pressed into service as taxis with a square padded seat suspended above the rear wheel.

we arrived at kakamega forest under clear blue skies uncharacteristic of this lush, tropical jungle. after being land rover bound in the national park, we looked forward to stretching our legs, walking through the forest which is renowned for its prolific bird life.

mount elgon - 17th november

 
morning mist, near mount elgon

afer kakamega we drove to mount elgon, a huge crater mountain that rises on the kenya/ugandan border. the main reason for visiting was to view the parks most famous attraction the salt-mining elephants that apparently, mine all year round in the caves there. unfortunately for us, we were told the elephants would not be making their nightly foray into the caves as they were on the other side of the mountain - a big disappointment. all was not lost as we still had to scale a summit. after having decided not to climb mount kenya (too wet) and mount kilamanjaro (too expensive) we made the crater rim of mount elgon our objective. to minimise the costs involved and to avoid having to take a ranger with us we decided to drive up to the roadhead and then walk the six hour round trip to the rim. it was a slow drive upwards, on a track through dense forest, great swathes of bamboo and then shrubland. our path was becoming boggier and boggier and just as we thought it would not be possible to take the land rover any further the road ended.

 
it's getting sticky on mount elgon

from the roadhead the walk to the rim was relatively straightforward. we had the hoof prints of buffalo to guide us as we passed through huge heathers and lobelias, stepping carefully on the boulders to avoid slipping into the bog. to our right we kept the craggy peak of koitoboss. on reaching the crater rim we were rewarded with a beautiful view across the caldera into uganda where we hoped to be in a few days. after munching on some  bourbons we regained our energies and made our way back down the mountain. 

 
giant fleshy herbs, mount elgon

to uganda - 20th november

it was time for us to leave kenya. it's always exciting to move on to a new country but with kenya we felt that we had only really scratched the surface. there is so much to see and one day we hope to return to visit lake turkuna which evaded us on this trip. it was a pity that the border crossing was made so frustrating by the customs man and his cohorts trying to pull a fast one. but as always we got through although on this occassion we didn't wait for the barrier to be raised, we simply drove around it! 

 
masai goat herd, loita plains

kenya: accomodation

kenya: other info

entry checks: a visa is required and we sorted this in addis ababa; costs $50 and takes a few days to be issued. at the border immigration stamped us in and extended the visa to a 3 month stay, customs stamped the carnet with no hesitation and without the normal vehicle checks - simple. we had to register with the police as we had arrived at the infamous moyale border crossing; we were advised that the road to isiolo was safe - no convey or armed escort required.

costs: other than the visa there were no other charges at the border. (on leaving kenya we were asked to pay $80 tax which we were told we should have paid on the way in - we didn't have enough to pay this so were let off - it could be a scam, we're not sure). sightseeing in kenya is made expensive by the national park charges which range from $15 to $30 (per person) for every 24 hours spent in the park; if you camp overnight then this is a further $8/$10 each. elsewhere, camping is the cheapest accommodation option and costs just under £3 a night for two people. other costs: diesel c.35 pence a litre; beer c. 66 pence for a pint size bottle; water under £1 for 5 litres.

money: there are atms in most of the large towns which accept debit/cash cards. national parks can be paid in dollars or local currency.

must sees: the maasi mara and lake nakura national parks offer superb wildlife watching; the lobelias on the slopes of mount elgon; the great western rift valley and its crater lakes filled with flamingos; beautiful tiwi beach - pure white sands, camping right on the beach, and fresh fish brought to your tent everyday, my idea of heaven; for a meat feast 'carnivore' is worth a visit.