Nairobi & Lake Nakuru - Kenya

To make us feel even worse the next day was sunny and bright, much brighter than the last few days. It meant we could at least dry out Rupert and all our gear, the roof tent, awning, bedding, mattress, camp chairs, camp beds etc were all very wet if not soaked. Some like the tent and awning from being used, the other stuff simply from the amount of rain that had fallen on the zip bag over the last 48hrs, being canvas it can only withstand so much.

It took the whole day to clean and dry everything so we decided to have dinner at Indaba and do some internet and emails. An idea was forming in our heads that if the rains continued to be  as bad then maybe we should return to the UK a bit earlier than planned and enjoy Xmas with family and friends.

This week was the first anniversary of our leaving the UK to meet Rupert in Cape Town and since then we had been on the move almost non stop so after the episode in the Mara we were starting to feel in need of a break. The problem with East Africa is the short rains start in Nov and last until Jan, then the long rains start in March until late May so the outlook for the next month or so was not good anyway. On top of this the locals were saying this years rains had come early and were much harder than usual so they were predicting they would run right on into the long rains, if this was the case then camping in the bush would not be viable. 

However, it wasn't simply a case of us just hopping on the next available flight to London, firstly our house was rented out until mid Feb so we had nowhere to stay and secondly we had to find somewhere safe where we could leave Rupert for up to six months - no easy task.

Back in 2003 when we first decided to ship a vehicle to Africa   we just had a loose plan of where we wanted to go, how long we would take and what we would do at the end was left open.  The only thing we knew for sure was we probably would not drive all the way back to Europe, if anything we would either sell the vehicle in Africa or ship it back but from where and when was left undecided.

From our days in Botswana we knew a bit about Southern Africa but East Africa was far less well known to us but the recent experience in the Mara not withstanding we had really enjoyed this area and we felt there was still lots we wanted to see.

Therefore driving all the way back to Cape Town to leave Rupert with Geoff & Beth or to Gaborone in Botswana with Alan & Ali (even supposing they would be happy to take him) was out of the question. 

No, our options where limited to either leaving him in Nairobi at Indaba, in Mbeya, Tanzania with Francis at Utengule, with Taffy & Jenny in Malawi or at a push with Nick Selby in Livingstone, Zambia.

To help us think it over we decided to go into town to the Norfolk and treat ourselves to a long lunch. We had first stayed there in the early 90s and had been back on a couple of occasions since then and it was one of our favourite places. Built in 1904 it is rated as one of the Worlds great hotels, steeped in history from the colonial era it was once known as the House of Lords because of the amount of gentry and white hunters who stayed there, now a five star luxury hotel it does great lunches (the curry's are to die for) at a very reasonable price on the Lord Delamere Terrace bar, one of Nairobi's most popular watering holes.

Being in the city centre security can be an issue but we were lucky and able to park on the road right outside the hotel so we were able to keep a watch on Rup from our table, although the hotel Askari's keep everything well under control.    

Over lunch we discussed our options and decided the first task was to email Rupert's prospective foster parents to see who was prepared to help. We would then check out flights to and from the UK from the various countries.

As we considered all the angles it became clear this was no easy choice. Leaving Rupert at Mbeya or on Lake Malawi would make the travelling to & from the UK much more difficult as the nearest international airports are Dar es Salaam and Lilongwe respectively.

To reach Dar from Mbeya would take two days via road on a coach or a day & a night on the train, neither of which were reliable or conducive to carrying a lot of luggage.

To reach Lilongwe was easier, just four hours over rough roads but public transport was virtually non existent so we would be reliant on Taffy or getting someone from Lilongwe to come and collect us, either way it would mean staying in Lilongwe overnight as well.

Nairobi or Livingstone would be far easier jumping off points but then we faced other complications. In Kenya & Tanzania you pay a road tax when you enter and this is always checked when you leave so any discrepancy is immediately picked up. It would be hard explaining six months non payment away and on top of that paying the shortfall would be quite expensive.

