Week 8

Thursday 9th June.

Trivia night at Fish Eagle Inn.

Breakfast at 8am and on the road by 9am. There was only about 80kms to drive today to the campsite on lake Naivasha where we will be staying for three nights. We said goodbye to Benne and Jimmy who were heading for Mombassa to meet up with Jan and have a few extra days on the coast. We stopped in Naivasha town and had 1.5hrs to do personal stocking up and shopping for three cook groups.

Making it to Fish Eagle Inn we thought for sure Farron had turned into the wrong campsite as we passed the signs for the pool, spa, sauna.... surely this place is not for us! But it was. Between the lake and the restaurant, pool, accommodation there was a huge block of grass where we were able to set up our tents. The lake itself was pretty ugly, it was really shallow and muddy and looked like a giant swamp. Alex couldn't fish because it illegal as it was off season, a shame for Alex but the first time we have seen evidence of responsible fishing in Africa. We couldn't swim in the lake, even if we wanted to- which we didn't- because for every 30 meters there was a hippo or two. But it was a nice setting with fresh grass, huge trees, heaps of Maribu Stalks (the giant ugly birds that evolution left behind, that not even a mother could love, that really pissed off mother nature!), and Colobus monkeys everywhere.

To have washing done at Fish Eagle was going to be stupidly expensive as they were charging between 100-200 shillings per item (about US$1.30-2.30) and they wouldn't wash underwear. We wandered across to the camp ground on the next property and asked at reception if they could do our washing. The young woman called someone to ask them, presumable her mum, and said that they could do it privately for 30 shillings a piece and that underwear was no problem. You got yourself a deal lady!

Alex, Aileen and Emma were on cook group and made roast potatoes and a really yummy minced meat sauce. Because we were not going anywhere for the next three days, and were not planning on doing any of the activities that included hiking and mountain bike riding through Hells Gate National Park, I got a bit cheeky and put cheese on my potato. Damn it tasted good.

After dinner we headed for the bar for a trivia night that Farron and Leigh had organised. I had enquired earlier what the prizes were and was promptly given the task of sorting out prizes if we wanted some. The teams were Alex and I; Marcus and Fiona; Emma and Aileen; Kate and Geoff; and Sheri, Wil and BJ. . There were four rounds with ten questions in each round. A lot of the questions were Africa related, or related to the trip we had done so far and the people in our group. There were also some general knowledge questions, some celebrity questions, some mathematical questions, and some nature questions, and one riddle question. Farron and Leigh did such a good job with the questions and we had a lot of fun answering them. In the end there was a draw between Emma and Aileen and Wil, Sheri and BJ so Leigh came up with a showdown question. The final result was: 1st- Wil, Sheri and BJ; 2nd- Emma and Aileen; 3rd- Marcus and Fiona; 4th- Kate and Geoff; 5th-Alex and I.

The prize for coming 1st was a body warmer (thanks Box Hill Hospital), a condom, and whoever came last had to do their cleaning for one dinner time. 2nd got a body warmer, a pair of disposable earplugs, and whoever came 3rd had to put up their tents once on demand. 3rd got a body warmer, a mini sewing kit, and whoever came 2nd had to give them a giant bear hug. 4th got nothing because when I making the prizes I didn't know how many teams there were going to be. Whoever came last- that would be us- got congratulated on being a loser, a body warmer, one Australian dollar, and they (we) had to do whatever the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place teams told them to do for 30 minutes, plus do the dinner clean for whoever came first on their demand. Damn!

It was really good fun, and after our 30 minutes of servitude were up and we had had a few more drinks we called it a night and went to Helsinki, the name of our tent, and watched a movie.

Friday 10th June.

High tea time.

Overnight I heard a bunch of hippos and also what sounded like a pack of about 1,000 wolves. It made the trek across the giant grassy field to the toilet block in the middle of the night more interesting, and a little hair raising!

