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“Leopards and rhinos and giraffes - oh my...............” |
Jambo, Karibu,
We are on safari – the word safari means journey. I am sitting in Treetops on the second floor typing this with an elephant standing at the waterhole which is right outside the window and Nairobi Eyes (fireflies) darting to and fro.
So, to back up. We left the hostel this morning early and headed out to Abedere National Park. Our first stop was at an African curio shop for a coffee break (this is Kenya’s version of the “factory store”) and then on to Nyeri and Outspanfor lunch. (John says: The Outspan is a hotel which manages Treetops) Driving through Nyeri I saw a Scout shop and we stopped and I handed over a Troop 2 patch and received a Kenya Girl Guides patch in return. (John says: This wasn’t quite as easy as it sounds. We did manage to get a parking space outside the shop, but now we had to open up the suitcases to find the badges. It was sheer luck that I picked the right one to open first. I also convinced Lynne to buy a T-shirt which will be much more of a souvenir for her than the Kenya Girl Guides patch) I didn’t realize but Baden Powell is buried in Nyeri and he lived at Outspan for the latter years of his life.
When we got to Outspan I wanted to go and see Paxtu which was Baden-Powell’s cottage. Its 200 schillings unless you can prove you are a girl scout (which I could)and then it is free. (John says: Lynne just told the custodian “I am a girl scout leader and I’m traveling around the world and visiting Girl scouts in each country and we’ve seen them in Japan and China and Singapore and I have letters from Girls Scouts USA if you want” I’m sure it came out just that fast, the poor guy just crumbled before this onslaught and agreed to open the room up for Lynne with no payment) They opened up the room for me to see. It was filled with Girl Scout badges from all over the world dating back a long way. I gave my last Troop 2 patch to Paxtu and it is in the glass case with all the others – I have to say, I never thought I would be there. Outside his cottage is a fleur de lys stone birdbath and a small garden in the shape of the trefoil, but an old fashioned style, this one had a bottom to the trefoil.
We then went into a buffet lunch which was served almost on the lawn; it was actually very “British”. We had to take out one night’s belongings from our suitcases, because Treetops doesn’t have wardrobes or elevators. The rest of our things were put in a closet at Outspan for us to pick up tomorrow. Then off for a game drive.
Africa Home Adventures (our hostel tour company) had arranged for us to have our own personal game drive, and it was just as well. Our driver Alex took us straight from the Outspan restaurant, into the Park and off on a 3 hour game drive. Okay, here’s the weird part, not only did we see elephants (they’re brown in Kenya as opposed to grey in Thailand), and warthogs, eland, bongo, water buffalo, a hyena and various antelope, but we saw a rabbit. Yep, a regular grey bunny rabbit. Both John and I looked at each other as if to say – it wasn’t, was it? (John says: The laws of nature have not changed in Kenya. The elephants are still grey, it’s just that the rich soil of Kenya is very red in color and the elephants are covered in this dust which gives them a red caste)
The Park is very lush, every shade of green you can imagine. They have had rain, so the watering holes are full, which is where we saw the warthogs. The terrain is hilly and covered in bushes and shrubs with occasional tall trees dripping with parasitic yellow and red ferns breaking the skyline. But green, it is so green. Along the side of the trails are high shrubs, almost like hedges broken up with small clearings and what look like cave openings into a deeper wood. Then, we would pass large grassy areas with more warthogs, or buffalo. This was not the “bush” I was expecting. This was more like the New Forest, or Yosemite without the mountains, or where my friend Maggie lives in Rathdowney, Australia, without so many Eucalyptus trees and kangaroos. I have to say, in my ignorance, I expected the African plains with hundreds of giraffe racing across the desert – not this beautiful vegetation. (John says: The Abedere National Park is in the central highlands which extend north from Nairobi. We were at an altitude of 6400 feet; this made it much cooler and greener. At times I felt, as Lynne did, that we could have been in a forest in England which made it so funny to see a Hyena trot across the road)
Its now 7pm and there seem to be hundreds of what look like dragon flies but are some sort of bug with two sets of wings outside the windows – all attracted to the lights I guess. They look like they are performing some sort of special dance just for me.
