It was an early morning start with Anne and I getting up
at 6am. Already we are working like a well-oiled
machine and I had had my shower last night and Anne was to have hers this
morning and we were all packed, dressed and at breakfast at 6.30am. Since I had been on the trucks before and
there were only 12 of us, I said to Anne that it would be best if we got to the
truck when it opened at 7am to get the good seats, well what I think are good
seats, the pick of the lockers and to also to just get in first and avoid the
first day chaos of getting people and bags on and off the truck for the first
time. There were 3 trucks all leaving
this morning and it was super cool to see them all lined up after we had finished
breakfast and headed down to the carpark.
We knew our drivers name was Alex and when we asked which was our truck
we were directed to the last one and she looked a beauty! I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face and
Anne was quite amused of my enthusiasm!!!
We were the first of our group to arrive and were able to pick our
seats, settled for the middle seats and I always like to be on the curb side of
any overland, and we got easy accessible lockers that weren’t too high or too
low. This really wasn’t a concern as the
truck was only half full and I don’t think I will be in and out of my locker
much for the week as I have a smaller bag with 3-5 days’ worth of clothes in it
so that I don’t have to keep taking the monster on and off all the time and
fighting for locket space with 11 other people.
Yes having done this gig before I was a little more clued in than the
others, which after a few days everyone will have their own groove as they
settle into overland life.
We met our driver Alex and also our cook for the week
Sue. I had to do a second take as Sue
looked like the first cook I had on my 2 week overland trip to Uganda and
Rwanda and it didn’t help when she came on for her introduction that she said “I
know you’! It came out later in the day
that Sue is friends with GG and when I had done my check-in on Facebook at the
Kivi, I had tagged my ‘original African crew in the post and she had seen GG’s
name come up. After meeting Sue I didn’t
think it was Liz, but I did get a bit thrown when she said she knew me! It was also pretty cool at the same
time. We were all locked and loaded
right on time and at 7.30am on the dot we pulled out of the carpark to embark
on our 6 days of camping, wildlife and memories of a life time awaits. The weather had not improved and it was a
cold and foggy morning making me wonder if I had bought enough warm clothes for
the trip, and I live here!
The beauty of doing a shorter trip is that the travel
days are not as long and there are more frequent stops at things to see, rather
than just toilet break stops before heading off again. Before we left town, we stopped off at Nakumatt
(supermarket) for people to buy snacks and anything else that they may have forgotten. Our 2 South African gals had different trip
notes to us and they didn’t know that they had to bring sleeping bags and
Nicola just didn’t read the notes correctly and also didn’t have a sleeping
bag, so they were able to get these at this stop and some people bought some
regular pillows, some extra blankets and most of us also bought some pens,
pencils, exercise books and some toys for our orphanage stop later in the
morning to donate. It also gave people
the opportunity to stock up on some cash from the ATM’s and to visit the
pharmacy. Dan had mentioned if you didn’t
have malaria tablets that they should be purchased here as well. I totally didn’t think about malaria tablets
for this week away. I have 3 months’
worth of tablets sitting at home ready for my West Africa trip not even
thinking I would need them for this trip, but now that I think about it, it
makes sense that I probably should have taken them leaving the altitude of the
city and heading down the plains. I went
in with Nicola to see how much they were and for the week away she needed 2
boxes and they were 2500KSH (31AUD) a box and that was for the Doxycycline, it wasn’t
even for the expensive malarone, so I decided to just try my luck and hope that
I didn’t get bitten by a mosquito. Anne
and I figured that by the time I do get bitten, it could take days for me to
get sick and then I will be back in Nairobi and I can just get the shots to get
better. It sounded good to me; even if
it does sound like I am trying to convince myself and thinking saving 50AUD
will be worth it if I do contract malaria!
Go figure!
We were back on the road at 8.40am and as we were pulling
out of the city Dan told us of the safe that was on the truck if any of us
wanted to put things in there and that he needed someone to be the keeper of
the safe key for the week. I looked
around and no one was forth coming, so I said that I would take the key and as we
were driving out I asked if anyone wanted to put anything in there, and with
everyone’s documents in my hands we locked them up safe and sound in the
safe. One thing I learned from the other
trip was that we didn’t call it a safe because you just never know who is
listening and we called it the ‘PUB’ and I took this piece of advice and
started calling this one the PUB which everyone was happy with. It was nice to be able to lock up my passport
for the week. Normally passports are an
important document to any traveller, but mine is worth its weight in gold at
the moment with all the visas I have had
to obtain in preparation for West Africa and it would be a MASSIVE disaster if
I lost it now at this point before my trip.
Actually it would be a very big mess indeed and I’m not really sure what
I would do if I lost it now, besides the cost and the 2 visas I had to get done
in London-yes it would truly be devastating.
Our second stop of the morning was at the orphanage at
9.45am. It was a little tough going
after we had turned off the main highway, as it had recently rained and the
track was a little muddy and we thought that for a moment that we would have to
walk part of the way, but Alex’s driving skills in conjunction with some of the
local lads placing some stones in the deeper puddle we made it through the
gates and into the orphanage compound. It
was a different orphanage from the one we had visited 2 years previously and it
was called New Hope Children’s Centre.
