I’m really excited about
today’s adventure out to the Great Rift Valley and the first of two safari
camps that I will be staying. My guide
meets me promptly at 8AM at the hotel.
His name is Lucky. When I ask him
about his name, he indicated that he is the youngest of a large family. He wasn’t as “expected” because his mother
had him when she was 48. I guess she
felt she was lucky to have him at such a young age. I’n ready to get out of Nairobi Central. There just isn’t enough to get excited about
at this location. Hindsight I probably
should have gone ahead and reserved a place outside of the greater Nairobi
area. I find out I’m to be the only
passenger, because the two other reservations cancelled at the last minute.
Generally, they would only accept three as a minimum for a 4 day trip, but
Lucky says the owner of the tour group knew I had come a long way. I’d say that was pretty good customer
service. If the trip goes well Ill be
sure to give them a thumbs up on Trip Advisor.
The van that I will be traveling in is a customized VW bus, that’s roof
pops up in order to have a full 360 view when opened. I assume this will come in handy later. Since I’m the only passenger, Lucky removes
the seat in front of me so that I have lots of legroom. The entire all inclusive trip for 4 days/3
nights (food, lodging, tour) cost $900US.
We start out taking the main
highways out of town. Since it is
Saturday, traffic this time of morning is fairly light. As we get out of the main city central I
start to observe the seedier/poorer side of Nairobi. Lucky insists that we keep all windows closed
and doors locked, “not safe”. The sides
of the roads are small rundown wooded/metal kiosks with everything being sold
from water, food, hardware, lumber, auto parts…anything you can think of is
being sold. Behind the kiosks and for as
far as one can see are small-corrugated metal and wood “huts”. Lucky says this area stretches for miles and
is considered slum areas. This is a very
high crime area to the point that police and guard personnel will not go into
unless they go into groups of 4-6 armed personnel. Various gangs control the area along with
local crime syndicates. The whole area
for miles is covered with trash and liter.
This is probably what most people in Kenya don’t want you to remember
about their country. We then hit a “line
in the sand”, where the landscape is much nicer and there are indications of
some communities/neighborhoods. The best
definition that Lucky can give me of this area is called the “suburbs”. This “line in the sand” is very heavily
guarded and patrolled by “government guards”.
Lucky says you really don’t want to mess with this “official”
police. He says even the gangs and the
syndicates are afraid of them.
About an hour outside of
Nairobi, I start to see more of a countryside.
Traffic is very light and roads are more of the highway variety. There still is a continuous line of kiosks
but not as abundant as in the city.
There are small farms that seem to be a source of the food I see in the
city farmer markets. Also, I should
mention here, that I see stickers on the back of vehicles: 60 for heavy trucks,
80 for vans (like ours) and 100 for cars.
Lucky says these are maximum driving speeds, (once out of the city) for
vehicles. How is it controlled? Each
vehicle is certified for its maximum speed and a “governor” is in each of these
vehicles keeping them at their required speed.
This was done several years back to fix the problem of high volume of
accidents. This does cause a lot of
vehicle passing on the roads, but it seems to work well. I notice sometimes when our van is passing a
truck it “kicks back” on the acceleration as we go by. A few times I’m not sure we are going to get
pass the truck before the vehicle in the next lane approaches. I find out fast it just a good idea to not
watch his driving.
Another interesting happening
along the way out to the Great Rift Valley, is the number of small flocks along
the road. Lucky says these are Bedouins
that live off the land. I had always
thought of these people to only be in the deserts of Africa, but apparently
there are Bedouins of many types, cultures and size. Most of these “highway
Bedouin” flocks are between 10-100 animals.
Some are just goats, cattle or a mixture of both. They run these flocks on either side of the
highway. The reason is that the flocks
are not permitted on private lands along the way. Apparently there is an easement of sorts for
several hundred feet on either side of the highway. Also, since water is of a premium, the flocks
drink any water that trickles down the sides of the highway. I wouldn’t think this highway drainage water
is the best for the animals. The
Bedouins sell their animals along the way to individuals that have “butcheries”
along the way. I did notice along the
highways kiosks and some buildings called “butcheries”. I’m slowly thinking of becoming a vegetarian
the more I hear of this process.
Three hours into our trip,
especially the last thirty minutes of climbing up a small mountain, we find ourselves
at the highest point of the area. Around
one of the many curves of the highway a most magnificent view comes into
play….the Great Rift Valley. It reminded
me of the first time I saw the Grand Canyon when one doesn’t see much along the
way then all of the sudden its there in front of you. We stop at a roadside scenic view location
and I get a chance at some pictures…and to visit a couple of souvenir shops. The one shop that I went into was a
cornucopia of crafts and art, some very beautiful one of kind handmade
objects. I end up negotiating down about
10 pieces of craft that sets me back about $150US. The view was a valley of trees, rivers and
different colorful rock formations. The
Rift runs from the countries of Jordan in the Middle East to Mozambique in
Africa. It basically is a large carved out bed created over millions of years
by water and volcanoes.
After our half hour stop, we
descend into the valley toward our destination of Lake Nakulu, where our safari
camp is located. I do start to see
antelope, impalas (not the car) and zebras.
I do find out that some zebras are not of endangered specie and, a few, are actually bred and run on cattle-like
ranches. But, it takes a special permit
to do so and its very regulated, so much so that there are not a lot of these
ranches.
We arrive at a look-out point
where we can see the beautiful Lake Nakulu, which is governed as a Kenyan
national park. As we get closer to the park, we pass several checkpoints with
armed national park rangers. Apparently
to get this far one must have a national park permit or a reservation at one of
the lodges around the park. There is
only one road in and out of the park.