Then off to dinner. We had expected dinner to be some sort of “affair” as this place was far from cheap – it wasn’t. We sat family style on long benches with everyone together. The food was very mediocre, not quite cafeteria quality, but not much better. The menu looked a lot better than the actual food. No matter. We sat across from Dave and Diane who were from Australia (and Colorado) and were celebrating their third wedding anniversary. They were in Africa for 18 days or so and had already been in Kenya 5 days and seen a lioness kill the previous evening. They were also our source for upgrading our room – this is beginning to sound like a broken record. Our room was two single beds and a shared bathroom and shower with the rest of the floor. They (Diane and Dave) had the Princess Elizabeth suite next door which had a double bed AND an ensuite bathroom with shower. They mentioned that there was another suite under theirs. We asked, and then moved down there. The beauty of this room (hardly a suite) was not only the bathroom but the balcony and we were on the first floor, so when we stepped outside we were right above the animals. (John says: I had heard of Treetops many years ago and knew that this was where Queen Elizabeth II had found out that her father had died and that she was now Queen, hence the Princess Elizabeth suite. Unfortunately, I think that Treetops has settled back and is now resting on their laurels thinking that this is enough of a claim to fame. It’s not. I do understand that the building is over 50 years old and since there is a tree growing through it, it would be difficult to upgrade the facilities to give each room an ensuite bathroom for example. However, I have found that what elevates some restaurants or hotels over others are the little things. For example, The Ark provided hot water bottles to warm the beds. Treetops felt very much like a “get ’em in, get ‘em out, time is money” type of place. Dinner was very rushed with almost no time to look at the menu before the waiter was impatiently demanding, and I do mean demanding, our choices. If you bought a drink at the bar the bill was thrust under your nose to be paid immediately, I insisted on running a tab to be paid later. I was told that I had to pay tonight as we would be leaving early the next day, obviously too early for them to get up to take my money. I won’t go back nor would I recommend it)
Most of the safari (and the reason for being at Treetops) happens at night. The animals come down to drink at the watering holes which are on both sides of this wooden building. The ground floor is completely open, so we can go down and watch the animals. The rooms are on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors and then you can also go up on to the roof (they give you a blanket because it’s cold) and watch from there. When you go to bed, there is a special switch you turn on telling the staff you want to know when animals are coming. If a hyena comes, they will buzz your room once, buffalo twice, rhino three times and elephants four times. If we hear the buzzer, my guess is we’ll just sit up and look out of the window, as we face one of the watering holes. We’ll see.
So the first time the buzzer went off we’d been in bed maybe an hour – three times, a rhino! So we (actually John) threw on some clothes and ran outside. The rhino must have also heard the buzzer because he ran away. The next buzzer we just got up and looked out of our balcony – a hyena on the far side of the waterhole so you could barely see it, at that point we turned the bloody thing off and went to sleep. I did get up during the night and checked outside. There was a herd of elephants right outside our room. Three babies, one so tiny it could fit right underneath its mother.
Awake again at 5:30 am to watch the sunrise and then tea and coffee before heading back to Outspan for a buffet breakfast. We said goodbye to Diane and Dave here, they were off in a different direction.
John spoke with Alex, our trusty driver, and ascertained our plan of action for today. Not much this morning and then off to lunch at the Abedere Country Club. Okay then. Can we go and see the Baden-Powell’s gravesite? Sure – so off we trot to the Founder of Scouting’s (and his wife’s) final resting place. They are building a memorial at the entrance to the site. A torch left the grave site in Nyeri on February 22 (Lord and Lady Baden-Powell’s shared birthday) to travel around the world. It is due back to Nyeri in August sometime when there will be a week long 100-year celebration with the opening of the new building. I left an Alameda flag there also, with promises to send a Troop 2 patch when I return (we have run out).
After that we headed to Nyeri town for a quick purchase of books (this causing a small traffic accident behind us as two cars ploughed into a third when our driver suddenly pulled hard left into a space in front of the book shop) and then we nonchalantly drove away and on to the Country Club. (John says: Did we cause the accident? Morally - Absolutely! Legally - No. The guy behind us was much too close as were the two cars behind him, hence the three-car accident. When we came out of the bookshop they were still all standing around the three cars. I think they were trying to figure out a way to shift the blame to us but legally we were in the clear and they knew it! Nonchalantly drove away? Alex exited the area with unseemly haste! If he’d had a tail, it would have been firmly tucked between his legs! So we just planned to arrive at the country club….right)
As we approached the entrance of the Country Club, lo and behold - Giraffes! Actually, not just giraffes, but zebra and gazelles and of course the ever popular, warthogs.
