Saturday, July 18, 2009

Rift valley lakes and family life in Eldoret

Lake Baringo
From Gilgil, I took several matatus to Lake Baringo. I have been here 21 years ago and I loved the place. So, I was hoping to find the place as nice as before. It was even better this time. The camping place now is really developed with a restaurant, common toilets and showers and room accommodation for those without a tent. Even a tented camp is here.
Lake Baringo
At Lake Baringo, there are many big and small birds to see, but the biggest things are the hippos. There are plenty of them in the lake, and they come out at night for their meal. Well, they are big, but they do eat only grass. This takes quite a while (in fact the whole night). Their favorite place for food is the camping ground. Just imagine waking up at night because of very loud chewing noise…. Yes, it is the hippos! And they are close and they are big, and they have big teeth also…. One can be sure, when you see hippos eating grass about 5 meters from your tent, the first thing, which comes across you is the urgent need for a toilet….
One day, I did a day trip to Lake Borgoria with some friends. This is as well a rift valley lake and just about 35 kilometers from Baringo away. It feels and looks completely different, as this is a salt and soda lake. Most animals do not like this type of water, but flamingos love it, because their favorite food lives in there (some special crabs).
Lake Bogoria
Besides the flamingos, there are many other birds and antelopes close to the water. Also, they have hot springshere; some of them erupt as geysers and are up to 2 meters high.
Hassan, Munira adn Mustafa
From Baringo, I went to Eldoret, where I stayed with the brother of Yusuf from Mombasa. I stayed for 4 days with Hassan, his wife Munira, son Mohammed and nephew Mustafa. I had a beautiful time there. I felt very soon like at home in their house. Especially with Munira I had the feeling I met the sister, I never had, as we had so much in common. Like in Gilgil, it was again very interesting to see family life. One day, we went all together for a trip to a place where they rebuilt traditional houses of different tribes and a little zoo. For the children, there was a pool, so this was a very relaxing day.
After 4 days, it was not easy to leave, but there is still so much else to see.
From Eldoret, I went to Kakamega Forest. These are the last remains of tropical rainforest in Kenya and local people are very serious about protecting it now. I spent two nights in a lovely camp, which I had just to myself. First, I found that rather strange, sitting in a camp with nice little bandas (huts) and no one else around, but I loved the quietness there. Also, there was a ranger protecting me at night.
The first evening, I did not know about that, and I was quite astonished about a guy with a gun standing in front of the shower waiting for me to come out. What a relief, when I learned, it was not one of the bad guys, but a ranger to protect me from wild animals!

Kakamega
In the park, I did several guided walks, as most of the trails are very small and not a lot of signs around. I went to see a beautiful waterfall, a nature trail with huge trees, a bird and a butterfly walk. All of them very nice with lots of explanations.
After Kakamega, I went to Kisumu at Lake Victoria. I just arrived, when I got a call from a very nice lady named Lina. She told me she just got a call from here former boss in Mombasa, that there is a friend of him in town and she wants to show me her city…. Well, Yusuf likes to take care, even when he is not around.
We had a beautiful day exploring a huge market; we had a lot of fun looking for music CDs in a little shop and had some nice talks.

After nearly 7 weeks in Kenya, I left today for a new adventure – from today, I am in Uganda. the first City, I am in now, is Jinja. It is at Lake Victoria and claims to have the source of the river Nile. Therefore, I will have a closer look. Looks like a place for a couple of days, before heading towards Kampala.