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| hornbill |
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| river in Samburu reserve |
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| lion looking at prey |
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| samburu National Reserve |
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| one of my buddies in the river in Samburu |
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| hiking Mt. Kenya |
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| bamboo forest |
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| view of Mt. Kenya |
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| boys playing soccer at orphanage |
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| interesting flora on Mt. Kenya |
Our holidays this year entailed taking gifts to children at
an orphanage in Kitale, about 2 hours northwest of here, and making sure our
guest, Jackson Grimm, got to see some
cool stuff. We decided to go on a
camping trip to several different areas. The only thing Jackson
was sure he wanted to do was to climb Mt. Kenya,
the highest peak in the country, and the second highest in Africa.
So…we got a guide for the boys, set a date, and waited for his arrival.
Meanwhile, our church, the UU Congregation of Columbus, Indiana,
raised some money so that we could purchase individual gifts for all the of the
kids left at the orphanage during the holidays.
A friend brought us red and green M and M’s so I could make some festive
cookies, and Jack brought along some candy canes as a special treat. He arrived
on Christmas Eve, pretty exhausted but raring to go. We had been packing gifts
and baking for the last few days, so we loaded up the Prado which we rented from
IU, and got ready to” Bounce” (literally!).
Kenya is a large
country…as big as Texas, and it is incredibly diverse… culturally,
geographically and biologically. Since
we are residing on the western side of Kenya, we had not yet spent much time in
the east. We love to spend time in the countryside, so we were excited to go to
new areas and see guaranteed to be spectacular scenery.
We spent a very nice Christmas day with the children at the orphanage
and I think they were both stunned and thrilled by the gifts which we brought
along. For many of the teenagers it was the first time in their lives to
receive a personalized wrapped present. It was an incredibly sunny and bright
day for Christmas and we enjoyed playing, eating and laughing with them. Many thanks and kudos to the Columbus UUs!
Mt. Elgon
Mount Elgon National park is about 40 miles from Kitale
where the Children’s home is located. It
is remote and quiet and offers some great natural world experiences including
an incredible night sky. There are caves formed from ancient lava tubes, beautiful bluffs to climb, enormous trees, and large and small wild
animals . Since it is the second highest mountain in Kenya, it seemed like a good place
for the boys to acclimate before climbing their mountain. Coming from the
flatlands of the Midwest, we knew Jackson would need an opportunity to get used to the elevation and Michael really wanted to climb the peak
as well to prepare for his climb to Mt. Kenya
in February.
The day after we
arrived we all climbed the Endebess bluff which provides an amazing view of the
surrounding region. The boys hiked back, about 14 kilometers, discovering caves
along the way. The guide book tells you to take an armed ranger when hiking
there, but we have never had any reason to do so and having any armed person
with us makes us more nervous than running into a water buffalo or forest pig.
Personally, I’m not great at climbing trees, but pretty quickly it became clear
that Jack and Liam could do that easily if need be! We knew they would have stories to
tell at the end of that day and they certainly did, especially after trying to
enter a bat filled cave!
The final full day that we were at Mt. Elgon was much anticipated because we
planned to climb to Koitoboss peak at 4222 m. Since I’m always conscious of the possibility
of hurting myself I was hesitant to go along, but Michael encouraged me.
Fortunately the weather is dry at this time of year so we left early under another clear sky and no rain in sight. We had met some young Kenyans the day
before who were staying nearby and they had requested a ride to the peak road.
There is a 36 kilometers drive and then an 8 kilometers (about 48000 ft there and
back) hike to the peak. We told them they were welcome to come along and they were
ready to take off at 7 am as planned. It was a group of very nice young
professional Kenyans; a dental surgeon, his assistant, and his wife, who is a
lecturer at Mt. Kenya University
in Kitale. They were cheerful, game for the adventure, and prepared with snacks
and beverages in their plastic grocery bags. Chepkorir, the dental surgeon, was
quite chatty and we had a nice conversation about Kalenjin culture. The drive up
the mountain is quite daunting but the variety of fauna is very interesting
and changes quite rapidly as you gain elevation. There are huge Podo trees,
with enormous twisted trunks, giant figs and also giant parasitic figs which
grow attached to other trees and have great vines coming down from their
branches. There is also a bamboo forest
on the way up, and then when you get
close to the peak trail it turns into afro-alpine moorland with odd trees and other flora that
are not found in the U.S.