It was very hot, and we were very early, so we sat in the gardens (imagine rolling green lawns with colorful flowers looking over Kenya) and read our books, well John read and I typed! (John says: This brought back all sorts of memories for me. The last time I had sat here was over 25 years ago in 1981. It was much later in the year then and I seem to remember it looking much browner, also you could see down the valley. Now the trees were much higher and blocked some of the view. At that time it had been a treat to come down to the club for lunch with the “Tourists” instead of working at the Ark. I had to put on “Nice clothes” and shed the creosote covered work clothes and felt quite elegant at the time. I have to say 25 years later it still felt very relaxing to sit here and have lunch) After lunch (and the now common practice of picking what we needed overnight and leaving the rest of our luggage) we headed out for another game drive. More warthogs, elephants, gazelles – you know the usual. We were actually getting quite blasé about it all. As we headed up to the Ark (our home for the evening) John suddenly yelled “leopard”. It was sitting quietly by the side of the track under a tree, well camouflaged actually. Alex backed up the car and we began taking photos. The leopard looked at us as if to say, “can’t anyone just sit around and be left alone?” and slowly got up turned around and calmly walked into the bush. John just kept clicking the camera and got some great shots. (John says: I had made sure that I checked behind us as we drove down the roads in the park, so many of the gaps through the trees could only be seen once we had passed them, this was how I spotted the Leopard. It was just lying under a tree right beside the road)
When we arrived at the Ark, only one other couple had seen a leopard – we were, in fact, quite lucky.
Wow – what a difference from Treetops. The Ark was opened in 1970 and in 1981 John was assigned, under Operation Drake, to build a catwalk for tourists to use as the entrance to the Ark. It is still there, and Joseph, the Naturalist at the Ark, was thrilled to bits to hear John’s stories. (John says: It was amazing to see the bridge again. Again, it brought back many memories of the time and people who had been here all those years ago. I wonder how many of them have managed to get back to see it once again. The Ark had itself has changed a great deal since I was last here. The only things that still seem to be the same are the pillbox and the Rhino head over the fireplace.) Once we had settled into our room – which had a sprig of bougainvillea on the bed with a welcome note and its own bathroom with guest robes – we headed back downstairs. The Ark has a stone pillbox for you to be able to get up close and personal with the animals. There is no watering hole per se its more of a salt lick. They actually sprinkle salt every night to make sure there is enough for the animals. At 6:30 pm Kenya time (which was closer to 7) Joseph gave a talk on the kinds of animals we could expect to see and all about the Abedere National Park which is 767 square kilometers. He told us of the lions that were introduced many years ago and had had increased in number very quickly because of the presence of an available food supply. This meant that the small animal population (gazelles, zebra, etc.) was being rapidly reduced. Now there was a new problem. What to do about all the lions. So slowly over the years, they have moved the lions to another park and the small animal population is beginning to recover.
After Joseph’s talk, dinner was served – it was excellent. A far cry from Treetops. We were very happy. Then a quick look outside to see what was there and off to bed. At about 3 am the buzzer went off (the Ark had a different buzzing system) – a rhino. John got dressed and I threw on a robe and wandered out to the glassed in viewing room. There it was, just standing there – a black rhino. Unfortunately, our camera doesn’t take good night pictures, so you’ll have to trust us on this one, mental pictures only.
