Aberdareday

Thursday, 7.11.2013, the other part of the group.

The trouble started when we were bringing our bags out to the car and Karioki asked me if we weren’t coming back in the evening. I said no, we are going to Nairobi after picking up the hikers from the mountain. “I cannot drive at night, it’s very tiring. Also it’s not allowed. I can drive 6 to 6.” We decided to pack the car and go. We weren’t able to reach the other group members by phone so we had to decide what to do later.

Pffffrrrt! Not a flat tyre again! The rear right one as usual. It took 1,5 hours at least to change and get a new tube in Nyeri. At the park gate I got in contact with Agnese and it was decided we would not leave for Narobi in the evening. Inside the park gate the going was slow. First some opposing traffic halted our progress then the road conditions went from bad to worse. It was raining and the tracks were muddy. We happened on a wild pig but it hid in the bushes and then ran away. We saw buffaloes, birds and baboons but not much else. The forest was beautiful though and I realized this is the kind of place where you need time. You won’t see many animals but when you do it’s more rewarding than on the open savanna where you can just drive from one animal to the next.

We had some difficulties on the slippery roads. In one steep ascent we got stuck and I honestly didn’t think it was possible to climb that hill. At another place the left side of the car plunged down into soft ground and I had to climb out the window to be able to help pushing. We all had red clay on our feet and legs at the end of the day. We came out of the park well late and without having seen any of the waterfalls in the park. We didn’t have time to go through the higher parts of the park either. It then turned out that we had to go back to the park headquarters and then to our gate of entry to try and sign out the safaricard. This led to us picking up the hikers at 7, two hours late. They were in a good mood though, just a bit tired.

To Lake Bogoria and further

Wednesday, 6.11.2013
At six in the morning in Nakuru we were woken up by a Muslim morning prayer, which began with a melodic chanting for an hour, then it moved to a prayer till his voice had got completely hoarse. Quick breakfast, grocery shopping in a Europe-ish supermarket and once again road, road ……

After an hour of driving we crossed the equator for the nth time. We tried to stand at the same time both in the northern and the southern hemispheres. My feet were a few centimeters too short to do it, but I tried to stretch the legs very much and managed fifty-fifty. I was saved by taking photos at a globe, as realizing that I have a weakness, souvenir sellers surrounded me and I would have broken. During the photo time I gathered all my soul’s forces to not buy everything I liked. Other members of our group are strong since birth and did not-exaggerate with shopping, except Ilgonis who bought three African drums, but it is probably his unrealised dream of childhood.

Further the road leads to Lake Bogoria. Plain landscape – hills overgrown with shrubs, in places there are cactuses. Local houses once again are poor. There are also houses of corrugated tin. I do not like them – they clash with the surrounding landscape. There are also cactus hedges, even quite high, nobody will get through them. Again the architectural masterpieces of the old friends, termites.

Lake Bogoria did not excite me too much. Yes, there were both the greater and the lesser flamingos, there was the African black stork. All the joy was suppressed for me by the bird corpses lying around the lake. Excitement was caused by the hot springs and the possibility to cook the eggs we have taken with us. One needs to know how to cook eggs here, as the strong bubbling of the springs can bring them to the gods the springs.

There was a plan to see at the Thomson’s water fall in the village of Nyahururu, height of which is 170 meters. Unfortunately, one hour can change everything. We arrived in pitch black darkness; the waterfall could only be sensed by ears and skin. Still we should drive of 100 km to the arranged accommodation.

We searched for the accommodation for a long time and thoroughly- nothing. Then we captured a talkative person, who took us to the another site since the-old was closed down. As Agnese had strong documents, which showed that the old site was booked and deposit paid, we got some great 2 and 4 person rooms in the new place for a very good price. Later it turned out that the 4 person room has two beds for four men.

We could order a dinner in the motel. Me and Vitolds 4.8LVL for both ate each two sausages with cabbage salad and ugali, drank beer. Great! This was followed by a fantastic night – a cool fresh air, good beds and warm, warm blankets.

To Lodwar

Saturday, 2.11.2013
Early morning, we are waking up and starting to bustle around. Some are preparing breakfast, others taking shower or organizing belongings. As normally we are trying to get everything done faster, to get earlier to the other end with almost a snail’s speed. Then morning jobs are finished, we pack the car and leave for the trip.

The trip is long, especially with such a speed. Road conditions do not become better. I do not know how to describe the road – rather a bumpy one with pieces of asphalt. Shaking continues and Karioki is trying to find a less shaky part, especially avoiding the big washboard parts and potholes which there is no shortage. We go out of the hilly terrain, and later will enter a plain, which has mountains on both sides. We go near the side of the left side hill and see several waterfalls in the mountains, at least for us they looked like ones. Around there are many rather green trees.

