Amboseli NP & Nairobi - Kenya

There were four guys armed with AK47's dotted in  vehicles throughout the convoy, we were towards the back so had just one guard in a car a couple of cars behind us. Naturally we assumed the whole point of a convoy is you stick together, however within a very short space of time everyone was so  strung out that for most of the journey we were driving virtually on our own with no sign of the car in front or behind, which seemed to make a mockery of the whole exercise!  

The only time we came together again was at the halfway point where we had to stop and sign in at a police checkpoint. The route from Tsavo takes you through a number of Masai villages and sure enough here they took their opportunity to ambush us armed with various dodgy curio's for sale! It's a fair bet the bandits who held up the Russian diplomat and his family were from one of these villages, perhaps they had said Nyet too strongly to one of the wooden Giraffe's!

We arrived at Amboseli's Kimana gate just before 12.30pm so the journey from Tsavo took just over 2 hours. Amboseli like the Masai Mara is part of Masailand so the only public campsite was run by the local community. Called Ololarashi it is described in the guide books as being outside the park but is for all intents and purposes inside, albeit cordoned off by a small wire fence, however there are no restrictions in going in and out and no need to pass through a ranger post.

The downside to being community run is that a lot of Masai tend to hang around the office area and you will get numerous offers to take you on game drives/walks & tours of the local Manyatta's (homesteads). However, once they realise your definitely not interested then they tend to leave you alone. On arrival Jacob introduced himself as our camp help and walked us around the site showing us where each camping spot was, none of them really grabbed us as they were all a bit in the open so we persuaded him to let us camp 'off piste' in quite a nice spot which was a bit more private.  

By 3.30 we were all set up and what was nice was the birds around the camp seemed very tame with a variety of Starlings, and Weavers coming right up to us for titbits. We went out for our first game drive hoping that as Amboseli is more open we would see more game than at Tsavo and pretty soon we were rewarded with our first small group of Ele's - not unusual in itself except amongst them was a bull with quite magnificent tusks, sadly a rare sight these days as poaching has taken it's toll on the bigger tuskers. 

Usually these old bulls are loners so one of the females must have been coming into season as he followed along clearly ready for action when the time was right! A little further on we came across a pride of eight Lions, the male being the most moth eaten specimen we have ever had the misfortune to see. He obviously though still had life left in him as one Lioness was nursing three small cubs who you could were clearly making her life a bit uncomfortable with their sharp little teeth.

Back at camp Jacob brought us some wood for the fire, Amboseli is much more open  than Tsavo which makes game viewing a lot easier, however it also means firewood is much harder to come by so for KSHS 300 (~£2.50) the Masai will provide you with some.

That night we ate a very nice Malay curry next to a roaring fire, being more open Amboseli is also a lot chillier so the fire was very welcome, it also brought in quite a procession of creatures looking for warmth including Sue's all time favourite the Baboon spider. Similar to a Tarantula they look like a Ferrari on legs and they can move like one, racing in and out of the shadows. Their bite is supposed to be very painful but the main reason Sue hate's them is they appear to stalk you because if you move they follow trying to stay within your shadow.

Next morning we were up at 7am, the night had been pretty quiet with just Hyena calling but we decided to stay on another day. We still hadn't seen much game so we drove to the top of  Observation Hill, the tallest point in the park, to see what was about. Apart from the same group of Ele's from last night plus a small herd of Buffalo and Wildebeest there was not much to speak off, so far Kenya's much vaunted game parks had been somewhat disappointing.

However, there is no denying that scenically Amboseli is lovely with stunning views of Mt Kilimanjaro as a backdrop, little wonder it was used as the location for King Solomon's Mines. Back at camp for lunch we ate while fending off an invasion of Vervet Monkeys, the little buggers were everywhere on Rupert's roof under Rupert and if that wasn't enough it then started to rain heavily.