We arrived around 9 am at the beginning of the trail and the
Kenyans (carrying their plastic grocery bags) and the boys took off
immediately, headed towards the peak, which was not yet visible. Michael stayed
behind to accompany me. The day was long and the climbing was not easy. The
paths were very rocky with various other obstacles along the way, including
sticky mud, broken branches, and boulders to climb over. Since it is an extinct volcano ( last eruption
12 million years ago), there are all sorts of interesting rock outcroppings
along the way. As I doggedly trudged along I would glance up from time to time
to see the silhouette of what seemed to be a big boy standing on a huge boulder
in the distance. Although that image
made me gasp, I was so preoccupied with not hurting myself I could hardly
be concerned about them!
After a few hours it
was lunchtime. I was getting very tired and with the elevation I was starting to
have trouble breathing. Another hour or so of climbing, after getting within
1000 ft. of the peak was all I could manage without great discomfort. I have
never been a big “gotta do the big thing to notch my belt” person, so I was
happy to stop and wait. Michael went ahead and I lay down among strange mosses
and lichens, took a nap, then hid behind
a boulder to wait for them. It was so peaceful and beautiful just lying there
listening to the trees shake and the few birds cry. I waited a couple of hours,
all the while watching the peak as the wind picked up and the temperatures
dropped significantly. Unfortunately, a completely clear day turned cloudy with giant wisps of clouds encircling
the peak. It started threatening to rain as soon as I estimated they were all
near the top. Finally, maybe two hours after stopping I heard a cry from on high. I
knew they had made it! Yea! I called up to them and hoped that they weren't too
near the edge, then went back behind a
boulder to wait in order to keep warm. Finally, they all returned, the boys
first, of course, and it had been they who had hollered from the peak, then the
Kenyan woman, and then Michael and the other men. Michael had not made it to the
peak, but far enough to see the caldera on the Ugandan side,which he described
as incredibly beautiful. He had gone far enough to gain confidence for the next
climb (it had completely fogged in which is why he did not continue) which made
him quite happy. It was a long exhausting hike back and by then I was so tired,
my legs were like jello, so I had to be extra careful not to fall and break
something. It took us at least 2 hours to descend, and it continued to get
colder and damper along the way. By the time I reached the car, I was drained
of any reserves of energy and just wanted to go to bed (the Kenyans put up a
rousing shout for “mama” who finally made it!). All in all it was a great day
of challenging hiking, stunning scenery and good company. And I only fell once, without
doing much damage.
The Valley and Lake Baringo
The next day we left Mt.
Elgon and headed into the Great Rift Valley. Our ultimate destination was Samburu
National Reserve, on the northeast side of Mt. Kenya,
where we were bound to see some big animals. Lake
Baringo is a freshwater lake on the
northern end of the Great Rift Valley and we
chose to stop there along the way to break up the drive.
The Drive. We have
this road map, but it is a bit outdated and all of the roads on it, although
they are different colors, have the same designation (tarred/untarred). So, it
is never quite clear on what kind of road one might end up. Well, the road through the Rift Valley, was
BAD. Worse than any we’ve been on , and that is saying A LOT. (Since returning
we’ve had people say to us, “but, there is no road through the valley!”) We
drove this road, thinking it would get us to Lake Baringo,
more easily than the long way around, but it ended up taking us over 10 hours
and it was literally unprecedented…like a rocky path that had been cleared of
brush but nothing else. We ran into perhaps 2 cars along the way (200 miles)
and probably about 5 shepherds and their cattle/sheep. The landscape is DRY and
lots of scrub brush. Pretty in its way, and we did see many camels which we didn't know Kenya had, but
honestly, it was probably the most amazingly poor road one could travel. The
valley is hot and dusty and seems quite inhospitable but we were happy to
see a river finally and noted that people were
congregated next to it, logically. Bathing, eating, swimming and washing
clothes, as well as watering their
animals. We seemed to be moving out of
Kalenjin country as there was a
dramatic difference in dress and housing
, with more traditional looking outfits and jewellery, rather than the western clothes
that we are used to seeing in Eldoret. This was particularly evidenced in the
town of Lomut where we drove through a
very crowded market scene where the people
were as dressed as colorfully as some of
the splendid birds that we see here.
