Monday 13th:
At 4am our friends, the Colobus monkeys sang to wake us up. How nice.
Today’s cook team were Emily, Ash and Luke, and they made us porridge like we’ve never had before on this trip. Ash produced a chilli flavour – great to wake to; Luke made a delicious traditional Scottish porridge; Emily made a scrummy chocolate flavour with a hint of Coco Pops that was a total wow!! They all went fast…in fact they all got eaten and “totally annihilated”, as Mike and Ash would say in the best Arnie accents.
After breakfast, it was back to the Geek Hut to finish off writing and editing film projects. ‘Nuff said.
David, Victoria and I took an afternoon break for an hour, to go for a final Forest Walk with the groundsman David Makonjio. This gentle man of the woods was amazing, and so knowledgeable about the trees and plants, and every so often pointing out a bird in the trees that we hadn’t seen. He took us to a large 300-year old teak tree that had been naturally hollowed out and now housed a colony of fruit bats. They were asleep high up inside the trunk, which was just as well, as these creatures have a wingspan of around 30cm (1 foot) and fearsome faces and claws – remember the Crocodile Dundee 2 film?
During this walk, David Makonjio showed us many medicinal plants with amazing properties. He selected one for David who was a bit nasally blocked – a Piper Capensis. He chewed and ate the buds, and presto….blockage went. I’ve had a bit of tummy trouble for which he tore off some bark from 3 trees which I had to boil, and then drink the water. Again….it worked within an hour. All I can say is…forget those wretched pharmaceutical products (unless absolutely necessary in a dangerous acute situation) that can have nasty and sometimes long term side effects; go with Nature, proven to work over thousands of years use.
Gaynor had arranged for our last night to be spent in the vacant bandas. So the afternoon was spent taking down all the tents, drying them in the sun, then cleaning and brushing them out, and packing away along with all our other kit. We moved in to the bandas at nightfall, into these large mud huts with high pointy grass roofs. Four to a hut, sleeping on beds…with sheets and pillows. Luxury.
After nightfall, there was little energy for socialising…we were getting up early, long before dawn, for breakfast, to be on the road by 6am.
Tuesday 14th:
4.45 am: My luck to be in the kitchen team this morning, with David and Rosie, getting up early to make breakfast. Yes folks…that’s an uncivilised hour for most of us in the west. Making porridge and tea at that ungodly hour, under torchlight was fun, and watching everyone turn up with hands out held grasping a bowl, staggering like zombies, was about the funniest thing I can remember.
5.45 am: Everyone chipped in to help clear the kitchen utensils and crockery, and after a final site check we hit the road…only 11 minutes late.
6.25 am: As the day broke and it got light, we were shocked to see large numbers of children, dressed in their school uniforms, walking the one of two kilometres to school, some as young as seven or eight, and often walking alone. No Chelsea tractors hogging the roads out here. There were men cycling to their work and women walking along carrying bundles on their heads in the traditional way. And we were moaning about having to get up early. Puts it all in perspective, doesn’t it?
6.45 am: We now left the Kakamega Forest area, with great sadness. In many ways, this has been the most interesting area we have seen.
8.05 am: We lurched to a stop suddenly, as Steve saw another Oasis vehicle heading our way. Both drivers stopped for a professional exchange; with our truck named Nox after the number plate, this one was called Fanny. Don’t ask. It was on it’s way to Uganda with a different overland group, as Nox will be in a few days time.
11.15 am: We crossed the Equator, from north to south.
11.45 am: It started to rain [early] so we stopped to drop down the sides of the truck.
1.45 pm: We stopped at a Shell service station for lunch. We made a salad and sandwiches for those who did not disappear into the fast food restaurant for a hot meal.
2.30 pm: Back on the road in the hot sunshine, sides rolled up and warm wind blowing through our hair.
2.55 pm: We passed Lake Nakuru, a beautiful massive lake. Steve pulled us in to enjoy the remarkable sight, with volcanic hills in the background. He pointed out the massive flocks of flamingos feeding in the water….too far away for us to see clearly. There was a short stop as Steve had to check out a noise from the front axle.
3.45 pm: Back on the road again, and running hell for leather south to Nairobi, now on some really good roads, with flat tarmac surfaces and even with road markings.
4.30 pm: A short stop at a service station which had some food shops. This was a good point to stock up on snacky food or fresh fruit from the Delamere Estate (in the news recently as the wealthiest settler family in Kenya), go to the loo…and eat ice cream. I can’t tell you how delicious that ice cream was, especially in the hot sun….rich and creamy with a choice from 10 flavours, and only costing KSh 80 (that’s about .70p).
6.30 pm: We drove into Nairobi as it began to get dark, and hit the traffic, as mad going in as it was leaving Nairobi.
7.30 pm: Some 600 Kms later, we arrived at Upperhill Camp where we’d stayed, oh, itseems like years ago. We were shown to our luxury tents or dorms, all equipped with deep foam mattresses, sheets and pillows. Everyone unpacked their minimums and either bought a beer or rushed to the shower. Ha…I managed both!!
Most of us also had a supper cooked for us from a delicious varied menu. And more beer.
People were in bed quite early…weary after the long drive.
Wednesday 15th:
A fulsome night’s sleep, despite being tormented not by Colobus calls, but by city dogs. We were all up by 7.30 for a breakfast, and then from 8am we were taking everything out from Nox to give her a total clean.
All the seats came out, all the kitchen equipment and utensils and their storage baskets and boxes, all the shelves, under-seat storage, under-floor cupboards were washed and cleaned of accumulated dust from as far back as Mombasa. The operation took around 5 hours and we were ready to hand over a sparking Oasis Overland truck for the next group.
Steve then took Nox away for some servicing checks to ensure that Nox performed for the next group as well as she had for us.
The afternoon was spent by everyone, completing any outstanding editing and writing up tasks. Me? I finished writing up this blog up to 6pm.
No more today as I wanted to get the blogs uploaded and published.
Tonight is going to be our final Showcase evening which I’ll tell you about tomorrow when I finally sign off, from this fantastic expedition, and hand over to my successor.
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