Tales From the Chicken Bus

Day 278

If there was anywhere on the trip I expected to get mugged it was Nairobi. A city with the nickname of Nairobbery. Since I’ve already been mugged in Panama City I hoped that was going to be my only time of the trip. So many African cities are considered dangerous, even in small towns we are constantly warned to not be out at night. I’m beginning to think a lot of it is just overreaction and over protection. When people mention Africa our first thought is danger. We fear disease, war and of course crime. Sure they all exist but I’m not convinced it’s as bad as we are led to believe, at least the crime. If I was to compare so called dangerous places on this trip I would say that Central America was more dangerous than here. We couldn’t even go for a basic walk in Central America without someone telling us we needed a guide or that we just couldn’t go period. In Africa I haven’t got the same feeling, at least not in the countryside. Today we were headed north to Kenya and the notoriously crime ridden capital, Nairobi. Hopefully we wouldn’t be leaving calling it Nairobbery.

“What time does breakfast begin?” Jordana asked the one of the wait staff in the hotel restaurant. “7am”, he replied. It was 7:15am now. We knew that it began at 7am, we were asking as a way to speed up the setup of the breakfast buffet. We were in a bit of a rush since our bus to Nairobi left at 8am and we had already purchased tickets. Eventually breakfast was served and after another Spanish omelette we were off on our way to the station. We boarded the 30 seater Toyota Coaster bus, now a very familiar ride in Africa. The majority of buses are these Toyota Coasters, very cheaply made with huge windows and seats that fold down in the aisle to create 5 seats across each aisle. They do the job but when one of these buses rattles down an unsealed road it’s quite a jarring experience. This was one of the newer and nicer ones we’ve been on. It was full but they used the roof to store the passenger luggage instead of everyone stuffing their belongings in the aisles and under seats. What a smart operation, they even had assigned seating!

We headed out of Arusha, past the UN tribunal for the Rwandan genocide and onto a decent stretch of road towards the Kenyan border. On our right we were afforded with a view of Kilimanjaro, through the thick haze we could just make out the snow covered peak. I looked up at the snow hoping the sight of it would somehow cool me off, it was not even 10am yet but the temperature was easily into the 30 Celsius range. We reached Tanzanian customs just before 12pm. The border town looked like most others, a line of trucks, a bit chaotic, beggars, money changers and not much organization. This was one of the busier crossings we’ve done and we waited for about 45 minutes to get into the office and be stamped out of Tanzania. We walked over to Kenya; I snapped a photo of the welcome sign even though I was being yelled at. “No photos!” I just played dumb tourist and moved on. We were merely using Kenya as a transit point on our way to Uganda. Originally we planned to spend more time here but since we have already done out safari and beach time in Zanzibar we have decided it would be much easier on the budget to move west to Uganda. We’ll be back another day, hopefully to do another safari in the Masai Mara and see the coast here. We waited in line to pay for our visa when they asked how long we’d be in the country; I had said 10 days to be safe. Thing was they actually offered transit visas for a much cheaper price than the regular 3 month visa. I hadn’t known this but now I wanted a transit visa instead. However now the custom agent wouldn’t believe me, since I’d written 10 days on the application form I now tried to explain that we would actually only need 3 days maximum. I didn’t get why he thought I was lying, did he think I was looking for a cheap way to stay in Kenya? Eventually we had our 3 day transit visa and were back on the bus on the way to Nairobi.

The rest of the drive from the border was not the best, the sealed road disappeared and we rattled along with clouds of dust filling the bus. Oh the dust, it’s the story of African bus travel. I have a big issue with dust, the smell, the way my head feels when my hair is coated with it and the cloud that rises if I slap my hand on my pants. I think I’ve developed a bit of OCD when it comes to dust. It’s something I won’t miss when we are out of Africa. Overall the bus trip wasn’t that bad, I mean we’ve been on much worse. Every bus trip here is hot and dusty so if you can complete one with some decent leg room, without a kid puking on your back, without a chicken pecking on your feet and without having a whole village sit on your lap…well if you can do all that then that’s one successful African bus journey. We finally arrived in Nairobi in the late afternoon; we saw a hotel directly across the street from where the bus dropped us off and next to the office for the bus to Uganda so we elected to stay right here.

Good decision that was, the hotel was spotless and well run and we easily bought a bus ticket for the trip to Kampala, Uganda in the morning. We had thought of staying here a few nights but with a bus leaving tomorrow we didn’t want to pass it up. We walked around downtown Nairobi for the rest of the afternoon until the sunset and then had pizza next to our hotel. From what we saw the centre is actually the most pleasant African capital I’ve seen in a awhile. It’s green, has some nice colonial buildings and is bustling with activity during the day. Even at night the area we were in wasn’t deserted like some cities are. Safely back in our room we talked about how Nairobi didn’t seem so bad, we were only here a few hours but based on everything I’ve heard I expected it to look more menacing. Compared with Johannesburg there is much less security presence here and there is actually a nice downtown. I’m not sure if the lack of security is due to a lack of money but oddly enough it made me feel safer. For the short time we were here I’m perfectly happy referring to the city by its proper name of Nairobi and not Nairobbery.

Day 277

Thanks to my bravery and my scaring off the buffalo we did manage to survive the night.  We were rewarded with one of the most beautiful sunrises I’ve ever seen.  To be honest I am not usually awake for sunrises so I don’t have much comparison.  There is something about the sun in Africa, always so fiery orange and today was no exception with red hues streaking the sky.  The green tree tops on the slopes of the crater poked through the morning mist to create a perfect sunrise for our final day of safari.