We stopped at a bridge and got out to stretch and take photos of the river. Behind the bridge there was a village with a traditional shop / store/ market view. Children came and we gave them some notebooks and colored pencil sets, and they were happy for that.

We continue along the road, and as commonly, there have been speed humps built in the villages. There is a variety of formations and materials for them based on asphalt or soil. Holes are not enough to deter the racers :D Here and there a long asphalt strip in the middle of the road can be seen, which is about a meter wide and can be used for one side of the car, but then we must face a tilt. Trucks drive so that the asphalt is between the wheels. Looks like the road itself has been made much wider than the original. Potholes unfortunately don’t get reduced and the speed also does not rise.

Around there are scrubs with yellowish lawns which are greener closer to the roots. We are moving away from the mountains, closer to the middle of the plain. Along the way animals and birds can be observed, mostly small animals or livestock. Of large animals, a camel can be occasionally seen. In the car it is sometimes quiet (or hard for me to hear in a rattling car), and sometimes conversations as the trip is long.

At one moment Karioki decided to increase the speed, because we often complained that we are maundering slowly and others are traveling much faster than us. It did not last long as when the speed was increased, the car rattled even more and the front panel was shaking so much that everything fell out of it. At one moment I thought that soon the whole panel will be in my lap since I sat in the front.

We came to a part which reminds of rather a desert with thinning trees. The road goes through it, and on both sides of the road there are other paths created, as they are much smoother than the main one! Also, the speed could be increased slightly. Road has been rutted narrower or wider, sometimes it splits into a number of bands bypassing obstacles or passing other cars depending on what is more convenient. It does not matter to which side of the main road one descends, one should follow the same principles as on the main road.

At one point we stopped for a lunch break to eat instant noodle soup and to stretch. We go further and at one moment we arrive in the village with a barrier, which is not uncommon, but this time it does not get risen and we are not let further. Karioki greets and talks with a police officer who came up in the local language. Then we were told that a bandit attack zone starts here and that it is dangerous without a policeman in the car. Knowing that this is unlikely going to be for free and asked how much we need to pay, and those were 2000 KES. Splitting among all of us, it actually is not that much, and we should take him. He must sit next to me in the front as two can squeeze and sit there. I gave my bag to the rear, as there’s not that much room, then he sat down beside me with a gun, the AK-47, if I remember correctly. He put a gun between his legs and we went further.

The stretch of the road is so horrible that the bandits can reach the car with such a speed. There are only bushes around where they are said to be hiding. They are supposedly coming from the neighbouring country. Ilgoni’s question arrives from the back on how many bullets does he have after all. I looked at him and noticed only one magazine. He himself is thin ad the most of the local people. He didn’t speak English, so with the help of Karioki we found ot that he has 30 bullets. Should be enough. The dangerous area stretches 88km ahead. We started a discussion whether he is a member of police or army – turns out that he’s a policeman. Also we were trying to find out whether the army here is mandatory or not, and it sounded like it is voluntary. Karioki himself had not served.

We go a while and stop, and the policeman also gets out and moves on
of the car in order to better see us and the surrounding area. Soon we continued our way.
Neighborhoods are still bushy and the road is probably one of the worst
roads. Along the following roads riding at high speed is not sensible, unless you are very sure of your car’s reliability, including tires.
We are driving for a long time. Rather tedious road, one can just rattle along. We
stopped at the control which was the end of the danger zone. We paid and I again could sit in front in the sun and heat.

Lodwar was not far anymore and we soon arrived. We start to look for our
accommodation. We were inquiring locals and navigating, but it did not work well. We criss-crossed the area and only later finally found the place.
As it turns out, we were close, but not that close.

We parked the car and Agnese went to talk about places to sleep and Ilgonis also joined. A campsite was planned, but when they found out that there are free houses with three beds in each, Ilgonis convinced that it’s better to stay in the rooms as we’re staying 2 nights and leaving bags. So we do. We found out about the biggest shops to buy some groceries. The driver also needs to check the car.

Some of us stayed and the rest came along. It was agreed that the driver throws us out at the shop and drives to the workshop, and if he manages to check everything then he picks us up, otherwise we are walking. We got to the shop, but one couldn’t tell from the outside that it was a supermarket. From inside it looked like a wild west store, all dusty and organized as someone had managed to. Not all we need is available. Therefore we have to do with what we can buy. There was frozen mince meat, but the ice cream was not worth it since it had been melted and incompletely frozen again. At least e had such an impression.

We found out that the driver won’t get out of the workshop soon enough, so we walked. The people are kind, greet us. We were walking on the street’s empty side and people walked on the other side. Only later we understood that we need to go on that side as well as the one we were walking along is used by cars. So we had people around and some of them started a conversation with us. We chatted and walked. The children, however, mostly have one saying “How are you?”. We reply that we are good and how are they themselves, but they are usually not answering that.