Up next morning for breakfast at the Ark and then back to the Abedere Country Club to pick up our luggage and off to Lake Nakuru and another game drive. We were told to go to the falls in Abedere National Park, unfortunately you need a four wheel drive car, and we didn’t have that. Alex said we would go to Thompson Falls which is a big Fall (90 feet) instead. (John says: On the way we crossed the equator, actually we seemed to cross it twice! We saw the sign and stopped to take a picture. Of course there was a curio shop and they wanted to show us the “Water” trick. I was somewhat familiar with this. I knew that because of the earth’s rotation, water goes down any hole, plug, toilet in a circular motion, clockwise in the northern hemisphere and anti-clockwise in the southern hemisphere. Alex said we shouldn’t stay here and after our pictures we drove on. Lo and behold, 500 yards later there was another sign saying we were crossing the equator and there was a much bigger curio shop here and everyone seemed to know Alex...Hmmm, can you smell a setup? Here we let them demonstrate the “Water” trick. As I said I did know about it and told Lynne who accused me of making it up! As if I would do something like that….OK, I would…but this time it was true! What I didn’t know was just how obvious it was 15 feet either side of the equator. They demonstrated with a matchstick floating in a bowl of water with a hole in it, how it rotated clockwise on one side of the equator and anti-clockwise in the other. We purchased our “Certificates” for a mere 300 Schillings each and were on our way again. As we left we wondered how the water trick would work at both sites, which one was really the equator? Hmm…setup? Oh well, the phenomenon is true and it was well demonstrated)
Travelers note: If any of you find yourself in Kenya doing a safari in Abedere National Park – don’t bother with Treetops. It is not worth the money, the service is sloppy and the staff is not in the least bit passionate. Stay at the Ark for two days and do the game drives from there – you will be much happier. Oh, and don’t bother with Thompson Falls, make sure you get a 4 x 4 and got to the top of the Park instead.
We were now headed for Lake Nakuru National Park. As we were waiting in Matatu for Alex to get his pass to enter, a monkey jumped into the van and sat on the horn. Alex had left the window open and we had packed lunches in the front seat. It was hysterical. The monkey had no idea where the noise was coming from and we just jumped out of the van and opened the doors to try and “shoo” it out. It did eventually jump out. We closed all the doors, and rolled Alex’s window up while we got out to take photos, but we hadn’t rolled it up enough and the blasted thing got back in again. Now we are giggling and chasing the monkey – I’m not really sure which of us looked more like monkeys at this point.
Lake Nakuru should be called Flamingo Lake. There are literally thousands of them. White and Pink. They are attracted here by the specific algae found in the Lake. As we approached, the lake looked like it was covered with pink flowers and then the closer we got the flamingos themselves standing on one leg, looked like they were just growing out of the water. This park had different animals – Alex said we were sure to see a lion or two (we didn’t) but they did have loads of giraffes and white rhinos and ostriches and baboons running around. We stayed at Lake Nakuru lodge, in the very last room on the site. It was by the electric fence at the far side of the campus, very quiet and very close to the animals. So close in fact, that the Lodge had erected a huge fluorescent light right outside our room to keep the animals away (or at least highlight them if they came too close). No buzzers in this lodge, so we actually got our first full nights sleep. (John says: The room really was just about as far as you could walk from the lobby. It really was a good 5 minute walk!) We were so tired, we slept through dinner and the housekeeping guys came round to make sure we were okay!
At 6:30 a.m. next morning, all 17 safari vans (they seemed like a species all of their own) headed out for a game drive. This was more like the safari I had expected. Much flatter, not quite so green with large open areas. Alex seemed to be on a mission to find us lions. His radio told him that someone had spotted a leopard, so we headed over to find the leopard just finishing up the rest of his morning breakfast of fresh monkey. Sounds harsh, but, after all, this is the survival of the fittest, not a zoo in Oakland.
Then back to the Lodge for breakfast and checkout. The drive back to Nairobi was about 3 hours, with the requisite stop at a curio shop. The road, well, parts of it were road, and the other parts were more like potholes held together with pieces of tarmac. (John says: Why do they call them potholes? Are they supposed to be the size of pots? If that’s the case these were refrigerator holes and that was just the small ones, I don’t know what to call the big ones!) For those women who are reading this – this was the day I chose not to wear a bra, and so I sat with my arms folded for “support” most of the journey back. (John says: I wasn’t supposed to laugh, but it was funny as I watched Lynne trying to read with her book in one hand and trying to stop the bouncing with the other. I offered to help but I can’t begin to describe the look that got me!) We did stop on the way back to Nairobi and book a hotel for the next few nights because we just couldn’t face the hostel, so we gave in and booked the Hilton. For the rest of our adventure in Kenya, see the bottom half of the Nairobi entry.
Kwaheri
previous travel blog entry
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