We climb aboard our Intrepid Tours overland truck, which will be home (except for sleeping) for the next 16 days. As we are only 8, we can each be indulgent and take 2 lockers. As I said previously in my blog, I seem to meet really nice people who are not on my tours. We leave Nairobi around 7:30am saying goodbye to Jillian from Sydney, whom I had met the morning before. A really nice lady who I will keep in touch with. We really enjoyed each other's company even if only for a short time.
Out onto the highway eventually where the traffic is quite heavy with many trucks carrying shipping containers. The containers are coming from the port in Mombasa, heading for land-locked Uganda. A trip of around 400 odd kilometres.
John, our driver, seems pretty good however these Merc trucks are no limo ride and are built for all conditions including the many speed humps we encounter and bad patches of road. It is only a two lane highway so overtaking some of these big trucks is a bit hairy at times, to say the least.
We drove for an hour or so and then encountered the great Rift Valley, which amazingly stretches from Israel to Mozambique. Apparently this is one of the natural wonders of the world that can be clearly seen from the moon.
Driving on to Gilgil we stop at an orphanage which is fund-assisted by Intrepid Tours, the Australian tour company I am now travelling with. As with the orphanage in Tanzania, this one was also founded by a local woman some seven years ago. There is no government help so I take my hat off to the tour companies who make these places their overseas projects.
Lunch was as Nakuru Lodge, or should I say, within the confines of their grounds. We all have fostered jobs on the truck to help Dan the Cook and Victor and John. Out come the tables, the chairs, the hand washing bowls, the utensil washing bowls and the food. Those tasked with food preparation get on with the job of slicing and dicing fresh fruit and salad vegetables and together with condiments we make huge sandwiches with the sweet white bread of Africa.
After lunch a short drive sees us in the Nakuru National Park. Here we spot several endangered black rhino, wart hogs, buffalo, Thompson and Grants gazelles, Impala, flamingos, baboons and zebra. I cannot believe how close we are to them. A huge thunderstorm threatens and we head for our campsite in the national pard amidst much lightening and thunder. Thank goodness it all ended quickly and we reached the campsite where it did not appear to have taken too much rain. The booming of a waterfall enticed us through the bush to a waterfall coursing down through rifts in the escarpment. A troupe of baboons was nearby to take advantage of the watering hole, as had other sizeable two-toed beasts judging by the deep hoof imprints in the mud!
We put up our tents and organised our sleeping arrangements and had a great dinner of pumpkin soup followed by mince and many fresh veges pan fried and mixed together with a somewhat thin sauce which was then slathered all over mashed spud! Oh yum, I will have to curb my intake. Or I will put on more weight than I took over during the Kili climb.
We sat around the open camp fire and played a couple of games. With our headlamps on it made a great sight looking from the outskirts of the eating area as a bystander into this scene. I had just made a visit to the long drops and walking back when I noticed, from the beam of my headlamp, many beady red eyes staring back at me. Holy cow! Rather Holy Cape Buffalo. We were surrounded by these huge beasts - there had to be at least 15 - 20 of them. Quite un afraid of us (can't say the same for some of the other folk though about the buffalo - some were quite uneasy). It was quite an experience going to bed knowing that here I was, camping in a wildlife national park in the middle of Kenya, surrounded by buffalo! Just amazing.