Thankfully, it soon stopped but the sky remained very threatening so we didn't bother going out again, Sunset though was spectacular as we watched the rain coming down in the distance. That night we caught two pairs of eyes in the spotlight, at first we were not sure what they were then soon knew as a big Hyena walked bold as brass into camp looking to nab whatever he could.

Later after we went into bed he came back and made off with  the rubbish bag, then at 3am we were awoken by Lions calling just once a little way off, other than that all was quiet again. It continued to rain on and off all night and in the morning we awoke to find the monkeys had visited again at first light and left little muddy footprints over everything.

It was very wet underfoot as we packed up camp and left to drive through the park on the way to the Mashanani Gate and the road to Nairobi. Our route would take us around Lake Amboseli which is a seasonal lake where we hoped with the recent rain we would see some good birdlife, maybe even Flamingos.

There were no Flamingos but we did see 15 Crowned Cranes, a magnificent bird which you don't see so often. However, there was one animal which we had never seen before but which is in Amboseli and which we had hoped to see before we left, an antelope called a Gerenuk or the Giraffe necked antelope.

We had been looking out for them since day one but now we were very close to the Mashanani gate it looked like we would miss out. A very distinctive antelope the Gerenuk has a very long neck which it uses to good effect as it stands upright on it's hind legs to reach the leaves other antelopes cannot. The main population is in Kenya and as it cannot be seen in Southern African we had never come across one before.

So it came as a pleasant surprise that just before we reached the gate we came across a small group browsing on some thorn bushes - a nice end to what till now had been a disappointing safari.

At 10.15am we had 238km to go before reaching Nairobi, it took us two hours from then to reach Namanga and the tar road again. The dirt road from Mashanani was atrocious with very heavy corrugations, a real bone shaker so by 12.20 we still had 166km to go!

However, by 2.30 we had reached the outskirts of Nairobi, the first major city we had seen since Lusaka some three months before! Our destination was a place called Indaba which had been recommended to us by the Barry's back in August, the only problem was they could not give us directions other than to say it was close to Wilson Airport!

As we battled with the trucks and countless Matatu's, both of which make up their own rules of the road, we kept looking out for signs for Wilson Airport and Indaba, Wilson wasn't so hard to find but there was no signs at all for Indaba.

Wilson is a small airport on the Langata Road as you head towards the suburb of Karen, mainly used by the small plane operators who fly clients in and out of the various lodges and camps across Kenya.  Like all goverment installations it has a high level of security so as we took the turning to enter the area we were stopped by the police asking where we were going. We explained we were looking for Indaba and had been told it was near the airport but none of them had ever heard of it!

All we had was a phone number the Barry's had left us but as  we did not yet have a Kenyan SIM card and despite assurances in Tanzania that the Celtel SIM card we bought there would roam in Kenya this proved not to be the case. However, in true African fashion a policeman offered to use his phone and we watched as he started talking to someone in Kiswahili.

When he had finished he said the number wasn't for Indaba but for somewhere called 'Bomas of Africa' a cultural village where they put on shows for tourists and school kids! The person he spoke to didn't know Indaba but he recommended we head over there anyway as it was probably close by and it was not that far as you head up the Langata Road towards Karen.

At Bomas there was no sign of anywhere to stay nor anyone who had ever heard of Indaba, we were starting to think the Barry's may have given us a bum steer. Then as we left we suddenly saw a sign for 'The Campsite', maybe this was the place and it had changed it's name, we headed off to investigate.

When we got there our hearts sank, it was chock full of Overland vehicles but strangely no overlanders or drivers? We headed for the office to ask if this was Indaba, it wasn't and no one had heard of Indaba.  They said they had camping but at the moment it was being used mainly by the Overland companies to store their trucks in between trips. No matter we didn't like the look of it at all so we decided we would only stay as a last resort if we couldn't find Indaba or somewhere better.

Just then an old Kenyan sauntered in and overhearing the conversation asked if we were looking for Indaba, we said yes and to our great relief he said he knew where it was and it was not far away just off the Langata Road as you head towards Karen. Thanking him profusely we headed off yet again, by now it was nearly 5.30pm so we just hoped he knew what he was talking about.