Henie had already mentioned he would be leaving Kenya in March and as yet didn't know who would be taking over Indaba so we were also concerned that leaving Rup there may be too great a risk especially as we didn't know them that well.

With this in mind and with the travelling difficulties we decided to rule out leaving Rup with Francis at Utengule or with Indaba in Nairobi.

We had already left Rupert with Nick in Livingstone for a month back in July when we had to unexpectedly go back to the UK to empty our stuff out of Pete's Mum's house. That had worked fine and Nick had already indicated he was happy to store Rupert for longer, at a price.

The only issues with leaving him there was the sheer distance we would have to travel to get back there, bearing in mind if we did go home for Xmas we would need to fly within the next two weeks and in Zambia you pay a carbon tax on entry which expires on the 31st Dec so once again explaining away six months on our return would be difficult.  

We came to the conclusion the most sensible option was to leave Rupert with Taff & Jen at Monkey Bay, (a) because we knew and trusted them and the location was safe and (b) Malawi does not impose any road taxes so there was far less chance of us having any hassles once we got back to Africa.

Once we had arrived at this decision we went on the net to check flights and to our surprise found we could still get a flight out of Lilongwe to London via Nairobi if we wanted, all that remained was to wait for Taffy's response to our idea on leaving Rupert with them and to sound out the family to see if they could put us up.

Next day we visited the Dame Daphne Sheldrick Elephant Sanctuary one of Nairobi's most popular tourist venues. We have been supporters of her wildlife trust for many years, see http://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org having adopted our first orphan Elephant Aitong in the early 90s and we always pay a visit whenever we are in Nairobi.

Dame Daphne and her fantastic team do an extraordinary amount of good in rescuing baby Elephants from all over Kenya and sometimes in other African countries as well. The baby's in most cases are very very young and would for sure have died if left in the wild. They become orphans as the result of poaching,  human - Elephant conflict in rural areas or quite often when the baby falls into a well and cannot get out, the Mother and the rest of the herd eventually having to abandon them.

The sanctuary has other animals such as Rhino's but it is most widely known for the pioneering work they do in rescuing the   Elephants, many of which are badly traumatised and/or on the brink of death when brought in.  If they survive and sadly some don't, after a couple of years in Nairobi they are transferred to another sanctuary in Tsavo East National Park where they stay for another few years, slowly being introduced back into the wild and the wild Elephant population until eventually they return to the wild of their own free will and roam free for the rest of their lives.

Aitong followed that route and now spends all her time in the Tsavo bush with the wild Elephants. We support a number of wildlife charities but as with most charities it is hard to see directly how your money is being put to work but with the Sheldrick trust you can see the Elephants grow from tiny calf's to adulthood so it is very uplifting to see your donations helping to safeguard such a magnificent animal especially when the news each year about the environment  is so depressing.

Next day we had intended to head off to Lake Nakuru but it had rained heavily all night and we awoke to a grey old day so we decided to postpone and stay close to email to see what replies  we got on going back to the UK for Xmas. Logging in we were delighted to find an email from Taffy & Jenny saying they would be happy to look after Rupert, this was great news and another piece in the jigsaw was sorted all we needed now was to sort out where we could stay in the UK until our house became vacant and then we could make a plan.

In the summer when we had to unexpectedly rush back to the UK to sort out Pete's Mum's house we had stayed with Sue's brother Mike and his wife Liz for a few weeks. That had gone very well but the weather was nice and we were out most of the day, now in Winter it might not be too easy. They hadn't yet responded to our email suggesting we may come back early to spend Xmas with them so we were in limbo until we did. 

Next morning the weather was a little brighter but still quite overcast but we decided we would head off to Nakuru anyway. With the exception of Nairobi's own park Nakuru is the closest  NP to Nairobi, we had been there just once before in the 1990s but then we had been on a guided tour so went where we were driven this time it would be different.

You take the same route out of Nairobi for Nakuru as you do for the Masai Mara, only instead of turning off for Narok you head straight on Westward. We climbed out of Nairobi to the edge of the Rift valley where the week or so before we had had a clear view of the valley floor now as we passed the 8,000 metre high lookout point all we could see was heavy mist and rain, not very encouraging!

