We caught a bus from Dar es Salaam to Mombasa, a large city on the Kenyan coast. The bus took most of the day. The border crossing delay was long as the luggage compartment of our bus was full of boxes of Vaseline, which seemed to require a bit of explanation by our driver and conductor.

Anyhow, we arrived in Mombasa after dark and stayed one night there so we could catch a matatu (Kenya’s version of the dalla dalla) the next morning further north up the coast to Watamu. Watamu is a nice little village with a few sandy bays and some budget accommodations and restaurants. But for the most part, it is full of high-end Italian package tourists, so much so that even the local children would greet us with “Ciao”. This made it possible to get a decent plate of spaghetti, but a good cappuccino was still out of the question.

After one night in a rather smelly guesthouse, we upgraded to a nicer villa-type accommodation. But in Africa, even the nice places have their problems. One night we were without water, the next without power. However we had a nice seating area outside our room and the wine at the local market was cheap and drinkable. We even got in a bit of a workout at the hotel gym (see photo below).

The day after our arrival and the morning we were changing hotels, we rented what we perceived to be the most reliable-looking bikes in town so that we could ride to a couple of the areas attractions. Carrying all our belongings in our backpacks and in a move that would make proud Mike Parkes and Geoff Gaston (the last remaining Ontario members of “There’s No F In Team” 8-Hour Relay/adventure racing teams), I lifted one leg to mount my bike and was immediately dragged backwards onto my ass by the weight of all my stuff. Kevin had a good laugh but what goes around comes around. After we walked our bikes to our new hotel and dropped off our backpacks, we began our ride and that’s when Kevin’s right-hand side crank and pedal fell off into the middle of the road - right in front of a group of Italian tourists. A kind Kenyan man picked up the parts and handed them back to Kevin. We scootered back to the “rental shop” (wooden chair on the side of the road) where Kevin exchanged his bike for one with all relevant parts attached. The back brake was stuck “on”, but hey, this is Africa!

On the road again, we peddled the 8km to the Arabuko Sokoke Forest Reserve. We thought riding in the matutus was scary until we had to ride bikes on the same road as them. Anyhow, we made it to the forest without further incident. The forest covers 427 square miles and has over 100 km in trails but the office was all out of trail maps. However they did not seem concerned as they happily took our money and off into the African forest we went on foot. At first we were pretty disappointed as the most exciting thing we saw were a couple of dung beetles in action, but a narrow trail led us right into a troop of wild vervet monkeys. Initially we saw only a few but the longer we stood still, the more monkeys emerged until the trees around us were alive with screeching, swinging, jumping, feeding, “damn, dirty” monkeys.

Feeling happy about our monkey experience, we hopped back on our bikes and headed to the Gede ruins, which is a vast complex of houses, palaces and mosques established in the 13th century and abandoned in the 17th century (description courtesy of Lonely Planet East Africa guidebook, 2003). This was actually a really neat place and was nearly deserted when we were there. The buildings were constructed out of coral and have withstood the test of time. Little to no restoration has been done by archeologists so most structures stand as they were found. Trees have taken over and some areas reminded us a bit of Angor Wat in Cambodia.

Beside the gate to the ruins is a small butterfly farm, which pays locals to collect butterfly pupae from the Forest Reserve. These are then sold to foreign collectors and farms. The farm was pretty interesting but if you go there, skip the 24 minute video – it’s quite boring. The next day we walked to the Ken Bio Snake Farm which provides antivenom all over Kenya. There are a lot of poisonous snakes in Kenya and we saw vipers, cobras, constrictors, and our friend… the black mamba. This made our unguided trail walk in the Forest Reserve the day before seem a bit reckless in retrospect.

