Wow! stayed at a gorgeous campsite, Carnelleys, right on the shore of the lake a beautiful site with wonderful facilities…unfortunately we ran out of steam and gave up on dinner after waiting nearly 2 hours for a Crayfish salad!
Carnelleys
met up with Ven and Anita who are traveling the same route and who we met in Addis Ababa earlier in our trip.

Ven and Anita
Took a boat trip in the late afternoon in the hope of getting face to face with some Hippo…..


beautiful scenery and a night filled with the grunting noises as family of Hippo grumbled in the reeds on the edge of the lake. Glad to be in the van and not in a tent!

On our way South we came across an interesting bus.. I must presume they know and were waiting for a well known Scottish family from Alyth.

The Ogg Wed bus

Wonderful couple of days with Robert and Melanie at the Kenya Fly Fishers Northern Camp which is near the Aberdare National Park. Beautiful sunny days walking in the tea plantations which line the trout streams and then roaring log fires in the evening we had trout for dinner twice and even had a bridge lesson!


From there on to Kericho which is the center of the tea growing area, we popped into the famous Tea Hotel which has more stuffed animals on its walls than you can imagine but is like so many of these colonial era landmarks “way past its prime” We stayed at Antoinette and Hugos lovely fishing banda at the Finlay Tea plantation which was beautifully tranquil during the day


but the noise of the frogs at night made it impossible to sit outside !

Finlays is part of the Swire group and a beacon of sustainability being self sufficient in timber (heating the furnaces to dry the tea) and power.

Lucy having a look around
Finlays

After a few days in Nairobi whilst we had the van sorted out we went north again to Lake Naivasha and crater lake where we had our first real experience of the Kenyan bush.


We saw wildlife in its natural habitat for the first time Giraffe, Buffalo, Zebra, Monkeys, Baboons and numerous types of deer. We walked to the crater and looked over an amazing natural amphitheater and listened to animals moving and calling. We had lunch in the van in the middle of the bush and watched as a herd of Zebra came to investigate.

From there we headed further north to Nakuru and Rongai where we stayed with friends in the most beautiful colonial home.

Tristan and Cindy run an amazing safari business and Stan is one of Africa’s top safari guides.
Offbeatsafaris.com

it was wonderful to go with him to Nakuru National Park and hear anecdotes about the animals and birds

We were luck enough to see both Black and White Rhino as well as masses of other game…..did you know that both types of Rhino are basically the same colour and white is a bastardisation of the Afrikaans word weit, which means wide and refers to the size of the mouth… anyway its the second largest land animal on the planet and about the size of a jeep!

We had a wonderful couple of days at Kangoni camp in Nanyuki at the foot of Mount Kenya

and tried without success to get our van sorted. So set off with soggy shocks ( we really should have had bigger ones fitted before leaving England) to Jungle Junction a well known overlanders camp site in Nairobi.

We crossed the equator just south of Nanyuki
The road was great until about 10k’s out when it turned to hell….they are digging up all the approaches from the north so traffic is horrendous and road conditions unbelievable.

The recent rain made matters worse. Jungle Junction was brilliant and the team at Ndovo said they could sort out the van, we made plans to get new “Robs Magic shocks for Africa” fitted, it was only afterwards that we heard all the jokes, tragic magic and of being robbed by Rob ( lets hope its just a pun on the name). We also had a new leaf spring made so hopefully all set for the next leg!
Lovely phone call on our first day from an old army friend, Stan, who invited us to the Muthega club for supper. I wore a tie for the first time in 6 months we drank and ate too much and had a great evening!
We did the tourist trail of the Elephant orphanage,


David Sheldrick Elephant orphanage
the giraffe sanctuary.


and then Melanie gave us a couple of “must do’s” Matts bronze and Kazuri beads we bought some wonderful things including a huge bronze tobacco leaf.
On Friday night we moved from “the junction” to stay with Melanie and Robert on Redhill for the weekend, they invited us racing at Ngong for the Kenya Derby and to have lunch in the Muthega Club tent

we had a wonderful weekend and were overwhelmed by how friendly everyone was. Mary, who had lunch with us, had several horses running and had two winners, which made the day even more special. Lucy who looked the part was invited into the enclosure with the owners before one of the races and the horse “Woodlands” won quite comfortably.


Melanie and Rory

A very tall Lucy with Mary in the paddock

Yes we did have a flutter!