At 10.45am we were just 85km from Nakuru and got our first glimpse of Lake Naivasha, one of the other rift valley lakes. However, from Gilgil onwards the road was awful, virtually just one big pothole with loads of diversions, Kenya's roads really were the worst we had faced since leaving Cape Town.

It took us two hours to do that last 85km to Nakuru's main gate and by then the rain had set in heavy again so rather than spend a shed load of US Dollars to enter we decided to hold off and go to a nearby private campsite just outside the park called Mbweha, which would be much cheaper and then if the weather improved go in in the morning. This constant rain was playing havoc with our plans so we had to think on our feet and improvise each day.

Mbweha lies close to the boundary of the National park and is a decent alternative if you want to visit Nakuru but don't wish to pay the high fees to camp inside the park each night. They had Banda's for 9000 KSHs (~ £66) per night full board or 7000 KSHs (£51) half board which was quite pricey whereas camping was a much more reasonable 400 KSHs each (£3) plus 100 KSHs conservancy fee.

The campsite was ok but nothing special, the nicest things were the many Euphorbia or Candelabra Trees and that it was deserted, it seems only Englishmen and mad dogs go out in the Kenyan rainy season! By late afternoon it looked as if our determination would pay off as the rain had stopped and it was quite pleasant as the sun came out, unfortunately so also did the local staff to play football until we asked them to politely bugger off. 

The night passed with just a distant lone call from a Hyena, then at 2am we were awoken by the sound of light rain which by 4am had graduated to very heavy rain, our hearts sank. Yet by 7am the rain had stopped again and blue skies where trying to peep through, it was so up and down it was difficult to decide whether to go into Nakuru or return to Nairobi, in the end we opted to drive to the Nakuru gate and see how thing's looked then. 

Because the track out of Mbweha was very wet and muddy it took us a full 30 mins to reach the Nakuru main gate, by then the sky was very cloudy with some bright spells but at least it wasn't raining. We decided as we had come so far we should at least try one night in the park.

Nakuru whilst hardly wild is quite a pretty park, it's main attraction is the lake and the woodland dominated by Fever trees or Yellow barked Acacia's, which are very attractive. Our campsite was close to a lovely spot called Makalia Falls, when we were last here the falls were barely a trickle, now with all the rain they were a veritable torrent.

As we arrived we saw there were a small herd of Buffalo grazing close by and then to our surprise as we pulled onto the campsite we saw a saloon car, bugger. One of the drawbacks to being so close to Nairobi and to the town of Nakuru is the park attracts quite a few day visitors, many local, who come out to picnic and show the kids the animals.

The car was at the furthest point from the main track and a local guy was stood on the bonnet waving his arms like crazy, obviously in need of help we drove over to see what the problem was.

He was very relieved to see us, it seemed he and his young wife had come into the park the previous afternoon and had driven onto the site to picnic, then when it came time to leave his car wouldn't start and they had been stuck there all night. Not a soul had passed until we came along at around midday. To make matters worse his wife who was stretched out on the back seat was heavily pregnant and looked as if she might pop at any moment!

We quickly ascertained the problem was a simple flat battery so with a jump start we had him going in no time. I then tried to see why the battery should have run down so quickly and discovered the car alarm siren was permanently going but at such a low level it could just be heard with the bonnet open. The guy said he had heard something strange over the last week or so but hadn't investigated it further. We suggested not to turn the engine off till they got home and then get the alarm properly disconnected and with that off they went, his wife never said a word the whole time but her look of relief was enough!

As we only planned to stay the one night we would use the roof tent, normally when we do this we put some chairs and a table to baggy our spot while we go out on a game drive, but here, with the risk of day visitors, we decided not to bother. It would hardly matter anyway as it looked like we would be the only ones camped there and the whole site was so waterlogged the best place to camp was on the track itself.  

