Long Haul

I was surprisingly alive at 5am! For some reason on these holidays I can go to bed at pretty much any time, whereas at home I have pretty much given up at going to sleep before 11pm, and that’s only if I’m really tired! Last night though I dropped off pretty quickly at just after 9pm (or 7pm uk time!). The sun was not alive at this point though, still a good hour and a half before sunrise!

As I mentioned in my last post, today was to be a long drive, and I was able to get all my stuff sorted by 5:20, which surprised me as I took 45 minutes yesterday. I must’ve streamlined the process. Breakfast was cereal again (yay!) and eggy bread, of course with hot drinks. Everyone was punctual, and we actually set off 5 minutes before our projected departure time.

We made a stop along the way more or less just for me! I had mentioned to Patrick on the first night that I would like to buy a mask, and so we made a dual purpose stop for toilets, and for a shop that sold a wide variety of masks. Thankfully I managed to find one: I was torn between 2, and had originally decided to go for one which was plain, clearly animal based (as I prefer them, I think they are more exciting), and made of a very light wood. The man told me it was an antique from the Congo, and started at 10,000 shillings (£85ish). I would not take that obviously, I told him the best I would do was 5,000 (just over £40): aside from the dubiousness of whether it is in fact antique or not, such a soft wood could easily be damaged on the journey, plus I’ve bought a lot of masks in my time, so it’s pretty hard to make me pay over the odds. He was very unsure about this, so I told him I’d just buy this other one instead, a Zebra one (as I was impressed with the Zebra I’d seen, and there were no lion masks), which was much sturdier and painted, but more modern. He started at 8,000 (£70), which once again was too much. I maintained my previous stance and knocked 50% off: I’m even more confident on correctly pricing non “antique” masks! He had to go get his boss, after a discussion they said they’d do the Zebra for 5,000: I told them 4,000 or I’d just have to go, and they accepted. Maybe the other one truly was antique given they were happier to sell the Zebra, but I’m happier with this anyway as it’s actually made in Kenya rather than the Congo. I can’t provide a photo unfortunately as the man wrapped it exceptionally well.

Obviously this was a long description of haggling, but I’m not sure how much there will be to write about today! For the uninitiated, sticking to the price you have in mind, even opening with it if your valuation is a long way off the other person’s, and threatening to leave, or actually leaving even is the best tactic I’ve found for haggling. They will almost certainly shout you back if your price is reasonable, and even if not they are likely to shout their best price as you are going, and mostly you can just go back and take their lowest offer if it is acceptable to you. There are likely to be other shops with similar if not identical merchandise, and they don’t want to lose a sale to their competitors!

On the drive Patrick provided us with some nuggets of knowledge, as well as going round and asking for questions. I had noted that petrol was more expensive than diesel, so asked about this: apparently it is to do with taxes. Most of the petrol using vehicles are foreign cars, which are luxury vehicles, whereas diesel is used in farm machinery as well as a lot of the cheap imported motorbikes which are very common. The government therefore taxes petrol more heavily on the logic that those driving petrol vehicles are more likely to be well off, and not using them for work.

In general I get the impression that Patrick has a very good opinion of the current government. He has mentioned the attempts to reduce corruption, free schooling being brought in, free or exceedingly low cost healthcare (0.50-1 dollar for a prescription from the doctor), and a few different ways in which they are attempting to encourage the growth of the economy and promote trade. You may think that a guide would try and portray their country in a good light, but that is not necessarily the case: for instance my Cambodian and Madagascan guides were both critical of some (Madagascan) or almost all (Cambodia) of the government, so I like to think they are honest, and the standards of living in Kenya are certainly better than Madagascar, and they have fairly similar resources, though Kenya has a more favourable location.

Case in point: they are building a primarily freight railway to enable Naivasha to become a dry port, and ease some of the burden on Mumbasa

The small trees you can see are Whistling Acacia. They have black fruits which ants eat holes in, and the wind then whistles through these holes.

We stopped at Barcelona (in Kenya) for lunch, salad, bread, spreads, rice crackers, a decent enough spread but nothing inspiring.

It’s a lot smaller than the one in Spain...

I finally got a nice photo of a Superb Starling after days of them avoiding me. Still had to use my phone though since I didn’t have my camera when they finally stopped playing

Appears to be a mother feeding it’s “baby”. They are exactly the same size though!

After this we were firmly into Masai land (not the Masai Mara, but the lands belonging to the Masai tribe). The Masai are probably what most people imagine when they think of a traditional Kenyan, though it is the least populous of the 43 tribes. They are however the tribe that most adheres to their traditions and heritage, though there has been some erosion of their nomadic lifestyle as they are eager to fence the land to prove their ownership.

We also saw some Wildebeest from the road, but I’m sure we will see some close up later.

We conquered the bumpy roads, and dropped off Wilson to go set up camp and start cooking, then took straight off for an evening game drive on the famous Masai Mara. Time for some photos!

A sign to show I’m no liar!

Within a minute of us entering the park we saw this guy. That’s 4 of the big 5 down (the big 5 aren’t the biggest animals, but those that could kill hunters who used to hunt them and also had valuable materials: Buffalo, Rhino, Elephant, Lion, and Leopard, Leopard being our missing piece)

African Elephants are bigger, have bigger ears, both genders have tusks, and are untameable. Asian Elephants are the opposite.

An African White Backed Vulture flying

A Topi scratching itself like a dog. More on these a bit later

A nice Zebra. Despite their commonness I have decided I like them

2 Masai Giraffe “necking”, aka playfighting. These have no socks which distinguishes them from the Rothschild Giraffe

A Glossy Starling on the bush. Not just a terrible giraffe photo

Many African Elephants in the distance

A Cape Buffalo walking its Ox Pecker friends around.

A baby Buffalo. Look at its little horns!

This one is wearing facepaint I guess

One member of a herd of Topi is always on the lookout. You can see others sleeping behind it. It also means that other herbivores like to hang around them

An arty shot of a Masai Giraffe, with its mate photobombing

You won’t be able to see it, but there are 3 cheetah in this photo. This is from very very afar, and they are also lying down. We are hoping for better tomorrow

This big boy crossed the road right in front of us. How nice

Out of the park it was a 30 minute drive to our campsite, roughly 5km away! Dinner was prepared: potato soup followed by roast chicken and rice, with carrots and green beans. Once again warm showers were available, and about half of the group had decided to go for a hot air balloon ride which meant getting up at 4am! I had thought about this as I have never been in a hot air balloon, but decided it was too expensive for me (~£400), plus I wasn’t convinced you’d see the animals better, and also thought the super early start might affect my enjoyment later in the day.