We piled into the truck for the last game drive of our safari.  The Ngorongoro crater promised to be a highlight.  Picture a volcanic crater that collapsed on itself and is 260 sq. km in size, creating a sort of natural enclosure for animals.  We passed through the control gate and began to wind our way down the steep road to the craters floor.  Below we could see animals but from this distance we couldn’t distinguish what they were.  Soon enough we reached the floor of the crater which is dry grassland at this time of year.  There were a few impala and zebras near the roadside but not far off we could see another turck was viewing something else.  Since they were stopped it must have been something good.  A cheetah, lying in the tall grass it was tough to spot but soon after we arrived the cheetah rose and began to walk around.  We asked the driver if we could just stay and watch for awhile, we thought maybe the cheetah would make a run at the nearby impala.  The cheetah didn’t do that, but it was incredible to watch this powerful looking animal walk around.  We eventually moved on from the cheetah and passed the usual zebra, impala and wildebeest.  At a waterhole we saw a group of hippos lazing in the water, hippos are actual a rare sight around here since there is little in the way of water in the region.  The scenery was beautiful which added to the drive.  The crater rose steeply all around us and seemed to be a perfect round shape.  It really did feel like the animals were trapped in here. 

Driving to the far side of the crater we saw 2 black rhinos in the distance.  The black rhino is very endangered and this is one of the only places in the world where you have a decent chance to spot one.  Just over a small hill from here we came across an incredible sight.  We’ve seen thousands of zebra and wildebeest over the last 3 days but we’ve never been in the midst of a heard.  As we drove down the slope we were surrounded by zebra and wildebeest, they were so close to the truck you could reach out and touch one.  The heard stretched on far into the distance and up another hillside.  At this close range we all discovered that zebras have very strange butts.  It seems to be a popular tourist shot while on safari to snap a shot of 3 or 4 zebras butts all walking side by side.  The swirls of the stripes do make for an interesting shot.  I guess you just have to be on safari to understand.  I’ll eventually upload some photos and you can see for yourselves. 

Further on we saw a bunch of trucks all stopped viewing something the same spot.  This was probably the most trucks we’ve seen stopped in one stop on the entire trip so far.  We moved in and saw 3 lions walking around.  On the opposite side of the road was a large buffalo that they had earlier killed, but strangely it didn’t look like they had eaten much of it.  Now it was being devoured by vultures.  Maybe they just didn’t like the taste of this guy or someone forgot the hot sauce?  We moved on slowly and not more than 500 meters away we yelled at the driver, “stop, another lion!”  This was the one thing I had hoped we’d see today that we still hadn’t.  A huge male lion with an enormous mane rose up out of the grass and walked toward the truck.  I couldn’t beleive the size of this lion, so tall and his mane was just massive.  I got a rush when he walked right up to the roadside, stood on a mound of dirt and just sniffed the air.  Then he walked down on the road, right beside our truck.  He continued on to the truck behind us and took a piss right there on the truck!  Damn, I wished our truck could have gotten pee’d on.  This sighting topped the safari, I was satisfied even if our driver was a complete fool. 

We were surprised when less than 1 km passed the lion we stopped next to a water hole for a picnic lunch.  With no fences we all couldn’t help but worry we’d see that lion one more time but this time we’d be out of the truck.  The biggest thing we had to centend with was these crazy kite birds swooping down from the tree above trying to snatch our food.  One came right down at me and I wasn’t really sure how close it was.  Then the same bird circled back and swooped in on Jordana.  It came so close she felt the feathers grazed her skin. 

After our lunch the highlight was some more black rhinos at a much closer range than before.  After that sighting I think we all were getting a bit blaise about the typical zebras and wildebeest sightings.  We all sat in the truck rather than hang out the top as we drove for the road out of the crater.  The exit road was just as winding as the entrance but it was through much denser forest.  The air grew cool and fresh as we rose.  Just as we thought we were near the top and at the end of the safari we were treated to one of the best things we’d seen all trip.  Another full gorwn male lion was walking on the road right at us.  As he approached we were all out snaping photos, we realzied with the incline of the road he was going to pass level with our open windows.  “Close the windows!”  We all shouted and rolled them up.  He walked right past and quickly he was around the corner.  We all talked about how close this was to our camp.  From this spot we arrived at our camp 5 minutes later.  I guess we now know how some animals get out of the crater, they use the road.

We returned to the camp where the cook had everything packed up and the truck was then loaded.  We started the drive back to Arusha and arrived in the late afternoon.  Jordan and I checked back into the Naz hotel and the first thing we did was shower.  I’ve never seen so much dirt come off me before.  4 dusty days without a shower, the water was dark brown.  I had to soap and wash my hair twice to feel clean again.  Doesn’t a shower feel that much better when you are ridiculously dirty?  After we were clean we met up with the group for one last dinner together.  Chinese food at a great place run by a Chinese guy.  Even with the very poor driver we all agreed it was a fantastic safari and we definitely got lucky having a group where we all got along well.  In the morning we were all off our seperate ways.  Vorn the Aussie was off to climb Kilimanjaro, the Swedes were headed west to Lake Victoria and Jordana and I were catching a bus north to Nairobi, Kenya.  We said our goodbyes and had a last toast to a great safari with some cold Tusker beers.   

Day 272 Yesterday we caught the ferry back to mainland Tanzania and spent another night at the Safari Inn in Dar es Salaam.  We learnt our lesson last time here and spent the extra $3 on an a/c room.  A/C made ... [Continue reading this entry]