Safari Sunday

1/10/2010
Day 5

We are back from our adventure to Lake Nakuru. It was a lot of fun, but our backsides are weary from the endless bumpy roads! It took about 2 hours to get there from Kijabe. The road to the national park is a paved highway for the entire way, but don’t you worry, we had plenty of hair-raising moments involving passing or being passed. Driving here is most definitely not for the faint of heart. It was fascinating to pass through the various small towns on the way. There are colorfully painted building with the most ironic and random sayings on the side. For example “Luxury Hotel” on the side of a building that looks about to crumble, and “Boston Pub” on the side of a similarly dilapidated hut. We also saw a billboard (they are few and far between) that said “Drink and Drive the Festive Season.” Now, I know I’ve only been here a few days, but I think it’s safe to say as a nation Kenya should not be advising further driving impairment.

Once we arrived at the national park, we got a warm welcome from a bunch of kids hanging out on the side of the road (seems to be a common pastime). As our land cruiser entered the gates of the park they yelled “HI WAZUNGUS!!!” Translation: “HI WHITE PEOPLE!!” It was bumpy red dirt roads for about 40 min to our lodge. On the way in we got a taste of the wildlife by seeing zebras, impala, and buffalo. The lodge was lovely, but truly a wazungu oasis. Shortly after we arrived we watched van load after van load of khaki zip-off hiking pant and mesh safari vest-clad tourists make their safari debut. It was an REI clothing parade.

Before dinner a traditional African dance troupe performed for us. For the last dance number the dancers came out in to the audience for participation. Julie and I got our punishment for sitting in the front row and were among the first wazungus to hit the dance floor. I was equal parts mortified and in hysterics. The strong tropical cocktail that we were sipping prior to cutting a rug definitely helped. It was quite a sight to see cargo pants and fleece flying around up there with the traditional African costumes.

Dinner was a huge American style buffet. We were serenaded by a Kenyan guitarist who alternated between traditional songs, Bob Marley, and John Denver (“country road, take me home … West Virginia, mountain mama…”). A rowdy group of what looked like American frat boys requested Pearl Jam to no avail.

In the morning we went for an early game drive and saw zebras, impala, waterback, flamingoes, buffalo and both black and white rhinos. Turns out (this one’s for you, Marah) white rhinos were so called because of a misinterpretation of the Dutch word for "wide" that sounds like “white”. The black rhinos, in turn, were named by default, though both are grey. They differ by the size and shape of their horn and mouths. We came back for breakfast (American buffet take two) and then it was another game drive. This time we went down to the shore of Lake Nakuru and got very close to the flamingos. We also saw more zebras, rhinos, giraffes, baboons, monkeys, a dik dik (which is a hare sized antelope, so named because of the sound it makes when in distress), and topi (which look like a cross between a cow and an antelope, hence I named them cantalope). We also saw tons of exotic birds, and even a group of vultures feasting on a recently mauled buffalo. We couldn’t help but hum the Elton John song “Circle of Life” from the Lion King. We also saw plenty of carcasses. Apparently the hard economic times are far-reaching. Actually there has been a major drought here for the past few months which likely contributed to many animals dying. Everyone is very thankful for the rain that has punctuated every day thus far. The big cats were elusive, though we’ll likely see them at the Masai Mara which we plan to visit at the end of our stint here.

The land in the park is so beautiful. Some of the road is hugged by trees and bushes, making it feel part forest and part jungle. Then the road opens up to wide expanses of green flanked by red cliffs on one side, green mountains in the distance, and the clear blue of the lake. The lake looks like blue-grey glass dotted by pink (the flamingos!). We drove to “Baboon Cliff” which gave us a great vista of the park and the lake.

After our afternoon game drive it was back out on the paved road after navigating through Nakuru town which is the largest town in the Rift Valley. We managed to have only a few near-death driving incidents and sputtered into Kijabe on fumes (I watched the gas take say “E” for about the last hour or so). Thank goodness Kijabe is down a large hill.

Now we are relaxing a bit before dinner. We are both hoping for a little sleep (still seems to be a challenge) before we hit the wards tomorrow.