Emma, Aileen and Alex made really nice omelet for breakfast, which I indulged in as my tummy was already upset from the cheese the night before, so why the hell not. We spent the rest of the morning relaxing and watching colobus monkeys playing in the acacia trees above us. They make such a deep, glutteral sound and were jumping from tree to tree. Mid morning we went to the tent to have a nanna-nap and were woken up in the afternoon, just in time to go for high tea at Elsamere. Elsamere is the home of Joy and George Adamsonhippy, and together they passionate and successful animal conservationists. we went with Farron, Leigh, Jerome, Mark, Lars, Sheri, and Wil. After watching a 40 minute documentary on the life of Joy and George Adamason

We got back to camp just in time for cook group to start on dinner, Lars was making a traditional Norwegian dish which was apparently really nice, but I didn't try it as it was full of milk and cheese and my stomach was really making me suffer for the indulgence of the past few days. I took the laptop up to the bar to charge it and use the wifi. I was feeling pretty crappy in the tummy so we went to bed fairly early and watched a movie.

Saturday 11th June.

27 Hippos.

After a lovely sleep-in we went up to the bar mid-morning and jumped on the net. The internet was far to slow to skype but I was able to chat with mum via facebook chat, and messaged dad who was up at the houseboat on Lake Eildon.

Farron told us that he had found out that the Australian Embassy in Nairobi is shut on Monday because there is a public holiday in Australia. Lazy buggers. So now we aren't able to catch the overnight train to Mombassa because the train only leaves on Monday and Friday nights. I'm really disappointed by this because I was so looking forward to catching the train. We considered catching the overnight bus to Mombasa and train back to Nairobi but we cant even do that because the train only runs from Mombassa to Nairobi on Tuesday and Sunday nights and we are leaving for Ethiopia on Sunday. Bugger bugger bugger. We could get the overnight bus both ways, but I was more excited about the overnight train than I was about getting to the coast for two nights.

We grabbed some lunch at the neighbouring campsite and I made myself feel better with a bit of retail therapy. There was a bunch of little stalls set up on the ground along the fence line between our place and next door. I got dad a funny wooden bowl with a giraffe on it for his 60th birthday, got myself a mask and some soapstone bookends, and got 27 colourful soapstone hippos, three for me and the rest for presents. 27 hippos... sounds like a C-grade movie.

It was my cook group night with Marcus and Fiona and we made a vegetarian rice stir fry. We had been thinking about going into Hells Gate National Park where there was an annual wheelbarrow race and rave party but decided not to as I was still suffering from the cheese, and it started pissing down with rain. Jerome checked it out and said that we hadn't missed out on anything and the rave party was not what we were imagining it would be. We spent the rest of evening trying to decide what to do with our week off the truck, considered maybe doing a three day safari in the Masai Mara and went to bed no closer to a final decision. 

Stay tuned.....

Sunday 12th June.

Let the layover begin.

Marcus, Fiona and I were up early to get breakfast ready for 8am. We laid out the usual cereals, got the water on the fire to boil for coffee and tea, and made a batch of scrambled eggs. There was a truck clean booked in for 9am. We all, well most of us, got stuck in taking everything out of the truck, cleaning all of the cooking equipment, all of the tuppaware, the utensils, cutlery, plates, bowls and cups, we cleaned out all of the storage containers, went through all of the food and sorted the good from the bad and the ugly.

We were finished cleaning and on the road by 10.10am. Not a bad effort, I guess many hands to make work light. and those hands that stood and watched instead of helping clean got a lot of dirty looks.

We arrived at Karen Camp, Nairobi in the afternoon and officially started our week layover off the truck. We upgraded to a tent (i know, i know it sounds strange) that had a comfy bed, a bedside table with a light and spare power socket, a chair and a nice comfy feel. We ordered in for dinner with Marcus, Fiona, Fiona's friend Amelia, Farron, Leigh, Wil, Sheri and Tony and had sushi delivered to camp. It wasn't fantastic sushi but it tasted amazing because it had been so long since any of us had eaten anything like it.

Monday 13th June.

Posting from the Posta.

