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Left early for the long drive to the camp in Samburu National Reserve. First stop was
Gilgil where we refuelled and after here we took the C77 to Nyahururu passing along the
side of the Aberdare range of hills.
Shortly after Nyahururu, which is Kenya's highest
town at 2360m, we made a stop at Thomson's Falls which is often just abbreviated to T
Falls. They are very impressive. There is a profusion of stalls selling most every kind of
souvenir imaginable. The stall holders are very well versed in making tourists feel at
home. The young lady I talked to spoke excellent English though it wouldn't surprise me if
she also knew half a dozen other languages equally well. Competition between stall holders
is fierce and some good bargains can be had although I think we were all a little reticent
to do this at first. Haggling is expected and whilst I'm sure they would be delighted if
you accepted their first price, equally they wouldn't be offended if you offered but a
fraction of that. My first purchases were a couple of sets of wood napkin rings like we had seen in the
mess tent and some soapstone animals. I
think I probably paid over the odds though whatever you pay it's pretty good value. One
sales trick I noticed being used quite often, was the owner of the shop saying that as you
were his first customer that day he would give you a special price and so that no one else
in the shop could hear it he would write it down on a small notepad. Chris had told us
that an effective way of reducing the price was to start to walk out of the shop at which
point an immediate reduction would be made. This technique was infallible, once you're out
of the shop you can be approached by another stall holder and they want your cash, no
matter how little. They also tried to get us to pay in dollars as these are an excellent
hedge against inflation but I knew that I could strike a ruthless bargain if I paid in
hard currency. Amusingly they also asked us to exchange some small change in various
foreign currencies (like the 20p piece I was offered) that they had obviously taken in
payment at some point. Some of the shops had huge stocks and they patently buy these in
from various sources, the wood carvings in particular are a speciality of one tribe.
Val bought a carved elephant and 10 baby animals from Barbara and also a leather hair
slide. Kenneth bought a soap stone chess set.
Every opportunity is taken to get your cash, and on offer at T falls was a chance to be
photographed with a chameleon on a branch or alternatively with two guys resplendent in
exotic body paint and tribal dress.
We passed through Ndaragwa on the B5 and then cut
across on an unmade track to the A2 where we headed north to Nanyuki. On the way we got
the occasional glimpse of the top of Mount Kenya peeping through the clouds. In Nanyuki
they replaced a flat tyre on the Land-Rover. The tyres had very little tread left on them
as is often the case in Kenya. Whilst this was being done the young locals gathered to see
if they could sell us something. I had brought along a selection of pens that had been
collected in the office and managed to trade a Metrica (the company I worked for) pen for
a rather nice carved wooden rhino. Bill
and John went off to have a look in the camera shop just along the street and reported
that it was surprising what was available in a small town, they even had batteries for our
cameras! I handed out some pens to the young children who asked nicely for ones for their
schoolwork. Ken bought an elephant for 200KS. From time to time we see some very amusingly
named shops, schools or hotels and here we spot "Mum's economical café". Val's
diary notes that she saw a cat which I think she thought worth recording as there are so
few to be seen.
Past Nanyuki we crossed the equator for the third and final time. We stop at Ken Trout
farm near Timau for lunch. We follow the signs up a steep track, past a garage with a car
that seems to contain more welding than metal, and arrive at a restaurant with tables
arranged around a thatched serving area with a little stream running through and into a
larger river. All around are some stunning plants in flower including a bottle bush tree
and arum lilies. Food was very good though not being a fishy person I choose another dish.
We notice that Barissa, John and cook all eat somewhere else. Nice toilets! Just before we
leave we spot some Colobus monkeys high in the trees.
We've been passing through the homeland of the
Kikuyu tribe (cook is a Kikuyu) but at Isiolo the people are very different. Here many of
the people are of Somali roots with an 'eastern' look to them. This is the mosque in
Isiolo. Nearby is a very ornate castellated branch of Barclays bank. I think it was in
Isiolo where there was a bit of an argument going on amongst some locals but for some
reason (maybe I was asleep) I missed it. Chris says that the best way to throw petrol on a
fire in these situations is to call someone a baboon. There aren't many advertising
hoardings in Kenya but many of the shops have skilfully painted adverts on their walls.
