Peeping though the window at 6.45am, I said a quick goodbye to John and Emily as they left with their bags in hand to get the bus to Kamukuywe.
After breakfast I waited around shortly and then left with Matthew, Emma and the four Dutch students in the same direction towards Dreamland. Along the muddy and very slippery roads I met Tony as he rode along on his bike almost ready for our journey to Kitale. I walked as he ventured along clogging his types with mud and we made our way to the office to get my bag which had my camera that I would definitely need for my day trip to see the animals.
At the office I found my bag locked away in the cyber office but fortunately Robert was not far behind almost reaching the compound to come and unlock. Grabbing my bag and camera and leaving my laptop, Tony and I set off walking to town to catch a Matatu.
The rain had been quite heavy over the past few days and especially the night before so the roads were very muddy and my trousers and trainers were caked in mud from only about half an hours walking so far. Making our way to where the bus stage is, we waited for a Matatu that was going in our direction and that wasn’t completely rammed with passengers. After some time of waiting we had no luck in finding a Matatu that could get us to Kitale comfortably. It was now approaching 11am and after a few more minutes of waiting we were saved by a car driven by someone Tony knew that was heading in the same direction. Jumping into the car paying slightly more for the convenience of using the car (100 shillings rather than 70), I sat in the middle at the back where we drove quite rapidly making our way to Kitale within the hour.
My first task whilst being in Kitale was to get some money from the bank so that I could treat Tony for his company, so we found the Barclays bank and checked in at the hole in the wall. It’s amazing to see the difference between the facilities available in each town. Kitale was much more developed than the town Kimilili was but compared with England it was still very far behind.
Once I had some cash in my pocket we found ourselves a nice reliable café and had a little breakfast before me embarked on our journey to Delta Cresent National Park. This park was famous for its wonderful wild life and I was looking forward to being able to see many types of animals such as Giraffes and Rhino’s.
Walking to find a taxi to take us to the National Park, I found myself feeling like a little child who forgot to use the toilet back at the café. It wasn’t hard to find somewhere to go as Tony spoke to an attendant at a petrol station who kindly gave us a key to the toilets available there. Once I had been we found ourselves a taxi at the much cheaper price of 500 shillings one way to the Park, rather than the 1200 and 1000 shillings we had been quoted from other drivers hanging around.
Making our way to the Park we travelled along a road where we found more holes than if we would have inspected a siv. The pot holes were huge and all filled with water from the rainfall the night before. Once again I felt a little like I was in a rap video, bouncing up and down as the front and back tyres dipped into the uneven surfaces that lay around us. After travelling what was no longer than 15 minutes we found ourselves faced with a road that was at least ten times worse than the poor one we had just come along, infact in the distance we saw a 30 odd seater bus only just making its way out of the mud. What could we do? Well, we had two options. One, we could continue on a lot further down the road with a slim chance of finding another road that was in a better condition and have to pay more, or two, head back to the town and find something else to do for the afternoon. After a little discussion we thought rather than wasting both time and money, our best bet was to head back to town where there was a museum that occupied different smaller animals that we could instead take a look at. On the way back to Kitale Moses, our taxi driver, told us about another place that was slightly similar to the Delta Cresent National Park which also had some animals and amusements that we could visit. Instead of visiting the museum we decided we would head 3km out of Kitale in the opposite direction and visit our second best option.
So 30 minutes later and 700 shillings poorer, we found ourselves at Kitale Nature Conservancy http://www.kitalenature.org/ . It had just begun to rain so we decided to sit down inside the restaurant area until it was dry. After maybe 10 minutes we decided to venture down the slipper steep slanted decking to find out the prices to look round at the animals. We asked the guy who was sat at reception, which was a wooden table underneath a small improvised marquee, where we found there were three different prices depending on what you were. If you were a Kenyan Citizen the entrance fee was 100 shillings, if you were a Resident you paid 500 shillings and if you were a Non-Citizen you had to pay what was 10 USD. The price for Tony was 100 shillings and after some explaining I was admitted as a Resident so both fee’s together came to 600 shillings. The prices were slightly high for anyone who wasn’t typical Kenyan but there was no way I was not going to look round having spending so much time and money so far coming here.
Paying and setting off on our mini adventure with our brochure in hand, the first animal we saw was a small Dear. We were then faced, as we walked further through a gap in the fence, with many deformed and disabled animals. We saw goats with only three legs, ducks with extra legs, a sheep with overly large testicles and the ugliest cow in the world. This cow must have been so depressed with four horns on its head tilted at weird angles with an extra eye on the side of his face. Just to top it all off the cow had a mouth that was overlapping and it really looked as if he had just had one too many rounds with Mike Tyson.