The orphanage is home to over 130 children and New Hope Children's
Centre is dedicated to lifting orphans out of poverty and ignorance, and giving
them the help they need to find a better future ... or perhaps more simply
said, to find HOPE. The Home is situated
at Githuya Area, Uplands (about 42Km from Nairobi) along the Nairobi-Nakuru
Highway – near the View-Point of the Escarpment overlooking the Great Rift Valley
and is a registered charitable Children's Home dedicated to lifting orphaned
children out of poverty and giving them hope for a better future. Their concern is to show love and kindness to
the children. It is a Christian home, bringing
them up in the fear of God through the Christian faith and helping them to know
Jesus Christ as their Lord & Saviour.
The Home was officially opened on 16th April 2000 with Mr. & Mrs.
Chege as the Directors of the Home. Mr.
& Mrs. Chege (formerly employees of Bank of Baroda & Barclays Bank
respectively) brought up, in their own home, several orphans and destitute
children together with their own four children.
They later on left employment and went into full-time ministry, as
volunteers in service of the God and their children also now assist in this
work. At present, Mr. & Mrs. Chege
run the Home as full-time volunteers, assisted by 12 staff and a committee of 9
members and occasionally volunteers from the local community and abroad do come
to assist.
When we arrived Mrs Chege was there to meet us along with
a group of children ranging from a cute little guy who was 2 years old to a
special needs boy who was 17. So where
do the children come from? They admit
destitute orphan children without a home, or who are living with guardians who
are unable to take care of them due to extreme poverty or physical
disability. They were so happy to see us
and instantly bought a smile to my face.
Mrs Chege introduced the orphanage to us what they hope to achieve which
is offering basic necessities in life i.e. food, shelter, clothing, education
(up to high school) and children wishing to pursue further education may do so,
subject to the availability of funds. They currently have 10 of their past
children are now in university which just gave me a lump in my throat and goose
bumps, they really are doing great work here.
After giving Mrs Chege our bags of pens, books and pencils we were then
shown around the massive compound of the orphanage. We are still quite high, altitude wise and it
was cold, foggy and also damp and when I asked if it is like this all the time
to Becky, a volunteer from the UK, she said yes, 90% of the time. Just the weather gave the orphanage a doomy,
gloomy feel. We were shown a dorm room,
which was basically a concrete room with bunk beds. It was freezing in there with wet clothes
trying to dry in the damp conditions hanging from windows and end of beds. It was a little smelly, but there seemed to
be plenty of blankets on the beds which was reassuring that they were warm when
they were sleeping. We were next shown
the animal stables where they keep cows for the fresh milk for the kids,
chickens, goats and last year Intrepid set them up with pigs where they breed
them and then sell the piglets off to make money. We were then taken to their massive vegetable
patch that stretched as far as the eye could see full of spinach and
maize. The plants were bigger than
us! Like most places that have to feed multiple
mouths they try and be as self-sufficient as they can, so that then the money
that does come in can be used for other things needed in the day to day running
of the orphanage. We were then taken
into the main building and shown the kitchen where lunch was being prepared in
massive pots on an old fashioned wooden stove.
Spinach is served with every meal and the children get a serve of meat
once a week with dinner. Becky the volunteer
showed us her quarters, there is a common room and bedroom where the children aren’t
allowed to go, it is their time out and then we were taken into the hall where
there were chairs waiting for us and all 130 children were sitting on iron
chairs to meet us and to also sing to us.
The hall was massive and once we were seated to hear their voices
resonate around the hall was just so touching as they looked at us. I wonder what they think when they see us
come in and if they like having mzungu’s visit?
We also introduced ourselves and where we were from and after a few more
songs from the children it was time for us to leave. You could see in our group what an impact our
visit had made to them, and I think you know these places in the world exist,
but to see them first hand, the work, the money, the love and the generosity
that goes into raising children without parents or families puts a lot of
things into perspective and is one of the reasons for me making a life change and
moving to Africa. Of course not everyone
will pack up and move to a new continent, but getting awareness out there is a
step in the right direction and you don’t have to live in an impoverished
country to make a difference.
I’ll leave you
with the motto of the orphanage:
“New
Hope-loving the unloved of our society”.
And you may think it is sad, but these children, even
though they don’t have parents they have people that love them and they are
getting a better life in the orphanage than what they would ever get from where
they came from. It is a good thing and I
take that away with me as we waved to the kids as we left the orphanage with
the children smiling in our wake.
Once we were back on the Nairobi-Nakuru Highway we drove on
for only 10 minutes more to stop at the view point of the escarpment
overlooking the Great Rift Valley at 2666m above sea level. The weather was a little on our side and some
of the fog had lifted, but it was still a hazy view of the mighty rift valley. The Great
Rift Valley was a name given in
the late 19th century by British explorer John Walter Gregory to the continuous geographic trench,
approximately 6,000 kilometres in length, that runs from northern Syria to central Mozambique in South East Africa passing through Ethiopia,
Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania, Congo and in southern
Ethiopia / northern Kenya the Rift Valley splits into two
branches. The western branch passes to the west of Lake Victoria, through Uganda, Rwanda/Burundi and Congo and the Eastern branch passes to the east of Lake Victoria through Kenya and Tanzania. Either way you look at it, it is pretty
impressive, fog or no fog and with a few photos snapped we were back on the
road again passing Lake Elementaita, a soda lake,
located in the Great Rift Valley, about 120 km
northwest of Nairobi.
