Katie's in Africa: Beware of elephants when driving in Kenya

We had been warned the journey through southern Ethiopia and northern Kenya would be the hardest of the whole trip because the roads weren’t tarred and there weren’t many places with amenities, and it was a tough week.

Our first two days in Kenya were spent driving for about 10 hours each day and only covering 250km each time. Our first evening in Kenya was spent camping in the police station grounds, because they said there were bandits along the road that may cause us problems if we’d continued that evening. Our second night was spent at a place called Henry’s Campsite in Marsabit, which did have running water and toilets but not much else.

On the third day we were back on bitumen, which was more exciting than any of you will believe. We also began to see animals, which helped make the drive more interesting. Just outside of Marsabit we came across two giraffes and shortly after about four elephants just walking along the side of the highway. It’s very funny to see road signs warning of elephants like they do of kangaroos at home.

We spent two nights at Samburu – a reserve in northern Kenya where you can self-drive. Reserves are different to national parks – the local people can still live on reserves and there are no fences keeping the animals in (or people out), unlike the national parks. Our first game drive was very rewarding as we saw elephants, giraffes, zebras, various types of antelope and gazelle, warthogs and monkeys with bright blue balls. We also saw two female lions lazing by the river, and then another one near where we had set up our lunch table. This was somewhat concerning as we had scared off the warthogs she had been stalking, and after 20 minutes those assigned to keeping an eye on the lion lost sight of it.

Our campsite in Samburu was on a large piece of land that also contained a womens’ refuge. The refuge was a campsite itself really, with about 10 huts and a fence around it. To make money the women, who wear traditional tribal clothing, sing and dance for tourists and offer tours around their site. Our guide was one the women who lived there. She is 17 and was raped when she was 12 and fell pregnant. She had no mother and her father abandoned her. She went to the refuge and has continued to learn English at vocational school so she can run tours, while raising her 5-year-old daughter. The women all share their meager incomes and food, and look after each other’s children. They also make beaded jewellery and knick-knacks to sell to tourists. Unfortunately most of the women there are young – aged in their 20s – and the men in the town do little to help them. I suspect they are also a target for assaults but Jude would not elaborate. These women are so vulnerable but have managed to save their money to build a barn to keep animals and a room that is used as a school for the younger children. Through USAID, the children who go to school receive lunch, so building a school is one way of keeping everyone fed.

From Samburu we continued south to Lake Nakuru, where Sean met us. As the inclusion of Samburu in the itinerary was new, we weren’t sure how long it was going to take to get to Nakuru but the estimate was six hours. About an hour into our drive we began losing power and upon inspection it was found the engine was suffering due to dirty diesel. It took about an hour to sort out, then after lunch we hit some terrible roads and could only do about 18km per hour. I had no way of contacting Sean to let him know we’d be late – he had arrived at the campsite midmorning after being picked up from Nairobi airport.

By late afternoon after crossing the equator six or seven times (the novelty wore off after the third time) we reached the township and stopped for a quick stock up, though some of the group were over half an hour late, at which point I’d have gladly left them there. Driving out to the campsite it began pouring and our windscreen wipers weren’t functioning so Rogan and Alison had to rig up their rope to manually move the wipers. It had become dark by now and it was pelting down. When we finally reached the turn off to the campsite, Rogan suddenly pulled over and announced we had a flat tyre that needed to be changed. Apparently he’d driven about 5km on it already and it was now at the metal bit. I was just about at my wits end and with only 1km to go some of us got out and began walking up the muddy road. When we finally arrived Sean was where I’d thought he’d be - in the bar – and was quite surprised to see 10 exhausted travellers walking in with no truck. Thankfully he had booked a lovely cottage for the 2 nights we were there and Alison had arranged for a cooked meal by the campsite so we all had a bit of luxury that night.

At Nakuru we came across other overland tour groups for the first time. It seems strange as we’ve been on the road for 7 weeks now and only seen a few others who were all travelling in pairs in four-wheel drives. Apparently from here on in we’ll see a lot more trucks and big groups, as this is the more common tourist trail.

The following day we had an early start to go for a game drive in minivans around Lake Nakuru – a national park. This is where millions of pink flamingoes hang out and while most were elsewhere there were still thousands of them, along with hundreds of pink-tinged pelicans (the pink is from the alkaline water – by eating the fish from the lake the flamingoes and pelicans are essentially poisoning themselves and their feathers turn the pink colour). We also saw more giraffe, rhinos, zebras, gazelle, warthogs and vultures. Around mid morning we were incredibly lucky to come across six lions hanging out on the road less than one meter from our van and spent quite awhile just watching them, watching us. Shortly after we stopped for morning tea in an area full of baboons, and although we’d shut the windows and closed the roof, when I went to get out of the van a big baboon shoved past me and grabbed a bag of bananas I had on the floor under a seat. It was so fast by the time we’d registered what had happened he had taken them from the plastic bag and carefully peeling them, all the while looking over as if to say ‘you snooze you lose, lady’.

We left Nakuru the following day and headed north en route to Uganda, stopping for a night at a lovely campsite in Eldoret, where electricity and hot water are always available and Smirnoff Ice drinks are $1 in an enormous underground bar.