After hours of incredibly slow and bumpy uncomfortable
driving, feeling exhausted and frustrated, hungry, thirsty and dusty, we
finally found our campsite at Lake Baringo at about 10 at night. Sadly, the
lake was flooding and the restaurant at the campsite was not very well stocked
or dry, so after waiting what seemed
like forever, and much to the boys’
dismay, we were served 4 very small Tilapia pan fried whole, fries with
crappy ketchup, and thankfully, cold
beers for dinner. We set up camp in the dark, near the lakeshore and I spent
the entire night nerving out knowing there are many crocodiles (turns out I am
a crocophobe) and hippos in the lake. In fact, during the night we could hear
the hippos walking around munching and harrumphing on the grass next to our
tent. Needless to say I did not get out as I normally have to during the
night! We were pleased the next morning to wake up to another beautiful day and
a campsite inhabited by fabulous interesting birds and monkeys scampering all
around. It was also nice to learn from the owners that hippos are not aggressive unless they're scared.
Through
Samburuland
After our experience the previous day on the unbelievably
bad road, we considered getting on the “highway” but determined, with the help
of several others at the campsite that it would be a waste of fuel and time. We
got on our way, knowing that the road could be far better or far worse than
what we had been on the day before, and it might be very slow going, but glad that we would go through some towns so we
could at least stop and find fuel. I have a Rough Guides to Kenya also
that is fabulous and has all sorts of great tips and interesting little tidbits
about things to see/do. I cherish it because although it is a bit outdated it
is almost always right! Love that.
Although it was still dry and dusty, we
began to climb into high savannah so the temperatures cooled quite nicely. I
was seated in the back so that Jack could have room and a better view, and
believe me the difference between a horrible road and a bad road is felt. So we
plodded along and we made relatively good time. There were very few things to
see along the way except the camels standing on the side of the road, but then
at a certain point we began to see different kinds of housing and herders
wearing interesting garb as they walked behind their goats, mostly. These were
the Samburu people, relatives of the Masaii, who had stayed in the north while
the Masaii moved to the south thousands of years ago. Both are pastoralists,
and of course at this point both of their cultures have been heavily influenced
and potentially degraded by a very westernized society. The Samburu did not
seem overly interested in us nor did they beg from us, which was our experience
in Masaii land last year. We were
driving through what seemed to be fairly uninhabitable land again, but the
Samburu have these interesting little shelters/compounds made up of sticks,
mud, and plastic bags. They resemble pictures of a Native American sweat lodge
that I’ve seen, but these are for living/sheltering their goats. The compounds
were encircled with very thorny sticks acting as fences. The Samburu also wear
very interesting clothing…the women wear very large beaded necklaces if they
are married and big metal earrings, and the men wear cloth wrapped around their
waists, and carry staffs. The men who become warriors (Morans) wear all sorts
of interesting garb, including feathers, headdresses, beaded ankle bracelets,
colorful hats, and they
sometimes have hennaed hair. As we got onto our next road, we realized that it
was going to be dark by the time we got to Samburu National Reserve, our
destination. We decided, since we didn’t want to set up camp in the dark, that
we would go onto the next town , called Maralal, which had a somewhat appealing
description in our Rough Guides. We were all intrigued. It turned out to be a
dusty, dirty town and the most entertaining thing about it was the number of
true Samburu wandering around. We spent some time wandering ourselves and found
The Hard Rock Café which was humorous because the “rock” was a diamond. We had
a little snack there and then wandered around some more investigating some of
the local shops. We had dinner in our hotel, “Cheers” and that was Jack’s first experience with a restaurant
where most of the food on the menu is not available which is always a little
jarring, but one of the ways in which one must “go with the flow” here. After a
semi reasonable night’s sleep in a tiny bed, we got up early in order to get to
the reserve as quickly as possible.
