Everyone should experience 24 hours in an African city at some stage in their lives. The assault on the senses, the raw energy, the sea of humanity – it could never be described as dull. A full day in nairobi passed and felt as if we’d been there for a week at least. Dinner at Haandi rounded off the day, then back for a restless night ahead of out journey to Samburu.
A five o’clock start is never easy, but we were soon on out to Wilson Airport (the general aviation hub of east africa. Driving by two enormous car/truck crashes in ten minutes was a sobering start – though likely a non-soborous end to the drivers involved. We were the only two on the flight as we headed over Mt. Kenya and quickly descended to the dirt strip in Samburu. Picked up by Sammy, our driver for the next few days, in his trusty van and off we went to the lodge, which due to the recent floods washing away many of the lodges and camps, also washed away the main bridge – a 40km detour was required. On the way we spotted game, took lots of pictures and evenually arrived some 4 hours later at the lodge. Room is in a “traditional style” – they obviously used to sleep in hay lofts before corrugated tin was invented. Great place – Sopa Serena, really friendly staff, and Sammy did a great job in the morning, and joined by Daniel, an equally fine job in the afternoon. Might as well go home now – today we saw 2 cheetahs, 2 leopards, and 5 lions, in amongst large herds of elephants, etc. Gill a very happy camper indeed. Several hundred pictures await sorting through on the laptop – which we’ll do as long as the generator is running this evening. The park is fairly quiet compared to previous trips, whrn it never was too busy anyway. Plenty of animals, though the good rains have allowed the herds to stay away from the river, so more driving is involved to find animals.
Loving it back in Kenya, and the people remain the friendliest we’ve ever met – despite their political troubles and occaisonal internal strife, they remain wonderfully optimistic.
Here’s hoping some runs off…..