We continued on looking at the various animals that occupied the large scope of land and wandered round until we came across a small lake with a couple of boats for people to ride. One of the boats was already in use, so Tony and I decided to have a go, not forgetting to real the boat rules first. We both carefully climbed into the boat, Tony at the front and I towards the back and we both used the paddles provided to steer the boat to where we wanted it to go. We spent some time chatting and sailing around this small lake, once of twice crashing slowly into the sides. When we had done we tied the boat back in its place and headed back round to take a look at the Emus. There weren’t that many Emus around and with the ground surrounding their fenced in compound, it was hard to get very close. We stood a while waiting to see if they would do anything cool but they didn’t really do much apart from prance around splashing in the mud. Leaving them to continue with their fun, we walked down to the bridge which was unfortunately mostly out of bounds due to the overflowing river.
With no way of getting across the bridge we had to turn back and finish our tour with the Nature Trail and the Model Caves. The Nature Trail was equally as muddy as everywhere else if not worse and only had more Dears for us to see. The caves were well sculptured into rooms for children to play. They were decorated in a typical African style but were very dark with the lack of electricity. There was once particular section to educate children on Global Warming which was again well decorated and laid out.We had spent just over an hour looking round and both mine and Tony’s feet were cake and soaked from the boggy areas along the expedition. Calling Moses, we were soon picked up and in a taxi back into the main part of Kitale to continue our afternoon with whatever else we planned to do. I really wanted to try Pizza but most of the places we asked didn’t seem to be serving them. Eventually after buying credit and calling Matthew to see if he knew anywhere, we settled for Chips and Sausage with some side salad and lots of hot chilli sauce.
Jumping in a Matatu we made our way back home to Kimilili. Once we arrived from our hour journey home, Tony took me to a typical African barber shop where I could have another experience of having my hair cut by a Kenyan. I was a little hesitant at first because I knew if they messed it up that I wouldn’t have much time to grow it back to a decent length, but never the less I sat through it as the barber shaved and styled my sideburns to a point. It was an experience and to say it was the first time the barber had cut a Mzungu’s hair, he did a pretty nice job. Once Tony had also had a nice trim I headed back to the guesthouse and made it there just in time for dinner.
The guys told me about their days as I sat trying to force my food down me, having eating only a couple of hours previously. We spent most of the evening just sitting and talking and soon went to bed after a long and well turned out day.Sunday morning I woke up for breakfast slightly disappointed that we weren’t having sausage haha. We all got ready for church and set off walking to St James. Emma had received a lift from Anne and I saw them, along with the Dutch team on foot, out of the compound and up the muddy track. I was a little behind but soon as I caught up I saw the state that both Marlene and Ilken were left in after Anne had driven past them spraying mud accidentally onto their cream trousers and skirt.
Sitting through a service where Emma was warmly welcomed, I then began to leave with the Dutch to walk back to the guesthouse. Emma was sticking around as she was due to attend another service and just as I was leaving she delivered a message from Anne. Anne regularly lends us her service book and we had left it in the isle so I rushed back to collect it and give it to her. By the time I was ready to leave the others were already quite far ahead so I hung back and got a lift back with Anne in her car. Getting dropped off by the offices, I walked back in what looked like it was going to be a nice sunny day.
Back at the guesthouse the guys who stayed in the main guesthouse building found themselves locked out. I could fortunately get in my room, so I collected my last batch of washing together and began with some washing in the sun. They soon had a key and were outside with me cleaning their dirty clothes too. Washing today was a big social event and there wasn’t many spaces left on the lines once we had all hung out our things. We continued this up to lunch then all sat together in the dining room.
Slouching on the white plastic chairs on the balcony Caspar, Ilken and I played some cards whilst time passed in the afternoon. We decided we would all take a walk into town and maybe grab a bite to eat at Mount Crest and then towards 4pm head over to Kamusinga to watch a weekly football match that took place on the fields there. Mount Crest was very busy upstairs because of the football on TV, so we sat downstairs and ordered some soda and food. Marlene tried a Samosa, Ilken a Mandazi and I went all out and got chips, sausage and once again chilli sauce, I loved it.
Walking back we bumped into Mark, then headed to watch the football for a while. Talking with Tony’s younger brother, Festus, we noticed that the dark rain clouds were heading our way so we decided to, instead of hanging round, move quickly back to the guesthouse. We did manage to avoid the rain and got back very quickly and not long after our return we all together again with Emma coming back from her long day of services.
No power in the evening meant we were sat in the dark for dinner. We also continued over in the guesthouse sat around talking about various things in our lives. It was nice sat again in the candle light, but towards 9pm we were reunited with power. With nothing on television after numerous times of flicking through all six channels, we decided to go to bed with many of us tired from the lazy days.
4 days left x Stay tuned for maybe a few updates over the next few days. x
No comments:
Post a Comment