KENYA

KENYA

27^th July to 12^th August, 2009

Left Uganda via Jinta, having a quick look at “the source of the Nile” at Rippon Falls, and went through the Malaba Border.

It seems as you go north so the borders get easier. With our Comesa (Third Party for Africa) and our Carnet de Passage (import car papers for each country) border crossings are really not a problem.

We crossed over and headed on the Nairobi road, stopping the night over at Eldoret.

We found a very nice hotel on the Naiberu River, apparently owned by South Africans,(we did not get to see them) A lot of inventive ideas for the sloping ground, using the waterways and lots of rock to form almost a large cave with open fireplace, running little rivers from a waterfall, for their bar and restaurant. It was rather cold and really our first feel of what weather is to come. It is a long time ago that we needed long pants/tracksuits and thick jerseys.

After and early breakfast left for Nairobi, soon to learn what bad roads Kenya has got and a distance of about 65km and this took us over two hours. Well I suppose we have time and this is “Africa” I must admit the scenery was wonderful because we were passing through the start of the rift valley. (more of this later) After about two hours we reached quite a good “highway” which took us into Nairobi passing Nakuru (going there with Heather) and Lakes Elementia and Naiwasha. Our idea is to go straight through to Nairobi even if it meant us doubling back on our route so we could get our trip with Heather and Nick planned and sorted. This is going to be one of the highlights of our trip and I am counting the days and “sleeps” till they arrive.

We found a quite nice camp site (especially for being in a city) on the outskirts of Nairobi, at Lavington called Jungle Junction. A camper’s paradise for Information and exchanging experiences maps and places to stay. It is like a family of campers, sometimes changing daily and some campers spending up to 3 weeks, repairing your vehicle, doing trips to Maasai Mara and other places, and generally recovering from the dreadful roads especially from the North. Most of the people we met have been English, Dutch, German, Swiss, coming from Europe travelling down South. The road from the Ethiopia Border down to Nairobi is apparently the worst of anyone’s trip. We still have to do it. On the Friday Nite the owners organized a “barbeque” (braai) for the campsite and everyone on site came, it was really a super evening, with everyone exchanging ideas and sharing experiences of their travels.

After spending two days checking internet and travel agents, for our trip with Heather and Nick we decided on 5 days, four nights in Mombassa which we will do in our own car and then three nights in the Maasai Mara with a night over in Lake Nakuru (where the flamingos are) and which is on the way to Maasai Mara. This we are doing with a tour company, (first time for us that we do a safari with all the trimmings) We decided not to put Heather through the camping bit in case she decided never to do another trip with us. More of this after they arrive.

The weather in Nairobi is for the birds, and we are not birds and will be doing enough of that in Europe, so we headed north west to Lake Baringo (only 1000mts altitude) and what a lovely change. Had costumes on from early morning until later afternoon, catching up on the tan and watching birds. We had a fantastic site right on the lake with the Bird Life absolutely stunning. We had a “Family Maier” Bird ground, (Family Maier’s would be quite envious of our birds which visited everyday)

At least three bird species we had not seen before and about 40 species all in all. We were treated to the daily feeding of young hornbills being fed in a nest in a tree right in front of our camp site.

Strange as it was, we had a Grey Hornbill and a Pale Billed Hornbill (white beak with red tip) also feeding the same nest.

The ones we had not seen before or a bit rare were Jackson’s Hornbill, Red and Yellow Barbet, Dusky Pink Turtle Dove, Brown Babbler, Speckled Breasted Wood-Pecker and the Madagascar (Olive) Beeater

We then spent a few nights had Lake Naivasha, visiting Lake Elmenteita from here. Lake Elmenteita is a soda lake and only about 1 and half meters deep at its deepest point. Thousands upon thousands of flamingo live in this lake and also in Lake Bogoria and Lake Nakuru. All these lakes are in the Great Rift Valley. The sightings of the Flamingos are just too beautiful, all you see is a pink shimmer on the water.

From our info, when these female flamingos are about 18months old, she goes to Lake Natron to lay a single egg which she leaves in the sand, for the sun to incubate. 28 days later the chick hatches and feeds on the egg yolk for 7 days before going into the Lake to feed on algae for 3 months before migrating to either Elmenteita, Nakuru or Bogoria to start the whole cycle again. The Marabou storks and African Fish eagles can and do feed on flamingos.

Driving from Lake Baringo to Lake Elmenteita and the surrounding areas you drive through Keyna’s Rift Valley which is only a part of a continental fault system that runs 6000km from Jordan clean across Africa to Mozambique.

It is also the area of where most of Kenya’s flowers are grown and exported to all parts of Europe.

One of the lakes, Lake Magadi, is a vast shallow pool of soda, a sludge of alkaline water and crystal trona deposits,. It is the second largest source of soda in the world, after the Salton Sea in the USA. Some of the sodium chloride (common salt) is shovelled into ridges and loaded onto tractors and taken away to be purified for human and animal consumptions. Mainly the soda from this lake is used for glass-making and is Kenya’s most valuable mineral resource. The dried soda is exported first to Mombassa and Konza and then most of it to Japan.

Back to cold Nairobi for a few days, before going to Mombassa and Massai Mara with Heather and Nick.