We left London on the 30th November just as the first snow of the year was beginning to fall. A very satisfying feeling knowing we were leaving the cold Winter behind and heading south to the Equator.
Things didn't start well when we got to the airport and were told our flight was delayed 3 hours due to fog in Cairo. This turned into 5 hours by the time they had to de-ice the plane and get another runway slot. We then arrived in Cairo around 1am knowing that there was a good chance we had missed our connecting flight to Nairobi. This proved correct and we were stuck at the transfer desk with over 100 other people in a similar situation. Egypt Air had no idea how to deal with the situation. They took all our passports and boarding passes and put them in a big pile. We then spent 8 hours waiting on the floor, with no one telling us anything and with us asking to be transferred to a hotel. The scene was pretty crazy with people crowding the desk and demanding various things. At one point one guy walked behind the desk and started going through the passports looking to take his own passport back. The Egypt Air staff didn't like this but didn't call security or anything. Eventually we got to a hotel, where we spent about 10 hours (about 7 hours in bed), had three meals and then went back to the crazy airport. More disorganised chaos with one service window handling 50 people, and piles of passports in no particular order. Their system was to serve the person shouting the loudest, find out where they were going and then look there every single boarding pass / passport. Some more shuffling and moving, more waiting. We eventually got a passport in our hand 5 minutes before our flight was due to leave, of course it was delayed at least 30 minutes too. We then arrived in Nairobi around 7am to discover that our bags had somehow not made our flight, despite having 24 hours to be moved to the right place. We then had confusion, because we were changed from Egypt Air to a Kenyan Airways flight, so each airline was palming off responsibility to the other. We eventually got our bags delivered to the backpackers on Friday night wearing the same clothes we left London in on Tuesday morning.
We liked Nairobi. It reminded us of a big Suva in Fiji. But as soon as we got our bags we were itching for our travels to begin, so the following morning we boarded a bus towards the Masai Mara National Park. This was our first glimpse of Africa and it was great. Passing through villages with colourful markets, full of Masai people in colourful red fabric and beaded jewellery, small herds of cows and goats feeding beside the road with someone looking over them. Animals we saw from the bus included baboons, gazelles, jackals, wildebeasts and zebras. We spent the first day wandering the area outside the National Park with a local. We went to village and climbed a small hill, but were just appreciating the vastness of Africa and being a world away from London.
A Masai above and the vastness of the Masai below
The next day we went on a proper safari. Just the two of us, a land cruiser and a guide. It was great. We left at 6:30am and spent 10 hours spotting animals. The Masai Mara is teeming with wildlife. Massive herds of wildlife and nowhere for them to hide. It's mostly open savannah with very few bushes and trees. Zebras. Lots of zebras. Hundreds, maybe thousands. Across one hillside, down the valley and up the other hillside, covered in zebras. Giraffes, buffalos, wildebeasts and elephants. Three great lion experiences. The first was two lazy males sleeping under a tree. The second a whole family, including cubs and the third was one lone young male. Antelopes of all sizes including Thompson's Gazelles, Topi, Eland, waterbuck, imapala and hartbeests. We got lucky and saw a black rhino. In full view out in the open. There are only about 500 left in Kenya with most in private reserves or fenced off national parks. We also saw hyenas, mongoose, hippos, crocodile, warthogs, jackals and a bunch of cool birds including yellow crested cranes, vultures, storks and egyptian geese. Unfortunately no cheetahs or leopards.
Eland above. The others you might know.
We then headed up to Lake Naivasha and to the Hell's Gate National Park. We found a great campsite on the edge of Lake Naivasha where the hippos come out of the lake each night to feed. There is an electric fence that I presume is sufficient to convince the hippos that the grass around our tent isn't that good. Hell's Gate NP is in the Great Rift Valley and has numerous volcanic plugs and escarpments. It's also one of the few parks that you can explore on foot. So we walked about 20kms exploring the park. We saw plenty of zebras, gazelles and warthogs and a few giraffes and a group of buffalo off in the distance. The park also has a sandstone gorge which we took a 1hr walk around with a guide. Very narrow and windy and about 10m deep. It constantly changes with flash flooding each wet season.
The Gorge
A Colobus Monkey around Lake Naivasha
Park Fees are a constant when travelling in East Africa. We went to Kenya because they were reasonable cheap, but our guide book was outdated and they were all increased in 2009. The biggest and most disappointing increase was for Mt Kenya. We had planned on climbing Mt Kenya as Kilimanjaro was out of our budget at US$1000 pp ($500 on park fees). But seems Kenya has caught on to this as well and increased the fees from US$20 pp per day to $55 plus increased guide and camping fees. And when you need 4 days to complete it, this adds up. So we had to come up with a plan C. This ended up being Mt Elgon on the Ugandan border. At 4200m it is still a fair climb. We rushed it into 3 days / 2 nights. We had two armed guides (mainly in case we ran into buffalos or elephants). Was great wandering up through the forests filled with monkeys and a bamboo forest. We eventually made it to the alpine area, where there were no trees but plenty of grasses and flowers. We attempted to climb the peak but gave up as it was pretty much rock climbing up a cliff face covered in moss and dripping with water. The guides claimed they have been up before but I have my doubts. The trip was a bit rushed and under-prepared but still good. The second day we walked about 35kms including the summit attempt. Pretty ridiculous.
Around 3,500m asl. Looking down where we came from. And a bit higher up looking at the summit (below).
After all this hard work and feeling a bit out of place we decided it was time to head to the coast. The only problem was it was two day's bus ride away. But both passed pretty well. We had to take a day's rest in Nairobi as we had to book the bus for the next day.
There have been plenty of challenging bits along the way. Independent travel is not as easy here as it was in South America. Most visitors either come here with their own car or a lot of money. Transport has been the toughest to sort out. Working out when and how much you should pay. Public transport was really busy in December as everyone is heading home to the village for Christmas. Food, normally a popular topic here, was nothing to write home about. Simple food. Beef stew. Roast chicken. Lots of rice and chips. And Ugali. A starchy ball of carbohydrates. Made from Maize flour and water. No Ugali, no life: the motto of our guide at Mt Elgon. He loved the stuff. Basic English is spoken by most people, but it is not their primary language. Swahili and English are the official languages, but most speak Swahili to each other.
Loads of photos here.
