Nairobi to Voi ñ The big 50K - 26 April 2002
Dowtown Nairobi
Naivasha WetíníWild
Hellís Gate No Bikers
We had been in Nairobi a few days and Fi had taken off the Rockers to some rock before coming back to town to get her injectors seen to. Before we parted, we arranged to meet up at a different camp on the outskirts of town.
On the way around town the traffic was choka and was at a standstill in several places, partly due to the volume of vehicles and partly due to the bullishness of the driver. Pinned in traffic I felt the rucksack on my back move, some pedestrian had taken advantage of the fact that we were trapped to try an rob us. Pat on hearing me shout a string of obscenities leapt off the bike and chased after the chap, leaving me perched stranded on the bike in the middle lane of now moving traffic. I tried to explain to the peeping drivers that a) I couldnít get off the bike and b) I couldnít move it out of their way anyway. The youth needless to saw ran off empty handed into the distance. From now on the rucksack will be in front of me!
There was more expense buying spares for the bikes and thanks to Patís honesty we paid 3 times as much as we could have done. The idiots in the BMW place had made out the bill missing off items, when this was pointed out they not only added them on, but increased the price of the others, saying they had made a mistake. Pat understandably expected a discount for his honesty. But this is Africa.
Once again united, we set off to the legendary Carnivores restaurant.. Hippy had been before many years ago with the greatest carnivore of them all, Bry. The range of game meats available impressed me. ñ Zebra, croc, ostrich, warthog and others. Seeing as how most of these are protected in the game parks, I can only guess that outside the parks, their numbers are dwindling to satisfy the cravings of the likes of me. To be honest, once its all been BBQd, itís all pretty much the same and an awful lot of it is farmed, anyway.
Fi, as usual provided the entertainment. This time there was no fire, but a rather impression of our very own Eddy the Eagle. This performed on her bum on the childrensí slide did not detract from the achievement of unpowered flight and a graceless landing on her coccyx ñ ouch. Her beer remained in the glass of course.
An overland truck that we had last met in Khartoum turned up in the evening and they told us that Stevie was still up in Nanyuki and that Achim and Suzi had been separated from Scully high on Mount Kenya when he had decided to carry on alone. Currently missing in sub zero temperatures with no suitable gear, with pasta but no cooker. We await with baited breath.
We followed up the next day with an afternoon ride up to Naivasha to see the lake and stuff. We are quite aware now that we are in the rainy season, but little of the straightforward, if a little damp, journey prepared us for the devastation in the town of Naivasha. As we turned of the main road up on the escarpment at the edge of the Rift Valley, there was snow by the side of the road. This was strange enough as the temperature must have been up in the ëteens.
Trundling down a steepish hill took us through the centre of town and as we descended, so the amount of water in the channels at the edges of the roads increased. By the bottom, there were rocks all over the place, cars spun round and all that kind of floody stuff. We learnt later that, sadly, one of the local children had been carried away to an early grave by the torrent. We were of a mind to head back to the tranquillity of Nairobi, but though to check out the local campsite before turning tail.
Naivasha campsite was surprisingly unsoggy. Itís a long story but we didnít have our tent with us and on seeing the British Army in residence we thought we might be able to blag the use of a tent. No such luck! The siteís tents were exorbitant and we bargained them down on a couple of bunk beds.
The camp reputedly has hippos up every night but they failed to greet us. The British Army did redeem themselves in our estimation when they gave us three packs of daily rations, each worth 7,500 calories! Including, 2 bars of chocolates, sweets, biscuits, pate, two main courses and pudding etc.etc. Our only problem was where to put them on the bike so we had to eat them ñor as much as we can anyway.
Bolton managed to redeem themselves after some humiliating defeats earlier in the season at the hands of Spurs. Although a one all draw is hardly earthshattering, it made me happy!
We took to the hills in the morning. About a couple of kilometres back from the lakeshore is Hells Gate National Park. This is one of only two in Kenya that allow walkers and cyclists to pass through. We reasoned that as motorised vehicles and bicycles were allowed intro the park then the synthesis of these ñ the motorcycle ñ should also be allowed in. How naÔve. We checked through all possible modes of transport; cars, vans, trucks, prams. All were allowed but us.
We decided that as weíve been a bit porky lately, weíd take the walking option and left all our gear at the gate at the mercy of the suspicious looking rhino that was profiled upon it.
After a short walk where we managed to pick out Thompson Gazelle, Grants Gazelle, zebra and warthogs (so much more exciting to see them when one is on foot), we were dead chuffed to be picked up by a lass we had met in the bar the previous evening. Nick and her mother have been in the area for a good few months doing research on lake flies and had taken a taxi for the day to go right down to the far end of the park where there is a gorge and an area of hot springs. We wouldnít have made it all the way down there on shankís and so it was a most fortuitous meeting.
While walking down the gorge, their driver appeared from nowhere to guide us. Not much guidance needed along a gorge usually. After we successfully made our way to a wider section of the gorge, we came across a sign pointing to the hot springs. We asked Peter how far it was and he confidently informed us that it was 400 metres. Now we know how the Kenyans turn out such excellent runners. This is obviously a line fed to the students by nasty games teachers. Twelve times around the track is 400 metres it seems.
The hot springs were hot and springy.
On the walk we chatted and found out (amongst other things) that Kenyan children are taken to giraffe sanctuaries, as they have never seen them. It reminded me of taking Nottingham kids out to the country and their reaction to cattle when met in the flesh. We did indeed see a family of giraffe on the way out as well as a group of rock hyrax. (Big guinea pigs)
We made it back to the gate in time to pick up the bike for a sprint back to Nairobi. Stevie was back in the fold and we were most pleased to see Scullyís bike closely followed by Scully himself emerging from Stevieís van with a mug of tea. Achim and Suzi were also there and it was clear that there was a little tension between all of these latecomers. We prepared for a quiet night before heading for the coastÖ
Everyone else decided it was party night. We finished off our army rations, played a game of pool and headed to bed. Everyone else arrived back from revelries at about 4:30. When we rose in the morning, we found the site full of bleary-eyed monsters. Worse still, Fi presented herself to the world all woaded up. She had decided upon blue as a new hair colour and been attended to in the wee small hours. Not such a pleasant effect to my mind.
The most exciting moment from Nairobi to Voi was the mileometer turning over to 50000 (amazingly, the rain stopped just in time for the obligatory photo opportunity). Oh, there was also a strange sight of a zebra crossing a railway line. We ate lunch and reminisced about our honeymoon in a little restaurant on the way down that we had recognised.