Lake Nakuru and Lake Naivasha

Serendipitously, we had a four day weekend (because of Easter) so I got an early and unexpected chance to travel - and go on my first safari!
The sign above says "Danger - wild animals crossing at night - slowly, slowly"... more on that later.

The traveling itself was a huge adventure. Roads in Kenya are not like those in the US. Though we were on "paved" roads, for large stretches the roads are not exactly maintained - there are potholes the size of a Civic. Also there will be intermittent road construction (marked not by bright orange signs but by a large pile of dirt in the middle of the highway) at which point the bus takes off onto an often smoother but incredibly dusty dirt road on the side. Though the norm is to drive on the left hand side of the road, that is apparently just a guideline - we passed people on both sides, often driving for long stretches on the shoulder or on the right. On the way out I rode in a real bus - which was a bit alarming at times when we were driving half off the road and tilting at a 45 degree angle! I learned on the return trip however that the advantage of the bus is that there is no danger of smashing your head against the roof when you go over potholes and you don't lose all sensation in your legs. On the way back I rode a matatu - 15 people packed into something slightly larger than a minivan - for four hours over very bumpy roads. To the right is a picture from the inside back row. I was glad to discover I could still walk at the end.

On the plus side traveling by bus is a great way to see the country and how it changes. We started in the hotter but lusher fields in Kisumu, moved up into the cooler mountains of the tea country, Kericho, where the vivid green tea bushes stood out against the red dirt roads, then back down into the drier plains of the Rift valley. Throughout we passed through tiny towns most of which are grindingly poor but enlivened by brightly painted walls (all advertising of course) and roadside markets (see right). Everytime the matatu stops, crowds of people come to the windows selling food ("sosej"'s (aka sausages) and yogurt in a carton are particularly popular) and anything else you can think of from men's underwear to purses to cell phone covers



In Nakuru, I met up with one of the pediatrics residents from UCSF who is working in a different town. It was nice not to be the only Mzungu for a bit. Lake Nakuru is a small but densely populated game park which is best known for its "flock" (?) of half a million flamingos (a small portion shown at right - or the pink splotches all around the edge of the lake behind me on the left). Not only an impressive sight but also an amazing sound - its a kind of humming, whirring, rustling noise that at first you hardly notice and then you can't believe you didn't because it is so loud. But the flamingos were just one part of it. The following is a list of what we saw: impala, zebra, cape buffalo, redbeest (type of antelope), hornbill stork, waterbuck, eland antelope, dikdik (apparently very hard to spot - a tiny little antelope), hyrax, giraffe, lizards, baboons, white rino, ostrich, warthogs (my favorite), egrets, mantal eagles, velvet monkeys, fish eagle, golden pippit , lots of other little birds, and a LION - just hanging out in a tree by the side of the road. All in all a pretty amazing experience - esepcially because we were only about half an hour outside the town - it was kind of like the "Disneyland" of game parks.

Next I headed over to Lake Naviasha. I rented a mountain bike to go riding around the lake which is dotted intermittently with private game reserves, including the estate of Joy Adamson (hence the sign at the beginning about animals crossing the road). It turns out the animals don't only cross at night - I started a small zebra stampede when I went through ( I was only fast enough to catch the last one running across the road to the left), also saw some antelope, giraffe, and my friend the warthog. Shortly after scaring the zebra, my cell phone started ringing - and it was my sister Katherine and mom! Very weird experience to talk to your family from the side of the road in Africa with zebra running by - but great :)

That evening I went out on boat safari to visit the hippos. They are big and ugly and luckily didn't do much when we saw them. Apparently, though, they sometimes stir up a lot of trouble in the campsites and there is electrified "hippo wire" at the base of the hotel/camp area where I was staying. I ended the evening sharing some Tusker beer (Kenya's national beer - it tastes like Coors and they think its the best thing ever?!?) with some Kenyans at the poolside bar at my hotel.

all in all not a bad weekend!