To our surprise we saw quite a bit of game on our drive, some good herds of Buffalo, Impala and Zebra but significantly no predators. We drove to the Lake where we could see thousands of Flamingo's on the water, the only problem was with all the rain the surrounding plain was flooded so you couldn't get close and the sky was so overcast you couldn't get decent photographs, however it was enough to convince us that unless it poured all night we would stay another day.

Apart from the stricken local we hadn't passed another vehicle all day and had only seen vehicles in the distance higher up towards the escarpment so it really felt like we had the park to ourselves. Back at camp the sun suddenly appeared and with the roar of the falls and a troop of baboon mooching about it was all very pleasant.

We put up the roof tent and the awning in case it rained and settled down to Gin Riokeys and a Malay curry. While Sue was starting dinner I went off to gather some wood and the baboons noting this immediately came in closer to hassle Sue. This is quite usual as Baboons and Monkeys know when women are left alone in camp and then become much bolder even threatening if challenged, however once a man returns they start to move away again, so see we are still good for something!

This troop had a lot of young so clearly times were good, baby Baboon's ride about on the mothers back for the first few weeks so when you see a lot like this it is quite funny as they look like Jockeys and horses getting ready for the next race. One baby was very young, we estimated just a day or so old and was the subject of much interest from the rest of the troop. It's at times like this the Mother has to be especially vigilant as other jealous females may try and hurt the new baby.

As it got dark a big bull Buffalo came mooching through the camp passing just a few feet away. Normally Buffs are very skittish, which is not surprising given the amount of hunting for their meat, but this guy was very relaxed and ignored us completely, what with this and the solitude we were glad we had decided to take a risk with the weather and come into the park.   

We spent the day exploring the park from top to bottom, the weather having improved we saw the odd game viewer from the lodges but that was it for most of the time we were on our own which was a pleasant surprise.  The game whilst not in great numbers was very nice, in particular Nakuru boasts some reticulated Giraffe which you don't see very often and which is one of the most attractive if not the most attractive sub species of Giraffe, the markings being more defined and a rich dark colour. 

We went back to the lake to see the Flamingo's and whilst we could still not get any closer the light at least was a bit more conducive to take photo's. On our way back to camp we suddenly came across a very big Angulate Tortoise sat on the track.

We see and rescue a fair amount of Tortoises while we are on the road in Africa, mostly they are Leopard Tortoises but every now and again we get an Angulate although never as big as this guy.

Being so slow they are at great risk when crossing roads or tracks so when we see one we always stop and move them off into the bush. The main thing to remember when picking one up is to be careful they don't pee on you, it's happened to me twice and it's not a very nice experience.

Even though we look out for them every now and then we will come across one that has been hit by a vehicle. This is really annoying as they are so easily avoidable and amazing when you think how valuable they are outside of Africa. This particular guy was as big as they come and was quite heavy, beautifully marked he would have been in great demand as a pet back in Europe.  We come across so many each year that if we lived in Africa and were so inclined we could have had dozens in our garden by now.

In fact just a few miles further we came across another Angulate Tortoise but this time a tiny tiny baby, so tiny you could fit him onto a 50 pence piece! A perfect replica of the big one but probably at least twenty years younger, such fantastic things Tortoises.

Our last great sighting of the day was to encounter a White Rhino and her calf, sadly a sight you never see in most national parks anymore. Nakuru being so close to Nairobi is being used as a safe haven for both Black & White Rhino but the security is high. On the way back to camp we saw a few more adult Rhino's lying near to the lake shore which seemed quite surreal given their scarcity elsewhere in Africa.

On our way back to camp we hit a sudden heavy downpour, which lasted for about half an hour, then at camp we just managed to get the awning up and light a fire before it started again. The Buffalo were around the camp again and the baboon, one of whom jumped on top of the awning to grab a rubbish bag, you need eyes in the back of your head with these guys.

During a break in the rain we put the roof tent up only to discover that when we put it down that morning and had not bothered to zip up the outer cover fully the bedding and mattress at the foot of the bed was soaked, so not a good nights rest, it was time to call it a day and get back to Nairobi.