We arrived into Nakuru and our camp for the night just
after 1pm and with the lower altitude the weather was picture perfect, little
did we know it would not last long. We
were at a different camp from my last trip; outside of the National Park, as Lake
Nakuru is flooding at the moment and the camp they normally use (where we
stayed last time) is currently under water.
So first things first, we helped Susan get all the cooking stuff and
food off the truck and then we were free to set up camp and out tents for the
night. It was amazing, even 2 years
later, I knew how to put up the tent, with Anne and I being the first to finish,
knowing where the sleeping mattress were kept and we actually retrieved and
delivered to everyone to help out with the ‘newbies’. The upside being at the new camp was the showers
and WORKING flushing toilets were far more superior to the ones we had at the
other camp hands down. I am trying to
hold my tongue on all things from the ‘other’ trip as I really don’t want to
seem like I am coming across as a know it all, but people keep asking me questions
that I do know the answers to and I am happy to reply-so I just hope they all
know that it comes from a good and helpful place rather than a loser place. Another thing that I didn’t forget about was
the amazing food that is served to us on the overland trips and Susan was not
letting the ‘cooks’ down. Lunch was
amazing and after we had eaten, it was time to wash the plates in the 3 bowl
system and then something I may not have missed as much was the flapping dry of
everything. No tea towels are used in
the drying of the dishes due to hygienic reasons and I am also assuming on the
hassle of the washing and drying of them.
Everything gets flapped-chopping boards, pots, plates knives, forks, cups,
everything. It may sound a little
quirky, but as the water in the last bowl is scorching hot, the system actually
works and it doesn’t take long for it all to dry. But we do look a little funny as a group as
we all have our own flapping style and I am sure outsiders think it is a
hilarious sight to watch!!!
We left camp at 3pm for our game drive in Nakuru National
Park and as we drove the 20 minutes to the front entrance of the park the sky
turned from a beautiful clear sky to dark, brooding clouds and after waiting 15
minutes as Dan paid for our park entrance the clouds opened up at the same time
as we started our game drive. You could
see how high Lake Nakuru actually was as part of the rangers station was under
water and the tree line was also in the water by a good 20m. Yes I think we were better off at the camp we
were at, that is for sure. So with the
rain it was not the best weather for a game drive and depending on the
direction of the rain our windows would have to stay shut and there really weren’t
a lot of animals around. In saying that
we did get to see the white rhino, pretty close to us actually, plain zebras,
water buffalo (perfect weather for them), water bucks, impala and giraffes. So all was not lost and the park in 2009 had
more than 25 black rhinoceros, one of the largest
concentrations in the country, plus around 70 white rhinos,
we were very lucky to have seen the white rhino based on those numbers. Lake Nakuru is one of the Rift Valley
soda lakes at an elevation of 1754 m above sea level. Normally the lake's abundance of algae attracts the
vast quantity of flamingos that famously line the shore, but due to the
water levels being so high, the flamingos have moved to other lakes and it was
certainly a different lake from the one that I saw 2 years ago with millions of
the pink birds along the water line. Nakuru
means "Dust or Dusty Place" in the Maasai language
and Lake Nakuru National Park, close to Nakuru town,
was established in 1961. We spent a good
3 hours in the park and at 5.45pm we started to make our way back to the gate
for a 6pm closing time and would you believe that there was a single lion on
our way out and along with 20 other vehicles sat and watched this king of the
animal chain sit and watch us. When it
was finally time to move on it was a bit of a mission as all the cars were interlocked
like a massive jigsaw puzzle and it took about 15 minutes for vans and jeeps to
move and shuffle around for us all to be able to get out of the lion traffic
jam. Because of the distance we had
driven in the park, we found ourselves at a different gate leaving and we were
only 5 minutes’ drive away from camp which threw us all for a spin as we had
expected the 25 minute drive home.
With the rain now stopped and the sun going down there
was a nip to the air and I was just hoping that my 10quid sleeping bag was
going to hold up tonight. The roster for
the duties each day was up on the wall and as we were a little late getting
back from safari, Susan had already taken the liberty of preparing and cooking
dinner and food was on the table at 7pm.
I had time for a quick shower and after we had finished dinner we were
all a little tired and by 8pm we had eaten 2 courses for dinner, washed,
flapped and stacked and by 8.10pm Anne and I were in our tents and rugged up
for the night. It was that cool that you
could see your breath-brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
So it felt great to be back in the tent albeit without my
‘original’ African crew. I said a small
single prayer for them and I was thankful that after day one of my new tour my ‘current’
African crew seemed to be warming up and I think we are all going to get along
just fine, I am getting an amazing vibe and to have a great tentie I just know
that we are going to have an AWESOME week ahead.
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