Lucky says that a militia, that’s primary job is to keep the animals
safe from the public and “poachers”, heavily guards the park area. The last checkpoint is actually an
information area that when we came through had several bus loads of children.
The information area has an animal education building that was swarmed by these
children. We get out to stretch out legs
and I have several of these children, probably around 10-12 years come up to me
and ask where I’m from. When I said the
US, they were filled with questions.
They had never heard of Oklahoma, but they had heard of Texas. So I explained the geographical similarities
of the two states. I was asked if I had
a horse and run a “cowboy” ranch. Soon
after the disappointment of knowing I wasn’t a cowboy, I asked them where would
they like to visit in the US. Answers
ranged from Disneyland, New York, Miami, Canada (I guess they thought it was
part of US), Las Vegas, Hollywood, San Francisco, etc. One young lady said she wanted to go to the
Badlands (South Dakota). When I asked
her why, she indicated that she wanted to see where all the bad people in the
US lived. I wasn’t even going to try and
figure how she came up with that reasoning.
Back on our ride, we enter
the national reserve and start to see a variety of animals: zebras, water
buffalo, gazelles, impalas, and various birds and water fowl. After about a 30 minute dirt road drive
sprinkled with bumps we arrive at our lodge, Lion Hill Game Lodge. It too had its armed security guards. We pass
through the blockade, after getting out and having one of the khaki colored
uniformed guards inspect the inside of our vehicle. We drive up the heavily landscaped driveway
and stop at a covered veranda where we are instantly guided up to the front
desk by several well dressed greeters, while others collected our baggage. I’m
checked in and guided to my small but very well decorated “casita”, I’m not
sure what the name is in Swahili. I’m instructed to take a “nap” and lunch was
to be served at 2PM. I go to get on the
bed for my rest. OMG did they forget to
put the mattress down? The bed was like
laying on box springs. I find out later
this is the norm for this Kenyan culture.
Ironically, the four pillows were very soft of down. All meals are served buffet style, but
everything is prepared cooked or grilled in front of you. Several types of meat (I still are thinking
of the Bedouins), salads are all made from scratch, fruit is sliced from the
original, soups, grains and a well stocked wine bar. The food was as delicious
of any that I have had since starting this trip.
After lunch, we head out on a
“safari”. After about 10 minutes, we
start seeing a lot of animals trekking around the vast terrain. Some of the other animals that I had not seen
yet were Baboons, Water Buffalo (different species), White (Wide) Rhinos that
are protected, Black Rhinos (which are very rare), Pink Flamingos (though I
couldn’t get a good picture), several unique birds and water fowl, warthogs
(too fast and skittish to get a picture), etc.
We stop several times to take pictures.
Another point, while driving on these very bumpy and pot holed “roads”,
one is not permitted to get out of the vehicle except in designated places
(where there are no animals). Thus, is
why our and other vehicles, have pop-up tops.
You are able to stand and take pictures or just to take in the beautiful
landscape and lake. It’s hard to explain
the excitement of observing animals in their natural habitat. Throughout our four-hour safari, I see four
wheeled drive vehicles with armed park rangers.
They are very friendly to us, but if you are a stranger or do not have
the right permit, they can be very violent, according to Lucky. He also
indicates in order to become a ranger you must have a “nature” background or
education and go through an extensive boot camp. At the end of our safari, it
is starting to get dark, but Lucky seems to be concentrating on something along
the way. When I ask him, he indicates he
is looking for lions. Lions are more of
a night creature as far as prowling and hunting, but they will start coming out
when it gets cooler. But, it wants to be
sure I don’t get my hopes up because Lions are very hard to locate. They general do not get close to any roads or
where humans have been before. After
about 30 minutes, there are no indications of any lions. Darn.
We are now headed back to the
lodge and dinner. I get back to my
“home” and decided to take a bath in the first tub I have seen since I’ve been
on my trip. I actually ended up nodding
off for a few minutes. Dinner was like lunch with a buffet style but made in
front of you plan. Again, everything was
delicious especially the curried lamb, scalloped rosemary potatoes and a hand
made thin bread made in a adobe like oven right there in the restaurant. It reminded me of a crispy made flour
tortilla.
Well I’m stuffed, so I take a
bit of a walk around the lodge area taking in the sounds of the valley and the
lake. I can’t wait to get back to my
hard bed and soft pillows while listening to the night sounds. I get back to my room and the mosquito
netting has been pulled around my bed. A
fresh glass of pineapple juice and a couple of pieces of what tasted like Reese
Cups. I spend a little time working on FaceBook. I also notice a few voices in
the room next to mine. The “casitas”
have one shared wall, that apparently backs up on the bedside of the room. No biggie.
I decide to spend a few minutes first sitting on my front porch enjoying
the serenity of the evening. Just before
I decide to call it a night I hear it…snoring.
It must be coming from one of the other casitas. I walk inside my place and the snoring is
worse. You have to be kidding me, it’s from the person in the next room. The sound fills my room. The closer I get to my bed the louder it
becomes. Okay maybe it will just last a
few minutes. I do know that I snore but
seems I only do it when I first fall to sleep.
Maybe this is the same case. I
turn on my night music I listen to every night and it seems to help drown out
the sounds from the other room. I fall
asleep as my programmed music finishes its cycle. The snoring has not stopped, it actually
sounds louder. Okay I could change
rooms, but at midnight that’s a hassle, plus Lucky wants us up and going by
7AM, so that means a 6AM wake-up. So, I
program my music in a continuing repeat and turn the volume up a little
more.
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