Armed with new directions we found Indaba quite easily, being less than 10 minutes drive away. Lying at the end of a long private driveway off a small quiet lane there is no way you would know it existed as there are no signs whatsoever, even on the high entrance gate as you approach the property - for all intents and purposes you would think it was a private residence so we were lucky the old boy happened to come along.

We drew up outside the gate and waited for it to be opened, it was just 5.30pm and still nice and sunny but even so we could see the Askari's inside eyeing us suspiciously before deciding we were ok, Nairobi doesn't come by it's nickname of Nairobbery without good reason!

As we drove up to the house we were met by Henie a South African who with his wife Lausanne managed the place. At first Henie was wary of us asking how we knew about Indaba, when we mentioned the Barry's he relaxed, it seems they don't want just anyone pitching up there as they try to keep it very low key.

The place was very quiet as they didn't have any overland trucks in, just a young New Zealand couple who had finished their overland safari and were waiting to head off back home. We could camp but Henie also said they had rooms and showed us their best one called Rhino which had two beds and luxury it's own sink and en suite shower, all the others using the communal bathroom.

Whilst hardly the Ritz the place was clean, by now I was starting to feel pretty crook as if I was getting flu so Rhino at £12 per night looked very attractive. Apart from having rooms Indaba also does meals all day, has internet and runs an honesty bar were you help yourself and just mark up on the sheet and with drinks and snacks no more expensive than what you would pay at a supermarket then it's a real little gem, especially for a capital city like Nairobi.  

Dinner was a set two course meal, either starter and main or main & desert depending on the mood of the girls in the kitchen. As I wasn't feeling too well we decided to try them out, tonight is was home made soup followed by baked potatoes, fried chicken & salad, all for KSHS 350 each (less than £3).

Next day we awoke to a grey and sombre sky, November see's the start of the short rains in East Africa and although so far the weather had been good it was clear it would not last for long. Breakfast of Bacon, Egg, Sausage, Toast & Coffee cost just KSHS 180 each or £1.50, excellent value, no wonder they didn't need to advertise as once found most people kept coming back.

By now it was raining heavily which kept up until early afternoon when we went to Karen to do some shopping. At Karen is a small mall which houses Nakumatt, Kenya's premier supermarket chain plus a number of small shops, cafes etc. The area is named after Karen Blixen who wrote "Out of Africa" and whose old farm house is nearby, in her day the area was in the bush with Lions and Ele's roaming the area.

Steeped in colonial history it is also the area where Josh Hay, the Earl of Errol was found murdered under very suspicious circumstances in 1941, the incident the subject of the film "White Mischief" so it's a nice area to be close to.

After the austerity of shopping in Malawi & Tanzania and to a great extent Zambia (outside of Lusaka), we wandered through the mall like kids in a grotto and to make things even better they took credit card, something we hadn't been able to use since leaving Lusaka three months ago!

That night we awoke to the distinctive sound of Lions roaring, at first we couldn't believe it then we realised they were calling from Nairobi National Park about five miles or so away, strange that in the bush we can go for a week or more without hearing Lion, yet here in the big city we heard them on our second night - go figure?

Next day we shopped till we dropped, we were off to the Masai Mara in the morning so we needed to stock up with food, drink and get Rupert re-fuelled & washed. First stop the car wash where for KSH200 (£1.50) you get your car jet washed, it takes a good hour but you get a really good job.

Next was fuel, it took 90 litres and cost KSH6,190 (£48) to fill all the tanks, then onto Uchumi, the other big supermarket chain in Kenya and then Nakumatt for the food and drink with the luxury of a stop at Dormans for a Latte in between! Dinner was at the Java house in another shopping mall called Nakumatt Junction closer into the city centre.

It was 8pm and pitch dark as we headed back to Indaba, then it was time to do emails and bank etc before we left civilisation and contact with the outside world for a week. By now Sue was feeling a bit crook as well, the excitement of first world shopping obviously being too much too soon!

