WEATHER: Gorgeous and 23C
HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Visiting an orphanage in Gilgil
BUMMER OF THE DAY: Not being able to take one of the children home with us
BUYS OF THE DAY: Does my bottle of water count – only thing I have bought all day
WORD OF THE DAY: Sava sava – its okay
ANIMALS SEEN TODAY: Zebra, flamingo’s, pelicans, buffalo, white rhino, jackals and water bucks
Up, breakfasted and to the truck at 7.20am. The truck is massive and looks super cool. The seats are about 2m off the ground and we need 6 steps to get into the cab. Once inside I have to say the seats are a business class version of the Contiki buses I have travelled on. My knees don’t come anywhere near the seat in front, and there is a massive pocket to be able to store all you things for the day’s drive. When you think about it, this is going to be our home for the next 60 days, so it is good there is a bit of room to move around. I think our truck my change after this section of the trip, but I am assuming that they would all be pretty similar. The seats are covered in canvas, and there are large drop windows to get air into the truck, it’s a little dusty but we are after all in Africa. We all have a locker at the back of the truck, where we put our backpacks (yes the large ones) and we take them on and off as we please. Being the first day, and not knowing how big the locker was going to be, my bag didn’t fit first time round, so I had to take out something and then we were able to jam it in, good luck trying to get the bugger back out this afternoon, but I will worry about that later. This will not be happening every day, as I’m going to get 3 days’ worth of stuff out and anything else I need, and then that sucker can stay in the locker till needed, so I don’t have to get to it daily. Once it was in, there was plenty of room for a few loose bags to fit in, so this is what I will do when we get to camp tonight, re-sort my bag and then I’ll be good to go for the next few days.
On the road for the first 1.5 hours and watching the scenery slide by, there are a lot of donkeys used for transport in the villages. They certainly look healthy and well looked after which is always nice to see. We got to stop at a vantage point to look at the Rift Valley, which Kenya is quite well known for. The Rift Valley runs from Lebanon to Mozambique and is 6656km long. Now that’s what I call a large valley!!! The view was pretty amazing and my photos don’t do it any justice at all. There we a lot of local stores here trying to sell their wares, but they don’t seem too pushy once you say no, which is nice.
Our next stop before heading to camp was at an orphanage in Gilgil. Kariandusi school community project was started with the aim of helping rural schools and also the educational opportunities for disadvantaged rural children. We visited one in Gilgil and the children were so sweet. We were shown into the school room and were told about the project, and the children are encouraged to come in and interact with us while the talk is on. So I made 2 new friends called Norman and Gideon. They were both 7 and they just wanted to have their pictures taken so they could see themselves, try on my sunglasses and play with my watch. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to give them anything, as this encourages begging, but we could give anything we wanted to the school mistress and then she would distribute on our behalf. Unfortunately I had left all my stickers I had bought for exactly this purpose was in that damn backpack that was wedged in my locker. Good-one Boofhead. I did give the boys a pen and my notebook and they drew me some pictures and my sunnies looked hilarious on them, but they were also just happy to sit and hold your hand as well. After the talk, the kids got to take us around their orphanage and they showed me where they slept and the baby’s room and then we went outside to play for around 40 minutes. Everyone had their own ‘child’ that had befriended them and it was great to see their smiling faces in play. As all good things come to an end it was time for us to say good-bye. I wrote 2 little notes for Norman and Gideon and said thanks for letting me play with them today and I am happy I have 2 new Kenyan friends. They seemed to love the little notes and were showing the other children as we left. What a great experience and money can be donated to the orphanage via the Intrepid website.
We then drove for another 2 hours that got us to our campsite for the night Lake Nakuru. We pulled up under a beautiful canopy of trees and this is where I guess the fun begins. We were warned as we pulled into site that the monkeys are quite bad here, so close the bus windows and just always watch your stuff outside. Well there were like 50 of them in the camp site and they all looked very cheeky!!!!