Well, so much for that idea! We were not 10 kilometers
outside of Maralal when we got our first puncture of the day. It’s so nice to
have young strong men with you when the tire blows! The boys made quick work of
the tire change while Michael provided technical supervision and I was photographer. Michael felt strongly then that we needed to
go get the punctured tire fixed so that we would have a spare, so we went on to
the next village, and after inquiring multiple times, were finally led to the
“tire guy”. There we waited while Wilson the tire guy fixed the puncture with
what seemed rather rudimentary tools. Liam and I took a stroll around the
village because it was also filled with Samburu in varied colorful clothes and
I was enthralled. It took a couple of hours to get the tire fixed and by then
we had drawn quite a crowd of needy folks. The kids hanging around were clearly
hungry as well as some of the adults.
Feeling self- conscious with our packed to the brim giant vehicle, we
got some breakfast snacks for the kids and a couple of the old guys which were
heartily enjoyed and disappeared quickly.
Finally we were on
our way on a wing and a prayer, hoping that the tire would hold. We gave
several folks a lift to what seemed like the end of the earth, and we learned
more about them in their and our broken KiSwahili. The first group of women we
picked up were going to the next village with their babies on their backs and
their important documents and money in small plastic bags. While sweating and
scooching to make room for them as they laughed and climbed in the car and
passed Jack their empty paint cans, I was able to get a better look at their
jewelry which is quite ornate. Liam had asked them if he could take a picture
and the “spokeswoman” from the group of three friends seemed to be playing
hardball with us as she insisted that he pay them each 100 bob, or a bit more
than a dollar. He happily complied but she wouldn’t let him take her photo! She
got in next to me all the while, chatting and laughing and pointing out things
to the other two women (she seemed quite amused that I had a large carton of
eggs on my lap…I imagine 15 eggs at once seems like quite a luxury) not to
mention several books. We dropped them at the next village, about 20 kilometers
up the road (remember they were walking in the 90 degree heat) and immediately
as they descended from the vehicle, two
Samburu men gestured that they too, would like a lift. Of course, we took them.
They wanted to go a long way, in fact, beyond our turn, so we told them that
we’d take them to the turnoff. Now, I’m pretty sure these guys were shepherds
also, as they had their staffs, and were wearing the traditional cloths wrapped
around their waists, but I think they must have been long lost friends because
they chatted the entire way in Samburu, for about 50 kilometers, and they were
not the least bit interested in us! At one point, we saw elephants out the
window, our first time seeing them outside of a reserve, so we stopped and
backed up to look. They were not as enthralled as we were, telling us that elephants
kill people. We tried to encourage them to see the elephants as beautiful, which they are, but it was
indicative of the whole wild animal/human conflict still going on here. After that,
the guy closer to the window kept hollering a warning about the “ndovu” to the
shepherds that we passed. They gave me a
hearty handshake and said “Thanks” in Samburu, posed for a picture for Liam and
then were on their way, another 30 kilometers or so. They had said they were
going to town, but we were trying to imagine them walking back in the dark…maybe another nice driver would pick them
up on the way back. Soon we picked up another woman and her small child with
his chicken, who said they were going “not far" and after driving 30 kilometers we wondered what her definition of "far" was..but suddenly we heard the
whoosh of a tire leaking quickly and everyone had to get out. I apologized to
the woman as she looked quite worn out but she thanked me and they hoofed it up
the road. Within 10 minutes they were no longer visible. Meanwhile the boys got
to work. At that point it was midday and very hot and dry, so the work did not go as quickly. Fortunately, we were only
about 15 kilometers away from Archer’s Post, which is the town just before the
entrance to Samburu Reserve. UNFORTUNATELY, about 10 minutes later, just as we
turned onto the first paved road of the day, ANOTHER tire popped and this one
went down so quickly it was like a balloon popping. Well, now we were SOL as
you can imagine; out in the middle of nowhere and no tires! So, there was
nothing to do but try to hitch a ride. I was convinced by the group to let the
young men stay on the road and go with Michael to town so I “wouldn’t worry”
too much. They had plenty of water and food, their instruments, sunscreen, and
are strong, so I wasn’t too anxious, except that we didn’t know how long it would
take and the day was now getting to evening. Fortunately, as soon as we started
standing on the side of the road with our tire, a pickup/camper came barrelling
towards us, slowed, and stopped. It was a German couple who had been traveling for 15 months
and were heading south from Ethiopia and
to the next town. They happily took us on and drove us to Archer’s Post, where
a young man jumped on the runner and showed us to the “tire guy”, named Michael. We
said our thanks and goodbyes and spent an hour or so waiting for Michael to fix
the puncture. He seemed much more likely to do a good job because he actually
had some equipment and an air compressor. Meanwhile, the young man who had
shown the way, Lawrence, became our new best friend, guiding me around the
village, telling me about the Samburu, finding us a taxi back and helping us
load the tire. A very nice guy but like many of the folks in that area, seemed
a bit desperate and also a bit high. Kat, which is a common stimulant chewed in
that region, is found everywhere and I swear everyone was chewing it. We told
Michael we’d be back soon to bring him the other tire but at the same time were
realizing we were not going to make it to the reserve that day. We found the
boys next to the car, safe, sound, and cheerful, as they had expected us to be
gone much longer.