Agnese talked to one student and the conversation topics were diverse. So we got to our lodge together with him and invited for dinner. While they were chatting, others were preparing dinner. There is the frozen mince meat for the dinner tonight, we thaw it on a frying pan and clean the unfrozen part off. Pasta goes with it. When everything is ready, it is time for dinner and everyone is coming at the table under a roof. Vitolds came, didn’t bend enough, hit his head at the edge and moaned. We come around, start to flash the light how does it look. It is bleeding, all the forehead in blood. He goes to the sink, I run to fetch my first aid bag. I start to nurse him as well as I can and as a result there is only one small wound for which a plaster was enough.

In a moment all gathered at the table and we started to eat dinner and there was even a toast. We discussed several topics with the student. The conversation lasted long. Then gradually everyone started to scatter and go to sleep or do something else before going to bed. At last we all went to sleep so we could wake up for the main event of the trip – the solar eclipse!

*Agnese’s note- we had the policeman in car between the towns Kainuk and Lokichar.

Kisumu to Marich Pass

Friday, 1.11.2013
Morning, Kisumu, waking up at Lake Victoria. The technical data of the day: Route Kisumu-Marich Pass, the plan is to spend 3 hours driving, our reality 9h. The distance is around 250-300km. The condition of the road… it’s hard to comment THIS bad road with potholes which is also covered by speed bumps. Even though there are repairworks going on in many places,  there are no predictions that anything will seriously change during next 10 years therefore it is not advisable to go by a common car, but rather by an offroad vehicle.

The event’s of the day. We wake up under a sausage tree and walk to look at the bay of the lake Victoria. It is not advisable to swim here as there are parasites which get and start living under the human skin. We leave the campsite at 8:50, then shopping for groceries and beer, searching for a tyre for the car therefore we leave at 11am only.  

The route which is long and boring is made ornate only by the life bubbling along the roadside – people who are gathering here always wanting to be together, the small, tiny huts which are not anymore made from sticks’ carcass and clay , but from Marichno aereted concrete bricks, children who always smile and greet us whenever they see us. The area becomes more fertile and when stopping in any place local ladies bring some fruit they want to sell. We would like to buy, but we are just driving and driving. Life through the car’s window and dust since we MUST manage the planned route, otherwise we might arrive late to the place where we will be watching the total solar eclipse. We buy something, however -the only purchase is a long sugarcane which should be peeled and then chewed, and the mouth gets filled by juice as sugarwater. It costs 50 shillings, we buy only half of the cane for 25 shillings, and the length of it reaches over all the saloon of our vehicle.  

At the beginning of the day we are driving through Kakamega, we have flown past several possible sightseeing objects, but we manage to catch one – at Webuye village we turn to right and with an advice from the locals arrive at the opposite coast of the valley of Nzoia river. Strong, effervescent, muddy in a bald valley among stones -that’s how it looks.

It doesn’t need too long to look at, in half an hour we have lunch, and our driver Karioki tells about the leaves of Manuakou tree. We notice the tree because of its strange fruits, similar to sweet peppers, but the bitter tea is made from leaves only and it has helped against malaria in ancient times. But the young people nowadays are not using it anymore. The meadow and trees around are full of sounds, insects and birds are making all kinds of sounds.  

The big value of Kenya are its people. Kind, very, very kind, with a serious attitude and smiling, happy. On our way, whenever it’s possible they try to start a conversation, shake hands, especially children are trying to touch us for whom our white or maybe colourless ;) skin looks a miracle.  

Further our route goes through Kitale to Marich Pass, and along the setting of darkness in the saloon of the car come sharper feelings of potholes and lively conversations. Ilgonis tells about the Solar eclipse. If you would like to know what exactly, you should find out the answers to the following questions:
– how many times the Sun is bigger than the Earth,
– how many times the Moon is closer to the Earth than the Sun,
– why the totality of this year’s eclipse lasts only 15 seconds,
– how do you feel when you have never experienced sex, but know about it, have written about it, and then one day experience it…  

Anyway, our road among the potholes tumbles further, runs pat the sunset and the shadow games of sunset where especially beautiful photos get created, past the school children crowds in towns who are gathering on Friday nights, in different uniforms for each school, to go home somewhere by bus. We try to take photos of everything on the run since we cannot afford to stop for a minute, we must get to the designed place.  However, if also you go to this red chocolate country, stop for a moment to get a good shot, to have a chat with the bypassers and to greet the children which appear around you from nowhere. Because. It is important to stick to the plan, but a minute of feelings won’t crash it most likely. Much more than a good technical organisation is to feel a good mood and to take care about smile in the faces of companions.  

But we arrive in Marich Pass field studies centre  campsite and are sleeping in a classroom where beds have been brought in with mosquito nets. It’s the first time we sleep under them and it is very romantic and a bit scary as well. Maybe about the unknown.