Had a nice sleep in. Once up and fed we caught a taxi to the nearest shopping mall, Crossroads, with Marcus and Fiona. We headed for the Posta (post office) to send dad's birthday present home. It would take about 6 days and cost US$25 to send. Much better than the three days delivery time and US$150 that DHL had quoted us.

We went back to Karen Camp and I called mum and dad. Tomorrow is dad's big 6-0 birthday and mum had organised a surprise birthday party for him today. It was so nice to speak to them, dad sounded like he was having an absolute ball, I would have loved to have been able to be there and celebrate with him. The rest of the afternoon we tried to figure out what we wanted to do with the remainder of our week off. The Masaai Mara would be awesome, but very expensive. The beach would be fun, but we would spend most of our time travelling. I sent a few email enquiries to hotels in Mombassa and down at Diani beach where  Benne and Jimmy were. We said goodbye to Emma and Aileen who were headed for Diani beach as their embassy had been open and they were able to get their letter of recommendation from their embassy so that they could get their Sudanese visas.

Went to bed not much closer to a decision, but no longer considering the Maasai Mara.

Tuesday 14th June.

Visa run.

We were in a taxi by 7.30am driving through the crazy peak hour traffic of Nairobi on a mission to get Sudanese visas with Jerome, Kate, Geoff and Farron.  Our first stop was a photocopy place where we had to get copies of a credit card each. Don't ask me why, its just something the Sudanese government likes I guess. We had copied ours the day before but had been a little to try-hardish and had copied both sides of our credit cards so that any person with half a brain could go on a shopping spree because there was our signature and the CVC security number on the back.

From there we went to the Australian embassy. Entering we had to surrender our mobile phones, and ipods because they look like phones, we had to send our bags through an xray machine and walk through a metal detector.  We all handed in our passport to the correct window and sat down and waited for them to type up our letters of recommendation.

Letters in hand we got back in the taxi and went to the Sudanese embassy. The security was not nearly as strict and we walked in through what looked like a side entrance with a really happy security guard. Once in their Farron handed in everyone's passport, credit card copies, two passport photos, letters of recommendation and 4,000 Kenyan shillings (US$46.50). Farron said that there was no point all of us hanging around because it would probably be a long wait with nothing to do, so Kate and Geoff walked to a local market and Jerome, Alex and I got the taxi driver to take us back to Crossroads where we grabbed some lunch and a coffee.

We went back to Karen Camp and relaxed the afternoon away on the couches before going out to a Japanese restaurant for dinner with Farron, Mark, Kate and Geoff, BJ, Lars, Fiona and Marcus and Fiona's friends Amelia and her partner. It was a nice night with way too much food, nice wine, gross sake, great company and many laughs.

Wednesday 15th June.

Sarit center madness.

By this stage we had decided to just stay in Nairobi and explore the city, go shopping, eat lots of yummy food and just hang out rather than rush around catching overnight buses for what would turn out to be only one full day at the beach.

We got a taxi with Marcus, Fiona and Amelia to a huge shopping mall called the Sarit Center, behind which is an even bigger market. We went to the market to do some hard bargaining and walked away with a really nice mask, some Masaai statues, some soapstone bowls, and a really nice mirror made out of a traditional Masaai necklace.

Exhausted and hungry from all of our hard work, we went back into the Sarit Center and headed straight for the food court. It was immediately a very strange experience. We were shown to a table by someone who we presumed worked for the shopping mall, then as soon as our bums hit the cold and uncomfortable metal seats we were surrounded by about 10 people all throwing menus at us. After a few dizzying minutes Amelia finally cracked and asked everyone very politely, but loudly and sternly to back off for a few minutes so that we could have a chance to look at all of the different menus.  After we had decided what we wanted we signaled to the waiters who came rushing back like eager seagulls. We all ordered from different places, I got some satay chicken and chicken and sweet corn soup, and Alex got fried chicken. We walked around for a bit longer and then got a taxi back to Karen Camp.

We chilled for the rest of the afternoon and ordered in again for dinner from the Japanese restaurant, but ordered from the Chinese menu and I ended up getting more chicken and sweet corn soup. Yum!