Now I KNOW I'm in Africa! Last week I went on a 3-day camping safari to the Masai Mara Game Reserve - we saw 32 species in all, including 4 of the Big 5 - Lion, Elephant, Buffalo and Rhino, but we didn't spot a Leopard (geddit!) - they were very elusive. Loads of zebra, wildebeest, baboon, gazelles and impala, also hyena, ostrich, cheetah........ There is nothing quite like your first site of an elephant or lion in their natural habitat - going to a zoo will never be the same again. At one stage we got stuck in the mud - you've not truly been on safari until you have to get out and push! I have now just come back from visiting a mission project in the East Pokot region - this is in the Rift Valley north of the equator (yes, I've now crossed it by land as well as air!). The mission is 70km north-west of Marigat, the nearest town of any sort, with a population of about 1000. It takes nearly 2 hours to get from there to the mission, as the road soon becomes nothing more than a dirt track. Marigat itself is an hour's drive from Nakuru, and nearly 4 hours from Nairobi. It seems like its the other end of the earth from civilisation. It is HOT there - upwards of 40 degrees in mid-afternoon - yesterday morning it was 26 degrees before sunrise! Fr Sean and Fr John, both originally from Dublin, were excellent hosts and guides, and I was fortunate to be able to travel around with them and meet some of the Pokot tribes people, including visiting them in their homes (for which read mud hut with a thatched roof and practically nothing which we would recognise as posessions). The mission itself has running water and electricity provided from solar panels and stored in batteries. They've even got a satellite TV and video recorder! It wasn't always like that - a lot of work has gone in over 20 years. In that heat, you have no idea how welcome it is when the sun goes down, not just because that's when the beers come out! The full story of the experiences and thoughts about this visit will have to wait - there's far too much to tell now and the photos will be necessary to truly give an idea of what it is like there. It was a very humbling but exciting experience! On the way back from Nakuru, a 2 1/2 hour bus ride of about 140km, I had one of those moments - I was crammed into a bus with about 120 people, a baby crying on the seat in front, driving through the most incredible Rift Valley scenery, past a small herd of zebra and a couple of baboons, when the Louis Armstrong song What a Wonderful World came over the radio - what timing! Tomorrow night I am supposed to be going to 'Carnivore', a famous restaurant just outside Nairobi which serves game meat, all you can eat. Typically, they might serve zebra, impala, crocodile - should be fun! Next stop India - communication is becoming more difficult, so I don't know when the next news will be. Third World computers and phone links are enough to try the patience of any hardened traveller trying to receive a few e-mails.... Nigel
Now I KNOW I'm in Africa! Last week I went on a 3-day camping safari to the Masai Mara Game Reserve - we saw 32 species in all, including 4 of the Big 5 - Lion, Elephant, Buffalo and Rhino, but we didn't spot a Leopard (geddit!) - they were very elusive. Loads of zebra, wildebeest, baboon, gazelles and impala, also hyena, ostrich, cheetah........ There is nothing quite like your first site of an elephant or lion in their natural habitat - going to a zoo will never be the same again. At one stage we got stuck in the mud - you've not truly been on safari until you have to get out and push! I have now just come back from visiting a mission project in the East Pokot region - this is in the Rift Valley north of the equator (yes, I've now crossed it by land as well as air!). The mission is 70km north-west of Marigat, the nearest town of any sort, with a population of about 1000. It takes nearly 2 hours to get from there to the mission, as the road soon becomes nothing more than a dirt track. Marigat itself is an hour's drive from Nakuru, and nearly 4 hours from Nairobi. It seems like its the other end of the earth from civilisation. It is HOT there - upwards of 40 degrees in mid-afternoon - yesterday morning it was 26 degrees before sunrise! Fr Sean and Fr John, both originally from Dublin, were excellent hosts and guides, and I was fortunate to be able to travel around with them and meet some of the Pokot tribes people, including visiting them in their homes (for which read mud hut with a thatched roof and practically nothing which we would recognise as posessions). The mission itself has running water and electricity provided from solar panels and stored in batteries. They've even got a satellite TV and video recorder! It wasn't always like that - a lot of work has gone in over 20 years. In that heat, you have no idea how welcome it is when the sun goes down, not just because that's when the beers come out! The full story of the experiences and thoughts about this visit will have to wait - there's far too much to tell now and the photos will be necessary to truly give an idea of what it is like there. It was a very humbling but exciting experience! On the way back from Nakuru, a 2 1/2 hour bus ride of about 140km, I had one of those moments - I was crammed into a bus with about 120 people, a baby crying on the seat in front, driving through the most incredible Rift Valley scenery, past a small herd of zebra and a couple of baboons, when the Louis Armstrong song What a Wonderful World came over the radio - what timing! Tomorrow night I am supposed to be going to 'Carnivore', a famous restaurant just outside Nairobi which serves game meat, all you can eat. Typically, they might serve zebra, impala, crocodile - should be fun! Next stop India - communication is becoming more difficult, so I don't know when the next news will be. Third World computers and phone links are enough to try the patience of any hardened traveller trying to receive a few e-mails.... Nigel