An Adventure in Africa

12 September

Survived the night again – ellies left us in peace and we’re now on our way to Nairobi. It’s sad to see how parched the land has become.  For the last two years the rains have been poor to non-existent.

The roads are pretty good and within a few hours we’re in the metropolis.  We’re staying with our dear friend Miche of Shimba Hills fame (Blog 5 July 06).  She’s been living in Nairobi for the last year or so and it’s wonderful to be with her and her family again.

Once more Miche has designed the interior of this house beautifully. It’s hard to believe that just eight weeks ago it was virtually a shell.

One of the windows looks across the Ngong Hills where Baroness ‘Out of Africa’ Blixen had her coffee farm. In fact this area is called Karen in her honour.

13 September

I did sleep well last night.  No lion, no elephant – just a forest hyrax with a call reminiscent of a woman being strangled (Agy’s description). Thinking about it, I seem to remember hearing that the hyrax is genetically the closest relation to elephants so maybe we’re not so far from them after all.

We’re going over to Karen Blixen’s House this morning. It has been turned into a museum and is quite charming. As soon as we arrive outside the door I can imagine her sitting on her porch waiting for her lover, Dennis Finch Hatton, to walk along the lawn to greet her. I can hear her saying, in a voice with an amazing resemblance to Meryl Streep ‘I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills’.

Following a romantic morning, what better than lunch in an Italian restaurant. We meet up with Mich at l’Osteria. Quite mellow, sitting outside enjoying seafood risotto and bresaola, washed down with ice cold white wine.

14 September

Pottering around today.  Pay a visit to the Karen Blixen Coffee gardens.  In the grounds you can find the house of Ewart Groghan, an Irish pioneer who, to prove his love for Gertrude walked all the way from Cairo to Cape Town before settling in Kenya (mad or what). He did many good things for this country, including building a sea port in Mombasa.

Now trying to find the memorial to Dennis FH in the Ngong Hills but so far have only found the men from the electricity board. We’ve borrowed Mich’s car as ours is in the garage for a modification to the suspension. Roads are pretty bad up here so we’ll leave old Dennis in peace and return to Karen.

15 September

So, we’ve picked up the beast with his super-duper new suspension.  Agy’s now stopped cringing each time we encounter a bump.  Nipping over to Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) headquarters to buy a smart card for our next safari expedition.  By doing this, we pay in advance and can enter the parks via any gate.

Business over and done with.  Time for a walk down memory lane.  We’re meeting up with a former colleague who recently transferred from Addis to Nairobi.  As the Panafric Hotel is very close to her new office we decide to eat here.  This is the first place we ever stayed whilst on honeymoon all those years ago when we were sweet 16 (yeah, right). They’ve built a very pleasant restaurant here but entering the lobby is like stepping back in time 18 years and we’re newly-weds once more.

Enough reminiscing, here’s our friend Valentina.  It’s wonderful to see her as we’re missing her a lot in Addis.  She tells us that apart from the Nairobi traffic, life’s very good here.

Now it’s Agy’s turn to meet a friend so we’re in Wilson airport to and have a look around his hangar – it’s very interesting and there a even a couple of helicopters in for maintenance.

We’ve bought our supplies for tomorrow, picked up pizzas for the troops and are now back at Miche’s place.  No electricity today. It’s the same in Addis. No rain means no power but again it’s all very romantic.  We enjoy pizza by candlelight and Miche’s eldest boy Tom entertains us with his guitar playing and singing before we turn in. He really is very good.

16 September

We’re going to Amboselli; We’re going to Amboselli’ (sung to tune of the conga) ‘la, la, la, la … la, la, la, la’.  Leaving Nairobi at 8.30, we enter the park at 1 pm. The road has drastically improved since our last visit - again it’s been 18 years and have to confess to not remembering too much about it apart from the fact that Agy found a snake in the bath.

We’ve heard that due to this awful drought many animals are dying and sadly this seems to be the case.

We made the right decision. This is amazing.  If you’re thinking of a first safari I would recommend Amboselli Park.  It’s one of the oldest in East Africa and deep in Maasai territory, being home to several clans and has everything: a variety of game, views to die for and varying terrain. Oh look, a family of hyena playing in the water over there – never seen that before …. and to close, a lion, perfect.

We made the right decision. This is amazing.  If you’re thinking of a first safari I would recommend Amboselli Park.  It’s one of the oldest in East Africa and deep in Maasai territory, being home to several clans and has everything: a variety of game, views to die for and varying terrain. Oh look, a family of hyena playing in the water over there – never seen that before …. and to close, a lion, perfect.

Returning to the Nairobi-Mombasa highway, destination Tsavo East.  Looking forward to returning to one of our favourite haunts. Past Voi town and looking for the gate.

Agy just mentioned that it seems a long way. ‘No dear, you drive and I navigate, that’s what we both do best’. Oh oh, just had a horrible thought. Seem to recall that Voi Gate is somewhere in Voi town. Clue is in the name, derr. Confession time. I eat a rather large slice of humble pie as Agy turns around the way we came. Only took us about 30 km out of the way, woops.

FINALLY arrive in Tsavo East and it seems to be a bit greener now we’re further south.  We make it to Ndololo camp – always great to be here.  Philip, our maasai guard, entertains us with stories about elephant and his culture. Did you know that elephant eat for 20 hours a day and that Philip has four wives? Agy prised that out of him after a few Tuskers.

18 September

6 am and sun just up.

Not often you see a sunrise with us two. Just for once we’re doing a game drive before breakfast. We bimble over to our favourite spot in the world Kanderi (place of vulture) swamp. All quiet on the western front this morning so we enjoy a cup of coffee with the elephant.

Heading for Aruba Dam and we encounter a tour bus going our way. ‘Follow me’ mouths the driver. This sounds exciting – oh and it is. A leopard sleeping in the tree.  Our first sighting of one of those in Tsavo East.

This leopard seems to have company …

A pair of jackal.

Following breakfast, before we start our journey to the north of the Park, we have to go into Voi to check the shocks on the brick, sorry the beast.

We’re just outside Voi Gate at a garage called ‘Home Boys’. Straight away the workshop owner identifies the problem ‘Your rear shock has gone’ ‘No’ says Agy ‘the front one’ ‘the rear one as well. See for yourself’.  Sure enough they’ve both gone. After having travelled along what is reputed to be the worst road in Africa, it’s hardly surprising. Expert as I am at mechanics, I sit in the car, read the paper and survey the world from an elevated position on the ramp, like Lady Muck.  Something I do notice is a girl in overalls learning the trade. Actually, there are several youngsters gathered around the owner. ‘Find out what’s going on’ I command Agy.  This is really impressive.  This guy brings in youngsters from different villages, many of them remote, and teaches them basic mechanics for a couple of weeks free of charge.  This is brilliant.