Next day we were up at 6.30, the weather was still very overcast and with Sue feeling fluey it was not the best of starts as we hurriedly packed away the food and drink we had bought yesterday and prepared to head off to the Masai Mara Game Reserve. The Mara was the game park we had most looked forward to visiting when we made our plans to tour Africa back in 2004/5 so we really hoped it would live up to expectations.

The Mara lies to the South West of Nairobi beyond a town called Narok. To reach the Narok road we first had to drive into the city centre then head west out of Nairobi on the Uhuru Highway. By the time we had packed, had breakfast and battled through the traffic it was 10.30 before we reached the highway.

As you leave Nairobi the road becomes basically what we would call a dual carriageway passing though a number of townships and suburbs. The carriageways are separated by huge concrete blocks with very few crossing points for pedestrians so the people have become accustomed to running the gauntlet of traffic as they cross and scale the blocks wherever they can.  

The road to Narok is the B3 but the turn off sign for this is low down and twisted and to top it all was masked by a truck as we passed it so it was only when the Garmin showed we were heading away from where we wanted to go did we realise and by then we were not that far from Nakuru of Lake Nakuru fame.

It would have been more sensible to just carry on to Nakuru NP as that was also on our list of places to visit but our hearts were set on seeing the Mara and nothing else would do - in hindsight we should have listened to our heads instead of our hearts!

By the time we had backtracked and found the B3 we had lost over an hour so at 12.20pm we still had 87km to go before reaching Narok and then the Mara gate was at least another 100km after that.

The road at first was good tar and very picturesque as we climbed an escarpment then as we reached the highest point and rounded a bend, there below us was the Rift Valley laid out in all it's glory. Unfortunately the sky was very overcast so we decided not to stop and take photo's especially as every stopping point is populated by stalls and shops of curio sellers who we didn't have time to argue with.

From here the road dropped steeply down to the valley floor and as it did it progressively got worse with more and more potholes appearing, little did we know how bad it was to get. Passing Mt's Longonot & Suswa in the distance we saw our first game, a small herd of Zebra, which somehow looked out of place so close to human habitation.

The last 30km before Narok was horrendous as the road became like something out of a war film more potholes than road Considering this is the main route to the Mara, Kenya's premier game park and is used daily by hundreds of tourists ferried in and out by the lodges and camps plus Narok is one of Kenya's major towns then the state of the road is a damming indictment of both the Narok council (Masai run) and the central government, especially when you consider how much they take in road taxes each time you enter the country.

At Narok we took the opportunity to use the ATM to get money and to top up with fuel so it was 2.30pm by the time we carried onto the Mara. It was clear we would not reach the reserve till late afternoon so there was little point in entering today and paying the exorbitant park fees for tonight, instead we decided to get as close to the park as possible and camp outside, but where? 

What we didn't fully realise was the Mara being a game reserve and not a national park is not managed by the Kenya Wildlife Service like Tsavo, Amboseli, Samburu and the other parks so it does not conform to the same set of tariffs & rules. Instead it is run by two Masai district councils, who in turn seem to operate to whatever rules they feel like.

To compound the confusion the reserve is split into two parts each managed independently. The land to East of the Mara River is managed by the Narok County Council, land to the west by the Trans Mara Conservancy, a partnership between the Trans Mara District council and private company.

The Trans Mara also known as the Mara Triangle is where most of the spectacular wildebeest crossings that you see on the TV occur and where a lot of the footage for the Big Cat diary is shot so it was where we wanted to stay.

We could see from the map that if we stayed on the road from Narok it would bring us into the reserve via the Sekenani gate run by the Narok council part so to reach the Triangle we would have to drive through the Narok side until we reached the Mara River.

Therefore, looking at the map and Bradt guide book we decided instead to try entering the park at the much less used Talek Gate, (a) because we had read there was a good campsite just outside called Riverside Camp and (b) we thought it would allow us to enter the park very early the next day much closer to the Mara river, little did we know then this was big mistake number one.