One is the infamous Cellar 7 whisky with the tag line 'Licensed to thrill'! We refuel once
more and do a running repair on the Discovery which has split an oil pipe, by using a
jubilee clip. Immediately we are surrounded by traders. There are different things for
sale here, including bracelets made of brass, copper and aluminium which are made by local
blacksmiths through twisting and polishing lengths of wire. Short daggers in red scabbards
also seem to be a speciality. The sky clouds over and soon the rain starts and people take
shelter under the awning of the petrol station. It's weird weather for a region that
should be arid at this time of year. We also ask after the Bedford lorry which should have
passed through the previous day. There had been some damage to the suspension whilst they
were on the road to the Mara and Chris had told them to get it fixed on the way to
Samburu. We haven't seen the lorry so far but they haven't seen them here so assume they
must have made it to camp.
On the outskirts of Isiolo we have to halt at the police checkpoint and register our
departure. The road ahead has been a target for bandits, called shifta, in the past who
ambush vehicles, though things seem OK at present.
Whilst signing in I haggle for some bracelets and come up with a good price for a bulk
purchase. The deal is struck in the nick of time through the window of the Land-Rover as
we move away and the vendor craftily tries to short change me by holding back a bracelet,
but I spot this and make him hand it over. It's a good buy.
We are now travelling on the Pan African highway
and despite being classed as an A road that up to now is pretty good, it rapidly
deteriorates. It abruptly changes into much the worst road we travel on with distinctive
transverse ridges that shake the whole vehicle unless we get up sufficient speed to just
clip the tops. Too fast and we run a danger of running into lurking potholes. We wonder
why the ridges are across the track rather than inline but can't find an explanation. The
rain now starts in earnest with huge pools of water on the road.
Val comments that the Discovery is clean within 10
seconds and then dirty again as the Landrover overtakes and sends a deluge of muddy water
over them. As we pass we wonder whether they had their windows wound up and later discover
that it didn't really matter because their sunroof leaked. Not that much further the rain
stops and within a short distance the ground is once more bone dry.
After 24 miles we turn off the main road beyond
Archers Post and come to the Eastern entrance of the Samburu National Reserve. They're
currently sprucing up the building and it's partly painted in a brown and white
reticulated giraffe scheme. In the covered entrance hangs this rather touching reminder of
the influence of the lioness Elsa as recounted in the book 'Born Free', it's film and sequels.
The big notice board includes in the interesting
rule number 3 'Do not alight or patch on roof'. I think they mean perch. Whilst many
people speak quite good English there are some interesting written signs to be found.
It's not far to our camp but as it's getting
towards dusk we have good possibilities for spotting animals. We see a female cheetah and
her three very young cubs taking milk. The young have the distinctive grey furry mantle
that they will lose over the following months. Elephants are also much in evidence, the
evidence here being the havoc they wreak on the trees down by the river. We also see
reticulated giraffe (reticulated means net like), impala, Grant's gazelle and a local
speciality Grevy's zebra, with their big ears and much narrower set of stripes compared to
the Burchell's zebra we've seen so far.
The Bedford has made it but they've failed to repair it and now have one completely
broken main spring and this will seriously affect it. The camp is wonderful. It's right by
the Ewaso Nyiro river not far from the Samburu Intrepids Club though not within earshot.
There are a lot of variations on the spelling for the river as Swahili isn't a written
language so people make it up as they go along. The meaning though is the red river and it
certainly carries along a lot of the vivid dark red earth from the land it flows through.
During a sundowner after dinner we shine the torches out into the stream. They are
reflected back by the eyes of crocodiles in the river, one very tiny one close to us by
the bank. There are also the green flashes of fireflies moving around over the water's
surface.
Today's driving totalled 225 miles.
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