With our bellies full of spaghetti and feeling we had experienced all Watamu had to offer, we decided to move a bit further north to the larger town of Malindi. We managed to find a decent hotel across the street from the beach, despite being followed around the streets for several kilometers by the town crazy. After a bit of exploration, we realized that we had officially arrived in the Little Italy of Kenya except this time instead of tourists, it was ex-pats. But this time it paid off as we found a cafe serving excellent lattes under blaring TV’s broadcasting Italian soap operas. We wanted to do some hiking around Malindi in a local valley, but were advised that the city bus would take 1 ½ hours to make the 30 km journey. We felt that from experience we had a pretty good idea of how that bus ride would go, so we scrapped those plans. We spent a couple of days wandering the town and beach and then it was time to move on. A matatu ride took us back to Mombasa where we satisfied our craving for some western culture and went to see the movie “Mr. and Mrs. Smith”. Under normal circumstances, I don’t think we would have enjoyed this movie too much but sitting in a theatre with stadium seating, THX sound, a box of popcorn, Cadbury Fruit and Nut bar, and a watery fountain soda was pure heaven. Later that evening we caught a night bus and had an uneventful 10 hour trip to Nairobi. This time Kevin took Gravol too and we both slept the whole way.

After dropping our bags at our hotel, we set out to explore some of the town, which is said to be one of the most dangerous in Africa. However we found the downtown area to be pleasant during the day with lots of people, shops and restaurants. On August 5, the three month anniversary of our departure from Vancouver, we further satisfied our western culture cravings by attending two movies in a row and then buying a cheap, pirated 5-in-1 DVD to watch at our hotel later that night. August 6 marked the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and we attended a Peace Exhibition and video showing at the Japanese Culture Centre. The following day marked the 7th anniversary of the American Embassy bombing here in Nairobi in which over 200 Kenyan civilians were killed. We would have liked to attend the memorial but our second safari left that morning.

This time around there were five passengers in our safari truck: me, Kevin and three Dutch guys. We drove to Masai Mara National park which is the Kenyan portion of Tanzania’s Serengeti. We had a late start and the drive was long so we only had time for a short game drive late that afternoon. The next day we spent ten hours in the park and the following morning we did an early morning game drive. Although we did not see any animals that we had not already seen on our previous safari, we did see some new animal activities such as crocodiles eating their kill, an ostrich sitting on her nest, a leopard in a tree, and two giraffes trying to have sex (it looks as difficult as you would imagine). On our early morning drive we saw three adult female lions and six cubs eating a wildebeest they had killed right beside the road the night before.

The camp we stayed in was right on the edge of the park and was comfortable with military-style tents complete with beds. The company was good and we met a really nice couple from Vancouver (Hi, Colin and Julia!). At night we could hear the animals around the camp including zebra, wildebeest and on the last night hyena that were so near the Masai guards on duty had to scare them away.

On the afternoon of the third day we went with a Masai guide, Daniel, on a hiking safari up to the top of a nearby hill. Just outside our camp, he showed us a cairn which was erected in memory of a tourist that was trampled to death there by an elephant. Daniel carried with him a large bush knife, a long stick, and a Masai spear. We wished he had a gun until he told us the story of how he and eight other Masai youth killed two lions during their quest to become warriors. He told us lots of other interesting stories and taught us traditional uses for the local plants. Although we did not see any deadly beasts on our hike, we did see hyraxes (basically large rock rats), a large troop of baboons, lots of lizards, and a bunch of large holes in the ground that lead to the underground dens of hyenas. At this time it was around 5:30 and Daniel said we did not have to worry as the hyenas do not wake up until 6:00. But they must have known we were there as that was the night they came to our camp.

All-in-all it was a good trip, despite some problems with the safari company we went with. Although the trip wasn’t as well organized as our first safari, it is hard to complain about being out in the middle of the savannah surrounded by beautiful wild animals.

Now we’re back in Nairobi leaving today on a flight to Mumbai where we hear they have had a bit of rain. We’re not too sure what we’re going to do once we get there. We’ll have to read our guidebook on the plane…

B.

PS: Check out the “Food” section of this site for the latest addition: “East Africa” including Said’s Soon-To-Be-World-Famous Chapati Recipe.

Photos:
Gede Ruins
Snake Farm
Baby Tortoises at Snake Farm
Working Out in Homemade Flintstone-Style Gym
Kenyan Block Watch
Us in Malindi
At the Movies in Mombasa
Lion on Safari
Kevin Repairs the Safari Vehicle
Water Buffalo
Mothers and Children Feed on Wildebeest
Our Safari Accomodations
Us With Masai Guide on Safari Hike
Brandy and Bone Outside Hyena Den
Leopard in Tree
Giraffe