We all got a tent between the 2 of us and given a demonstration on how to put it up. It only took us less than 10 minutes to get the whole thing up and bolted, so not too bad for a first attempt, even if we did have Julius helping us! The tent would have to be 2.5mx2.5m and we have also been supplied with a mattress that seems thick enough to have a comfortable sleep on. I will let you know about that tomorrow! So time to rip out the new sleeping bag, the new pillow, which is now inflated and my sleep sheet that I have been carrying the last 2 for the last 3 months, and to think I was going to post my pillow home from Morocco 3 weeks ago. Thanks Susan for making me keep it. So while all that was happening lunch was getting prepared by group B, so when that was ready we had a great spread of sandwich fillers on fresh bread with a banana and orange cordial. It was a great lunch and it hit the spot. One of the gals had a banana stolen right out of her hand from a monkey that snuck up behind her the cheeky devil!
So we got some free time till 3pm when we all loaded back onto the truck for a safari of Lake Nakuru National Park. The roads are quite dusty, but our first stop was on the lake itself where there were literally thousands of Flamingos and Pelicans on the edge of the water. No exaggeration at all, I’m talking thousands. We were going to get out at one point but saw buffalo in the water as well so deemed the area not too safe, so we drove a little further up the lake and got out of the truck to get a little closer to the birds and get some photos. At first smell it smelt like the beach, but as we moved further along it smelt like crap, as you would expect with a million birds I suppose. It’s hard to explain but there were groups of birds flying together and landing in the water, it looked so awesome as they were only centimeters above the water and they looked so graceful. It really was pretty magic to see.
Back into the truck and out to find some more animals. We were lucky to see white rhino, water bucks, impala, Thompson gazelle, zebra, baboons, and wart hogs
So for the first day of tour, and our first safari drive, I have to say we were quite lucky and it was a very productive afternoon. We were out in the park for about 3 hours and it went so quick when you are trying to spot animals. I have been carrying a pair of binoculars for the last 3 months as well and I left them back in the bloody tent, oh well I will have to remember to pull them out for tomorrow; lucky Afke shared hers with me!! I have changed the battery in my big camera already, so I hope that I get enough juice out of my second battery to last me. If not, I have my small camera to use with a backup battery for that, so hopefully that will get me through till I get to a power point in the next day or so.
Back to camp and a chance to get some last things done before the sun went down. Dinner was getting prepared as we arrived and it smelt delicious. I used this time to get my big backpack out of its’ home and have it divided up for the next few days, which in turn also helped getting it back into the locker as it wasn’t as big. Woo Hoo!!!!! The monkeys are now gone, as they are nocturnal, so we won’t see them again till the morning – the cheeky buggers!
With the sun gone, the head lamps have come out. I felt like a goose when I bought it at Anaconda all those months ago and when I showed Shelly and the girls they couldn’t stop laughing – but it was probably the best thing I have bought for this trip. My little torch that I paid nearly $40 for has also come in handy and it also converts to a little lantern, so this is probably the second best item.
Before dinner you have to do the 3 wash cycle. You use soap and wash your hands in the first bowl, the second bowl has Dettol and water and the last bowl is the rinse bowl. Then you are now allowed to have food. Dinner was a 2 course affair with a vegetable soup for starters and chicken and vegetables for main. What Liss does with the food with the limited facilities she has is amazing. We have been broken into 4 groups to help with the chores, and my group is group A and we had the washing up tonight. This means we pretty much had to wash everyone bowls, plates and cutlery. This is also a 3 wash cycle, with the washing liquid in the first bowl, the Dettol and water in the second and the plain water bowl for the third to wash all the suds off. Then to dry everything, we don’t use tea towels as this is not so hygienic and to get them washed on the trip would be a pain, so in comes the Flapping System. Basically you have something in each hand and you ‘flap’ till the items are dry. It looks hilarious and we did the same system on my Scandi trip a few years ago. Everyone helps out, as the pots, pans and chopping boards etc…… also have to be washed and dried this way. We call it the flap zone; steer clear of the flap zone……
So once all the duties were finished, we sat around the camp fire on our camp chairs, had a quick meeting on what tomorrow entailed, a few stories and then we were all in bed by 9.30pm! We were warned that animals have been to known to come into the camp, so we were advised to get your toilet calls done before going to bed, as it can be dangerous to go to the toilet at night, and if you need to go, you need to go with your tent buddy, and shine your torch around the camp ground before setting out to see if you can see any eyes reflect before leaving the safety of the tent. 9.30pm sounds crazy, but we have an early start tomorrow with an alarm for 5.30am, breakfast at 6am and then another game drive at 6.30am….. Yes this is why we are in bed early.
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