Get up, have some coffee (some instant brand, Mexicana. A little more tangy than the Africafe, still ALL good). Have some pronutro (breakfast of champions) pack the bullet and say our goodbyes. Pat may actually be joining us on our way back from the Northern bits of Kenya. Maybe. She’s in two minds still. Say goodbye to Neill(tche, Neilltche) and little Mia. She’s not saying much today, I steal a hug anyway.
We have a long drive ahead of us to reach Kakamega (I think I’m spelling that right). About 6 hours or so. Kakamega is a rain forest reservation. The area was once just one big rainforest, but, you know. Humans.
Quick pit stop at the local petrol station for some juice. We get out of Karen at about 09:30. Along the way we climb quite a few meters, beautiful views down into the rift valley, that runs from Jordan all the way to the bottom end of Lake Malawi. One great big tear in the earth, very green and over grown. What’s even more interesting is that the rift is widening still! By about 10mm a year, give or take. This is also a reason why there are so many active volcanoes in the region. Well, not active right NOW, but...
Anecdote: Mt Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa, but it’s also the highest free standing mountain in the World. It’s tallest peak is Kibo, at 5895m. Mawensi is 5149m. Oh, and it’s a dormant volcano. Big badad boom!
The second highest in Africa is Mt Kenya. Also a volcano, but extinct. Elevation of 5199m. Kilimanjaro and Kenya are the only two objects in the world to be covered with snow all year round next to the Equator. Pretty cool, huh? :)
Back on the road... we spot these funny little vendors, wooden shacks built on stilts that hang over the side! As per usual they all sell the same stuff, all 30 of them (Africans have zero imagination. They spot ONE guys doing something and copy it, and the next copy him and so on. Over saturation for them, good bargaining grounds for us). We make a quick stop to check out the wares. They have huge sheepskin pelts, sheepskin hats and the usual trinkets and ornaments (dust collectors). I buy Annelie and myself a sheepskin hat each and pick up a cowboy hat made from bark! Yes, tree bark!. Amazing. Probably last me all of 1 month, but dude... a hat... made of bark! Very soft btw, not what I’d normally associate with tree bark. The sheep skin hats need a wash though. I think the vendor may have worn it to work today. It has a pungent odour on the inside...eeeew.
One more stop to admire a little church, where some police officers have setup a road block. We’re cool though, they’re stopping trucks and busses. The church has a plaque saying it was erected in 1942. The locals mention that the Italians built it. Very beautiful stonework, a little chapel, even a steeple!
The roadside display very nearly turns into a rainforest of huge, huge trees. There is also many tree plantations that add the canvas. Lots of ravines and valleys as we climb ever higher. The sky is quite ominous, looks like rain tonight. GPS reports we are 9” (that’s minutes) from the equator. It’s so beautiful here we decide that we should setup camp and travel on to Kakamega tomorrow. Great plan, since it’s almost 16:00 already.
By the time the road levels out again we are treated to hectares upon hectares of tea plantations! As far as the eye can see, rolling up and down the hills, plantations and other trees dotting the landscape. They look like thick, waist high, very well manicured hedges. But miles of the stuff. We stop and explore a bit, little pathways criss-cross through them and standing on the roof of the bullet, they begin to look like midget mazes to me. I imagine a TV show featuring midget mazes. Heh heh heh.
Push on to Kericho, and turn into the Tea Hotel and campsite. Very colonial, the hotel I find out later was built in 1955. But the decor and maintenance was probably last performed in 1956. So wallpaper peeling off walls in the art-deco dining rooms, patio sets made out of hangover-puke green fibreglass, little tulip bucket seats. A pool area that must have been a real happening spot back in the day. Now... no. Not so much. We’re assured we can swim if we want.
The campsite itself aint bad. Nice soft grass, little shelter for making food. We setup and get drinking before long. A man offers to take us into the tea plantations behind the hotel tomorrow for a tour. We gladly sign up, 09:00 tomorrow. Our iPod transmitter seems to have malfunctioned, wont switch on. Power switch doesn’t “click” anymore. I grab a soldering iron from Dirk, brannewyn and coke handy while I attempt to short the power switch. It starts raining shortly after. The other move the very fragile fire we finally got going under the shelter. I get a little wet, but the iPod tuner works again! It is however stuck on 108.0 (for your most banging awesomnist tjunes!).
The evening is easy going and jovial, lots of merry making, eating (in sessions, since the fire was so crap. We had salad, then chips, then fried chips on the gas stove, then steak, eaten by hand, then marsh mellows, which we toasted on what was left of the fire). Marietta sang for us, very beautiful and laughter at crappy dirty jokes and stupid shit. It was one of the better evenings we’ve had with the group so far.
We pack up and crawl into bed, not raining anymore. I get up again 20 minutes later to pack up our chairs (paranoia settling in) and a big black dog darting out of the big black shelter we sat in earlier. It manages to scare 4 different couloirs of shit out of me, I let out a “yelp” which I quickly turned around into a “I-totally-meant-to-yelp-manly-BEGONE-youMANGYmutt” man-command. Because I’m manly. And shit listens to me when I speak.
Don’t tell my wife.
Sleepy time.
Highlights: Good evening of drinking and good chatting.
My first view of a tea plantation!
[G & A], out
I’m a soul man
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