We drove back to Archer’s Post, bought a few items for our
next campsite meal, located a small “guest house” that seemed ok, and then
tried to find some food without much luck. Meanwhile the tire guy fixed our
other tire so we had a spare. The guest house turned out to be a disaster as
there was no ventilation and the boys had no working mosquito nets so they were
up all night killing mosquitoes and laughing, groaning, and generally keeping
us up as well. The estimated number of mosquitoes in their room was 1000 which
they spent most of the night slapping with flipflops. At one point management
arrived because Liam broke a window in his zeal to kill mosquitoes. One thing I don’t expect anymore in general is
a good night’s sleep, but definitely not on these camping trips. We got the
hell out of there as early as possible the next morning and headed to the
reserve.
Samburu National
Reserve
Although dry and scrubby, Samburu is known for big animals,
which is why we were there. There is a lovely big river, the Ewaso Ngiro, that runs through
that area and right through the park which is what attracts the animals. We
were not disappointed, as we began seeing animals as soon as we got through the
gates. Impala, antelope, oryx, and then elephants and giraffes, and some
incredible birds, as we drove to the public campsites, which were located right
on the river. The river has hippos and crocs, so again, I was a little nervous
about camping right next to it, but we were up on a ledge, under a lovely giant
tree, and I figure the crocs would have to be super hungry to climb up there!
After setting up camp we ate a hearty breakfast and spoke to a local guy who
offered to get us wood and guard our tents because the monkeys there are so
aggressive they jump on tents and tear them up. We were a little sceptical of
this but there were several monkeys surrounding us in the trees and suddenly
one jumped down and stole an avocado from my basket! Jack and Liam spent some
time that morning chasing monkeys away and yelling at them so that they might
not come back, but it didn’t really work. So we hired this young man, Marcos,
to watch the camp while we went looking for more animals that afternoon after
taking a nap.
It was New Year’s Eve so we decided to go to the lodge at
the park for a drink before going to bed. There was a party going on there,
with music and food and a Samburu speaker describing the culture. Although the
setting was lovely, there were 15 enormous disgusting crocodiles sleeping with
their mouths open on the river bank just under the patio. Upon seeing them I
was not so thrilled about being there. We didn’t stay too long but had a nice
time visiting and listening to the program. We went back to camp and had a quiet albeit hot night under the brilliant starlit skt. The
next morning we got up early and went for another drive, seeing many more
elephants, Impala, Gerenuk, giraffes, lions and other impressive animals. It was a short, albeit very gratifying
visit. We left after breakfast and headed towards Mt. Kenya.
There is a town on the northwest side of the mountain that
we had visited before and we happened to know that there is a good restaurant
there (rumored to have the best burgers in Kenya). In order to celebrate the New Year we decided
to take the guys there before they set off on their big hiking trip. After a
delicious lunch, we found a cool place to camp on the north side of the
mountain. Down an unexpected dirt road, there is an old trout farm which welcomed campers. It turned
out to be a lovely old colonial era farm with beautiful gardens, a lovely view
of Mount Kenya, and an old farmhouse with rooms for rent. We surprised
the people working there because they don’t usually get company, but they
treated us very nicely and even let us use the old house to bathe and hang out
in. The camping, although chillier than what we were used to, was awesome,
because it was on grass rather than hard dirt, and again, the night sky was
amazingly clear and bright with stars. AND there were no crocodiles!
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| Mt. Kenya |
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vulturine guinea fowl in Samburu Reserve
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